The Spinning Wheel: An Old Fashioned Café and Bookstore for Authors and Readers

THE SPINNING WHEEL

See the sign over the door?

"The Spinning Wheel: An Old Fashioned Café and Bookstore for Authors and Readers."

The mellow yellow letters painted on sea foam green background goes well with the white brick building with the navy shutters on the windows.

Please wipe off any negative attitudes on the welcome mat before entering this building. We welcome everyone but we don't welcome negative attitudes. Please leave them on the other side of the door.

Close your eyes and envision what is on the other side of the door. You are about to enter the No Spin Zone.

Rows and rows of books on shelves with pots of ivy and the occasional geranium scattered around. Smell the fragrant candles along with the hint of homemade oatmeal cookies wafting through the air?

Miss Daisy, the resident cat, is curled up on the top bookshelf. She seems to be dozing but don't let that fool you. She's watching you. Or perhaps she's keeping an eye on Ralph, the resident dog, snoozing over by the potbellied stove in the corner. It's always cold on that side of the room so the fire stays burning all the time. Feel free to wander over and warm yourself. Throw a log on the fire if it needs it.

See that place in the corner across from the potbellied stove? Where the big overstuffed couches and easy chairs are located? That's the lounge where we all congregate. It's nice to have a place to just sit and relax and have a nice hot cup of coffee or tea but don't forget to read the sign hanging on the wall of the lounge.

"Treat others as you would like to be treated. Respect goes a long way in keeping The Spinning Wheel a friendly little old fashioned bookstore where everyone is welcome."

There are so many books just waiting to be read. The bookshelves are crammed to overflowing. Open your mind. Explore new possibilities. Think beyond what has normally been your comfort genre. Or if you aren't up to exploring new genres, we are bound to have something you like on our shelves. The possibilities are endless.

Pick up a book. Download a sample and browse the pages. Buy it if you like it but there is no pressure here at The Spinning Wheel to do so. You can browse here to your heart's content.

Head on over to the lounge area if you would like to discuss the books with others. If you hang around long enough you might even get to discuss the books with the authors who wrote them!

Authors and readers alike are welcome at The Spinning Wheel where the door is always open and the books are waiting for you.

Readers and authors, please introduce yourself as you come in.

Authors, feel free to place your book(s) on the shelves of The Spinning Wheel by posting the blurb for your book and the link to where it can be purchased when you first come in. Thereafter please limit to just placing a link to your book when you post or when you feel it is appropriate.

Readers, get those questions for the authors ready.

By the way, my name is Kristie Leigh Maguire. I am the proprietor of The Spinning Wheel. I am also an author and a reader. I am looking forward to getting to know all of you.

The Grand Opening of "The Spinning Wheel: An Old Fashioned Café and Bookstore for Authors and Readers" has begun! Come on in, everyone! Have fun!

***

Edited to add:

We now have completed construction of a screened in sun porch out back of The Spinning Wheel. It faces Lake Serenity. We have plenty of hammocks for relaxing and reading a good book while the bamboo fans stir the air overhead. Baskets of hanging ivy add a nice touch of greenery.

We have added a 5 Star Resort for Dogs and Cats so you are welcome to bring your pets and let them play while you visit The Spinning Wheel. I have nicknamed this resort The Animal House.

Another added event at The Spinning Wheel is author readings. Authors, if you would like to schedule a reading just post a message on the bulletin board at The Spinning Wheel and let me know. I will reply to you with a post at The Spinning Wheel with a date. I do not send out emails.

Both authors and readers are welcome to drop into The Spinning Wheel. I hope it becomes your home away from home.

Fresh Fiction

Fresh Fiction is a great site for people who love to read. I really enjoy getting their newsletters. I highly recommend that you sign up for their newsletters too.

From the Fresh Fiction website:

About Fresh Fiction
FreshFiction is a web site designed to provide easy, accessible, and informative data to popular fiction readers on current authors and their available books. We specialize in genre fiction: romance, mystery, suspense, thrillers, horror, science fiction, fantasy, contemporary, graphic and action novels. FreshFiction.com consists of author pages, book pages, reviews, columns, blog, book reviews, news, and contests.

