Saturday Status 7/7/12

What a lucky day! If you believe in that stuff. Here on top of this moun­tain I’m just hap­py that we got some much need­ed rain. The wild­fire that’s mak­ing us all smell like we’re camp­ing is 55% con­tained, and the rain has GOT to help. Keep it com­ing, clouds!

Favorite Song of the Week ~ From The Piano Guys. Though it’s one guy with a piano, and one guy with a cel­lo, and the video I’m shar­ing has just the cel­lo guy, but work with me here. You’ll like this.

Work in Progress News ~ Plug­ging away on Dean. I keep flip flop­ping on the begin­ning. There’s a thou­sand word scene that I just can’t decide whether it should go or stay. I just need to move on and fig­ure it out in the end. What I real­ly need is focus.

Book News ~ I got the Wyoming Solace print gal­leys in my email! That’s good news, because it’s my first pub­lish­er print­ed paper­back. Bad news because I had to read that book about eight times dur­ing edits, and now I have to read it again. Sigh.

Search Term of the week aka How Peo­ple Found My Web­sites ~ No idea what this means: “gwendy.at pic” Anyone??

What I’m read­ing ~ On July Fourth, All Romance Ebooks was hav­ing a 50% rebate sale. I might have acci­den­tal­ly went a bit over­board on my pur­chas­es, but there’s nev­er any regret when a yum­my ebook is involved. I picked up A Few Good Men because I love every­thing Cat John­son writes. This one is about a romance author and mil­i­tary man pen palling. Turns out this is book #7 in a series, which means I’ve got a lot to catch up on!

Hero Quote ~ From Jake, the hero in Retreat, my con­tem­po­rary west­ern reunion romance:

It’s crazy to pre­tend we don’t remem­ber, or for you to even pre­tend that you haven’t seen me naked.”

Speak­ing of Retreat, and like Wyoming Solace, the real life area the two books were set, the foothills of the Snowy Range Moun­tains has been ablaze for about a week. Right now the fire is 55% con­tained, and the recent rain should be help­ing. Keep up those rain dances, folks!

Saturday Status 6/30/12

June is over! Folks, that’s not good news. The sum­mer months need to last longer! II’m try­ing to enjoy every day of these few months. This pic­ture tho, was tak­en in Col­orado Springs, where it seems the entire state of Col­orado has burst into flame. Please keep them in your thoughts. Pho­to via Rachelle Gard­ner.

Favorite Song of the Week ~ I love this song. Lis­tened to it a lot this week, and only just now found out that Phillip Phillips is an Amer­i­can Idol guy. (I don’t watch.) Enjoy his Idol per­for­mance of Home:

New Release News ~ Wyoming Solace came out on June 26th! It’s now avail­able at all your favorite retail­ers in ebook form, and in print next year.

Back­list News ~ I heard a rumor last week that my book Tessa’s Pride is required read­ing at a Texas university’s Erot­ic Writ­ing class. I’m not sure how to con­firm this, but I did hear it most­ly direct­ly from a stu­dent! Pret­ty cool, huh?

Indus­try News ~ I’ve told you all about the sad state of Dorch­ester Pub­lish­ing. It had filed for bank­rupt­cy and I wor­ried about the authors and agents who were wait­ing on months (years?) of roy­al­ties. News leaked this week that bar­ring a huge twist, Ama­zon will pur­chase Dorch­ester Pub­lish­ing, and it looks like the giant will even issue back pay­ments! I admit I haven’t stud­ied this deal, but from my pov, it looks like pret­ty good news. [source]

Search Term of the week aka How Peo­ple Found My Web­sites ~ “bloody foot­print”.   believe it’s from my flash fic­tion blog hop post. I’m sure it’s not mass mur­der­ers try­ing to Google clean-up options.

What I’m read­ing ~ I read book two of Cat Grant and Rachel Haimowitz’ Pow­er Play series. Like book one, this isn’t for the light-heart­ed read­er, but I squirmed a lot less read­ing this one than the first. Both mens’ per­son­al­i­ties real­ly shone in this one.

Hero Quote ~ From Cody, my 19th cen­tu­ry cow­boy on nam­ing a horse:

 “I haven’t named him. I like to see the tem­pera­ment of an ani­mal before I name one. The only names I came up with weren’t polite enough to use in prop­er company.” 

That’s it for me. Have a great week, and make some time to do a rain dance or two for the west­ern states. We need it badly!

Sexy Summer Solstice Blog Hop

Hel­lo! It’s the longest day of the year. I hope you make it good! Glad you’re spend­ing part of it with us at JustRomance.Me. If you’re just hap­pen­ing by this post, or if you fell off the guid­ed tour bus, just click that pic and it will get you back on track.

