Contest results are in

We've tallied scores, and now have results for the 1st annual How Lyrical Is Your Romance Contest:

Winners of 50-page manuscript and synopsis critique for each sub-genre:

• Romantic suspense: The Unexpected Reunion, by Cheryl Gardarian
• Paranormal/Urban fantasy: Waking the Dead in Music City, by Dana Sieders
• Contemporary: Crash and Burn, by Michelle Libby
• Historical: Rebel Heart, by Caroline Wilson
• Steampunk: Iron Guns, Blazing Hearts by Heather Massey

2nd place winner ($100 advance plus contract): Of Eternal Life, by Micah Persell (paranormal/UF)

1st place winner ($200 advance plus contract): Rayven's Keep, by Elizabeth Parker (paranormal/UF)

Winners will also be notified directly via email.

Thanks so much to everyone who participated (expect a streamlined version of the contest next year), and congratulations to the winners!

Piper Denna, Executive editor

NEW - Celebrate all things Irish - 03.05.2012

NEW - Celebrate all things Irish - 03.05.2012

http://www.lyricalpress.com/ 

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FAOLAN'S CURSE

Author: Emly Forrest

Genre: Romance/Paranormal

ISBN: 9781616503598

Length: Sjort Novel

Price: $2.99

They don’t call it spellbound for nothing. 

Faolan didn’t mean to look, but the White King’s Premier Wife was just too juicy. It was purely accidental and if that pesky magpie hadn't caught him looking, the young, handsome faery spellcaster-in-training might have gotten away with it. The problem? In Faerie, it's a supremely serious crime. The only prudent thing to do is own up to the king and take his punishment. 

 

Luckily, his majesty appears to be quite drunk when Faolán arrives to learn his fate, and the punishment the king hands down is a joke: Faolan must get a human woman from Dublin to fall in love with him. Too easy. 

 

However, when love strikes the cocksure faery--and is not returned by his heart’s desire--things get complicated. Then a few spells go haywire, a friend contributes his own misadventure to the mix, Faolan works a bit of careless magick, and things get complicated fast. 

 

WARNING: Some strong language and explicit sex. 

Read an excerpt | Sample first chapter

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FIONA'S WISH

Author: Daisy Banks

Genre: Romance/Paranormal

ISBN: 9781616503567

Length: Novella

Price: $3.99

Only the ultimate sacrifice will save her timeless love. 

Left shattered by her lover, Fiona Murray believes not one good man lives on this planet. She leaves civilization to work on a lonely isle off Ireland's coast. 


When lonely Selkie Ronan hears Fiona's passionate call, he can't help but answer her. She is all he desires, and for her, he will leave all he's ever known--the deep blue sea. But Fate and the sea are fickle mistresses, and want him back. Will he find the strength to surrender all he is to be with Fiona? 


And can Fiona, knowing her destiny without him, let him live the life he deserves?

Read an excerpt | Sample first chapter

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HIS MORTAL SOUL

Author: a.c. Mason

Genre: Romance/Paranormal/Multicultural

ISBN: 9781616503574

Length: Short Novel

Price: $2.99

Can she save his immortal soul... and help him find heaven on earth? 

Touching Sephora may cost Kieran his soul… Kieran has always been a good Catholic, even studying for the priesthood. But there are complications. A few weeks before his ordination into the priesthood, he was made a vampire. And then there's Sephora, the beautiful, independent American student who draws him to her. His "blackbird", she seems to hold all the secrets to life and happiness, like the mythological creature of the ancient Celts. Despite his best  intentions and though he knows he can only hurt her, her hold on him increases by the minute. 

Although Ireland promised Sephora an escape from the horrors of a brutal attack she suffered two years previously, she has discovered that the true scars lie within. But being with Kieran melts away the pain and his touch provides her the refuge to reclaim her body. 

WARNING: A gorgeous Irish hero and gutsy heroine. Biblical and religious themes that might offend.

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IRISH DREAMS

Author: Toni Kelly

Genre: Romance/Contemporary

ISBN: 9781616503581

Length: Short Novel

Price: $2.99

It’s one thing to resist an Irish dream, quite another to resist a dreamy Irishman. 

