This is a thank you blog to all my readers who have made my jumping into ebooks a terrific experience. Where would authors be without readers?  I've been in traditional publishing for 20 years. I still have the mailing list that I began in 1992 when my first book was released. Once a year I still update these readers with news and what's happening in my publishing life. Many of my readers aren't online and I receive snail mail from them. I love to receive those letters as well as email letters.
Over the past few years I've seen the changes in publishing. Years ago one of my titles Just The Husband She Chose was chosen for a trial program into ebook form. I was excited then but nothing much happened. E-readers were still out of the average person's range. Now however that has all changed. Last winter I decided to publish my back titles in ebook form. It took a while for readers to find me but now they are and I love this new format as well as print publishing. I believe there is still a place for both in this new publishing world. I like the ease and speed of downloading a book onto my kindle. But I also still like to hold that print book in my hand, to study that glossy cover, to turn down the corners on the pages. Old fashioned? Maybe. But I've been around long enough to realize not everything in life is black and white and we have choices. We don't have to choose one over the other because we can have both. At least for now.
So I'm pleased to say I've epubbed the first books I wrote and I've epubbed original new work, too. My epub series Search For Love is a combination of both. I hope my print readers and ebook readers will continue to look for my titles because I find myself speeding up instead of slowing down. And possibly in the future you will see novels from me that are other than romance! Right now my very first Special Edition is #13 on the Amazon Contemporary Romance Bestseller list and I want to thank my readers for that honor, too.


I just found this link for Kindle lovers. Go here to see some fabulous titles. 

KINDLE 3

Apple Dessert

A Facebook friend asked me for the recipe for this terrific apple dessert. Enjoy!

1/2 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups peeled, finely chopped or sliced apples

1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans

Combine dry ingredients and set aside. In large mixing bowl, beat eggs until light and fluffy.  Add vanilla extract. Blend in dry ingredients. Stir is nuts and apples by hand. Transfer mixture to a prepared 9-inch pie plate. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes, or until apples are softened. Cool. Serve with vanilla ice cream or sweetened whipped cream.

Salmon with brown sugar and lemon

It seems I've been blogging everywhere but here! I hope to post a new blog later this week. For now, a Twitter friend asked for this salmon recipe. I like "easy" and this certainly is. We have a new trend in our house. Instead of going out to eat, we use about half of that amount to eat in and splurge on the ingredients. I serve this salmon dish with steamed asparagus and red-skinned potatoes. Healthy, easy and good!  Enjoy.

Salmon with lemon

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/4 cup packed brown sugar, plus 8 teaspoons

1 lb. salmon (original recipe says 4 salmon fillets. I keep it        in one piece.)

1 tablespoon butter, melted

4 thin slices lemon

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Pour lemon juice into ungreased rectangular baking dish, 11" x 7 1/2" x 2"; sprinkle with 1/4 cup brown sugar. Place salmon in dish and drizzle butter over salmon. Bake uncovered 15 minutes. Turn. Place sliced lemon on salmon. Sprinkle with 8 teaspoons brown sugar. (If using individual filets, put one slice of lemon on each and sprinkle each with 2 teaspoons.) Bake until fish flakes easily with fork, 15-20 minutes longer. Serve with juices from dish.

IS CINDERELLA STILL RELEVANT?

IS CINDERELLA STILL RELEVANT? 

Remember the furor over the royal wedding?  Kate became a princess and William became Prince Charming.  We watched the vows with tears in our eyes and couldn't wait for that first kiss.  Cinderella might be an ages-old fairytale but the storyline encourages dreams from the little girls who watch Disney-princess movies to the women who faithfully follow the Bachelor and the Bachelorette.  Subliminally, our curiosity in relationships and interest in public romances is all about the happily-ever-after storyline.  Can two people fall in love and commit to each other for a lifetime?

My husband and I recently celebrated our fortieth wedding anniversary.  I wouldn't be able to write romances from my heart unless I believed in them.  When I was a little girl, I remember pretending a lace curtain was a bridal veil.  My girlfriends and I reenacted the marriage ceremony.  Recently by BFF's daughter asked if she could play dress-up with her mom's wedding gown.  Are the dreams of little girls now any different than ten or twenty or forty years ago?  Loving and being loved drive our collective consciousness.  Have you ever been in the midst of a crowd at a wedding and watched everyone grow misty-eyed?  The emotion that takes over—other than the love we have for the couple saying the vows—is hope.  The Cinderella fairytale can give a woman hope that she can find love, look beautiful in a bridal gown and believe in the vows she recites on her wedding day.

Little girls aspire to be princesses. Many women long to believe they will find their one true love who is kind, gentle, charming and the man they can spend the rest of their lives with. Prince Charming doesn't have to be a "prince" on a white steed. He just has to convince the woman he loves that she's his Cinderella.  Are fairy-tale endings possible?  I believe women long to believe they are.  That's why the romance genre lives on and why our hearts melt when a couple says, "I do."

