To Feast or Not to Feast…

Alanna Coca

Woot! I’ve got some real­ly great news to share!  Tes­sa’s Pride has been accept­ed by Cari­na Press! I sent this man­u­script out to all of my favorite pub­lish­ers, and was over­whelmed with the response…I’ve received six con­tract offers, and although I nev­er thought I’d have to turn a pub­lish­ing offer down, I found myself hav­ing to turn down five.  Not much fun, I have a new respect for rejec­tion let­ters. The real­ly great thing about this is that I can find the best pos­si­ble match for Tes­sa’s Pride, and I think I did!

I’m writ­ing this blog post to remind myself of the feast­ing when fast­ing rears its ugly head, because for every con­tract offer, there are prob­a­bly two rejections.

My next book Posi­tion Secured, an inter­ra­cial short sto­ry will be out on June 22nd! It’s already avail­able for pre-order at amazon.com and Books on Board. Click HERE for more infor­ma­tion about Marc and Marienna.

That’s all for now. This week­end I’ll be par­tic­i­pat­ing in a blog hop! The love­ly ladies at Romance Writ­ers Behav­ing Bad­ly are putting togeth­er a guid­ed tour of some won­der­ful authors and giv­ing away a pletho­ra of sexy romances, includ­ing my book Falling Star. Check HERE for more infor­ma­tion. See you then!

Six Sentence Sunday 6/13/10

Alanna Coca

Hel­lo every­one! Hope you’re all hav­ing a won­der­ful week­end. I spend my week­ends work­ing at the Evil Empire, so while you’re at the beach, at least think of me.  Again, con­tin­u­ing from last week’s post, my six sen­tences of the week:

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“Maybe deep down he want­ed to get caught.”

            “You think he wants a divorce?” Susan whis­pered the d‑word, which made her south­ern drawl even more pronounced.

            Brynn rolled her eyes. Susan couldn’t even say the word sex with­out blush­ing. “I don’t care what he wants. He’s get­ting a divorce whether he likes it or not.”

There are so many country/western songs that could apply to this post, but I won’t get start­ed. See you all next week, and don’t for­get to check out the posts from my fel­low SSS par­tic­i­pants at the offi­cial web­site.

Six Sentence Sunday 6/6/10

Alanna Coca

Hap­py Sun­day! Up here on the moun­tain, spring has final­ly arrived, I spent a whole day out­side with­out a jack­et even! I hope the flow­ers hur­ry up and bloom before the snow flies in August! Just kid­ding. It flies in Sep­tem­ber. On with the SSS post! Con­tin­u­ing from last week:

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If he was wor­ried about my find­ing it, he wouldn’t keep a log of the conversations.”

“Yeah, that was a stu­pid thing to do.”

It was a stu­pid thing to do. The thing was, Jack wasn’t a stu­pid guy. He used com­put­ers all day at work, and even helped his par­ents when theirs crashed. Why he kept those con­ver­sa­tions logged was a very good question.

Have a great week every­one. Don’t for­get to check out the pletho­ra of par­tic­i­pants at the SSS Web­site.

Six Sentence Sunday 5/30/10

Alanna Coca

Hap­py Memo­r­i­al Day Week­end! I hope you’re all enjoy­ing a nice bar­be­cue! Con­tin­u­ing on from last week’s SSS:

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“I don’t give a shit what he says!” Heat rose to Brynn’s cheeks, and she wouldn’t be sur­prised if her ears began spurt­ing steam. “There was mal­ware. I had to emp­ty the tem­po­rary inter­net files, and there they were. I wasn’t going to delete some­thing if it was impor­tant.” Brynn glanced around the restau­rant, then low­ered her voice.

More SSS fun at the offi­cial web­site, but that’s it for me! Time to drag in sum­mer by the ear­lobe, kick­ing and screaming.

Six Sentence Sunday 5/23/10

Alanna Coca

Here we are again, anoth­er six sen­tences from my WiP. I’ve actu­al­ly set this one aside as I work on some­thing new (again) but this plot is always turn­ing around in my mind.  Con­tin­ued from last week:

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She sure did­n’t look like a promi­nent surgeon.

“So do you feel bad about read­ing his pri­vate things?”

Brynn glared at her friend. When she real­ized that it was a seri­ous ques­tion, her jaw dropped. “Are you kid­ding me?”

Susan shrugged. “He might say you had no right to be peek­ing in his files in the first place.”

That’s it for me today. I’m off to work for the man. Have a great week every­one, and don’t for­get to check out the offi­cial Six Sen­tence Sun­day Site.

