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Greetings & Salutations!

I am Laurie M. Rauch, Executive Editor of Samhain Publishing and Owner and Chief Code Nerd of Elle Media.

This is my personal blog, where I talk about editing, books, web design, decorating my new house, and my addiction to good grammar.

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Um, yeah, so… this is new

Posted By laurie on November 11th, 2009

I decided, being a web designer and all, that having a hosted blog over on wordpress.com was really not the best showcase of my abilities. (What’s that saying? The shoemaker’s kids go barefoot, and the web designers have boring pre-fabbed blogs that aren’t even on their own domain?) And, while I love being known as grammar geek, there’s more to me than just grammar.

So, welcome to The Rauch Motel.

The name started as a joke… I used to answer the phone with it when I lived with the parents. Most family members got a kick out of it (yes, you pronounce the name kinda like the bug… yes, I’m just that lame. ;) ), ’til my grandmother made reservations for herself and her bird, Joey. Two days later, she fell at work, dislocated her shoulder, and came to stay with us for a few months while she got better. My mom forbade me from answering the phone like that ever again. But she never said anything about blogs…

I’m not completely sure about the decor around here… it’s a free template that I tweaked a bit, but eventually I’ll have something new and all me. But it’ll do for now. And, I’ve pulled all of the posts and comments from my old blog and another blog I started and pooped out on, so that’s how you may have managed to comment on a blog you’ve never been to before.

But, here we are… there will be posts about our mini dashchund Oscar, who oddly enough is the biggest search term that brings visitors here, about the fixing up T and I are doing in our new move in ready house (the one with no electricity in the top-half of the house, and the kitchen cupboards still in boxes in the dining room), about all things web design, and some grammar/editing posts.

Reservations not required…

Posted in News

New call for submissions

Posted By laurie on January 7th, 2009

Call for submissions: Samhain Publishing In a Bind Anthology

Tie them up, tie them down, use the ancient art of shibari or just plain old furry handcuffs, so long as someone’s being bound.

I’m very pleased to announce an open call for submissions for a new, yet-to-be titled Winter 2009 anthology. I’m looking for your super-hot bondage romance stories. Push the boundaries and push the bindings. I’m open to any genre, M/F, M/M, or multiples thereof. The only rule is bondage needs to be a main theme in the story and there needs to be a HEA (or HFN).

The anthology will include novellas from 20,000 to 25,000 words in length and will be released individually as ebooks in September 2009.

Submissions are open to all authors, published with Samhain or aspiring to be published with Samhain. All submissions must be new material, previously published submissions will not be considered. Additionally, manuscripts previously submitted, whether individually or for past anthologies, will not be considered either. Please be aware that manuscripts submitted to this anthology cannot be resubmitted at a later date unless by invitation from an editor.

To submit a manuscript for consideration, please include:

The full manuscript (of 20,000 to 25,000 words) with a comprehensive 2-5 page synopsis. Please include a letter of introduction/query letter. Full manuscripts are required for this as it’s a special project.

As well, when you send your manuscript, please be sure to use the naming convention Bind_Title_MS or Bind_Title_Synopsis. This will ensure that your submission doesn’t get missed in the many submissions we receive, and makes it easy for me to find in my ebook reader.

Submissions are open until April 15th, 2009 and final decision will be made by April 30th, 2009. Please send your submission to editor@samhainpublishing.com and include In a Bind Anthology in the subject line. Questions and queries can be addressed to Laurie M. Rauch (laurie@samhainpublishing.com)

*permission to forward granted

In case you haven't seen this in the 6,482 other places I posted…

Posted By laurie on June 16th, 2008

I am very excited to announce the stories selected for the Tickle My Fantasy anthology.

Carolina Wolf by Sela Carsen
Maddox Moreau likes being the BWIS – Big Wolf In the Swamp. By day, he’s a wildlife management specialist at the Congaree National Park in South Carolina. By night, he enjoys howling it up with different women. At least until he meets the one woman who can share his soul. Rescuing Debra Henry seals his fate, but only if he can also protect her from a rogue werewolf with a nasty stalker streak.

ParaMatch.com by MK Mancos
Lucilla Wainwright is a talentless witch from one of the craft’s most legendary families. In order to survive in the Paraworld, she has opened a highly successful matchmaking business to bring a little love into the lives of Sleepy Hollow Woods’ paranormal element. Her rate of perfect matches is unparalleled—that is until deposed Titan king, Jager Cronus finds fault with all the women with whom he’s been paired. Too bad he’s been the only man in years make her wish for a cauldron full of love potion.

Witches Anonymous by Misty Evans
A sexy Witch Lit comedy about a bad witch determined to end her affair with the devil and find love with a normal, non-supernatural guy. But when she unknowingly hooks up with the original Adam (who is back on Earth for a redo) she finds herself stalked by Lucifer, manipulated by the angel Gabriel and up to her black hat in Biblical-proportion-size trouble.

The Ghost Shrink, the Accidental Gigolo, & the Poltergeist Accountant by Vivi Andrews (A brand new Samhain author! Yay!)
The story of an unconventional love triangle between the girl-next-door who just happens to talk to dead people, a sexy private investigator, and a horny ghost.

