Welcome! What a week. Got some snow here, so I’m not a happy camper. Damn groundhog.
So what do you think of the new background? I’m preparing for Valentine’s Day.
Favorite Song of the Week ~ DoZo (Guns For Hire), a song from by Puscifer. This is a remix of the song “Dozo” by Lustmord. I dig it.
Work in Progress News ~ I’m in the middle of writing a free read prequel to complement PreView. So a PreView Pre View. That should be a fun title to find. I’m doing this because my other free reads have been so well received! Check them out.
Search Term of the week aka How People Found My Websites ~ This one makes me proud. “did adam and eve have navels bloom county” If you don’t remember Bloom County, then you’re not old like me. If you do, you might remember this particular strip, which is embedded in my wee little brain for all eternity:
What I’m reading ~ I re-read one of my favorites. This one was released back in early 2009, won a few awards, and re-released to its adoring public Perfect Strangers by Gem Sivad. Wow. If you haven’t read a Gem Sivad book, you’re missing out. She’s got a great knack for bringing the past to life. In all it’s gritty glory. These characters are very true to the time. One of my favorite books right here.
Howdy! It’s a wintery weekend here in Wyoming. I hope you’re all cozy and warm wherever you are. February is hot on my heels. I hope the groundhog sees his shadow. Or doesn’t see it. I always forget which.
Favorite Song of the Week ~ Ordinary Heroes by Howard Jones. A story about the hero inside all of us. This song is my inspiration for my current work in progress, about an injured K-9 cop.
Industry News ~ This is pretty interesting. A bit of a mind-boggle for you. According to this post on Ebook Newser,
“In a presentation at the Digital Book World conference in New York today, author/futurist David Houle shed some perspective on where the publishing industry is today, compared to its place in history. “There were more books published this week than there were in all of 1950.”
Wow.
Search Term of the week aka How People Found My Websites ~ Pretty tame this week! Besides the usual fur-covered celebrity (I swear, I’m never going to live that post down). This week, it’s: “someone came but for a visit”. Well okay! I guess that’s you! Welcome!
What I’m reading ~ This week I read an alternate universe slash dystopian pseudo d/s book. Here’s part of the blurb: Trans-Global IT director Connor Witt is a rare and prized anomaly: the aggression centers in his brain have been suppressed rather than stimulated by the mutated crops that so recently took over the world’s food supply. Bewildered by his physical changes and terrified of a world growing more and more predatory, Connor risks harassment and worse until Trans-Global CEO David Martin collars Connor to protect him against men like security consultant Emmett Drake. Men who stalk Connor as sweet, sexy prey. Men to whom the newly submissive Connor feels irresistibly drawn. Really well written book, the characters grow and change, adapting to their new roles within the pages. I’m really liking Riptide Publishing’s stuff!
Hero Quote ~ Here’s a quote from Olivia’s next release from Dark Mountain Books. Company Ink will release 2/29/11. This sentence pretty much sums up the book:
“But when I’m this close to you…and I get drunk on your scent…I struggle to give a shit about my career.”
I guess that’s it for me. Everyone have a great weekend. Stay warm!
January is flying by. I guess that’s good, I can’t wait for warmer weather. I can’t complain too much though, this winter has been mild for the most part *knock on wood* Also, baseball season is coming up! I know you’re all as excited as I am about this. I’ve got a Swedish exchange student living at my house who has (get this) never seen a baseball game. Doesn’t that just hurt your heart? Don’t worry, I’m taking care of the situation.
Favorite Song of the Week ~ Etta James passed away early Friday morning. She will be missed. Here is the song that made her famous: At Last:
Work in Progress News ~ Still chugging away on Dean’s story. Book two in the Earth Scents series. I had a great name for my hero, but now I can’t use it. Lots of reasons why. I’m blogging at RomanceWritersBehavingBadly on Monday 1/23/12. You can help me out with my angst over there.