I’m shar­ing a pic­ture that Moon­wolf made for me after read­ing Flipped. Meet Mario, one of the heroes in the short m/m sto­ry. For those of you who have read Flipped, you’ll agree that Moon­wolf real­ly cap­tured Mario. Click to enlarge.

Thanks, Moon­wolf! I real­ly love it.  How about a Â lit­tle excerpt fea­tur­ing Mario? He and Carter are good friends and room­mates. They went out to cel­e­brate the Sum­mer Sol­stice (not real­ly, but work with me here) and each man sud­den­ly start­ed see­ing his friend in a whole new light.

 

Flipped is avail­able now, find more infor­ma­tion about my friends-to-lover’s sto­ry HERE.

Okay, I think that’s enough out of me. I hope you can join us at Gem Sivad’s Chat Room on Sun­day at 7pm EST where we’ll be rehash­ing the hop and pret­ty much just shoot­ing the bull. Always a good time.

 

 

Sexy Summer Solstice Hop

Wel­come to the Sexy Sum­mer Sol­stice Hop with JustRomance.Me!  I can’t think of a bet­ter way to wel­come sum­mer. This week­end I’ll be check­ing in from Den­ver, CO for Rom­Con! I’m excited.

Fol­low me on Twit­ter, I’ll be post­ing pics and rub­bing elbows with some real­ly great authors.

Sum­mers in the Rock­ies can’t be beat. They’re short, but for these ten to twelve weeks  I remem­ber why I live up here. Here is a nice video show­cas­ing some of Wyoming’s beau­ti­ful skies in timelapse.

Of course there isn’t a pic­ture out there that can do jus­tice.  I hope you all can make a trip to Yel­low­stone at least once in your life. In the sum­mer. Our win­ters are not very friendly.

It’s okay to be jeal­ous. I’ll be jeal­ous of the rest of you come Novem­ber.

My new release Wyoming Solace will be out on Tues­day, June 26th! I thought I’d share an excerpt. Although it doesn’t real­ly have much to do with the sol­stice, the book was inspired by the beau­ty of a Wyoming summer.

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All right! That’ll do it for me. I hope you’re enjoy­ing your romp across the web. Good luck in the draw­ing, lots of prizes to be won! Also, we’ll be chat­ting at Gem’s Place at 7pm EST Sun­day evening. I hope you can join us.

Saturday Status 6/16/2012

Wel­come! A week from today I’ll be in Den­ver for Rom­Con 2012. Fol­low me on Twit­ter, I’ll be post­ing pics all week­end. It’s gonna be fun!!

Favorite Song of the Week ~ I’ve shared  a song by Straight No Chas­er before. I’m a huge fan of a cap­pel­la, and these guys are awe­some. This is a cov­er of the Cold­play song. Fix You.

Work in Progress News ~ Um…yeah. Mov­ing on.

Back­list News ~ Dark Divas reviewed Flipped this past week. Lasha gave my first m/m short four and a half divas! She said “Flipped was a fun, sexy read and I rec­om­mend it.” Also I had a lot of fun one day this week, and made a Pin­ter­est board for Retreat. I took one mem­o­rable scene from each chap­ter and found a pho­to online, then shared a few sen­tences. Check it out HERE. Let me know what you think!

Search Term of the week aka How Peo­ple Found My Web­sites ~ I got tons of peo­ple look­ing for my books for free. Just a note, if you’re look­ing for an ille­gal down­load of an author’s book, chances are slim that you’ll find them on his/her web­site. Oth­er than that, I got this one that made me chuck­le: “fire­man bike naked”. Well, it is the inter­net after all. Good luck

New Release News ~ Wyoming Solace hits the shelves in ten days! I’m very excit­ed! Not often can an author say her first book is com­ing out after her fifteenth :)

More info * Trail­er *

What I’m read­ing ~ I’m in the mid­dle of a Kin­dle free­bie right now. It’s got some slap­stick com­e­dy, some over­dra­mat­ic char­ac­ters, and a pret­ty neat premise. Under the Cov­ers by Rita Her­ron. It was free when I snatched it up, your results may vary.

Hero Quote ~ From Fine Print, meet Derek:

You know, in your orig­i­nal con­tract. You said I get paid for each shot. Do you know how much mon­ey you owe me? I’m going to be rich.”

That’s not as inter­est­ing out of context.

Okay folks, have a great week!

Saturday Status 6/9/12

Anoth­er week, anoth­er sta­tus. This week I worked addi­tion­al days at my day job. It felt like hav­ing a real job and stuff! I don’t rec­om­mend it, folks.

Favorite Song of the Week ~ I grew up with  Mis­ter Rogers. I’m pret­ty sure he should be can­on­ized. Not sure what that will take, but I’ll talk to the Pope. Any­way, PBS hooked up with Sym­pho­ny of Science’s John Boswell. The result will make your cheeks ache.

