Wel­come! I’m head­ed to Las Vegas this week to join in the fun at the Romance Nov­el Con­ven­tion. Any­one close by? I’d love to chat. I’ll be the pale girl sweat­ing in the shade. It’s 73 F here now and it could­n’t be more per­fect. Still, I’m very excit­ed to vis­it with my fel­low authors, espe­cial­ly Tri­na M Lee!! Be sure to fol­low me on Twit­ter if you’d like to see some pho­tos and Vines of my adventures.

Work in Progress News ~ Ugh.

Favorite Song of the Week ~  An oldie but a good­ie. This just hap­pens to be play­ing as I write out this sta­tus report.

Tweet of the Week ~

Next time at the mar­ket, take a fruit out of some­one’s bas­ket, smell it, and say “mmm. Ripe. Con­grat­u­la­tions”. Means a lot.

— josh groban (@joshgroban) July 2, 2014

What I’m read­ing ~ A Mea­sured Risk by Natasha Black­thorne. I was in the mood for some his­tor­i­cal stuff and breezed through this one: 
Emo­tion­al­ly scarred in the hor­rif­ic acci­dent that took her hus­band’s life, Lady Cran­field is impris­oned by her lin­ger­ing ter­ror of hors­es and car­riages. She longed to be clos­er to the fas­ci­nat­ing Earl of Ruel. She sensed intu­itive­ly that he could teach her how to over­come the ter­rors that held her in bondage. 
And now she’s will­ing to risk almost any­thing-her rep­u­ta­tion, even her virtue-to find out. But what he pro­pos­es star­tles her. 
When the shy, stu­dious and social­ly awk­ward young wid­ow approached him, Ruel instant­ly sensed she would be the sweet­est, most sub­mis­sive expe­ri­ence of a life­time-if only he can gain her total and com­plete trust. He makes her a non-nego­tiable offer. His help in return for her sub­mis­sion and obe­di­ence. 
But Lady Cran­field grew up neglect­ed by her ducal par­ents, raised by ser­vants and then lat­er ignored by her hand­some, charm­ing hus­band. She’s learnt to pro­tect her heart at all costs and she trusts no one but her­self. 
How can the jad­ed Earl of Ruel break through her self-pro­tec­tive defences and show her how to love when he has spent his life­time avoid­ing that ten­der trap?

Today’s Tear­jerk­er ~ Okay it’s a com­mer­cial for a home improve­ment store, but it’s so good!

Book Snip­pet ~ From Fine Print, (which inci­den­tal­ly along with Flipped has a 100% coupon at Smash­words, so check that out!)

“Okay…so what are you going to do?”
“Well, on Fri­day morn­ing, I’m fly­ing to Can­cún. I want you to go with me.”
Kara sat upright, and faced him. “What?”
“It’s a week­end trip, nei­ther of them want­ed to take off of work, so they want­ed a long week­end. Can­cún is a short flight.” He spoke calm­ly, and he looked seri­ous, which was odd, con­sid­er­ing the off-the-wall propo­si­tion he had just made. “Fly out at ten a.m., fly home Sun­day at sev­en p.m. Of course, you’ll need to take Fri­day off, do you think…”
“Are you serious?”
“Of course. The tick­ets are non-refund­able, and I don’t want to waste them. I also sprung for a two bed­room suite that I was told sleeps six. From the pic­tures, it looks like a great loca­tion, huge swim­ming pool, right on the beach…”
“But…I can’t go to Can­cún with you!”
“Why not?”
Kara opened her mouth, then shut it when her planned words would make her sound like an old fud­dy-dud­dy prude. She looked around her emp­ty liv­ing room, hop­ing for a way out of this. As if some­one would pop out from behind Max’s lazy boy and tell her she was on a hid­den-cam­era tele­vi­sion show. “I can’t just take a day off from work for no reason.”
Even to her ears that sound­ed lame, but maybe it would buy her time.
“Call in sick.” He dragged her back against him.
“I can’t do that!” She did­n’t struggle.
“Why not?”
“My GM is a friend of mine. I could­n’t lie to him.”
“Good. Then tell him the truth. You have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to go to Can­cún for the week­end, and you’ll see him on Monday.”
“But…”
“Am I going to have to call your sister?”
Well, that shut her up. With­out think­ing, Kara glanced over at the pic­ture of Kris that sat in a Mick­ey Mouse frame on her man­tle. Her sil­ly smile as she tried to look like Goofy, the char­ac­ter who had his big felt arm around her shoul­ders. She knew what Kris would do, and she knew what Kris would say when she found out she turned down a week­end get­away to Can­cún, Mexico.

Well, that’s it for me! Thanks for stop­ping by on this hol­i­day week­end. Stay safe, if not sober 🙂