Tis The Season

Alanna Coca

I admit it. I love Christ­mas music. You’d think that 20 years in retail would have milked all of that out of me, but usu­al­ly around Hal­loween, I get the itch. To get you all in the mood for the Hol­i­days, I’m going to share with you some of my favorites. First up is Jin­gle Bells. Not the every­day ver­sion that your kinder­gar­den­er sings, but this ver­sion is by Cana­di­an band The Bare­naked Ladies. Their Hol­i­day album is filled with humor. You got­ta love a band that makes you smile, right? This starts out slow, but stick with it…you’ll love it.

Anoth­er favorite, I could lis­ten to this one all year. (I’ve been known to pop this CD in mid July) I could­n’t find a video, but you can lis­ten to it here. It starts out qui­et, so if it sounds like it isn’t play­ing, just give it a few seconds.

And then there’s Josh Groban. His entire Christ­mas album Noel is beau­ti­ful, but this par­tic­u­lar song won’t be found on Noël, it’s on his live album. *sigh* Love his voice.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx0C5ZDi1rs

Last but not least, Mannheim Steam­roller, a Christ­mas favorite since 1980 (ish).  I love all of their Christ­mas albums, and it would be very hard to pick a favorite, so I just plucked the first one that I found on YouTube. Enjoy:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Meu_uczBEqM

Now, to dec­o­rate my tree, and plug in all my lights. Enjoy the season!

The Wicked Kiss

Alanna Coca

Click here for another excerptMon­day 11⁄23, Tri­na M. Lee’s book The Wicked Kiss will be released to the world.  I’m post­ing this now so that just in case you haven’t yet, you have time to read the first in the Alexa O’Brien series Once Bit­ten.

The Wicked Kiss is not your daugh­ter’s vam­pire sto­ry. These guys don’t live on V‑8 and iron sup­ple­ments. They are mon­sters. Hence the word “Vampire”.  Alexa can hold her own though. See the two men behind Alexa? Shaz is a sweet but alpha were­wolf, and Arys is a (not so sweet and) pow­er­ful vam­pire, but he does have a soft spot for Alexa. Even from the cov­er you can sense the ten­sion between the trio, and with three pow­er­ful pro­tag­o­nists, you’ll be won­der­ing, who’s pro­tect­ing who?  Fol­low­ing is a blurb and excerpt straight from the author. The buy link will be active Mon­day evening. Keep your­selves busy until then by read­ing Once Bit­ten. Also, on Mon­day at 6:30pm EST, I’ll be join­ing the author in a release day chat. Please stop by and visit!

When two men share the heart of the same woman, it doesn’t take long for the dra­ma to esca­late. Alexa O’Brien’s two lovers have been at each other’s throats. The fact that one is her wolf mate and the oth­er a vam­pire bond­ed to her by pow­er, only increas­es the ten­sion. She fears being forced to choose between them, know­ing it’s some­thing she can­not do.

Due to the bond she shares with her vam­pire lover, Arys Knight, Alexa has more pow­er than she knows how to han­dle. It isn’t long before pow­er hun­gry crea­tures are drawn to her, includ­ing Arys’ sire, Harley Kayson. Believ­ing he is enti­tled to her, Harley makes it his per­son­al mis­sion to get a taste of Alexa for him­self, whether she likes it or not. If he doesn’t kill her, she just might wish that he had.

But that’s just the begin­ning… (more…)

Wolf’s Tender

Alanna Coca

He's even yummier once you get to know him

Eppie final­ist Gem Sivad’s newest release Wolf’s Ten­der is out today 11/16/09. I’ve got the buy link hooked to that book cov­er there which will be active this evening.

Those of you who’ve read Inti­mate Strangers already know what a mas­ter Gem Sivad is at his­tor­i­cal west­ern romances. One of the best things about Wolf’s Tender…it’s book one of a series. Thank you Gem! Here’s a blurb:

Rough and tough Char­lie Wolf McCal­lis­ter knows he needs to get laid, when even a spin­ster school teacher with a sharp tongue, starts look­ing good to him. But, cad that he is, he oper­ates on the phi­los­o­phy that a bird in hand is bet­ter than no bird at all. And so he offers to trade ser­vice for–servicing. 

When Nao­mi Park­er’s stu­dents are snatched from their school by maraud­ing Comancheros, she can’t believe that she hid like a cow­ard and let it hap­pen. The only way to ease her con­science, and get the girls home safe­ly, is to hire half-Kiowa boun­ty hunter, Char­lie Wolf McCal­lis­ter. His price seems a bit steep, to prim and prop­er Nao­mi who must choose between her virtue and her stu­dents’ lives.

