Saturday, February 27, 2016

Updates (In case you were wondering…)

I’ll be the first to admit: I’ve been neglecting this blog lately. Why? Because too much has been happening in real life lately, and there’s only 24 hours in a day…

Here are some of the highlights:

  • NEW BOOK! Sweet Indulgence, book 2 in my Silicon Beach Trilogy, is coming out in late March! Wait…what trilogy? Yep, you heard it here first: I’ve renamed the Kogan/Lazarev series. Somehow, Kogan/Lazarev just doesn’t roll off the tongue easily, as some of you pointed out.  The series still follows the interconnected lives of the Kogan and Lazarev families, but hopefully with less head scratching over some of those foreign-sounding words. Which leads me to my next news item…

  • GLOSSARY!  Break out the fireworks! Yes, there is now a glossary included at the end of each book in the Silicon Beach Trilogy. When you grow up in a dual language household like I did (in my case, it was Russian and English), it’s easy to forget that not everyone understands what you’re talking about when you pepper your speech with foreign words. Now that I live in California, I hear it done all the time with Spanish and English—there’s even a term for it: Spanglish. With Russian and English, though, it sounds a little more awkward…what would you call it? Russlish? Englian? Anyway…for those of you who haven’t picked up the first book in the series, Beyond the Ivory Tower, have no fear: all those pesky terms are now explained in the handy-dandy glossary at the end of the book. For those who’ve read the book already and are still curious, I’ve attached a copy of said glossary at the end of this post. And book 2, Sweet Indulgence, will for sure include a glossary! (Though as you many notice from the length of the glossary, there aren’t that many words in Russian in either book….Much as I loved A Clockwork Orange, I’m no Anthony Burgess, and my books are romances, after all, not dystopian social-political satire.) 

  • GOING WIDE! Thanks to everyone who’s been asking when my books will be available in stores other than Amazon…I’m pleased to say: Now! Without a Net, Coming Home, and Balancing Act are now available on iTunes, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo....

The Santa Monica Trilogy, Book 1 by Jill Blake

Without a Net now available on...





The Santa Monica Trilogy, Book 2 by Jill Blake

Coming Home now available on...




The Santa Monica Trilogy, Book 3 by Jill Blake

Balancing Act now available on...




  •  TRANSLATIONS! If you’d like to read my books in Portuguese or Italian, now you can! Thanks to the amazing Andreia Barboza, the Santa Monica Trilogy is now fully available in Portuguese. Without a Net is out in Italian, courtesy of the lovely Sarah Ferarri, and Coming Home will be available in Italian this summer. If you have friends in Brazil, Portugal, or Italy who love romance, please spread the word. Obrigada! Mille grazie!

Paixao Inesperada by Jill Blake

Without a Net (Paixão inesperada)
available from:



De Volta Para Casa by Jill Blake
Coming Home (De volta para casa)
available from:






Balancing Act (Ponto de equilíbrio)

available from:



Senza Freni by Jill Blake
Without a Net (Senza Freni - trilogia di Santa Monica, libro #1)

available from:



And now, without further ado, from Beyond the Ivory Tower....


GLOSSARY (RUSSIAN-ENGLISH)



Chort poberi - Damn (Literally, “Devil take it”)
egoist - egotist, arrogant man
Kakaya yerunda - What nonsense
Nichevo sebe - Wow
On takoi babnik – He’s such a playboy
Yesli’b ya skazal chto ya luchshiy hirurg v mire, togda ya bil bi egoistom – If I’d said I’m the best surgeon in the world, then I’d be an egotist.