We have an active online database of authors and books growing daily with input from our researchers, reviewers and columnists. All books in our database include basic information: ISBN, publisher, publication date, genre. Additional information includes the cover image, price, tagline, summary, primary characters, setting location, period, excerpt and note from author or publisher. The information is displayed on a book page incorporating provided information, purchase links and author backlist.

Our author information includes basic information: publicity photo, biography and
available back list. The author page displays the information with links to each book in their list and optionally to the author's website.

If you join us as a registered member of Fresh Fiction, you can be notified via email when authors publish a book no matter who the publisher. You can also join our community and leave your thoughts on book and review pages. You're also able to create your own shopping lists. Contests are easy to enter with a single click. There is NO COST to join FreshFiction.com, simply register and log in when you visit us.

Author Kiki Howell is guest blogger today!

In my efforts to bring my readers here at Sizzling Hot Romance something new and exciting, I have begun inviting authors who are of interest to me, and hopefully to you, to guest blog here .

Author Kiki Howell is my first guest blogger that I am presenting to you. Kiki and I are friends at Facebook. I was visiting her website and her "slogan" caught my eye. She describes herself as an author of magical erotic romances. Naturally, since I write sensual/erotic romances too, this caught my eye and made me want to know more about Kiki. AND since she is multi-published with Whiskey Creek Press, I wanted to know how she came to be with Whiskey Creek Press and her experiences with them as an author. Without further adieu, here is Kiki telling us about this in her own words.

*****

Hi! I am Kiki Howell, Author of Magical Erotic Romances! My byline explains what captures my imagination and what I write about. “Magic” to me means an escape from life, a mystical world where anything can happen. I have always been enthralled with witches and werewolves, demons and angels, vampires and ghosts. So, I use them as my heroes or heroines, or even sometimes as the entity that brings the hero and heroine together. This leads to the next element, which is “romance” – which is magical in and of itself, right? I love that suspense-filled, bumpy road to a Happy Ever After ending. The last word, “erotic,” just amps both the magic and the romance to a different level!

My imagination works overtime, most of the time! This is how, when I finally got back into writing after a long break having my kids, I started my first published stories. I was looking into different publishers who published in the mixed genres I wanted to write in when I found Whiskey Creek Press Torrid. They had a line called, Celtic Love Knots, at the time where they published two short stories with a Celtic theme by one author each month. My brain immediately started brewing ideas!

Whiskey Creek Press Torrid luckily took both of my submitted stories, “Sexual Magick,” and “Tailltean Marriage” and published them in Celtic Love Knots, Volume 10. This is why I feel that reading Calls for Submissions is a great way to break into the business. When a call gets your imagination working overtime, you are writing a story the publisher is actively looking for.

I did the same thing when I wrote my latest release for them, The Witch’s Beast. Whiskey Creek Press Torrid has another line called Torrid Twisted Tales where they publish erotic versions of fairy tales. I immediately thought up The Witch’s Beast which settled a long standing grudge I had with the Brothers Grimm. Even as a kid I wondered why the witch, who started it all with her spell, only got that one line mention. At the end of the Brothers Grimm version of the Beauty and the Beast it says, “An evil witch turned me into a monster...” with no explanation as to why she did it, and they didn’t even give her a chance to explain herself. Disney does give her three lines to explain that the Prince was selfish and unkind—the why, but again, did we ever hear from her? No! So, I felt she had a story to tell, and I wrote my version of the story completely from the witch’s point of view.

Boy, I think I got of topic there a bit, but it only goes to prove my point that sometimes Calls for Submissions can be great place to find your muse!

Please visit me at http://www.kikihowell.com/. Make sure to look at my COMING SOON page where I have listed a novel coming out in October with eXcessic in print and ebook called, A Modern Day Witch Hunt, that I am very excited about! You will also find my LINKS there to my Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter pages.

