Sunday, July 8, 2007

A NEW CONTEST! MORE WINNERS!

posted by Aunty Cindy

First off, SUPER CONGRATS to the winners of books by our TWO WONDERFUL guest bloggers! We LOVE how generous our guest bloggers have been, but we think it is high time for another BANDIT BOOTY contest!

Once again, we'll be giving away the essentials and we have THREE GREAT PRIZES:
  • an autographed copy of "Thief In a Kilt" by Sandy Blair,
  • a Jane Austen action figure complete with desk, and
  • a box of yummy See's chocolates!
HOW do you win? As always, we Banditas like to keep it simple. Just post a comment and tell us what you like most about the Romance Bandits Blog. Maybe you like the guest bloggers (and we've had GREAT ONES!), or the recipes, or the posts about writing craft, or the Memes (8 things about a Bandita). Whatever it is you like, PLEASE TELL US! Or if there's something we don't blog about and you want us to, then TELL US THAT!

Winners will be selected randomly and announced on Thursday morning, July 12th.

28 comments:

Gillian Layne said...

Good morning!

I am fairly new to Romance Bandits, and hooked already! I love the variety of your authors and topics. Keep the information coming! :)

Kathy Ivan said...

I really enjoy the Romance Bandits blog and the guest bloggers have all been informative and fun. I like the format and the easy on the eyes layout. Keep up the good work, ladies.

Stacy S said...

I reading about the Romance Bandits & the guest authors. Your blog is great & fun.

Tammy said...

I'm new to your blog today and just want to say I love anything to do with Romance Novels!!
What I would like to see is...how is a RN cover chosen...some of them are really beautiful and I'll buy just for the cover alone and then be disapointed...but most live up to expectations...so if you would something along those lines would be nifty!
:)
PS...are there special designers??

Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy said...

Gillian, Kathy Sullivan and Stacy S.,
MUSIC TO MY EARS that you like our blog! We started Romance Bandits because we had so much fun on our private Yahoo Groups just yakking and sharing stories. We decided to take our posts out into the blogsphere and have more fun and make new friends. So far we've been a GREAT SUCCESS! Moreso than I think any of us imagined, and we all have excellent imaginations! LOL!

As of yesterday, we've had over 1100 unique visitors from almost 50 countries. By FAR our most popular post was guest blogger CJ Lyon's June 9th article on pitching at National (over 300 visits!).

T*mmy (Tammy? Timmy? Tommy? Tummy?) SO GLAD you found us! How a romance novel gets a cover would probably be a good topic. Thanx a bunch for the suggestion. Yes, publishers have their own artists and designers for covers.

Once upon a time, covers were actually full blown paintings with live cover models and artists. Due to costs and time constraints I don't think that happens any more. Also, you might be surprised to know that most of us authors have very little to say about what goes on the cover of our book! (Sometimes we don't even get to pick our titles!) I do know that Harlequin has a rather extensive Art Fact Sheet to help design their covers. Maybe our Bandit Tawny can shed some light on that...IF she's finished packing her shoes for National. *smile*

As you can see from our sidebar, so far our published Banditas have been blessed by the cover fairies (they have beautiful covers)! Let's hope this trend continues. Oh, and I PROMISE you won't be disappointed with any of our published Banditas' books!

GOOD LUCK in the contest, all!
AC

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed reading C. J. Lyons' post about elevator pitches for our books. That's something I've been working on for my books and her advice is perfect! Thanks for posting it.

tetewa said...

I have recently found this blog and visit daily. I love when you have guest bloogers, it informs me about their recent releases and love the interviews.

Helen said...

I love you guys at romance bandits I love the guest bloggers and all the information you give us it is always fun here you all have such a wonderful sense of humour. Keep up the good work I visit everyday.
Have Fun
Helen

anne said...

Romance Bandits has everything that I enjoy. Great blogs and guest bloggers whose books I find fascinating. Keep up the work and I will vistt often. Best of luck.

ellie said...

I enjoy Romance Bandits lively blog which is excellent, informative and entertaining. The various authors and books keeps me coming back.

diane said...

I just discovered the wonderful Romance bandits site which has me captivated. I will be a regular since it has interesting books and authors.

Cherie J said...

I am new to Romance Bandits and already I am hooked. You have had such great guestbloggers. Since I am addicted to reading romance novels in a variety of genres I love learning about new authors. I think having a good mix of authors from various genres is a good idea since you get to please more of us that way. I have been impressed with the mix of authors you have had so far.

sharon said...

Amazing and fabulous blog which I just found and love! Great books which appeal to me as well as diverse authors. Thanks.

Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy said...

Diane, glad you found us!

Ellie, Anne and Tetewa (already a WINNER from last week!) THANX a bunch for visiting often! And Helen, one of our honorary Bandita from Downunder... HUGS! ALways good to see your cheerful self around the lair!

Lonnie, best of luck with that elevator pitch! And you just never know... Aunty actually met an editor in the elevator last year at National! AND she asked me for my manuscript! CJ Lyons is FAB! We were so lucky to have her here TWICE to tell us all about pitching.

