Publisher list and a spring promo

Today I'm posting a list of publishers who accept sweet and sensual romances, plus an early invitation to a special Theme Weekend Party at SirenBookstrand.

Here's a quick list. I cannot vouch for them, apart from Kensington, and I suggest you look into places like Preditors and Editors before you send work to them.







PRINT PUBLISHERS

Avalon books. SWEET.
http://www.avalonbooks.com/wrtgdl.html

Blue Leaf Publications. SWEET. (They say they're closed for subs at the moment but should reopen Spring 2009.
http://www.blueleafpub.com/submissions.htm

Champagne Books. (Say they want higher end of steamy in their subs.)
http://www.champagnebooks.com/submissions.htm

Dorchester Books. (Leisure and Lovespell Romances, tending to sensual.)
http://www.dorchesterpub.com/Dorch/SubmissionGuidlines.cfm
Five Star. Another library supplier publisher. I think you need to be living in the USA in order to submit.
http://www.gale.cengage.com/fivestar/

Harlequin Romance/Mills and Boon Tender Lines. SWEET (Where you can stop at the bedroom door if you wish, or carry on - but it must be in a committed relationship.)
http://www.eharlequin.com/articlepage.html?articleId=1102&chapter=0

Harlequin Teen Romance. A new line. SWEET?
http://www.eharlequin.com/articlepage.html?articleId=1403&chapter=0

Kimani Press. (African-American inprint of Harlequin.)
http://www.eharlequin.com/articlepage.html?articleId=1405&chapter=0

Kensington Books. SWEET? (Romances. Dunno if they do sweet. Possibly look at their online cat.)
http://www.kensingtonbooks.com/finditem.cfm?itemid=14298

Lionheart Publishers. SWEET IN SOME LINES. Busy at the moment but perhaps keep checking if they reopen for submissions.
http://www.lionhearted.com/guidelines.htm

My Weekly Story Collection. Another SWEET novella publisher is My Weekly Story Collection (MWSC), whose Fiction Editor is looking for a romance and a subplot. There are usually 12 short chapters, mostly from the heroine’s point of view. British settings or heroines often chosen. Chaste romance - no more than kissing. The address is:

Fiction Editor,
My Weekly Story Collection,
My Weekly,
D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd,
Albert Square,
Dundee DD1 9QJ,
UNITED KINGDOM

You will need IRCs if you're submitting from outside the UK.)

Wild Rose Press. SWEET IN SOME LINES.
http://www.thewildrosepress.com/


EBOOK PUBLISHERS.

Awestruck Books. Closed for subs at moment.
http://www.awe-struck.net/submissions.html

Black Lyon . SWEET MODERN and other romances, including literary romance.
http://www.blacklyonpublishing.com/guidelines.html

Class Act Books. SWEET and sensual. Also have an erotic arm.
http://classactbooks.com/submissions.html

Desert Breeze Publishing. VERY NEW. LOOKING FOR WORK. SWEET and sensual.
http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-template/policy/Page.bok

Eternal Press. Mainly sensual.
http://www.eternalpress.ca/subguidesnew.html

Freya's Bower - ALL HEATS - closed to subs until April 20th.
http://www.freyasbower.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=2&zenid=7e45192c59174aa1bff5534f02f8b6c6
Romance at Heart. SWEET? Maybe. Not sure from the guidelines.
http://rahpubs.com/submissions.htm

Samhain. SWEET? Maybe. Not sure.
http://www.samhainpublishing.com/submissions

Wings ePress. CAN BE SWEET ROMANCE.
http://www.wingsepress.com/

If anyone knows any more sweet ebook publishers, please mention them. I'm hoping to post a list of publishers who accept erotic romances next month and would value suggestions for these, too. Thanks.

And now for the promo...

"In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love..."

..... in ALL its wonderful forms!

We are having a THEME WEEKEND WITH A DIFFERENCE at Siren Bookstrand, on the PUBLIC LOOP on May 2nd-3rd.

http://groups. yahoo.com/group/SirenBookstrand/

We open on Saturday morning with sweet and sensual romance. Grab an early coffee or cuppa and come join us in a celebration of male-female romance for all! Our BOOKSTRAND mainstream authors will be there to chat and share their excerpts. Come and see - you will find many names and friends whom you know. (Many of our talented SirenBookstrand authors write widely within the romance genre, as you will discover.)

At 2pm EST Saturday until late Saturday night, we feature titles, excerpts and authors from the much stronger MENAGE AMOUR line.






At 2pm EST Sunday until late Sunday night, we will be featuring work from SIREN. Erotic male-female romance with happy endings. More best-sellers!

On Sunday morning there will be a chance for you to put your questions to our writers and for our writers to share details of their latest releases. Bring your coffee and enjoy.

Bronze Lightning out now.

Here's the blurb and an excerpt from my new historical romance, Bronze Lightning, set in ancient Krete, Egypt and England. This novel is available from Bookstrand and out now.

The cover and buy details can be seen here.

Ancient Krete, 1562 B.C.

Sarmatia is a trainer for the Bull Rite, the dangerous, glamorous ceremony of bull-leaping that gave a young Kretan entry into adulthood. Fearn is healer from the distant northern Isle of Stones summoned for his skills to the sick-bed of Minos, the Kretan king. They meet on the dusty flagstones of the palace courtyard and both save a life.
A year passes. They are betrothed, but Fearn has returned home and is chosen king of his small northern country. As king, master of storms, he cannot return to Krete. Fearn writes to Sarmatia releasing her from her vows - but is this what they really want?
Sarmatia leaves Krete to search for Fearn. Many months and life-and-death adventures later, she is reunited with him. She and Fearn are still deeply in love but there is an unknown enemy working against them, one who will stop at nothing, even murder.

