Steph Burkhart and BE MUSED

I'm happy to welcome fellow Classic Romance Revival author Steph Burkhart. Steph blogs about the paranormal anthology, Be Mused, which comes out on April 1 from Desert Breeze Publishing. Leave a comment today, March 31, with your email address for a chance to win prizes. Steph will select the winner. See the end of the post for Steph's generous listing of the prizes available.

4/1 We have winners! NinaP and Kaye Manro, see the comments to find out how to contact Steph to receive your prize!

Welcome, Steph!

While the author is away, the muse will play.

I just want to say I'm excited to go on a mini-blog tour in support of the Be Mused Anthology coming out with Desert Breeze Publishing on 1 April 2010. It has five light-hearted short stories about muses, their writers, and love. My thanks to Linda for having me today and for Judah Raine for putting together this tour through Classic Romance Revival.

Be Mused has a great line up of authors – J. Morgan, Katie Charles, Me (Stephanie Burkhart), Nicole Zoltack, and Sandra Sookoo. The premise of the novel is that a writer is a muse's job. Muses exist on another plane. They relax by going to bars and visiting friends. They go to muse conferences and take vacations.

"Inspiration Lost and Found" is Katie Charles's story. Jezebelle Jones is a young muse and inspiring her writer is a challenge. He likes to write horror stuff and she's a romance muse. Jezebelle didn't pick him. To recharge her batteries, Jezebelle attends a muse conference where she meets an older muse, Trevor. Will she find a way to inspire her writer with Trevor's help?

I love how Katie has captured the youthful voice of Jezebelle with honesty and authenticity in this story.

Here's an excerpt:

Jezebelle just kept going. "--but it's better than what I am dealing with," Jezebelle ranted, throwing her hands in the air. "And maybe I will look into how to quit. There has to be some protocol for it."

"I still think you are overreacting," Dina said while stirring her coffee.

"Di Di, this is the fourth time he has done this to me. And when he locks me away it is in a tiny little box that would make Tinkerbelle's drawer look huge. No, I am not taking it too close to heart."

Diana shuffled around in her bag for money to pay for the coffee. "Okay, maybe you are right... but still, he's an author. He thinks he has the right to. They all think they have the right to. It's nothing new." Before she could place the money on the table, a free flying paper smacked Diana in the back of her head.

Jeze snickered as her friend grabbed wildly at the paper as the wind whipped it around her face. She reached over and plucked it from Diana's head and handed it to her. "Wow, who did you make mad?"

Diana stuck out her tongue. "Keep laughing and you'll find out.

"Sorry," Jeze said, suitably contrite. She saw no sense in upsetting her friend or risk that veiled threat. It could involve her paying for coffee. "Uh, so what does it say?"

As Jeze got up and moved behind her, Diana read it out loud. "Come one! Come all! To the biggest muse gathering of the year! Meet the muses that inspired the 'Gifted' series and the 'Early Morning' saga, even the muse to Herald Peter! The best selling book to date! Hear them talk about how they got to where they are today and maybe get an autograph or two. Anything can happen. Do you want to miss out?"

****

If you post on the blog today, I'll be picking two names out of a hat to win an autographed postcard with the "Be Mused" cover on it, signed by me.

I'll also be offering a grand prize gift bag of "Be Mused" products including a coffee mug, mouse pad, magnet, and autographed postcard to my blog tour winner. In order to qualify for the prize, you have to post on all the blogs in the tour. The prize winner will be announced on 10 April. (I go on vacation from 4-9 April)
"Be Mused" will be available in ebook format at the Desert Breeze Website, All Romance books, and on Amazon for the Kindle 1 APRIL 2010.

Desert Breeze: http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-73/Be-Mused--dsh--%3Ci%3EAn/Detail.bok

Visit Steph at:

http://twitter.com/StephBurkhart
http://sgcardin.tripod.com
http://sgcardin.blogspot.com
http://www.writing.com/authors/sgcardin

and at Associated Content:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/join.html?refer=84269

Thanks for coming over, Steph. Come back any time.