We are so thankful that you have decided to come and celebrate this time with us. We hope you enjoy your touring of the Aspen Mountain Press Author Blogs, getting to know some authors you may be familiar with and meeting some new ones.

And as you tour remember that one lucky tourist will win a Kindle, Wi-Fi, Graphite, 6″ Display with New E Ink Pearl Technology.  All you have to do enter is comment on the blogs. The more you comment, the more chances you have to win. Along the way you might get lucky and win some other goodies. Some blogs have contests of their own so make sure you read the blog entry before commenting.

If you stop mid-tour, lose your place or need to find a specific blog you can always come back here by clicking the banner:

found on every one of the blogs on the tour. It will bring you right back here.

When you have come full circle and return to this blog, your tour is done.

We will be having a big birthday celebration on our community Yahoo loop. Make sure you stop by on August 7, 2011, from 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. (EST), for games and prizes and a chance to chat with the authors. At 11:00 p.m. (EST) we will announce the winner of the Kindle.

Blog Tour Stops

1. AMP WEBSITE - http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/blog/
2. Cynthia Vespia - http://www.CynthiaVespia.com
3. Dominique Eastwick - http://dominiqueeastwick.blogspot.com/2011/07/happy-birthday-aspen-mountain-press.html
4. Wendy Soliman - http://www.wendysolimanblogspot.com/
5. Gloria Burland - http://www.gloriaburland.com/blogsite/
6. Mark Covington - http://vmarkcovington-author.blogspot.com/
7. Cassandra Pierce - http://www.cassandrapierce.com/Blog.php
8. Aurora Regency Blog - http://www.auroraregency.blogspot.com/
9. Nya Rayne - http://discoveringnyarayne.blogspot.com/?zx=ba850263be7adaa4
10. Arabella Sheraton
11. Viki Lyn - http://www.vikilynromance.blogspot.com/?zx=fc0a2bfdbcb6076a
12. Grace Wen - http://grace-wen.blogspot.com/
13. Andy Dunn - http://andy-onthefrizz.blogspot.com/
14. Amp Authors Webs site - http://aspenmountainpress.webs.com/apps/blog/show/7737503-amp-s-5th-anniversay-blog-tour
15. A.E.H. Veenman - http://www.aehveenman.wordpress.com
16. Berengaria Brown - http://berengariasblog.blogspot.com/
17. Cindi Myers - http://www.cindimyersmarketnews.wordpress.com
18. Jess Dee - http://jessdee.wordpress.com
19. MT Albright - http://blog.theguysaloser.com/
20. Maura Anderson -http://www.realmsoftheraven.com
21. Marie Roy - http://www.newsletterofmarieroy.blogspot.com
22. Aubrey Leatherwood - http://amusedauthors.wordpress.com
23. Melisse Aires -http://melisseaires.blogspot.com/
24. Aura Blog - http://auraspecfic.blogspot.com/

For 2 extra chances to win, sign up for our Newsletter! Go to our webpage at http://www.aspenmountainpress.com.

Register with the site and click the box to receive the Newsletter.

Other helpful links

AMP - http://www.aspenmountainpress.com

Aurora Regency - http://www.auroraregency.com/

Facebook - http://facebook.com/Aspen.Mountain.Press

Twitter - http://twitter.com/AspenMtnPress

Facebook Fan page - http://www.facebook.com/index.php?lh=517427d9edc9c30cdb9fb111966ee7e2&#!/pages/Aspen-Mountain-Press-Fan-Page/132855360081991

Tour Rules:
1) Tour Starts: Monday, August 1, 2011 at Midnight (EST)
Tour Ends: August 7, 2011 at Midnight (EST)

Final Celebration is August 7th from 6pm-11pm (EST) at the AMP Community Loop.

Grand Prize: a Kindle (Wi-Fi, Graphite, 6″ Display with New E-Ink Pearl Technology) is the Grand Prize. Drawing will take place and be announced on August 7, 2011 on the AMP Community Loop at 11pm (EST). Only comments posted before 10pm (EST) on August 7, 2011 are eligible to win the Kindle. Winner will be notified by email on August 8, 2011 if they are not present on the Loop for the announcement.