Excerpt:

Krete, c.1562 BC. Summer.

Sarmatia spun away and was gone, somersaulting over her hands and landing with a soft clash of gold ankle bells. Their meeting of eyes had lasted no more than a breath, yet it kept returning to haunt her as the music shrilled to a climax and the piebald bull was let into the court. Even as the flute players left and the Bull Rite began, her gaze was drawn to the back of the courtyard.
Three of the seven had completed their Passage and two were gone: the fourth initiate should have been ready. As the bull came to a jolting stop at one end of the court, pawed restively and licked the painted flags, Sarmatia motioned to a creamy-skinned, gray-eyed girl. The youngster backed up a step. The bull raised its head, its horn scraping against a pillar. The girl blanched and looked wildly about, ready to run. In three strides Sarmatia made up the space between them and gripped her arm. Unseen by the families, she pressed the flat of her dagger into the initiate's side. Cruel to be kind, she threatened.
'This or the bull if you show your back, Pero!' she whispered, turning the blade for the girl to feel its edge. 'The only way out is through the horns.' Whatever Sarmatia's private disgust and unease, custom and the crowd demanded it. They would not forgive Pero if she failed.
'I can't!' Pero was shaking and near tears. A low murmur ran around the watching crowd like a wind through barley: the mob and the bull would not wait much longer. Pierced by pity, Sarmatia squeezed the girl's thin shoulder. 'Do you want to be a child all your life?' she asked gently.
'Sarmatia, I can't! Those horns, they're like knives, and the bull— Oh, Mother!' Pero's voice cracked. 'It's looking for me!' The bull had trotted out of the shadows at the back of the courtyard.
Sarmatia stepped in front of Pero, shielding the girl. 'Look, it's nothing.' She ran forward, clapping her hands.
The bull halted and its head slewed round towards them, a brown forelock covering one eye. 'To me!' she shouted.
The beast dropped its great horns. She heard the people applaud. With an explosion of dust the bull charged. She felt its hot, closed mind surrounding her. For an instant skill deserted her. She remembered she was too old for the Bull Rite. A blaze of gold spilled from the bull's horns, instinct returned and with it sureness. She caught the horns and let herself rise. Time and the horizon fell back, she could see the blue vault of heaven, the red-mouthed 'O' of the crowd, a flash of red-gold hair as Fearn turned his head, following her descent. Her feet touched the bony rump of the bull, she tucked in her arms and somersaulted off, running forward as she landed.
Behind her the beast gave a sulky grunt, swept this way and that with its horns and lashed its tail. Pero worked her way into its sight, swaying her hips to keep quick and supple. The piebald ambled off in the opposite direction then suddenly spun about and bore down on the girl in another burst of speed. Sarmatia moved to cover Pero's tumble and signalled to the remaining initiates to do the same. She heard the girl seize the bull's horns, with a great smack on each palm, and saw her tossed, arching like a dolphin in mid-air and rising clear of the deadly gilded horns. The time of peril would be when the girl landed. If Pero caught an ankle or winded herself, Sarmatia knew she would have to be in quickly to distract the beast.
There was a shower of dark hair and Pero touched earth to a roar from her family. Sarmatia grabbed her arm and pulled her clear, but was not fast enough: already the bull had skidded round. Too late, Sarmatia realized what the beast had seen. A child had kicked a hole in the fencing and was running out into the turbid afternoon light. No time to draw the bull off— all she could hope for was to reach the boy first.
Sprinting, her insides turning to water, Sarmatia rushed for the child. As her hands closed round his tiny—so tiny!—body and her cheek grazed the stones she thought, with terrible clarity: I promised they would be safe. I've failed.
For a second, a dark breathing shadow hung over her. Then came pain, the slow tearing punch of the horn.
* * * *
She came awake suddenly, crying out. Firm hands kept her flat against the stones.
'Peace, Kretan,' said the man crouched beside her, pressing a cloth onto the spurting wound in her side. 'There's nothing to fear.' In the sun his hair framed his broad-featured face like a nimbus, yet there was darkness behind him. The bull was still free in the courtyard.
Sarmatia wet her lips with her tongue. 'The child?'
Fearn jerked his head to one side. 'Ramose has taken his son. He's safe.' The initiates were also gone, the crowd hanging back, uncertain what to do.
They were alone in the court, except for the bull. Fearn pressed on her side again then withdrew the cloth. A dark spiral of blood pooled under Sarmatia's ribs; blood no longer pumped from the wound. She scarcely felt it as he bound the gash with a bandage made from his tunic. 'You must leave, Sir, the bull—'
She broke off, eyes widening, and Fearn whipped round. Ready to gore, the bull was lowering its huge head, its face so close that its breath stirred the bristles of Fearn's beard. Fearn threw up an arm to fend off the horns and drove a fist into the face of the beast. 'Get back!' He hit the creature a second time. 'Learn your lesson!'
The bull snorted and the healer shifted, covering Sarmatia completely with his body. He stamped the stones and shouted at the beast. ‘Go on! Go on!’
As Fearn's boot hammered the flags, there came the rumble of a distant storm, like the muffled roar of a lion. The beast started back and with a bellow turned tail and ran.


Best wishes, Lindsay

[Image of bull-leaping fresco from Wikimedia Commons.]