Six Sentence Sunday 8/1/10

Alanna Coca

Hap­py Sun­day! It’s August already? It looks like it’s going to be a beau­ti­ful day here on the top of this moun­tain. I’ll have to enjoy the view though, lots to do today. Mov­ing right along. Six more sen­tences from my roman­tic sus­pense with­out a title. We rejoin Brynn and Susan in the restaurant:

“I’ve got some ideas for an apart­ment for you already. I’ll email you some vir­tu­al tours.”

“Noth­ing too fan­cy, and remem­ber, either a sub­lease or a month to month thing. Once I sell the house, I’ll want to buy some­thing new with­in the year.”

“What if you don’t get the house?”

Brynn gave her friend a sly smile. “Can you believe I got him to sign a prenup?” Susan’s dropped jaw con­firmed that she could not.

Have a great Sun­day every­one! Be sure to check out the oth­er SSS Par­tic­i­pants over at the offi­cial web­site.  

Six Sentence Sunday 7/25/10

Alanna Coca

Hap­py Sun­day! It looks like it’s going to be a beau­ti­ful day out there.  Too bad I have to spend it at the Evil Empire. sigh. Go ahead and feel sor­ry for me, I don’t mind. Con­tin­u­ing from last week, my six sen­tence offering:

“Thanks Sue,” Brynn sighed. “I just want to be alone for a lit­tle bit. But after a week at a hotel I might take you up on that.”

“You’d bet­ter. I’ll put on some fresh linens tonight just in case.”

Brynn should be cry­ing. Even angry tears. Instead, she felt dead inside, and at the same time, final­ly alive.

I stuck to six sen­tences today even! You can stop feel­ing sor­ry for me now, and be proud instead. Be sure to vis­it the Six Sen­tence Sun­day Site for a list of all par­tic­i­pants. Have a great day every­one, and chin up…tomorrow’s Monday!

Two Reviews for Position Secured

Alanna Coca

I enjoy get­ting reviews. Not only the good ones, (though they are my favorite) but even those who offer con­struc­tive crit­i­cism, because it helps me improve. I don’t expect to please every­one, because each read­er has his or her own back­ground and tastes. Take for exam­ple the review from CK2’s Kwips and Kri­tiques. This read­er is involved with police every day. She was­n’t very com­fort­able with a fan­ta­sy being played out dur­ing a tense scene. Now, when I first read that review, and she said a cer­tain part grossed her out, that cer­tain­ly was­n’t the part I would have picked. Still, in sum­ma­ry, here are her thoughts:

How­ev­er, after I got over that and read the rest of the sto­ry, POSITION SECURED was a good read. Sexy, with inter­est­ing char­ac­ters, and steamy sex; I do wish there was enough space for the char­ac­ters to have a lit­tle more depth but I know that’s a hard task to accom­plish in such short space. For the price of POSITION SECURED, I rec­om­mend giv­ing it a try.

Not bad! And a three sham­rock rat­ing too. The Romance Reviews also took a look at Posi­tion Secured, and had this to say:

This is a hot, fun read when you’re look­ing for a quick fix. Almost from the get-go, Ms. Brynn ramped up the heat, leav­ing you no room to heave even a quick gasp. The chem­istry between Mari and Marc fair­ly siz­zled, and the tan­gi­ble hunger each felt for the oth­er almost leaped off the pages.

A four star rat­ing along with her thoughts on Mar­i’s new out­look on cops. Take a look at the reviews, I’m pret­ty hap­py with them. I’m work­ing hard on anoth­er hot short that’s just way fun to write. It’s flow­ing well and quick­ly, and I hope to fin­ish this one up before the end of July. If it’s pol­ished enough, I’ll post an excerpt next week. Â 

Done! Well, kinda.