When one straight-laced spin­ster, ten­ders her body, to one cyn­i­cal some­times sav­age, the unex­pect­ed boun­ty, is love.

Click HERE for a spicy excerpt (o‑18)

Vis­it Gem’s web­site for more great romances by the mas­ter! You won’t be dis­ap­point­ed I promise.

Wolf’s Tender

Alanna Coca

He's even yummier once you get to know him

Now, I’m not telling you this just so you’ll be jeal­ous, but I’ve read this book, and you should be.

Wolf’s Ten­der releas­es Mon­day 11/16/09. I’ve got the buy link hooked to that book cov­er there which will be active Mon­day evening.

This one of those books that sticks with you even after you fin­ish. Char­lie Wolf  McCal­lis­ter swoon has just the right amount of cocky sto­icism and lov­ing ten­der­ness, you’ll fall for him, maybe even before Nao­mi Park­er does.

Those of you who’ve read Inti­mate Strangers already know what a mas­ter Gem Sivad is at his­tor­i­cal west­ern romances. One of the best things about Wolf’s Tender…it’s book one of a series. Thank you Gem!

Rough and tough Char­lie Wolf McCal­lis­ter knows he needs to get laid, when even a spin­ster school teacher with a sharp tongue, starts look­ing good to him. But, cad that he is, he oper­ates on the phi­los­o­phy that a bird in hand is bet­ter than no bird at all. And so he offers to trade ser­vice for–servicing.

When Nao­mi Park­er’s stu­dents are snatched from their school by maraud­ing Comancheros, she can’t believe that she hid like a cow­ard and let it hap­pen. The only way to ease her con­science, and get the girls home safe­ly, is to hire half-Kiowa boun­ty hunter, Char­lie Wolf McCal­lis­ter. His price seems a bit steep, to prim and prop­er Nao­mi who must choose between her virtue and her stu­dents’ lives.

When one straight-laced spin­ster, ten­ders her body, to one cyn­i­cal some­times sav­age, the unex­pect­ed boun­ty, is love. Click HERE for a spicy excerpt (o‑18)

Vis­it Gem’s web­site to see what else she’s got up her sleeve. Con­grats Gem on the release! I’ve got my brandy ready for the celebration!

Retreat in Print

Alanna Coca

Click to shop for a paperbackI promised to update here with the new print ver­sion of Retreat. It’s all done, and does it ever look good. Again, many thanks to Aman­da Kelsey, who worked her cov­er mag­ic again, and cre­at­ed a full wrap.

I do love epub­lish­ing. It’s envi­ron­men­tal­ly respon­si­ble, eas­i­er on the pock­et book, and pro­vides imme­di­ate grat­i­fi­ca­tion. Still, see­ing my baby on paper makes me feel like a proud new mommy.

Retreat is avail­able now as a POD now (click on the book) and com­ing soon to online bookstores.

Does this call for a glass of brandy?

Of course it does. Cheers!

NaNoWriMo

Alanna Coca

I don't see any handcuffs in their logo...laptop paper penNovem­ber is Nation­al Nov­el Writ­ing Month. A chal­lenge to authors to write a 50,000 word nov­el in 30 days. That’s only 1,667 words per day. No prob­lem right? My usu­al min­i­mum is 2K. Well, I signed up for NaNoW­riMo, know­ing I had no plot to work on, but I’m a pantser any­way, so I’ll just start typ­ing, and see what comes up.

Well, I got about 1,200 words in before that idea fiz­zled. This makes five nov­els I’ve start­ed, and not one of them is speak­ing to me. Last night, I start­ed yet another. I remem­ber some­one once telling me that I always got too many things start­ed, and nev­er fin­ished any. Maybe they were right.

On the oth­er hand, there was a time when I had four nov­els going, and would write whichev­er called to me on that par­tic­u­lar day. Not one of them was writ­ten quick­ly, but they all trudged ahead, and when I final­ly did con­cen­trate on one, it did­n’t take me as long to wrap it up. I’m hop­ing for the same outcome.

Maybe I should be more dis­ci­plined, but cre­ativ­i­ty does­n’t work very well with discipline.

Deter­mi­na­tion is my only moti­va­tor. I want to reach this goal, and I will, even if I have to write 10K a day dur­ing the last week. If you’re Nano’ing, add me as a bud­dy, (alan­na coca) maybe you can keep me mov­ing ahead instead of switch­ing tracks mid-trip.

Announcing the winner.…

Alanna Coca

YAY!!!Con­grats go to SusiSun­shine, the win­ner of my con­tri­bu­tion to the Hal­loween Blog Tour. I’m email­ing your prize now Susi! For every­one else who com­ment­ed, I’m offer­ing a 10% dis­count on Wyoming Solace in print! Enter the code 873NCF9Y before pur­chase! This code is only good until Novem­ber 15th 2009, so act now!