After being traded for another woman by her fiance, Maggie decides she’s had it with men. Good thing she's far away from him, in Ireland fulfilling her best friend's request to be maid-of-honor. Wicklow and the Emerald Isle are more than she expects—green, lush, and exactly what she needs. What she doesn't need is rescuing by some emerald-eyed charmer. 

Newly divorced, Ethan Moore is ready to enjoy bachelorhood. Only one problem—the fiery-haired Maggie Christy.  Unlike any woman he’s ever met, Maggie draws him close and turns him inside out. The attraction is unexpected and inconvenient, but nobody ever said true love was easy. 

WARNING: Exceedingly charming Irishmen and sexually explicit scenes.

Read an excerpt | Sample first chapter

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From the desk of Piper Denna

Ahh, the monthly acquisitions post. We've been hard at work judging contest entries--38 of them. Just 10 more days until we announce the winners.

I took 48 pitches on Word Wranglers on February 7th. Got to see lots of new authors strut their very fine stuff, and editor Abby Rose took 25 pitches last week, too.

I'm slowly working my way through the pitch partials and requesting fulls as I go. 3 great fulls so far, but I've got a long way to go on that list!

Which means, basically, we've got some major eyestrain happening around here.

So down to the results. We reviewed a total of 18 full manuscripts. 11 cold subs, 7 of which were rejected and the other 4 were completely out of our submission guidelines. We reviewed 5 direct submissions, issued 1 R&R, 1 rejection, and I accepted the other 3 (only 1 contract is finalized, however, so I can only post the deets about that book & author). Roster authors submitted 2 manuscripts, from which 1 was accepted and 1 got an R&R.

Our 2 brand-spanking-new contracts ready to go public are as follows:

• Devil's Daughter, by current Lyrical author Bernadette Walsh, a paranormal romance novella in a series, to editor Mary Murray.
• Hard Core, by pitch-perfect author Jennifer Lowery, a full-length romantic suspense, to editor Piper Denna.

By this time next month, there'll probably be a plethora of new contracts, from the cream of the contest crop, as well as my pitch list, and Abby's.

Have a great March, everyone. Here's hoping spring has sprung in your town by next month!

Piper Denna, Executive Editor

In Search Of...

I've been editing for Lyrical for almost a year now, but I've always had a hard time expressing just what I'm looking for in the manuscripts I accept. Until now.

As I was finishing up edits on one manuscript and starting edits on another, I finally clued in to the common thread between the stories I'm editing: strong characters.

When I read contemporary romance, I want to see a strong heroine. Even if she's got to come to terms with her own mistakes, I want to believe that she's going to succeed, that she can handle what's coming at her. I also want to see conflicts that keep the hero and heroine apart that are more than mere misunderstandings easily resolved with a single question or conversation. But I also want to believe that the conflict is something the heroine and hero can overcome...

When I read paranormal romance, again I want that strong heroine. Not just a damsel in distress waiting to be rescued by the powerful hero. Someone who can stand up for herself, whether or not she's part of the paranormal world. I want both external and internal conflict... and I want to see characters with both strengths and weaknesses!

I'm also looking for BDSM romances—emphasis on the ROMANCE, there. Not pure erotica, but a story in which the BDSM (be it dominance and submission or bondage or pain play or whatever aspect of the BDSM spectrum that particular story includes) is integral to the development of the romance. Again, I want a strong heroine...and a strong hero. Smart choices, safe sex, and consensual activity are key for me in any BDSM story. I love riding that edge of danger with the characters...but I can't believe a hero truly loves the heroine if he steps over that line of consent or puts her life or safety at risk, and the same is true of the reverse.

But really, in the end, it comes down to the characters. I want to fall in love with them. Characters with depth, with strengths and weaknesses, who know what they want or have to discover what that is. Believable characters who make choices, who don't just go through the pages coping with what happens to them but who instead make things happen.

So make me love them.