Préjà Vu Tops Them All

Alanna Coca

Well, not all, but Long and Short Reviews read­ers recent­ly vot­ed Préjà Vu as the Book of the Week! I got this nifty badge:

and brag­ging rights for sev­en days! So I’m start­ing here. Of course I need to thank all my twit­ter fol­low­ers, LSB Forum read­ers, and face­book friends who answered the call and stopped by to vote. Could­n’t have done it with­out you! Also, the review­er needs kudos, because the review was extreme­ly well writ­ten. I’ve had a few that sound­ed like they either did­n’t read the whole book, or they were fourth graders forced to do a book report. Here is some of what review­er Xer­an­the­mum had to say:

If you like a book to have enough sus­pense to keep you on the edge of your seat while engag­ing all your sens­es in a dan­ger­ous, flir­ty romance, then Préjà Vu is for you.Trevor, the male lead, is what I’d call extreme­ly bit­ter dark choco­late in the begin­ning. And like that treat, I didn’t like him either. But Ms. Coca added some inter­est­ing aspects to his char­ac­ter and a few deli­cious insights which end up mak­ing Trevor a man who grows on a read­er and absolute­ly inspires a healthy dose of lust­ful think­ing and con­tem­pla­tive mus­ings. He’s a strong per­son­al­i­ty and a skep­tic. His will­ing­ness to lis­ten to Ryann’s side of the sto­ry and his actions from then on make their grow­ing rela­tion­ship a plea­sure to watch unfold.I enjoyed the author’s voice and writ­ing style. I was com­plete­ly engrossed in the plot and how the char­ac­ters inter­act­ed. I thought they were enhanced by excel­lent dia­logue and descrip­tions and I tru­ly had no idea how the pre­mo­ni­tion was going to play out. I got a kick out of the wrap-up HEA — it was adorable. I could visu­al­ize all those nuts and bolts. Too fun­ny. I was thor­ough­ly enter­tained by Préjà Vu and would rec­om­mend this book to any fan of roman­tic sus­pense.

I knew when I was writ­ing Préjà Vu that Trevor was a tough cook­ie. I did­n’t like him myself at first, but he grew on me too. It’s intrigu­ing to see that come through to read­ers. If you’d like to read the entire review, just vis­it the Long and Short Reviews web­site .

Six Sentence Sunday 5/16/10

Alanna Coca

Anoth­er week’s gone by. I’ve been writ­ing in this WiP every day, but it does­n’t feel like it’s going any­where. I’m hav­ing some plot prob­lems, but I’m sure I’ll come up with some­thing, prob­a­bly at 3:00 am, because that’s how I roll. Con­tin­u­ing on from last week:

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What a stu­pid nick­name any­way. Couldn’t the ditz come up with some­thing more original?

Tink…tink….tink. If it were any­one else, Brynn would be annoyed with the irri­tat­ing noise, but she couldn’t seem to stop.

Her image swam in the swirling black­ness. She hadn’t even washed her hair this morn­ing; she pulled it into a pony­tail, but blond strands escaped and tick­led her cheeks. The hair­style along with her youth­ful face helped her blend in to the younger crowd in the down­town Dal­las restau­rant. The lack of make­up didn’t help either.

I’ve seen these peo­ple at restau­rants, stir­ring their cof­fee while glow­er­ing into the depths. I always won­der what’s going on behind those eyes. Usu­al­ly I assume it’s mur­der on the mind. I must watch too much TruTV.

Thanks for join­ing me for anoth­er SSS Ses­sion. See what else is going on at the offi­cial web­site. Have a great week everyone!

Tessa’s Pride

Alanna Coca

In the past few days I’ve sent my lat­est novel­la Tes­sa’s Pride to a hand­ful of epub­lish­ers. I’ve already had one rejec­tion and one con­tract offer, so we’ll see where it goes from there. I post­ed a blurb ear­li­er, but I thought I’d post an excerpt for you, see what you think!

Tessa’s heart seized. When it resumed beat­ing, it pound­ed in her ears. “You’re stay­ing here?”

He shook out a pair of silky-look­ing box­ers, then fold­ed them care­ful­ly. Tes­sa knew he’d done that to flus­ter her, and it took super­hu­man strength to keep from star­ing at them.

He seemed to rec­og­nize her avoid­ance, because he ges­tured with the under­wear as he spoke. “You don’t expect me to stay in a hotel, do you? When the big house that has belonged to my fam­i­ly for gen­er­a­tions sits all but empty?”

Yes.

“Well, no…but I didn’t…I guess I didn’t real­ize you’d planned on stay­ing in the area.”

