L.J. Holmes

L.J. Holmes
In her many Guises.

Sunday, January 26, 2014

THE P&E READERS TAKE TO THE HOLMES GIRLS...BOY HOWDY

The 2013 Preditors and Editors Readers Poll awards have completed and Kat and I...L.J. Holmes CLEANED UP.

Okay, we didn't yet break into the top ONE postion, but between us we still claimed a total of SEVEN of the TOP-TEN awards in our categories...

So do me a favor, sit back for a second or three and share in our moments of dancing from the rafters...A little boasting IS called for here..don't YOU think?

The first book actually won TWO top ten awards...which seems bizarre to me...or might if this book hadn't taken a LOT of time, effort, and grief to finally bring to the reading world. Thank you all for embracing it and letting me know all the effort was worth it.

(For the first two comments mentioning this title, I am giving away 2 free copies in your needed format...all I ask in return is you give me a review on the Muse Book Store, Amazon, and maybe GoodReads too...all you have to do is copy and paste one review to all the sites..or just do one any of those places...also tell your friends about it if you enjoy it.)

ECHOES FROM THE PAST...my very first FULL LENGTH Novel; cover by Muse It Up's premier CA HEAD Suzannah Safi.

Here are the two awards...

7th place in Erotica, and 

9th place in ALL OTHER NOVELS.

In the next category for Kat and me to take honors is MYSTERY NOVELS with book two in my THE CHRISTMAS MIRACLES SERIES.

This is also a book I had to work really hard to get released in a way that honored Book One..and my very first ever 5th place 

P&E award winning book SANTA IS A LADY (cover by former Muse CA, Delilah K. Stephans,) in the 2010 awards.

This one, THE CHRISTMAS WAR (another magnificent cover by SUZANNAH SAFI) just like ECHOES FROM THE PAST came very close to never making it out in a format I felt belonged in a sequel. But thanks to the ongoing help of Lea Schizas my publisher AND editor, and Suzannah Safi my CA, it came in 

8th place which is a powerful affirmation of all we put in towards reworking it. 

MOVING ON...Our next category honors... taking 6th place...is a book I am so proud found its way into the TOP TEN category 

THRILLER NOVELS.

This is book TWO in Kat's HEKATE'S WEB VAMPIRE SERIES.

Book One, HIDDEN, opened an intriguing world of vampires controlled by and manipulated by the unpredictable Greek Goddess, using her Roman name's spelling...she IS a sly one...HEKATE. (Her Greek spelling is HECATE...think she wants to really play with the creatures caught in her web? Including...maybe US? Can you figure out what she's up to?)

SEEKER takes us deeper into the world of Hekate's good vampires, THE ENCLAVE and her designs against the bad vampires THE TRUE ONES...but remember one important thing...The Greek Gods and Goddesses are not known throughout history for being benignly benevolent. If their involved, you can expect HAVOC.

For the first two people to leave comments addressing SEEKER, (gotta LOVE the cover Suzannah Safi created for this urban fantasy,) Kat and I are offering another TWO free copies of this book, but we're just asking for the same offer to do reviews and talk us up whenever and wherever you can if you enjoy our stories.

Kat and I both contributed a couple of short stories that found their way into the TOP TEN Shorts as well.

In the SCI-FI/FANTASY SHORTS I, L.J. Holmes, surprisingly won 


6th place for my TONGUE-IN-THE-CHEEK short about the origins of Diamonds. The prevailing belief is diamonds come from mines...NO WAY! 

DIAMONDS FROM THE ROUGHAGE (also with a brilliant cover by Muse It Up Publishing's Head CA, Suzannah Safi) tells the REAL story. This is a fun story that will tell you what actually happens after the Knights of the Round Table head off in search of the Holy Grail, and how the diamond production the world round is effected.

In ALL OTHER SHORTS, Kat easily claims her right to the 

7th position for HER tongue-in-cheek Book One in her TALES OF FAIRYLAND SERIES, playfully called 

LOVE POTION #9.5 (powerful cover by Lex Valentine.)

Since this is book one of a SERIES, you're gonna want to get in on the ground floor. So for the first person to mention LOVE POTION #9.5 in the comments, Kat and I will send you one free copy in your format of this easy,fun read.

And now we come to the FINAL award...a really BIG surprise.

I am L.J. Holmes...author...but I am also Ladybug Lin, book reviewer...and to my total astonishment I found myself receiving the 

3rd place award for BEST REVIEW SITE.



I don't know HOW this happened, but I'm over-the-moon about it. To be in the same category as Coffeetime Romance is something I never thought would happen. 

To all who voted for Ladybug Lin's Exceptional Reviews...thank you.

To all who voted for Kat's books and mine...2013 has been a very difficult year. Writing was our escape from some of the worst life tossed our way...your voting for us, helping us rise through the ranks...means more than you can know.

Thank you.

We also had a few other books that either slipped below the top ten, or never made it out of the 11-20 placements that I'd also like to take a few moments to share...we wrote them during the same difficult 2013 and hope you'll take a moment to look them over and maybe add them to your 

"must read list."

For me...in the Romance Novels section coming in at #15 is Book THREE in my CHRISTMAS MIRACLES SERIES and right after THE CHRISTMAS WAR...

CHRISTMAS GOES GREEN (cover by gifted new to Muse It Up...CA Kate Page)...he's half elf, and she's half leprechaun. Christmas is gonna take on whole new flavor.

In SCI-FI/FANTASY NOVELS Book SIX in Kat's GODS AT WORK SERIES came in at position # 13.