***Individual winners from author contests will be drawn and posted August 8, 2011 on their individual sites.***

2) Participation at every blog on the tour is not required but the more blogs a person comments on, the more chances they have to win. If a person comments on one blog, they are entered into the Grand Prize Drawing once. If they comment on ten different blogs, they will be entered into the Grand Prize drawing ten times. Only one comment per blog per person will be entered to win the Grand Prize.

3) The winner of the Grand Prize must be a resident of the United States with a US mailing address. Non-US winners will be eligible for $50 US in Aspen Mountain Press books from the AMP Website.

4) Prizes at individual author blogs are completely at the discretion of the individual authors and are not in association with Aspen Mountain Press and its prize system. To enter the contest on any given blog, you must follow their contest rules and objectives.

5) By commenting on any blog in the tour, the participant is agreeing to these rules and policies.

6) All prize winners will be chosen randomly by using Random Line Picker.

Thank you for coming by. Don’t forget to leave a comment and tell us your favorite AMP book or which AMP book is on your TBR pile.

Happy touring from all of us at Aspen Mountain Press.

NEXT STOP on the tour is the Ever Talented and always wonderful Cynthia Vespia

Click here to travel to her Blog  http://www.cynsights.blogspot.com/

Come back August 1st for rules and more information on our fabulous 5th Anniversary Blog tour and learn how to enter to win prizes (including our grand prize - a Graphite Kindle 3!)

Now that Bittersweet is out, I’ve had some questions about it and wanted to share what happened during the writing of Brand and David’s story. It taught me a few things, trust me.

When I signed up to write two stories for the Hot Comforts anthology from Manlove Romance Press, I pitched the ideas for Giving Thanks and Bittersweet. Several other authors also joined the anthology and it was scheduled for around Thanksgiving 2008. Aspen Mountain Press had agreed to release the stories as standalone ebooks as well.

Because these stories are part of an anthology, it means they really can’t be too long. 20,000 words is a LONG story to have in an anthology. So there’s a maximum reasonable size the editor and publisher expect.

Giving Thanks went pretty well and relatively quickly. I’m happy with it and it really told the whole story I wanted it to.

Bittersweet is a whole other case. I knew a bit about the conflict and the fact it’s very much based on not judging someone by their appearance or what you think they might be like. When I started writing the story, though, I really got into these characters. I sent the first chapter to my test readers and one of them immediately replied that this was NOT a short story.

But it had to be. It needed to be. I literally spent months fighting with this story and trying to force it into an appropriate size and structure. But it fought back. Every time I tried to force Brand and David to get in bed, it came out horribly. Every time I tried to gloss over their personalities and foibles, they seemed like plastic characters. I rewrote it so many times I delayed the whole damned anthology. My deadline was blown and I was so frustrated and in despair it was awful. There’s just no way these characters would behave that way.

Finally I had to step back for a bit from my attempts to force my will on the story and I wrote another chapter, letting myself write what was demanding to be written. There’s a lot of background. There’s a lot of detail and some scenes that don’t have to do with sex but let the readers learn more about who these two people are.

I liked it. It flowed again.

So I finally accepted I could not shoehorn a Happily Ever After into this story. I took it to the point of a Happily For Now but there’s a lot more of this story to come. I’m going to write the rest of their story and see if I can sell it because I want to tell it. There’s pain, misunderstanding, assumptions, sex and love to go.

I know I’ve seen one opinion so far that there wasn’t enough sex and I spent time on things that didn’t matter. I hope that’s not the majority opinion because I love these two characters and the have a compelling and beautiful story to finish. But I did want to share what happened to me while I wrote this story

Bittersweet can be purchased from Aspen Mountain Press!
Giving Thanks can be purchased as a standalone ebook from Aspen Mountain Press as well.

The marvelous Jet Mykles let me know this morning that Giving Thanks has become the #1 Best Seller on the All Romance eBooks Top 10 Best Seller list!

I’m so excited!

You can read more about this story on my website on the Giving Thanks page.