Alanna Coca

I just fin­ished my short (short­est yet) book. It’s an inter­ra­cial con­tem­po­rary novel­la. Want to know the title? So do I. Titles have always been a tough thing for me. How do you cap­ture the mood in so few words? What word will grab a read­er by the ears and shake them until they want to read the book? It’s got­ta be good, and as they say, you nev­er get a sec­ond chance to make a first impres­sion. Cov­er, title, blurb. In that order. Each of those three make my gut twist.  So I’m open to sug­ges­tions. Here’s a short blurb-ish thing:

Psy­chol­o­gy 301, three days a week.

For half a semes­ter, Jaycee has used every one of those nine­ty min­utes to deposit glimpses of ROTC cap­tain Tyler John­son into her fan­ta­sy bank.

An acci­den­tal touch leads to flar­ing libidos, and before she knows it, she’s enact­ing her hottest fan­ta­sy beneath a set of stairs in the class­room building.

Objec­tions to their rela­tion­ship come from an unex­pect­ed source, mak­ing Jaycee sec­ond guess their future togeth­er. Is sex­u­al chem­istry enough?

Okay, that’s the unof­fi­cial blurb, still pol­ish­ing that too.

Any ideas? Leave your sug­ges­tions in the com­ments, and if I choose yours, you’ll get not only the brag­ging rights, but a dig­i­tal copy of your choice of any of my (or Alan­na’s) backlist.

In oth­er news, I “met” my new edi­tor for Cari­na Press today via email. I can’t wait to hear her thoughts on Tes­sa’s Pride. Well, maybe I can. Ask me when I’m deep in the throes of edits.

And now what? I don’t know. Poor Alan­na has been wait­ing patient­ly for her turn to write. She’s got some plot issues that she needs to work out on the one WiP that she’d love to fin­ish. (Inter­est­ing­ly enough, it isn’t titled either) There are sev­en oth­ers to choose from, guess we’ll go root­ing through the WiP file and see what strikes us.

Six Sentence Sunday 7/18/10

Alanna Coca

Good morn­ing all! Ever have one of those morn­ings were the win­dows are open to let the nice cool breeze inside, the town is qui­et all night long…and then the birds wake you up at 5:00 in the morn­ing?! Sigh. I love birds, real­ly I do…I just wish they slept in on Sundays. Oh well, I had to get up any­way. Con­tin­u­ing from last week:

 “I’ll be wait­ing at home…at the house when he gets off of work. Just enough to say my peace.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay at my place? It isn’t like it’s crowd­ed there.” Susan cov­ered Brynn’s hand with hers. Her bit­ter­ness over a long dead for­mer rela­tion­ship still came up often. Brynn had giv­en up talk­ing her through it; it was obvi­ous­ly Susan’s secu­ri­ty blan­ket of sorts.

God, save me from end­ing up like that.

That’s all for me! Be sure to vis­it the SSS web­site for  more participants.

Win Position Secured

Alanna Coca

…or one of nine­teen oth­er great print and e‑books.  Posi­tion Secured is part of a huge Cel­e­bra­tion Con­test at The Romance Reviews site, where the grand prize is a US$50 Gift Cer­tifi­cate from Ama­zon or Book Depos­i­to­ry. Or maybe the grand prize is Posi­tion Secured, and the sec­ond prize is fifty bucks 🙂

It’s super easy to enter. All you have to do is fol­low the blog. That’s two clicks of a mouse.

For addi­tion­al entries, just tweet about the con­test, or make a face­book sta­tus, etc. All the rules are there, just click this con­test poster.

Good luck! I hope one of my blog read­ers wins!

Reviewing Retreat

Alanna Coca

Nine months after its release, Retreat final­ly gets a review! Not sure why it took so long, I guess these review sites are over­whelmed. Check out what Melin­da thinks:

“I love it when an author writes about sec­ond chances espe­cial­ly with char­ac­ters like Jake and Andria. These two were great when they were younger and now as grownups they are even more pas­sion­ate than ever. The chem­istry is still there and there’s hope for more in their rela­tion­ship. Andria’s lit­tle girl and Jakes are like sis­ters meant to be and great match­mak­ers in every way. I loved that they are con­fused in what to do now when their pas­sion comes back for one anoth­er. Alana did a beau­ti­ful job in mak­ing their rela­tion­ship stronger yet still mem­o­rable in every way. Loved it.”