Industry News ~ Besides the big Apple announcement regarding a user friendly interface to upload ebooks to iTunes (which looks to be for textbooks, not fiction) the only news I have to share is that the big Print On Demand (POD) publisher Createspace (aka Amazon’s POD wing) did some tweaking on their end. This makes paperback books sold through them earn a lot more royalty! I celebrated by lowering the retail of all my paperback books some by almost three dollars! Plus, over at Dark Mountain Books, we’re offering a “buy the paperback, get the ebook free” promotion. It’s like buying a DVD and getting the digital format for your portable device!
Search Term of the week aka How People Found My Websites ~ I’m sharing three this week. To this person: ”dowload tessa pride on to your nook for free”, I wish you wouldn’t (subtext implied) And ‘download’ has an N in it. To this person: “earth scents 2 brynn” I’m working on it! See above. To the two people who found my site by searching for “fun contemporary romance authors”, I love you.
What I’m reading ~ I read a very good one this week. And again, it’s book two of a series, and I didn’t realize it until halfway through this one. It’s okay, it stands alone just fine. This is an older man younger man romance, and K.A. Mitchell is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. Here’s a snippet that I just have to share. I don’t even need to set this up:
“C’mon. I’ll take you downtown for some pie.”
“How heteronormative”
“I can’t have pie on Thanksgiving because straight people do?
“Fine. Have pie. I want crepes.”
Anyone who can give her characters personality through four sentences is my kind of author. I’m off to read book one now…
Hero Quote ~ From the unnamed hero in the unnamed work in progress mentioned above:
”I’m not pouting about being single. I like being single. I just don’t want to see your lovey dovey crap. You’re my little sister for Christ’s sake.”
Okay boys and girls. I’m off to do wild author things (Twitter) so you all play nice. Have a great weekend!
Welcome! Halfway through January already! So far I’ve had a mild winter, weather-wise. I hope that translates to an early spring and a nice warm summer. Well, I can hope.
This picture was taken yesterday by author Gem Sivad from her back yard. I love birds of prey, they’re so majestic!
Favorite Song of the Week ~ Just try to watch this without smiling. Yeah I know, I’ve regressed in age here, but seriously. Fun song:
Work in Progress News ~ Can you believe I started two new wips this past week? Crazy. But I finally started Dean’s story, book two in the Earth Scents series. I’ve been meaning to write this one for years. It feels good to get some words down.
Search Term of the week aka How People Found My Websites ~ Well, this doesn’t sound good, but okay: “his tongue was suddenly in my mouth “nasty” kiss”
What I’m reading ~ I read a few short stories this week, as well as re-reading some old faves. I think I might spend as much time reading as I do writing. That’s okay, right? So I reread Trina M Lee’s Once Bitten this week. If there’s ever anything that will help me clear my mind of all things contemporary romance, this will do it. Although this isn’t a romance, there are some very sexy scenes, and some extremely alpha male scenes:
Alexa O’Brien has never been like other people. A deadly assassin, she is a werewolf with extraordinary power. Power that fiercely draws her to Arys, a mysterious vampire who awakens her dark side. What they create together is dangerous and binding, forcing her to question the source of her abilities. She risks losing her remaining humanity as well as the one man she dares to love.
When Alexa’s womanizing former lover and pack Alpha is framed for murder, he turns to her for help. She would like nothing more than to watch karma at work but as the body count rises, long buried secrets are exposed. Alexa is forced to face the painful truth that not everyone is who she thinks they are. Not even her.
This is book one of an ongoing series. Not for the Twilight fan, I’ll tell you that.
Hero Quote ~ From Olivia’s book Last Call, coming March 27th:
“Now, I don’t know what your ex said to make you feel inadequate as a sexual being, but let me tell you something. You sure as hell know how to turn me on. You’re definitely a sexual being.”
All right, that’s all I’ve got for you this week. Thanks for stopping by!
Welcome! This week went by so quickly! Please, 2012, slow down! It’s been beautiful weather all week here, which usually means something big and nasty is looming on the horizon. I’ll let you know.
Favorite Song of the Week ~ I had to look on past posts to make sure I haven’t shared this song yet, because I’ve loved it for a long time. This is INXS with Afterglow.