You can buy Giving Thanks from Aspen Mountain Press here!

Check out the Fantasm Award Blog!! Despite some fierce competition, the first book in Aspen’s Del Fantasma series has won the award for Best Shapeshifter (Non-Wolf) Romance!

Title: Del Fantasma: Texas Tea Author: Maura Anderson Artist: Nikita Gordyn ISBN: 978-1-60168-052-5 Genre: Paranormal Publisher: Aspen Mountain Press Publication Date: 8/17/2007 Sexual Content: Erotic

Photographer Lara Saunders has a lifelong secret — she can see and hear ghosts. When she was rescued from a near drowning by the ghost of a lighthouse keeper, he set her on a mission to document historic lighthouses and the lives of their keepers so they were not forgotten. Now on her third book in the series, Lara has arrived in San Diego to document the Old Point Loma Lighthouse but hasn’t counted on becoming the target of Cody Warren, the matchmaking owner of the Del Fantasma bar. Or falling in love with a handsome Park Ranger whose secret is even more strange than her own.

Click here to read an excerpt.

Title: Tort & Retort Author: Maura Anderson Artist: Jinger Heaston ISBN: 978-1-60168-087-7 Genre: Erotic Romance Publisher: Aspen Mountain Press Publication Date: 2/15/2008 Sexual Content: Erotic

Ambitious and driven patent law attorney, Gayle Osborne, has a secret. Her power suits and take-no-prisoners attitude hide a passionate nature whose only outlet is reading and reviewing erotic romance. If anyone finds out that she is “Miss Retort,” the snarky and opinionated blogger from the Hits & Misses review blog, she’ll lose everything—her reputation, her clients, her job and, worst of all, her gorgeous mentor and boss, Tyler Monroe.

Click here to read an excerpt.

The Fantasm Awards voting is now open!

Click on the button and go vote! Del Fantasma: Texas Tea, the first book in Aspen’s Del Fantasma series is up for Best Shape-Shifter (Non-Wolf) Romance. You’ll also see some of Aspen’s authors up for awards for books at (sob) other presses. A lot of great stories and authors on the list.

Go Vote!!

Title: Night Moves Authors: Matt Brooks, Erastes, Kiernan Kelly, Kira Stone Artist: Deana Jamroz ISBN: 978-1-60168-083-9 Genre: M/M Vampire Publisher: Aspen Mountain Press Publication Date: 01/25/2008 Sexual Content: M/M Erotic Paranormal

Four stories of vampires and their lives and how they interact with those around them make up this hot m/m anthology.

In Theron’s Boys Kiernan Kelly tells of a group of men seduced by the vampire Theron and the not so pleasant way he controls their lives.

Matt Brooks poses the question in Inferno about what happens to a vampire who hasn’t been turned completely because he doesn’t have the heart to hunt.

An artist is given his greatest commission and perhaps a chance to pay off his family’s debt to his Patron in Chiaroscuro by Erastes.

Finally, Kira Stone’s Immortal Steps reveals a hidden vampire society amongst our own where being a person with vampiric DNA can be dangerous when Hunters want you for your hormonal serum and the larger sum your body parts will bring.

Click here to read an excerpt.

Two books from AMP won Honorable Mentions in the Love Romances Cafe Best of 2007 Poll.

Snowball in Hell by Josh Lanyan.

Babes in Toyland II by Maura Anderson, Jeanne Barrack, Raine Delight, Melissa Glisan, Wayne Greenough, Michelle Hasker, Dawn Montgomery and Skylar Sinclair.

Congratulations to our wonderful authors!

Title: Weekend Ménage Author: Michelle Hasker Artist: Jinger Heaston ISBN: 978-1-60168-082-2 Genre: Erotica Publisher: Aspen Mountain Press Publication Date: 01/18/2007 Sexual Content: Erotic

Dane and Neil get to offer one lucky romance writer the weekend of her wildest fantasy. Stacey can’t believe her husband is offering her this experience with one of their close friends. Will they be able to maintain their former relationship once the weekend is over.

Click here to read an excerpt.