Read the entire review HERE and more about Retreat HERE. I’m back to writ­ing, cur­rent­ly as Olivia. Edits should begin soon on her con­tem­po­rary west­ern with Cari­na Press. That should be fun!

Six Sentence Sunday 7/11/10

Alanna Coca

Howdy! Busy week here, and it went quick­ly. I’m work­ing hard on fin­ish­ing anoth­er short sto­ry, and just when I get in the groove, I have to stop for “real life”. Darn it. I’ll be back on track Mon­day though, and maybe have anoth­er sub­mis­sion ready next week. Maybe. I missed last Sun­day’s SSS post, since I had the blog tour, but I’ll pick up where I left off. Again, I’m stretch­ing the six sen­tence thing, but some of these are just too short!

“You’re tak­ing it pret­ty well,” Susan observed. “I’d be a mess.”

“I hide it well. Or maybe I’m still in shock.” Brynn took a long drink of cof­fee. “I’ll prob­a­bly lose it when I con­front him.”

“When are you going to do that?” Susan shoved her emp­ty plate to the edge of the table, and leaned toward Brynn. “Have you fig­ured out how you’ll bring it up?”

“In an impul­sive fit of rage this morn­ing, I emailed him a copy of the con­ver­sa­tions.” Brynn let the evil wrap around her lips and tug them into a smile. “So he’s not going to be surprised.”

Susan laughed. “That was genius.”

“I thought so.”

Okay, have a great week everyone!

Independence Day Blog Hop

Alanna Coca

Wel­come to the first stop on the tour! I hope you all have a glass of nice cool lemon­ade or iced tea, because we’re real­ly going to heat up your weekend!  If you’re not on the tour bus, click HERE to hop on with the rest of the hun­gry hot­tie hunters. Now, sit back, relax, and enjoy the guid­ed tour through some of the best blogs on the web, as we cel­e­brate the hol­i­day week­end in style.

She loves America! 

Isn’t that beau­ti­ful art?  I could­n’t let the chance go by to show it off. Now for the ladies, I almost had this guy talked into some red white and blue body paint, until I found out how tick­lish his toes are. 

That’s okay Sean, you look just about per­fect with­out any paint applied. I’ll put my brush aside, and we’ll find some­thing else to do.

Thanks for drop­ping by! While you’re here you can check out excerpts from my best­selling novel­la Posi­tion Secured, or check out my books page  to see what else I’ve got going on.

Independence Day Blog Hop

Alanna Coca

Wel­come to my web­site! If you’re just com­ing across my post, you can get the full enjoy­ment of the blog hop by click­ing HERE to go to the begin­ning of the tour. I hope you’re hav­ing a great time this week­end. The eye can­dy is almost bet­ter than fire­works, right? Here are my contributions:

Do you think Uncle Sam would approve of his cloth­ing choice? I’m not sure, we might have to retire that flag. All right, mis­ter. Hand it over 😉

I just love the patri­o­tism I’m see­ing. It’s the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca’s Birth­day, and these guys are all dressed up in their birth­day suits. Very nice job, boys.

I hope you can all join me in Gem’s Chat Room on Sat­ur­day from 5pm to 9pm EST, where we blog­gers will be chat­ting and shar­ing excerpts. 

Tons of thanks go to Michael from Booknibbles.com who has host­ed this deli­cious tour of blogs.

Six Sentence Sunday

Alanna Coca

Wel­come back! This week I’m post­ing a few more than six sen­tences. Don’t tell the SSS cops.

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Brynn scowled. “I admit that my first instinct was to track her down and scratch her eyes out.” Brynn’s jaw start­ed to ache from clench­ing her teeth. She took a sip of her tepid cof­fee to calm down. “But I got over that.”

