A.M. Halford
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R.L. Merrill's Rock 'n' Romance

5/11/2018

1 Comment

 
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Hey readers! Again, there was no WIP Wednesdays, but I promise we'll have one next week. I am bringing you your regularly scheduled Author Spotlight this Friday with R.L. Merrill talking about her books and writing journey!
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Thank you so much A.M. Halford for having me on your blog this week! SO much is going on in my world of Rock ‘n’ Romance and I have a lot on my mind, but I wanted to spend some talking about what I’ve been up to in 2018 so far and what’s coming next!

Hurricane Reese, my debut gay romance from Dreamspinner Press, came out January 30th and has been a great experience. I’ve had so much fun meeting new readers and authors with Dreamspinner! I’m finishing revisions on book two at the moment and I can’t wait to share the next installment. I thought I’d share a little bit about the book and let you know that it’s ON SALE THIS WEEKEND!

Hurricane Reese is the result of many pieces coming together to create a funny and heartfelt romance. Those pieces include a beloved grandfather with Alzheimer’s disease, interracial dating in the LGBTQ community, musical theater, the Rat Pack days, and a new relationship with not only a power differential, but an age and cultural gap that threatens to halt any progress Reese and Jude make. Throw in an ex hell-bent on making Reese’s private life public, homelessness, a disappearing best friend, and a troubled younger brother and you have the natural disaster that is Hurricane Reese. Readers who enjoyed my self-published works like the Teacher trilogy and The Rock Season will find this new book a natural progression and new readers to my books will hopefully fall in love with Reese and Jude and the crazy families they bring along for the ride.

You can find Hurricane Reese at Dreamspinner Press - https://goo.gl/bcSbXi
Or on Amazon - https://goo.gl/3FTGYR

Next up my story Mud and Honey will be featured in the anthology Down & Dirty, a collection of steamy contemporary stories about blue collar heroes and the women they fall for. And actually, my hero literally falls for the heroine during a storm on a treacherous stretch of road. Here’s the blurb:

A deputy sheriff and a tree trimmer meet during storm cleanup on a treacherous road and literally fall for each other in the line of duty. Calvin wants to explore their connection and Flor is game. Then things get sticky when his hard-earned sobriety is threatened and her pride is bruised. Their chemistry can’t be ignored, but can they get past their personal obstacles? It’ll take some getting dirty to get to the sweet in this story of broken hearts and fresh starts.

FOLLOW DOWN & DIRTY ON FACEBOOK
as we’re about to have some exciting opportunities for prizes, etc. Release day is May 22nd, and you can preorder it here:
PREORDER LINKS:
AMAZON US  I AMAZON UK  I AMAZON CA  I AMAZON AU
IBOOKS  I BARNES&NOBLE  I KOBO
Thank you so much for hanging out with me today! You can find me at the following places AND I’ll be at the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention this next week! Would love to meet you! 
WEBSITE  I FACEBOOK  I TWITTER  I INSTAGRAM
NEWSLETTER
Stay Tuned for more Rock ‘n’ Romance!
1 Comment

A Cocky Blog Post

5/5/2018

2 Comments

 
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So, you might have heard about a certain author, who for the sake of not giving her any more publicity we shall call “Not Smart”, and her attempt at trademarking the word “cocky” with a specific font. Dear readers not only is Not sSmart unbelievably cocky in her desire to do so, but also in how and to who she is choosing to threaten with her C&D orders.
 
First off, it isn’t the word she has trademarked (or attempting to). It’s the word WITH the font style. In other words, she’s trying to say this specific word + font is a logo. Fine, except she doesn’t own the rights to the font either from what I’ve gathered.
 
As for the word “cocky” its origins are older than she is. As a matter of fact, the word originated in the 16th century… 500 years ago! It is beyond fair use at this point in history. Not to mention it isn’t uncommon enough to be out of the mainstream, as the HUNDREDS of book titles with it prove.
 
Now, let’s talk about her reasons for trademarking this cocky logo. Apparently she’s received emails from her readers claiming they’ve lost money because they purchased books with “cocky” in the title only to find out it wasn’t hers. I’m sorry, what? Is she saying her readers are incapable of checking something as simple as the author name on a book before purchasing? Not Smart, by this logic, is calling her readers stupid, or at the very least unobservant.
 
The crazy doesn’t end there! As mentioned above she has sent out Cease & Desist orders (C&D) to indie authors with the word cocky in their titles, claiming they can keep their royalties and reviews if they just change the title. She then has the audacity to say that by doing so it in no way harms them. Not Smart, you REALLY aren’t smart are you? Have you no idea the work that goes into branding a book? Promo images, banners, swag, cover art ALL of this is made. Changing the book title would mean everything already made for the previous title is now wasted, and LOST money! How does this not harm the author?
 
Also, I do realize she hasn’t gone after any of the NYT Bestsellers… I wonder why?
The final thing I’m going to talk about is a small somethin’, somethin’ that was brought up. It seems Not Smart is also trying to copyright character names. Yes, you read that right. She’s trying to copyright NAMES! Lordy this woman has an ego bigger than Texas!
 
Yes, your book is protected under copyright, and that includes your characters. But names? Not Smart, do you have any idea how many characters are named oh I don’t know, Luna? Let’s start with a really famous one from a little book called Harry Potter. Maybe you’ve heard of it? You didn’t invent the name! You have no right to demand people don’t use it.
 
In closing, Not Smart, you are an unbelievably shallow and cocky woman and I hope you get whatever karma is headed your way. Please, let the door hit you on the way out of the writing community. We’ll be sure to slam it.
 
Here’s a link to a legal page describing this developing situation: http://legalinspiration.com/?p=503
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2 Comments

    A.M. Halford

    Mondays: Free post days where I post about anything I feel like talking about.
    Wednesdays: WIP Wednesdays where I post articles about my current works in progress and share a small snippet from one of them.
    Fridays: Author Spotlights. I share an author and spotlight their work!

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  • Home
  • SirenPublishing
    • Itáyu Lake >
      • The Divine
    • Galaxia Pirates
    • Mages of the Nether
    • Cherry Matchmaking Agency
  • Self-Published
    • Tulsa Immortals
    • HBIA: Case Files
    • Stand Alones
  • MORE
    • Works in Progress
    • Blog
    • About/Contact