Publisher's Weekly Review - Omegas In Love

Omegas In Love, book four of Annie Nicholas' insanely popular Vanguard series, was reviewed by Publisher's Weekly.

We here at Lyrical headquarters are so proud of Annie for getting such a wonderful review from PW. Love that the review reads 'The backdrop of shifter politics provides an intriguing twist to this otherwise conventional story'.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-61650-360-4

Publisher's Weekly Star Review - Direct Strike

Lyrical Press is extremely proud of our very own Lorelei Buckley for her star review from Publisher's Weekly for Direct Strike.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-61650-367-3

You rock on with your bad self, Lorelei!

NEW - Erotica, Urban Fantasy, BDSM at Lyrical - 02.20.2012

NEW - Urban Fantasy, Erotica and BDSM today at Lyrical Press - 02.20.2012

http://www.lyricalpress.com/ 

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Being Bound

Author: Cristal Ryder

Genre: Romance/Light BDSM

ISBN: 9781616503529

Length: Novella

Price: $3.99

Sometimes reality is so much better than fantasy. 

A man used to getting what he wants, Tom Rourke doesn’t take being discarded lightly. Smarting from rejection, Rourke decides the complication of women is distracting him from his goal. He refocuses his energy into ownership of the Black Phantom, where he meets Heather Canyon. Drawn into her erotic web, he can’t get her out of his mind. But can he trust her? The only way to know is to experience her first hand.

Dominatrix Heather Canyon is looking for a new beginning, and a safe place where she can let her talents shine. Rourke’s proposition is the perfect opportunity. She must test him to ensure they are the right fit for and challenges him at every turn. She isn’t looking for a partner, but has she found her match with Rourke?. 

Read an excerpt | Sample first chapter

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Chairman of the Whored

Author: Lucy V. Morgan

Genre: Erotica/BDSM

ISBN: 9781616503550

Length: Novel

Price: $5.99

Dark. Debauched. Delicious... Is she ready to go under his knife?

Leila Vaughn is a tax lawyer at a prestigious London law firm. And a whore. She didn’t take the night job just to pay off her debts-- an affair with an older man once stirred a pit of darker desires. Now her year as an escort is almost over, she’s ready to lock up her alter- ego, Charlotte, and be normal once again. What’s bad is that her colleague, Matt, just caught her out. What’s worse is that their boss Joseph is with him. 

Matt wants to rescue Leila. And she should want what he does--monogamy and escape from the city--if she's going to be normal, right? But her boss is as familiar with the slippery world of escorting as she is, and that makes him hard to resist. In London‘s tightest circles, he's known as the Chairman of the Whored. Bold, sharp and ruthless, he’s everything Leila is trying not to be--so why can't she say no to him? 

Three jobs left before she pays off her debt. Two men playing games she can’t handle. One alter-ego, banging against the mirror. In a dark hotel room, the glass is about to break... 

WARNING: Contains clever lawyers with a penchant for violence, and an alter-ego like Tinkerbell on meth..

Read an excerpt | Sample first chapter

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Hit Me With Your Best Shot

Author: Cassiel Kight

Genre: Romance/Urban Fanatsy

ISBN: 9781616503543

Length: Novel

Price: $5.99

Sidra will do whatever it takes to find her target. Even if it means pairing up with an operative who has more secrets than she does. 

Sidra is tough, street-smart and independent. And she's living a double life. As an agent for Triad, she follows orders and gets the job done. But as Norah Rainwater's surrogate daughter, she'll do whatever it takes--even defy Triad--to find Norah's missing daughter and save Norah's life. 

She plans for every eventuality...except Gideon, who lives a triple life beyond Sidra's wildest suspicions. Sidra knows him as a charming playboy more intent on conquering women than saving the world. But he's more than that. Under another identity, he fights to destroy the five men who lead the criminal organization called the Alliance--the same men who murdered his father for trying to leave the group. 

With Norah near death, Sidra can't let anything get in her way. Not even Gideon, who reminds her so much of Ranger, the only man she has ever loved. But Gideon can't let Sidra reach her goal without crushing any chance he has of reaching his.

Read an excerpt | Sample first chapter

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