Bloodchained is a very special book, because in a sense, it has over sixty authors.

Let's start at the beginning, approximately New Years 2007. Diana Laurence was finishing up her latest romance anthology, Soulful Sex: The Paranormal, Science Fiction and Fantasy Collections, and thinking about what she would write next. She wanted her next work to be something different, and to be something lots of readers were looking for. An interesting thought occurred to her: why not capitalize on the available technology of the internet—things like Yahoo Groups, blogs, chats, and online surveys--to make a book that was truly a team effort? Certainly these technologies would make it easy to kibbutz with a big group of people, get their input and opinions, and really make them part of the creative process.

Thus was born the "Soulful Sex Partners" Project, named after Diana's popular series of tasteful erotic romance collections. Diana invited readers and fans to sign up, and by March had over fifty SS Partners, and the group ultimately swelled to 63.

The Partners included males and females from across North America and all over the world. There were 20-somethings and 60-somethings, longstanding Diana Laurence fans and newbies, authors and editors and reviewers. What they all had in common was excitement about taking part in the creation of a brand new romance story.

The Partners participated in all kinds of ways. They chose the genre and point of view of the book. They specified the level of sensuality of the writing. They selected the plot from a choice of three possible synopses. They named the lead characters. They provided feedback for the early chapters and the initial plot development. They helped Diana make key plot decisions.

A subcommittee of Partners served as Advance Readers and read and edited the entire first draft of the book. Their suggestions and edits were incorporated in the rewrite and helped make tremendous improvements in the story and text. It is completely true to say that without these readers and fans, Bloodchained would never have come to be.

The author owes a great debt of gratitude to them all, and their names appear here as well as in the Acknowledgments of the book.

THE BLOODCHAINED VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR OF 2007

Find out more about the book by perusing the Tour:

August 8 - The Romance Studio - Romance vs. Sex in Bloodchained
August 9 - Suite 101's Romance Fiction Department - Getting Help from the Fans
August 9 - The Difference Now Blog - Bloodchained and the Writing Life
August 10 - American Chronicle - Bloodchained--A Unique Experience
August 13-19 - 7 full days on Novelspot's "Behind the Scenes" - About Bloodchained
     #1 – A Completely New Way to Write a Book
     #2 – Something a Little Different for the Erotic Romance Author
     #3 – What's the Story?
     #4 – Some of These Characters are up to No Good
     #5 – Sharing the Pen with My Co-Authors
     #6 – They Love This Book as Much as I Do
     #7 – An Experience Like No Other...and a Taste of the Book for You!
September 4 - Sime~Gen
September 6 - eCataromance.com - How Technology Made Bloodchained Possible
September 15 - Coffee Time Romance's "I'm Diggin'" Newsletter
September 16 - The Inspired Author Self-Promotion Blog
September 20 - Your Daily Z's Blog - Another lovely literary creation is born
September 23 - A Closet Writers Journal - Inspiration and Grand Accomplishments
September 25 - Cre8tive Quilter - Answers to readers' questions
September 27 - Love Romances and More
October 28 - Fallen Angels Reviews
November 2 - The Romance Studio