Thanks to every­one for stop­ping by. We had a great list of win­ners, if you’d like to see the pay­out, stop by the Liq­uid Sil­ver Books forums.

Trick or Treat Blog Tour

Alanna Coca

Wel­come! You should have just come here from Jeanne St James’ blog. If you’re just stum­bling on this post, head on over to Gem’s Place where the fun began. A total of 22 stops, and at least 18 prizes. Win­ners will be announced tomor­row at Liq­uid Sil­ver Books. This guy is try­ing to decide what to dress up as for Hal­loween. I bet I can come up with something…

men_06

He can just go as The Birth­day Boy!! See? I’ve got great ideas. The next stop on the tour is Ser­e­na Shay at http://serenashay.blogspot.com/. Thanks for stop­ping by, and I’ll see you at the fin­ish line, where I’ll be hand­ing over a copy of my west­ern romance Wyoming Solace to one lucky blog com­menter. Hap­py Halloween!

Trick or Treat Tasty Tour

Alanna Coca

Hap­py Hal­loween!! You should have just arrived here from Celia Kyle’s blog. The tour start­ed at Gem’s Place. Need a map? Click HERE and a new page will pop up.  Alright.…here is my con­tri­bu­tion to your treat bags:

Who knows what his costume will be?

So is he get­ting ready for the cos­tume par­ty? Or is he get­ting ready for the par­ty after the par­ty? You tell me…

For a PriceI’m giv­ing away a copy of my book For a Price to one of the win­ners today!

Next stop, Stephanie Adkins. Hap­py Hal­loween everyone!

Retreat’s Release!

Alanna Coca

Click to download your copy!Today’s the day! Release day for my con­tem­po­rary west­ern romance.

Retreat is set in the some­what fic­tion­al V‑Bar guest ranch in the Snowy Range Moun­tain­s in south­ern Wyoming. Andria has returned to the ranch after ten years, not expect­ing to find Jake still there. It was just a fling a decade ago, sure­ly she can keep her head on straight for a few weeks now.

Right?

Click here to get to know Jake and Andi


Download now!

<

p style=“text-align:center;”>Check out the short trailer:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv7v5_NoQ2c

Thanks for join­ing me on release day! The print ver­sion of Retreat will be ready short­ly, I’ll be sure to post updates.

New Contract

Alanna Coca

Yay me!It’s been a great week folks! On the Alan­na side of my brain, Préjà Vu was released on Mon­day 10⁄5.  Also, Liq­uid Sil­ver offered a con­tract for Alan­na’s next nov­el, Fine Print.

Over here in Olivia land, I was offered a con­tract with Samhain Pub­lish­ing for my erot­ic short sto­ry ten­ta­tive­ly titled Inside Job. I’ll get to work post­ing a blurb and excerpt.

Weeks like this make up for the rejec­tions and wait times of the rest of the year. Remind me of that next time I complain. 🙂

 

So now what? I’ve got two works in progress, but nei­ther one is speak­ing to me at the moment. I think I’ll just take a few days off to watch Octo­ber baseball.

Release Day!

Alanna Coca

It’s HERE! Préjà Vu is now available! 

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2Wf8h8f6Sc

I’m so excit­ed. Can you tell? And for those of you who know me.…no, I haven’t start­ed in on the brandy. Yet.  Here’s anoth­er peek at the cov­er. Click for an excerpt.Excerpt

Préjà Vu

Avail­able from Liq­uid Sil­ver Books
ISBN: 978–1‑59578–601‑2
You know the feel­ing, some­thing vague­ly famil­iar … but what if it isn’t some­thing you’ve expe­ri­enced before, but a pre­lude to an upcom­ing event?
Ryann Phillips has it all togeth­er. She’s a suc­cess­ful archi­tect with her own home and true friends. What she also has, are night­ly dreams that even­tu­al­ly come true. Lit­tle snap­shots into the lives of peo­ple she doesn’t know. She’s used to them. Attor­ney Trevor Kear­ney finds it hard to believe that his cur­rent client is the sub­ject of Ryann’s lat­est vision, that of a vio­lent mur­der. He reluc­tant­ly agrees to help Ryann pre­vent this one pre­mo­ni­tion from tak­ing place. What he doesn’t count on is this par­tic­u­lar psychic’s abil­i­ty to make some of his own dreams come true.

Download now!

Thanks for hap­py danc­ing with me on Release Day. I hope that those of you who read Préjà Vu enjoy it! Drop me a line, I’d love to hear from you. But for now, sit with me and toast Ryann and Trevor’s com­ing out party.