For fold­ing them so care­ful­ly, he tossed the under­wear into the draw­er with­out a thought before walk­ing toward her. No, he didn’t walk, he prowled; like a hun­gry lion. “You’re afraid, aren’t you?”

Yes.

She swal­lowed. “Afraid?”

“To stay alone in the house with me.” He moved into her space, and it took all of her willpow­er to remain where she was. Although part of her want­ed to back away, a big­ger part want­ed to step into the heat he always seemed to wear like an invis­i­ble cloak.

“I’m not afraid.” Her voice wasn’t as strong as she want­ed it to be. She swal­lowed again.

“You don’t sound sure.” His dark brows low­ered, and he stud­ied her mouth. “I think you’re scared.” His breath washed over her face with each word he spoke, and Tes­sa clenched her hands to keep from reach­ing out for him. “I think you’re afraid I’ll kiss you like I did that day in the mead­ow. You remem­ber that kiss, don’t you Tessa?”

Oh God, yes she remem­bered that kiss. She remem­bered that kiss often. Dai­ly. Night­ly. Hourly. It was years ago, the day before he’d left BER for good. He’d sur­prised her dur­ing a solo horse­back ride into the woods on a rare day off. When she’d come to the clear­ing, she saw Josh, sit­ting tall and proud atop his favorite horse. To this day she didn’t know if he was wait­ing for her, or if she had just hap­pened upon him there. They’d spent that after­noon talk­ing, laugh­ing, and wad­ing in the cool creek, their jeans rolled up to their knees. She’d acci­den­tal­ly splashed him, which made him return the favor. In the end they were both drenched, and they had to lie in the sun to dry out their clothes.

Con­ver­sa­tion was easy, and when he rolled on his side to hov­er over her, it was the most nat­ur­al move to slide into his arms.

“I remem­ber it too, Tes­sa.” Her name com­ing off his lips felt almost like a caress.

Her lids slid closed as she soaked in his words, lost in reminiscence.

“I’ve pulled the mem­o­ry of that after­noon out more times than I can count. I’ll nev­er for­get the way you looked with your Stet­son tilt­ed over your brow. Your bare legs, so smooth…and your mouth…God, your mouth.” He stepped clos­er, until their clothes brushed, and she did feel the heat that she remem­bered. It sur­round­ed her as sure­ly as if he’d reached out with his arms.

Josh is a man who knows what he wants, and isn’t afraid to reach out and get it. I love the Alpha…

Okay, more info as it comes along. Have a great week!

Six Sentence Sunday 5/9/10

Alanna Coca

Wow, it’s the 9th of May already. It’s final­ly warm­ing up a bit here on top of the moun­tain, maybe we’ll be in short sleeves by August! (I’m a lit­tle bit­ter) Con­tin­u­ing my SSS sto­ry from where I left off last week.

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That shut Susan up. Brynn went back to stir­ring her cof­fee, and thought back to that Cincin­nati con­fer­ence. Almost every­one else brought their hus­band or wife, but Jack com­plained that he had too much to do, so he couldn’t go. Sat­ur­day she’d called three times before he picked up the phone, and then he was breath­less, claim­ing he’d just come from the show­er. Her call must have inter­rupt­ed him and lit­tle miss Sexy69.

She ground her teeth togeth­er, and con­tin­ued stir­ring the coffee.

I fin­ished the WiP for Olivia, and I’m going to focus on this one now. I real­ly need to fin­ish it before you all get to the point where I stopped! Have a great week every­one, and don’t for­get to stop by the SSS web­site for more participants.

RT Booklovers Convention Rehashed

Alanna Coca

Well, I made it. Before the con­fer­ence even start­ed, I want­ed to turn around and go home. It start­ed with a car acci­dent that killed two peo­ple unknown to me, then con­tin­ued with a snow­storm that made my dri­ve scary, a sick dog (not mine), a pokey hotel shut­tle bus which caused me to be re-sched­uled three hours lat­er, main­te­nance issues on the sec­ond plane, lost lug­gage, rental car place run­ning out of econ­o­my vehi­cles, a painful rejec­tion scowl, then I was pulled over for speed­ing, and it end­ed with a reser­va­tion mix up that caused a $440 charge on my hotel. I had a pret­ty good cry­ing fit, and seri­ous­ly looked into an ear­ly flight home.

Then I was dragged out of bed by my fel­low LSB authors, and into the hotel bar where after one drink, I start­ed think­ing I’d be able to do it. Here I am with Ella Drake, Dee Car­ney and Michelle Picard Tina Burns took this pic­ture. Glad you can’t see the agony on my face!

By the time morn­ing arrived, all was well with the world. No, I did­n’t drink that much! I resigned myself to for­get what dragged me down, and focused on enjoy­ing the con­fer­ence. I attend­ed a pletho­ra of work­shops, most of them about sus­pense in romance.