******

Thank you, Kiki, for taking the time to visit Sizzling Hot Romance from Kristie Leigh Maguire and for sharing your thoughts with my readers! Much appreciated. :)

You can purchase The Witch's Beast by CLICKING HERE.

BLURB:
A witch rejected…a few spells for revenge…an arrogant Prince turned into a Beast…a beautiful woman taken captive …And, that is just the beginning of this tale of a Beauty and a Beast told by the Witch who cast the spell that began it all. A dismal castle, possessed candles, and a little mangy fur will be the least of the Beast’s troubles as the Witch goes into a jealous rage over the Beauty he now holds captive.A magic mirror…desperate sex spells…magical seductive dreams…orgasmic punishments in a dungeon…This time, the Beast will be caught between a Beauty who has caught his eye but rejects his proposal of marriage, and the Witch who allows him moments in his human form to fulfill his every sexual desire.For whom will there be a happily-ever-after?

REVIEWS:
You Gotta Read Reviews
(Rating - You Need To Read)
Tir said,"In the spirit of Gregory Macguire's Wicked, The Witch's Beast tells an old familiar tale from a different angle with a sexy spin. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and its characters. Ms. Howell paints Beauty and the Beast in an entirely differently light, putting your sympathies in places you wouldn't imagine when thinking of the original tale. Those once loved in the original story are shown in a new way and expands the character of the Witch who turns a Prince into a Beast, in more ways than one. I would definitely recommend you pick up this book so you can read this tale and find out the new ending to the Beast's story."

The Witch's Beast got 4.5 stars at Ecataromance.com!
"Beauty and the Beast…and the Witch with an erotic twist...The ultimate question comes down to, can the Witch get the Prince in the end? This was a really fun read. Enjoy."

Jade at Ready Reader Reviews said,"I loved Kiki Howell's sexy, erotic version of Beauty and the Beast, The Witch's Beast. Ms. Howell hooked me right away with the witch, Seraphina, flying into a rage caused by Prince Amir's brutal rejection of her. Tying in her tumultuous emotions with the violent storm set the scene for how strong her love and sexual desire for the Prince is and therefore how vicious her revenge. Seraphina's spells and Wiccan beliefs were woven throughout the story in a way that has me believing in her powers and being glad I'm not the one falling victim to her whims. Ms. Howell has created a sympathetic heroine, because after all, who hasn't done impulsive things for love? ... but Seraphina has a grasp on the realities of tampering with nature and a genuine remorse for hurting the Prince and then using her powers for her own selfish desires. Kiki Howell wove an emotionally as well as physically sensual story."

-- "Kiki’s use of words and descriptions is indescribable and weaves a kind of magic around the reader." ParaNormal Romance Reviews

*****

Kiki Howell
Author of Magical Erotic Romances
http://www.kikihowell.com/

Sizzling Hot Romance now available on KINDLE!

I am very happy to announce that I have finally gotten with it and entered the KINDLE age for my blog, Sizzling Hot Romance from Kristie Leigh Maguire. For a limited time Amazon is having a 14 day trial subscription so it will cost you NOTHING to subscribe. If you don't like it you can cancel. If you do like it, then it will only cost you $1.99 per month to get my blog downloaded to your KINDLE. I am not the one who set the price. Amazon does that. But I really don't think $1.99 a month is too much to ask if you prefer reading from your KINDLE.

Now that I have entered the KINDLE AGE with my blog, I am determined to be more diligent in posting...and in having interesting articles for you to read. I have some great thoughts running through my head as to how to improve my blog.

BUT...I would like to hear what YOU want to read. Would you like for me to have guest authors blog here? Would you like for me to do interviews with other authors? Would you like for me to suggest books for you to read in the romance genre?

YOU TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT TO SEE HERE! I am very open to suggestions.

Indie Readers - Where Readers Make Decisions, Not Bookstores!

I invite anyone who likes to read to join this hot new group: Indie Readers - Where Readers Make Decisions - Not Bookstores!

http://indiereaders.ning.com/

A reading group network where readers decide what authors deserve their attention, not bookstores. Discuss independent titles here.