I am so pleased at how many great stories I received for this anthology call. Thank you to everyone who worked hard on their submissions and brought the funny!

And holy, I broke a record with over 120 hits today! :)

Something new

Posted By laurie on January 11th, 2008

I promised yesterday that I’d have a new feature today.

I did a little rearranging of my blog. I took out the what I’m reading page, because I never remember to update it and I never seem to be near the computer when I finish a book. But to give you an idea, I have a bunch of the books on the go right now. I’m re-reading Bridget Jones’s Diary, because the CBC ran the movie and the sequel like a million times last week, and I’m part of the way through: Eve Kenin’s Driven, Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, and something else I can’t seem to remember. (Tho, I have Megan Hart’s Broken, which I’m dying to start, but am holding off ’til I finish one or more of the other books I’m in the middle of.) And I just finished Rachel Caine’s Stray, and Jacqueline deMontravel’s Escape from Bridezilla.

And I added a new page. I know I’d initially intended for Fridays to be Ask the Grammar Geek day, but people stopped sending me questions. But what’s funny is that where so many people get random sex-related search words that bring people to their blogs, almost all of my search terms are grammar-related.

So I created a new page… Ask the Grammar Geek. That page is going to be a giant Q&A free-for-all. Post a question in the comments and I’ll answer it. (well, within reason. I obviously won’t answer questions about a specific submission or manuscript. And I may be secretive about personal questions. *grin*) But grammar? publishing? editing? writing? even web design… hit me with your best shot.

Coming soon…

Posted By laurie on August 6th, 2007

Me.

I did warn y’all that I’d be scarce, I just didn’t realize how scarce.

The good news is I’m four days and one website design away from graduating from the webmaster program I’ve been taking all summer.

The bad news is that not only have I fallen completely behind on some projects, but my personal life went all to hell this weekend. So, the potential for non-scarcity is still quite possible for a little while longer yet.

That being said, stay tuned for a big announcement about a new project I’m starting in the next couple of weeks. ;)

Hey, is that, are you…

Posted By laurie on March 15th, 2007

We’ve been recognized!!

Samhain Publishing just got added to the list of RWA-recognized publishers.

Woohoo!! :)

Yeah, I went there.

Posted By laurie on October 22nd, 2006

So, in today’s featured news section on the website I work for, I have a package devoted to the Dear Abby/romance novel controversy, which many, many romance writers and readers have blogged about. Then, I linked to the RWA stats about the romance industry. Because, darn it, anything I can do to help dispell the incorrect stereotypes and myths is a good thing. Because for the biggest-selling genre in publishing, romance generally has a really, really bad reputation.

It all started a few weeks ago, when a woman wrote in to Dear Abby about her daughter’s reading choices. She liked *gasp* romance. The woman was shocked because her 14-year-old daughter was reading adult content. Dear Abby’s response was:

Some might argue that the idealized depiction of romance, and women being “rescued” by powerful, wealthy men, is more worrisome than the sex and eroticism. 

Out of all of the things in the initial letter, this is what Abby focuses on. And that pissed a lot of romance writers and readers off. I gotta agree. First, the whole “rescued heroine” thing hasn’t really been a part of romance since…well, since they really were bodice rippers. In the late 70s, early 80s, yeah, there was a lot of that. There were the heroines who had to be coerced to sex, because it was the only way they could rationalize doing something that was considered taboo… But that was a long time ago. Now we have heroines rescuing their heroes right back. Strong, independent women who have it all, and want romance and an awesome sex life too.

But what really bugged me about the whole situation is that the letter writer wasn’t aware of what her daughter was reading and was afraid to talk to her about it.*That’s* a problem.
When I was 12, I read the VC Andrews books, mostly because everyone else I knew was. While not really romance, these books were full of incest and grandmothers who poisoned her grandchildren with arsenic-laced doughnuts and recycled plotlines that really did just change the names and locations. By the time I was 14, I’d progressed to the historical romances my mom had in her nightstand. Did my mom know specifically what I was reading? Probably not, but she set the example by reading these kinds of books, too. If she were opposed to them, I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t have devoured them either.

Finding out about her daughter’s reading preferences was a perfect opportunity for this woman to sit down with her daughter and talk about her beliefs and values and her daughter’s beliefs and values. It could have been a growth experience for both mother and daughter. Instead, she goes whining to Abby. You shouldn’t need an advice columnist to tell you how to talk to your children. To know how to instill values and teach your children how to develop their own opinions. This woman could have talked about the difference between fantasy and reality. About the need for condoms and protection in real life, which doesn’t always fit in with the fantasy of romance (and that’s a debate for another post). About the need for women to be strong and independent and fulfilled on their own.

Did reading these adult books as a young teen scar me for life? Nope, not at all. I didn’t go run out and sleep with every guy in sight just because I read it in the books. I didn’t have expectations that some hero was gonna come and sweep me off my feet. It did, however, set me off on a life-long love of romance novels and a passion for fiction. A passion that I’ve now turned into a career, as I start my new job as an acquisitions editor for Samhain Publishing tomorrow…

But for that woman, instead of fretting over well-told stories about a love between a man and a woman, maybe she should look at it as an opportunity to strengthen her relationship with her daughter…. and get a chance to read some damn good books.

Posted in News