Work in Progress News ~ I wrote a free read last week, since I actually FINISHED Wyoming Solace rewrite! Tolja I would! The free read is a prequel to Retreat, titled Treat. Michael at Booknibbles.com made the cover, and it goes so well with the cover Amanda Kelsey created for Retreat, I just can’t believe it. The couple even looks like a younger version of the couple on Retreat. And his eyes…what do you think? Click to go to Smashwords where you can download your favorite format.
Industry News ~ Uh…from now on I’m just going to post this when I actually have news for you guys.
Search Term of the week aka How People Found My Websites ~ This one made me laugh: “goodluck olivia at yahoo dot cum”
Yeah.
What I’m reading ~ One of my very favorite authors released a new book late last month. I forced myself to wait until I finished my projects so I could really relax and enjoy it. It’s totally worth the wait, guys. Cameron Dane’s A Perfect Storm.“On an island off the coast of Maine, Lucien Cabot monitors the dark clouds rolling across a bleak sky. Patience and planning have been Lucien’s two closest friends for years, and now Mother Nature has aligned to create the perfect storm he needs to exact his revenge.
Television producer Sophie Emerson can’t believe her luck when the mysterious owner of Raven Island offers her a story about the island and castle. She really can’t believe it. Still, if real, this offer could be the break her career needs. Although suspicious, Sophie agrees to meet Lucien at his home.
Gotcha. Lucien can taste victory — if he can resist the keen intelligence, beauty, and light in Sophie. Falling for his guest is the last thing Lucien can afford to do.”
Cameron has a flair with putting emotion into every page. Brilliant.
Hero Quote ~ From Jake in the new free read TREAT. This is right after Andi tells him that his mouth drives her crazy:
“Good. I like you crazy. Then you stop thinking. Then you’ll do something irresponsible like take your clothes off.”
Men! Gotta love ‘em tho, right? Okay folks, that’s it for me. Everyone have a great week!
I just finished writing the prequel to Retreat! It’s available now for no charge at Smashwords (click the cover to go) and it’s on it’s way to other online retailers.
It’s at Amazon right now for $.99 until their webbots find it for free elsewhere, then they’ll price match. If you feel like spending a moment to report it as free at Smashwords, I’d appreciate it!
Welcome to my little corner of the web! For those of you who are new to my site/blog, I write romantic suspense, contemporary, and historical westerns. My latest release is PreView, a romantic suspense with a psychic flair.
I took the tree down already, and swept the virtual pine needles away. Now I can focus on 2012!
I hope you all had a wonderful and way to ring in 2012. Me? I went to bed at 8:00pm because I had to work at 5:00 am New Year’s Day. I’m not sure if I’m more bothered by the fact that I missed out on a party, or the fact that it didn’t bother me to miss a party. Getting old is hell, folks.
Now for my New Year’s memory:
I come from a big Irish family. Both of my parents came from big Irish families as well, so that makes my big family even bigger. I loved it.
Every New Year’s Eve, my parents would pile all seven of us kids into our big wood-paneled station wagon, and head up to my uncle’s house in a little Wyoming town where everyone knows everyone else. I think we doubled the town’s population by the time all the aunts, uncles, and cousins filed in.
Uncle Joe’s house would be filled with the scent of candy thanks to huge pots on the stove full of homemade saltwater taffy. Then we’d all sit around the table (tables, there were dozens of us there) and each pull our own taffy. Now, most taffy gets pulled by machine. This is because you have to pull it when it’s hot. Blistering hot. And it takes a long time and considerable finger strength to pull the taffy into manageable consistency. Needless to say, we youngsters weren’t the best pullers, but we were by far the best eaters.
But it’s fun. And delicious. And it keeps a gaggle of kids busy for hours. (The recipe for homemade taffy is right here, if you’re so inclined.)
Then we’d wait up til midnight and ring in the new year on my uncle’s huge porch, with noisemakers and pots and spoons.
The more I think about it, the more I wonder why that little town kept allowing us back every year.