Attend­ed a Faery Ball sans cos­tume, a Cave­man Mix­er sans red dress, a Vam­pire Ball sans fangs, and a mad hat­ters par­ty sans hat. Maybe next time I’ll be more pre­pared, but I enjoyed them any­way. Sat at my lit­tle cor­ner in the book sign­ing are­na (I was pre­pared for this one at least) Gave away plen­ty of swag, includ­ing my book­marks, which real­ly made no sense, they don’t work with ebooks. I did­n’t tell them that though. They’ll have to fig­ure it out themselves.

Here is the LSB pub­lish­er Tina Burns at the pub­lish­er table. She gave away a Nook to one lucky reader.

The return trip was­n’t near­ly as stren­u­ous. I took my time, and had a few days to goof off before I had to be in Philly for my flight home. I stopped in Annapo­lis MD for some his­to­ry and scenic views. The weath­er was beau­ti­ful, and I spent about half an hour just sit­ting on a dock lis­ten­ing to the sound of the waves.

I also stopped at almost any­thing scenic that was post­ed on the high­way. I know I looked like a doo­fus tourist, but I kept remind­ing myself that no one knew me! Found some great foliage here, and I wish I could some­how make this pic­ture a scratch and sniff. The clean air was filled with the scent of the tree bark, and flow­er­ing ground­cov­er. There were crick­ets, birds, and a soft breeze rustling the leaves. I could have spent hours here.

Once I made it back to Philly, I learned what scrap­ple was. Thanks, Lane for edu­cat­ing me before I ordered it. Flew back to Den­ver with­out a hitch (except for the guy who snored like a chain­saw on the plane). I did run into snow on the high­way in Wyoming. Can you believe that folks?! Nei­ther can I. I’m still wait­ing for spring.

I post­ed more pic­tures and cap­tions on my Face­book Page. Now I’m try­ing to catch up on laun­dry, edits, and rework­ing that reject­ed man­u­script to sub­mit to some­one. I can’t wait for next year. L.A., here I come!

Six Sentence Sunday 5/2/10

Alanna Coca

It’s May! I can’t believe the year is going by so quick­ly! Today’s SSS is con­tin­u­ing from where I left off last week. Enjoy! Vis­it the Six Sen­tence Sun­day Web­site for more participants!

Brynn knew her friend was try­ing to help, but she real­ly didn’t need to hear the devil’s advo­cate. “I read one mes­sage from three weeks ago. This woman Sexy69 asks him when they’d meet again, and his response was, ‘Brynn leaves for Cincin­nati Fri­day. Want to spend the week­end at my place?’”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, ‘oh’. It was Jack, and he wasn’t even hint­ing at discreet.”

Thanks for stop­ping by! I’m head­ed home from Ohio soon, what fun at the RT con­fer­ence, I’ll be post­ing pics soon, if you fol­low me on twit­ter you’ve prob­a­bly already been blessed with some.

Six Sentence Sunday 4/25/10

Alanna Coca

Hope you’re hav­ing a beau­ti­ful week­end! Today I’m far from home, doing some vis­it­ing before I jump head­long into the RT con­ven­tion. Again, my six sen­tences come from my cur­rent WiP. Pret­ty soon these will start mak­ing less sense on their own, but I promise.…there’s a plot!

Brynn’s stom­ach knot­ted. The woman’s avatar was just a close up of a nip­ple. How Jack could have found that allur­ing, she didn’t know. Appar­ent­ly there was a lot about Jack that she didn’t know.

“Maybe some­one bor­rowed the computer.”

“And used his IM account? I doubt it Susan.”

Ah, some sen­tences are too short. See you next Sun­day for the next six! As always, catch more S3 fun at the offi­cial web­site. Have a great week!

Saturday Survey 4/24/10

Alanna Coca

Today, as you read this (If you read this on Sat­ur­day 4⁄24) I’ll be either in the air, or sit­ting in one of three air­ports across the coun­try. The RT Con­ven­tion starts on Wednes­day in Ohio, and I’ll be pop­ping my con-cherry!  Hope to see a ton of authors and read­ers. If I see you there, be nice to the small-town-girl in the cor­ner. Now, on to the sur­vey. This is a top­ic that has always intrigued me, and after hear­ing both sides to the con­tro­ver­sy, I can see both points of view. So tell me, what’s yours? Does it both­er you when you’re read­ing a steamy scene and it’s inter­rupt­ed? If you read through the whole scene with­out a con­dom applied, would that draw you out of the real­ism of the story?