UNDER THE HUNTRESS MOON is the modern tale of ARTEMIS' coming to work here on earth. This IS a gripping tale that shows, via the explosive cover, (done by Karen Phillips) she's not the Artemis you learned about in Greek Mythology. (Kat is an expert on Greek Mythology...what she brings to the telling ASTOUNDS ME...and they get better with each new book.)

In the ROMANCE SHORT STORIES one of my little tales NARROWLY was edged out in the last moments of voting. So at position # 11 we have 

THE WEDDING NIGHT, (cover by Marion Sipe,)...a different kind of Time Travel tale with a HARLEY DAVIDSON MOTOR CYCLE as the hero's time machine.

Again, thank you all for letting us know what we worked on during this most difficult past year was worth it...and it's now time to get to work on 2014.




Thursday, December 19, 2013

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM NORTHERINGALE

Magic 

is in the Northeringale Air...but unlike 

Brigadoon, we needn't wait for years for the magic to show itself and joy to come our reading way.

Northeringale is a town filled with incredible Christmas Spirit...oh and many a Christmas Miracle.

We've journeyed into Northeringale when we read P&E Award winnging debut novel 

SANTA IS A LADY when it released on December 1, 2010 from the brand new publishing house MUSE IT UP PUBLISHING.

MUSE IT UP PUBLISHING is no longer brand new..although it HAS grown...and this year it is bringing us back to the wondrous world of NORTHERINGALE not ONCE, but TWICE!

Why? Good question. Because this year Northeringale has FOUR new miracles in the works and that's just too many to bring in only ONE story. 

So let's begin with Book Two in the CHRISTMAS MIRACLES SERIES...

Recapping for those who have not found their way to Northeringale...

In Book One...


Angie Brightwell delighted, enchanted, and embraced us with her courage, determination, and ability to rise above the near fatal accident that cost her so much when a car accident, mere days after the 9/11 tragedy decimated the hearts and souls of the world. 

This introduction to Northeringale found its way into the hands of International Best Selling Author 

GLENN KLEIER, author of 

THE LAST DAY and 

THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL. Mr. Kleier loved it so much he predicted it would one day become a Christmas Classic...in much the way of 

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE...One can only hope!

In Book One...Angie, still needing a cane to navigate the changes in her life will becomes our Lady Santa...with 

Beck Cavington, Angie's slightly jaded best friend pushing and shoving her into filling the roll of the man in the red suit when the hired Santa for her Sweets and Treats store is arrested mere days before the big day.

In Book Two we find ourselves getting back into the world of Beck Cavington. WE didn't especially like Beck in book one, but then we really knew very little about why she was the jaded soul she showed us back then. Most of the time in Book One, we wanted to smack her silly for how she treated Angie...but...not all people who are seemingly villainous are totally black with badness. Beck is one who had to develop a thickened shell to protect her inner self against a black that allows no shades of gray to filter through her soul. 

About to turn 35, Beck's mother has been trying for ages to marry her off to any man she, Irene Cavington can control, but now as Beck's 35th birthday nears, Irene is ratcheting up her determination to force Beck into a marriage to a man she can control, no matter what she has to resort to to get the job done. 

MUCH is reveled in THE CHRISTMAS WAR...however there's a new force entering Northeringale that may give Irene a run for her money...literally.

THE CHRISTMAS WAR released from Muse It Up Publishing on December 6, 2013 is already being mentioned for the P&E 2013 Awards. Yep...it's THAT good.

Book Three...I should explain...I never INTENDED writing a series when I brought Angie Brightwell and Cam Drayton to vivid life, making them the first of the new set of miracles in Northeringale with SANTA IS A LADY, but my daughter, herself an award winning, best selling author Kat Holmes of: 

WORKING UNDER COVER and 

THE LIGHTHOUSE, said "Mom, you can't leave us wondering what will happen to Northeringale's people. You HAVE to write Beck's story...and Cam's sister's too!"

Fate has a funny way of stepping in and taking all my good plans NOT to make a series, and shooting them skyward where Santa decided Northeringale needed more attention, and I was the only one who COULD give the proper amount of miracles to that magical winter wonderland. 

As of now, though, Stefanie Drayton, Cam's college level sister, is NOT going to get her story...mainly because Santa and my inner voice Nudge, had other plans.

In Book Three...CHRISTMAS GOES GREEN

Tierney Callahan, a teeny, gifted, very magical midwife, comes home two nights before Christmas, after helping to deliver another Northeringale miracle only to find her home has been invaded by none other than her tiny...SUPER tiny, and irascible leprechaun father. He's somehow glamoured his way into her home. Drunk on poteen, Paddy weaves a story of need...HIS...that she...the daughter he forced onto her mother's side of the family tree when she was four and grew bigger than his clan...(for some reason, leprechauns don't easily accept a half leprechaun child who in a growth spurt starts accidentally stepping on them...at the age of four)...replace the 

pot-of-gold he lost so he can return to Ireland and his clan.

He's her Da, he reasons, so she owes him a miracle. The miracle? She go to Santa and get Santa to replace the pot-of-gold he lost or Paddy's moving in for good.

Martha Brainerd and Chris Krinkle have been mentioned in the previous books, but in 

CHRISTMAS GOES GREEN we learn who they really are...oh...and WHAT they really are.

Three Books...and THREE MIRACLES...Maybe...or Maybe More!

This Series is full of joy, love, playfulness, and giving.

In that Spirit, if you leave a comment along with your e-mail address, you MAY be the winner of a PDF copy of each of these books as MY gift to you...on Christmas Day.

So check out this series, leave a comment along with your e-mail address, and help me spread the best of Christmas...Northeringale...to one and all.

Ho, Ho, Ho.