Visit With My Guest: Stephanie Burkhart Talks Muses and Anthologies

While the author is away, the muse will play.

Welcome Stephanie Burkhart!

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's got five light-hearted short stories about muses, their writers, and love. My thanks to Dani 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, 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.

"Melpomene and Thalia Sittin' in a Tree" is the story by Nicole Zoltack. Krystal has trouble inspiring her writer, Brent Nightly. He likes to write paranormal mysteries. She talks about her problem with Zal, another muse. Krystal and Zal have a "love/hate" relationship. Zal does suggest Krystal's author should go to a writing course and Krystal motivates Brent to attend. When he gets there he meets a famous romance author, Alice Hartman. Can Brent and Alice put their genres aside and find love? Can Krystal and Zal?

--Brent is my husband's name (tee hee).


Here's an excerpt:

Brent waited until the others left, and they were alone. She gathered some papers and retrieved her disk before glancing up and noticing him. "May I help you?"
"Your lecture was wonderful," he said.
Alice flashed him a wide grin. "I'm glad you got a lot out of it."
"Oh, I didn't say that." Wonderful, Brent, are you trying to be an ass?
She blinked a few times and then laughed. "Forgive me. I just assumed and you know what happens then." She closed her briefcase, tucked it beneath one arm, and offered him a hand. He shook it, careful not to hold it too tightly. After all, her hands were half the size of his, even if her fingers were long and slender. Like her legs. He opened his mouth, but nothing came to mind, no clever phrase, nothing, his mind was as blank as a clean Word document.


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 e-book format at the Desert Breeze Website, All Romance e-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


**********************************************************

Thanks for coming by, Steph. I don't know about everyone else but I'm excited for the new anthology as I've just finished another great Desert Breeze book this month, "Crucifying Angel." (Watch for my review in next month's The Privateer Newsletter.

Great authors, great publishing company, and I'm sure, a great anthology. Best of luck to our commenting guests for the drawing. And best of luck to you, Steph!