Then Uncle Joe would wake us all up at six in the morning with the following song blaring at top volume:
Seriously, I love my family.
Okay, that’s it for me. I hope you enjoy my little romp through memory lane! If you click on the “continue reading” link below, you’ll see the list of blogs for you to visit. Comment here with your email address to be entered into the grand prize drawing. I’ll choose one commenter to win their choice of my digital backlist.
What? The last day of 2011? It has been a good year to me. I’ve got three releases lined up for 2012, and plenty of wips to keep me busy.
Favorite Song of the Week ~ One Day, by Matisyahu, featuring Akon. This song was played at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics:
Work in Progress News ~ I came up with a brilliant plot idea. Unfortunately I can’t start writing it until I finish Wyoming Solace. I’ve really slacked over the holidays, and since the kids are out of school and it *is* a holiday, I’ve rationalized my laziness. I’m now about 3/4 done with it though, and I hope to finish by next Saturday’s status. Next on the list, a free read complementing Retreat. It will act as a prequel, maybe 10K or so, nothing big, but just a little taste of the book.
Industry News ~ Sorry. Again, I have no interesting news. I’m sure there’s some out there…
Search Term of the week aka How People Found My Websites ~ 99% of the terms this week were pretty normal. This one stuck out: “i asked him to come on my face erotic blog”. I refuse to even find out where that took them on Olivia’s site. Now that I’ve posted that sentence, I’m probably asking for more of the same.
What I’m reading ~ Okay, so Santa brought me a Kindle. In fact, before he wrapped it and put it under my tree, he got on my computer and loaded my TBR pile onto it. He’s so thoughtful! So yeah, while I’ve been slacking in the WiP area, I’ve more than made up for it in the TBR area. I read a few Christmas shorts, nothing that thrilled me too awful much. I think my favorite of the last two weeks was Wanting, by Piper Vaughn. This is a freebie over at All Romance Ebooks, but I’d forgotten that when I started reading it. It’s very well written, and I enjoyed the premise. Kind of a May/December best friend’s little brother forbidden thing. Lots of little conflicts, and satisfying emotional scenes.
Hero Quote ~ From Cody, the hero in Wyoming Solace.
“I won’t hurt you, Elise. I promise. You’re in charge here. I’ll follow your lead.”
Okay, that’s it for me. Let’s hope that by next weekend I’ll be able to say that I’m finished with the rewrite. Everyone have a great New Year’s Day!
A little late with this. In the middle of a busy weekend.
Remember last week how I mentioned that I had a believer at home? Well that status has changed to “informed”. Thanks to a little boy in the third grade who felt the need to share. Unfortunately.
Favorite Song of the Week ~ It’s YouTube’s Closed Caption Fail–Christmas edition. I’ll let Rhett and Link explain it:
Work in Progress News ~ I’ve been on page 89 in Wyoming Solace for a while now. I keep going back and tweaking scenes, researching dialogue, and overall just plain procrastinating. I do have a new release date for WS, June 26, 2012 which is about six weeks earlier! So I really need to stop messing around and finish this rewrite! I also came up with another book idea, so that’s been percolating in the back of my mind. Along with the others there…
Industry News ~ For the last three weeks in a row, Amazon has been selling at least a million Kindles per week. Go ahead and reread that. 1,000,000 Kindles each week. It’s pretty amazing. That means three million new devices out there just waiting for new content! I know I’ve got one under the tree just taunting me right now.
Search Term of the week aka How People Found My Websites ~ This week, along with the usual, I have this one: “bus hunks”. So I started thinking about this guy: I just realized his license plate was a soul patch. What a kick.
What I’m reading ~ I bought Sara Brooks’ Hard as Stone as an incentive to finish Wyoming Solace. I thought if I told myself it was waiting for me, I’d quit dinking around. Instead, this guy was sitting on my desktop whispering naughty things into my ear, and since I have no willpower, I succumbed. I don’t even feel guilty about it! Blurb:
Brady thrives on saving patients in his busy emergency room, but when things don’t go according to plan, he’s unprepared for a chance encounter. There’s something familiar, and mysterious, about the downright sexy-as-hell stranger he encounters on a busy Chicago street.