Karen Rose Smith is the best-selling, award-winning author of 75 published romances.  Readers can follow her on Twitter @ karenrosesmith and on Facebook (Karen Rose Smith author), visit at her website Karen's website for new releases. For contests and more detailed info and contests, they can follow her e-zine IN TOUCH with Karen Rose Smith.

   

Blog Tour!

~September Blog Tour for
ONCE UPON A GROOM, Harlequin Special Edition~

• Monday September 19 Guest Blogging at Mama Knows Books.

• Tuesday September 20 Guest Blogging at A Book Blogger's Diary.

• Tuesday September 20 Interview A Cozy Reader's Corner Reviews.

• Tuesday September 20 Guest Blogging at Thought in Progress.

• Tuesday September 20 Guest Blogging at Get Lost In A Story.

• Thursday September 22 Guest Blogging at Romance Around The Corner.

• Thursday September 22 Guest Blogging at Fresh Fiction.

• Monday September 26 Guest Blogging at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.

Setting: All Important

Where are my places of power? Where do I fill up creatively and spiritually? Where do I feel most confident, most peaceful, most like me?

When I choose a setting, I think of these questions because the setting I choose affects my books in an integral way. In my first few books, I chose the town where I grew up to be my backdrop for many reasons. Garnering local publicity was a big one. But I believe I mainly chose it for familiarity. I knew what shops and businesses were located downtown. I had a host of suburbs to choose from. The town was large enough so I could weave in anything I needed. Most of all, I knew it so well I could concentrate on all the other elements necessary to sell those books. Years later when I set a more expansive book there that dealt with the 1970's, I realized my heart was in my hometown and that shone through whether or not I'd realized the fact in my earlier books.

Sometimes I choose a setting because of my hero or heroine's background or career path. If I want to write about a venture capitalist, I could choose Chicago or New York City. A trauma surgeon would lead me to a more heavily populated area and have hundreds of patient contacts whereas a small town doctor would be involved with fewer patients over his or her lifetime. If I select a large city, I still create a community of characters because friendships and family bonds are critical in my novels. A hometown gives my hero or heroine roots. If my character is a newcomer, he or she can feel estranged from the residents, or see this place with a sense of exploration. My hero and heroine can shade a reader's opinion of any setting.

A fictional setting is often the easiest to use. I can give the town a flavor all of its own. My street names can be picturesque or utilitarian. I can build a hospital with a specialized Neonatal Intensive Care unit or create a lake for boating. Anything and everything I will need for my plot can be a product of my imagination.

For my Reunion Brides series that began in February, I chose a setting that is as important as any character. Miners Bluff is a fictional former copper mining town near Flagstaff, Arizona. Forests, canyons and mountains are infusing the books with their own special magic while I write. My heroes and heroines are surrounded by a natural beauty that infiltrates not merely the descriptions but the imagery I use as well. Because this is one of my favorite destinations that fills up my creative spirit—particularly Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon--my feelings about the area seep into the emotion and conflict. This setting becomes a character in itself.

Every setting should have a purpose. Before beginning a project, I ask myself—What does this setting accomplish? If I'm mindful of its purpose, it can become a major influence in whatever I write.
(For another of my favorite settings, my garden, check out my e-zine--IN TOUCH with Karen Rose Smith.)

Do Free E-books Increase Sales?

Do Free E-books Increase Sales?

I'm trying an experiment. We hear so much about free e-books and $.99 books in the present market climate. Especially for authors e-publishing their backlist, we have to ask the question—How do readers find us? With over 70 books for sale, about a quarter of those in e-book form, how do readers know my backlist from my current titles?

For Easter week, I gave away my re-release LOVE IN BLOOM, now an e-book, with a coupon at Smashwords.com. I've done this before and had about a dozen downloads. This time a blogger who posts free books picked it up and I had over 200 downloads! But I didn't sell any of my other backlist titles there. I sold two on Amazon. My husband, wise man that he is, told me to give those readers a chance to read LOVE IN BLOOM and maybe sales would go up! To give the readers who do return to my backlist a bonus, I lowered the prices on MOM MEETS DAD to $.99 on Amazon and Smashwords. The price cut hasn't reached Barnes and Noble yet. I'm going to allow the price to stay at $.99 for the month.

Something else I did when I decided to put up my backlist was design the covers all similarly. They have an identifying arch with my name as well as my logo. Since I have titles from three different publishers, I used a different color for each publisher but all in the same style.

I'm building a following on Twitter and Facebook and enjoy posting regularly. My e-books are listed on my website and my Facebook author page. If either writers or readers have suggestions on how to help readers find those titles, I'm interested! Please feel free to comment or e-mail me. And remember, MOM MEETS DAD is $.99 for the month of May at Smashwords and on Kindle. Happy reading!

Karen