“I’m sure who­ev­er it was didn’t think that he was keep­ing a copy of what was said.”

Brynn snort­ed. “She’s prob­a­bly cheat­ing on a husband.”

Tink…tink…tink…

“So how will you find her?”

“I’m not going to.”

Susan slumped in her seat, mak­ing her gold­en ringlets bounce, and her pink glossed mouth dropped open. “Oh. Why?”

“I don’t care who it is. My prob­lem is with Jack, not with her.”

I’m not sure this six sen­tence ser­i­al is going to work. Some of my six sen­tences are real­ly bor­ing. Not sure how many of you are fol­low­ing them from week to week. Would you rather see some of my favorite lines instead? Let me know. Don’t for­get to stop by the offi­cial web­site for more participants.  Next week­end I’ll be involved in the July Fourth Blog Hop from Fri­day 7⁄2 through Sun­day 7⁄4 so I won’t be post­ing an SSS. Please do join me on the blog hop, we’ll be giv­ing away tons of prizes, and fea­tur­ing lots of tasty eye can­dy. More infor­ma­tion  HERE . See you then!

Six Sentence Sunday 6/20/10

Alanna Coca

Wel­come back! Well, I’m work­ing on this WiP again. And in the process cut about three thou­sand words. I hate doing that. As if I have a weird per­son­al attach­ment to every word I type! Some­times the only way for­ward is to take a step back, right? Okay, con­tin­u­ing from last week:

:

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            In the past six hours since she found the con­ver­sa­tions, Brynn had reviewed the past six years with a new per­spec­tive. Late nights at the office, meet­ings that required overnight stays, phone calls dur­ing din­ner to his cell that he would ignore then excuse him­self moments lat­er. If she had access to that cel­lu­lar phone bill, she would find out who those calls were from. Unfor­tu­nate­ly his phone was pro­vid­ed by the car deal­er­ship where he worked, and she would nev­er know.

            “Any clue who the woman is?”

“No, and believe me; I looked. He only called her “baby” in the chat logs. I know there’s a way to track her through her inter­net provider, but I doubt the police would be will­ing to dig through my com­put­er because my hus­band cheat­ed on me.” 

Check out the oth­er SSS Par­tic­i­pants at the offi­cial web­site. Have a great week!

Summer Blog Tour, Hot and Steamy Days and Nights

Alanna Coca

Wel­come! You should have arrived from Jaque­line Page’s blog, (Or Alan­na Coca’s if you were detoured…sorry about that) but if you just hap­pened by, the fun starts at the Romance Writ­ers Behav­ing Bad­ly web­site. Start there, and you won’t miss a thing. Be sure to leave me a com­ment with your email address in there some­where to be entered in the draw­ing, where I’m giv­ing away a dig­i­tal down­load of my book Falling Star. Okay, admin stuff is done, so on with the eye can­dy! I hope you all have your air con­di­tion­ers going for this tour.

This is Jean Carlos…

Think Car­los is his last name? Do we real­ly care about a last name? I did­n’t think so. I also don’t know what he’s look­ing for in this pic­ture, but I’m sure I can help him find it! Jean is from Brazil, which is where they grow all the hot stuff I guess. Not a fan of black and white? How about this:

If that does­n’t count as a hot day and the promise of a steamy night, I’m not sure what would. More? You want more of Jean Car­los you say? I’m at your service:

Check out that expres­sion. Wow. Just…wow.

Now that I have your atten­tion… 😉 I want to tell you about my new book from Samhain Pub­lish­ing! Posi­tion Secured hits the vir­tu­al book­shelves this com­ing Tues­day 6⁄22, but it’s already avail­able for pre-order. Click the cov­er to more information.

Hope you had a great time on the Romance Writ­ers Behav­ing Bad­ly blog tour!  Be sure to leave your com­ment and email at this stop, so you can be entered to win!