Oh and I meant to mention, Kathy said nice things about our format and layout, so I need to plug our wonderful designer Dawn at Austin DesignWorks! Also our very KEWL banner with the mask and rose is an original piece of artwork by our own Bandita Suz's very talented daughter Lyndsey Lewellen.

Thanx again for all the GREAT comments everyone! Best of luck in the contest!
AC

shannon said...

I love your blog site too and it isnt just because my Mom is a Bandita! :) I love the fact that you bring up all sorts of topics because, well frankly... I actually dont even LIKE romance novels. Dum dum dum DUM! I know... I shouldnt be allowed on the site! But the great thing about the Romance Bandits is you discuss everything. And you are all such superb writers and it is so interesting to read your ideas, opinions and thoughts. And what's more, I feel like I have an outlet for MY individual "voice" because God knows my children dont ever listen to me. So keep it up ladies... like my 8 year old would say, "You Rock!" :)

Michelle said...

I do enjoy the topics of the blogs. Even though this site is centered around mostly romance novels, it is so nice to see real life topics (especially the funny ones) also. I feel like all the bloggers are friends I would have chats with anywhere and not just names on books that I must go buy.
Thanks and Keep it up!

Keira Soleore said...

You Banditas have heard me natter here all the time, so you know how much fun I have here.

Guest expert bloggers are always great and also the craft ones you ladies do.

Looking forward to catching some of you at National. Will you be hawking, er, selling your promo stuff at the Moonlight Bazaar? Where can I get a button to show off and advertise?

FilmPhan said...

I love this site because of all the guest bloggers. I like to give new authors a try and this is where I find them. I also love that this blog includes humor instead of being serious all of the time. Great stuff ladies!

Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy said...

CheriJ and Sharon, HURRAY for finding us and posting comments!

Shannon, BITE YOUR TONGUE about not liking romance novels! (kidding) But NOT kidding that we will TRY to convert you! Reading and enjoying romance novels is NOT a requirement for hanging out in the Bandit lair. However, having FUN is!

And bless you Filmphan and Michelle for liking our "humorous" slant on things (got a humorously slanted post planned for tomorrow). DOUBLE THANX Michelle for saying we feel like friends, because that is really what we strive for here on our blog! That's one of the things all us Banditas enjoy, seeing "friendly faces" in the comments.

Speaking of... NEVER FEAR Keira! I'm quite sure you'll run across more than one Bandita at National, and they will ALL have buttons and cards.

If you are going to the Literacy Signing on Wed. night stop by and say HI to our Banditas Anna (Foanna) Campbell and Tawny Weber. They will both have Romance Bandit buttons and probably some chocolates too! Sorry I won't be seeing you face-to-face. Maybe next year in San Francisco?

So nice to see everyone dropping by. It's gonna be kinda lonely around here next week so PLEASE COME BACK!

AC

Keira Soleore said...

AC: I'll definitely be there at SF next year. AnnaC and Tawny are on my list of authors whose table I plan on stopping by. And I also have a list of Banditas who'll be attending the Conference. So if you hear a loud squeal in the vicinity, know that you've been spotted by Keira.

Sue A. said...

I'm really new to this blog. I found it after I won a Romance Bandits mug from Christine Wells. Cool mug by the way and thanks again Christine. So I'm looking forward to spending more time here with my favorite mug.

CrystalGB said...

I love reading the Romance Bandit blog. I love the variety of topics like guest authors, posts on writing craft, what is going with the Banditas. The blog is always fresh and I look forward to coming here every day to read the posts.

jo robertson said...

Don't worry Banditas and guests, AC and I are doing an intervention on Shannon.

We'll get her addicted to romance novels sooner or later. Actually, she loves mystery/suspense and doesn't mind all that much if her mama throws in some hot sex scenes!

pearl said...

What a great blog Romance Bandits has. I located you only recently but I love romance novels and am enjoying your discussions and blog greatly.

Anonymous said...

I love visiting the Romance Bandits. There is always something interesting going on, wether it be a contest, a new book or an author. It's just a fun place to be. Thanks ladies!!!

Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy said...

(AC waves madly at CrystalG and KimberlyL) We Banditas LURVE to see friendly faces, both new and repeats, here in the lair!

Glad you found us Pearl and SueA (I'm jealous, I wanna mug too! Like I need YET ANOTHER one.) Oh, and I forgot to say, "Way to go!" to CherieJ who won a book last week.

Seriously, we APPRICIATE all the positive comments on our blog and are happy to know that you enjoy the guest bloggers (Yes, we will have MORE of them in a couple of weeks!), our attempts at humor, and posts on the writing life and life in general.

AC

Christine Wells said...

Ooh! Big Waves to sue.a!! So glad you're enjoying the mug.

And T*mmy, funny you should mention covers. I have a post on that coming right up next month, so make sure you tune in!

Thanks for saying such lovely things about the blog, everyone. We love doing it, and we'd love you all to join in our discussions every day. Hope everyone who's going has a fab time at National!

Beth said...

I love being introduced to new authors and obviously having to win a prize.