I'm thrilled to announce that SUNRISE IN A GARDEN OF LOVE AND EVIL, the first in the Bayou Gavotte series, is a romance pick for Panera Bread's summer reads.

I'm a huge fan of Panera Bread! I buy bread and pastries there. I adore their Greek salad and asiago roast beef sandwich. Panera is my first choice for lunches when traveling. It was my first choice for lunches at home, too, when I worked in an office. I was so, so sad when a Panera in a nearby mall was closed...sniff.

Anyway -- Amazon Kindle and Panera Bread are offering Sunrise in a Garden of Love and Evil for only $1.99 for the month of July. Here's the link to get there:  http://mypanera.panerabread.com/community/bookclub/

Dark secrets abound in the town of Bayou Gavotte, Louisiana, from blackmail to fetish clubs to murder, and when blood-and-love starved vampire Ophelia Beliveau calls in the police to scare away whoever is desecrating her garden, Detective Gideon O'Toole unearths more than he ever dreamed...

In other great news, the cover, blurb, and buy links for Heart of Constantine in both Kindle and paperback are up now at Amazon.com. The Kindle version is only $2.99 and the paperback is on special for $7.77 right now. The release date is September 10th.

This is the third book in the Bayou Gavotte series and the closest I come to a book of my heart -- mostly because I started it eons ago and wrote so many different versions that when revising it a few months ago, I had no idea which scenes I had chucked and which I had kept. It was like rediscovering an old, much-loved story. I wrote the first versions of it before writing Sunrise in a Garden of Love and Evil and Tastes of Love and Evil, and the character and story of Constantine changed gradually over the years.

Vigilante Native American rock star Constantine Dufray has hit rock bottom. His telepathic abilities have spun out of control, and destructive rumors about him run rampant. Some are true—he caused a violent cop’s suicide, and telepathy destroyed his marriage—but he didn’t poison his wife, and he couldn’t have caused riots at his concerts, killing his fans . . . or could he have? Now an unknown enemy is trying to frame him for rape and murder.

Aura reader Marguerite McHugh finally gets a close encounter with the mysterious star, but it’s nothing like she expected. When Constantine finds her after she’s been drugged at one of his shows, Marguerite is pulled into his quest for the truth. As danger mounts and murders pile up, Constantine and Marguerite are forced into an ever-more intimate relationship. Only by facing their fears and working together can they unmask the killer before more innocent people die.

Yesterday after work, I went for a walk with Henry. This is Henry, right after his first grooming.

Isn't he adorable?

The days when authors didn’t have to do promo are long gone. I’m not complaining; learning to promote my book has been good for me. It’s sometimes overwhelming, though, and the last thing I felt like doing last night was writing another blog about my new release, Sunrise in a Garden of Love and Evil. So I took Henry and my tired brain for a walk in the hope of finding something to say.

There’s no doubt about it, Georgia’s beautiful in the springtime. Ornamental trees are flowering their hearts out. My camellia bush is bowed down with crimson blossoms, and petals are piling up on the grass around it. Violets and daffodils are everywhere. I skirted a neighbor’s lawn which was dotted with dandelions -- some still in bloom, some puffballs. I admit to a childish urge to cavort when I see a lawn covered with those cheerful yellow flowers.

I love trees and flowers, but I’m no gardener. It was a kind of wishful thinking when I made my vampire heroine a landscaper. (She’s a hereditary, living, breathing vampire, so sun isn’t a problem.) I suppose her profession and the southern setting (Bayou Gavotte, a funky little imaginary town just north of New Orleans) are what inspired the artist to put that gorgeous magnolia on the cover.

But setting the story aside for a minute, if you saw that cover in a bookstore, what would you think was in the story? What does it conjure up for you?

Covers these days are supposed to conjure something up, but it wasn’t always like that. Last fall, I visited the Merril Collection of the Toronto Public Library. It’s a non-circulating collection of sci-fi, speculative fiction, fantasy, and related non-fiction. They have some pretty cool books there. My friend Mary showed me (if memory serves me accurately) a first edition, second printing of Dracula. The cover (again, hopefully my memory serves) is a sort of dull mustardy color. There's no artwork at all. Maybe it was a little brighter when it first came out, but regardless, the cover gives no hint at all of what’s inside. OMG. What a great surprise for the person who opened it up and began to read!

Do you like surprises, or do you prefer covers that give you a very good idea what’s inside?

(Incidentally... One person who comments will win a signed copy of Sunrise in a Garden of Love and Evil. Also, every single commenter will be entered in the month-long contest I'm holding on my website, with signed books and other stuff  as prizes. Check out the Contact page at www.BarbaraMonajem.com for details.)