In Garrett’s world, there are no coincidences. He’s been the doctor’s secret guardian for years. Driven by a burning need unknowingly stirred by Brady more than a decade ago, Garrett finally breaks his silence. He steps in to show Brady there’s more to life than rescuing those in need.
Roused by their desperate passion for one another, their desire reaches an explosive breaking point. Brady realizes one night isn’t enough, but Garrett is bound by rules he can’t change. Now Brady’s healing touch may save more than just a life—it may just save Garrett’s soul.
This is a beautiful story, and I’m glad my willpower sucks.
Welcome! Are you in the holiday spirit yet? It’s slowly seeping into my bones.
Slowly.
I think the music is helping, and I’ve got a believer at home, so it’s hard not to get sucked into the joy. Wow, sound so cheerful, huh? Maybe I’ll try peppermint candles.
Favorite Song of the Week ~Someone tweeted a link to this one a few days ago, and I read the copy. I didn’t know that Bing Crosby died just one month after recording this song, and one month before it aired on television in 1977. I think this is one of my favorite cover/mashups. I found a version that left out the cheesy acting in the beginning, because I’m nice like that.
Work in Progress News ~ Working diligently on Wyoming Solace. Did you know the word “okay” wasn’t in use in 1894? I’m using the online etymology dictionary and finding lots of gems like this. I also discovered that Cody, the hero in Wyoming Solace is the strong silent type. I can’t seem to get the man to say more than three sentences at a time. I guess that’s just how it’s gonna be.
Industry News ~ I’ve got nothing. You’re welcome.
Search Term of the week aka How People Found My Websites ~ Well, other than the normal “hairy {celebrity} naked” search terms, which I won’t repeat here again, I got this one that made me smile: “sexy hairy trail”. You got it, Googler. Welcome to the sexy hairy trail that is Olivia Brynn.com
What I’m reading ~I bought one of the Carina Press Holiday novellas. This is a contemporary friends-to-lovers story that I’ve always been a sucker for, and I read it in between chapters of my western rewrite. I love Shannon Stacey’s style.
Claire Rutledge still believes in love, despite losing her husband. So, after two years, she’s not surprised by the steamy dreams telling her it might be time to start moving on. But she didn’t expect her friend Justin to have the starring role.
Justin McCormick has loved Claire since the moment he first saw her, but his best friend got there first. Now that Claire is ready to move on with her life, Justin is finding it harder than ever to hide his true feelings. And when they both get caught up in the holiday spirits at a party, their simmering mutual attraction boils over into a night neither of them can forget…
See? I read a Christmas themed book. I’m trying folks! Mistletoe & Margaritas is definitely worth a read. Click the cover to get to Amazon and buy your copy.
Hero Quote ~ I went through Cover Story today, not sure why, but I found a typo and a plothole that drove me crazy, I had to fix it and reupload it to the ebookstores. I’m so glad I have control of them in order to be able to do that. While I was there I found a quote from Bo, the younger man in the May/December romance. I’ll have to set this one up though. Cate has just asked him if the dumbstruck women they just passed by was a common occurrence for him. His reply:
“I prefer my women striking. But not dumb.”
Last but not least, you’ll see in the post below that there’s one helluva blog hop going on right now! Just click the banner below to get started. We’re giving away a brand new Kindle Fire, tons of ebooks, and you can meet some new authors and read some festive snippets. We’ll also be chatting at Gem Sivad’s chat room on Saturday night. Come on! Join the fun!
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What I’m reading ~ I re-read one of my favorites. This one was released back in early 2009, won a few awards, and re-released to its adoring public Perfect Strangers by Gem Sivad. Wow. If you haven’t read a Gem Sivad book, you’re missing out. She’s got a great knack for bringing the past to life. In all it’s gritty glory. These characters are very true to the time. One of my favorite books right here.
Welcome! Are you in the holiday spirit yet? It’s slowly seeping into my bones.