RIP Mr. R. I’m sure this would have made him happy.

Work in Progress News ~ After a nice lit­tle talk with author Dee Car­ney, I final­ly have a plot for Dean! Some­times I just need some­one to be my sound­ing board. Thanks Dee! So I’m back to work on that guy. I’ve had a long week at the Evil Empire, so not many words to report, but I’ll dive right in again on Monday.

New Release News ~ Wyoming Solace gets a new release day June 26th. I made a short trail­er for it. Check it out, let me know what you think!

Back­list News ~ With a View is FINALLY free on Ama­zon. That took over two months of dai­ly bad­ger­ing. I think I final­ly wore that poor report-a-low­er-price-asso­ciate down. Either way, if you’ve got a Kin­dle, you can now par­take in free Alan­na romance. Still work­ing on it for you Nook­ies, but should be at Barnes & Noble soon! It’s avail­able on iTunes, and it’s doing real­ly well on the free­bie charts (#33 in romance, and #10 in con­tem­po­rary romance) so thank you to all you Apple cus­tomers. Also new to iTunes are Retreat, Falling Star, and Fine Print. That’s been a nine month strug­gle to get those titles there. You can’t believe how hap­py I am to see them in grey.

Indus­try News ~ Amazon.com stuck its toe in the pub­lish­ing pool already, with Mont­lake Romance, and oth­er imprints. This week Ama­zon acquired Aval­on Books, a well known and admired pub­lish­ing house. Over 3,000 back­list titles will soon be avail­able as kin­dle ebooks for the first time. This is excit­ing! Who wants to bet that they’ll all be in the Select pro­gram?  [source]

Search Term of the week aka How Peo­ple Found My Web­sites ~ This week, Googlers found me using “no derek coca”. Rub it in, why don’cha.

What I’m read­ing ~ I read a book that real­ly isn’t worth telling you all about. It had card­board char­ac­ters and a bland plot. To get that taste out of my mouth, I re-read a book that’s a few years old. I don’t even remem­ber what made me pick up this avian-shifter book, but I’m glad I did. I enjoyed the social class com­men­tary, and the ugly-duck­ling under­tone. Duck, by Kim Dare.

Hero Quote ~ This week from Pre­View. Here’s what Trevor has to say when he caught Ryann in the bathtub:

No, I don’t mind. In fact, I don’t think I could have planned this any bet­ter if I had some­how used my wildest imag­i­na­tion to find you like this tonight–in order to make you sit still and lis­ten to me. No, I don’t mind at all, Ryann. Please, con­tin­ue what you were doing.” 

Trevor real­ly can be an ass, but I love him. Every­one have a great weekend!

Saturday Status 6/2/12

It’s June! I love June almost as much as July and Sep­tem­ber. I hope these next few months don’t go as quick­ly as the oth­er nine should. Lat­er this month I’ll be in Den­ver, CO for Rom­Con! I hope to see a bunch of famil­iar and friend­ly faces.

Favorite Song of the Week ~ Not sure why, but I got into a Rick Spring­field kick this week. Here’s one of my fave cuts from one of my fave albums.

Ahh, Rick. Love the hair! I know I’m not the only 80′s girl who had a thing for the guy. sigh

Work in Progress News ~ I’ve been going back and forth from Dean to Jack­son. A few words here and there, but noth­ing too excit­ing. I’m look­ing for a plot. If anyone’s seen one float­ing around, send it my way.

Back­list News ~ The aggre­ga­tor I’ve been using to send my back­list books to the dis­tri­b­u­tion sites has tak­en over eight months to get my books to Sony and Apple. I looked into oth­er avenues, and luck­i­ly found a way to upload my books direct­ly. Now they’re sit­ting in cyber­space wait­ing to be approved. Cross your fin­gers for me, they should be up soon!

Search Term of the week aka How Peo­ple Found My Web­sites ~ I had to use Google Trans­late to find out that this week’s term: “голый пожарник” is Russ­ian for “Naked Fire­fight­er”. Some things are uni­ver­sal, folks.

What I’m read­ing ~ With the lack of words I got in on my WiP, you’d think I read a bunch, but that isn’t so. I actu­al­ly just re-read a few chap­ters of each night before bed to turn off my brain. This is a clas­sic nineties romance, where the hero is a bit of a jerk, and the hero­ine can’t help her­self. Cheese and love in one paperback.

Hero Quote ~ This week from For a Price. Here is Nicholas:

I left a very impor­tant and very wealthy client at my table all alone, just so that I could come over here to get your phone num­ber. You aren’t going to make me go back with­out it are you?” 

I think that’s all the news I have this week. I hope you have a great weekend.

Saturday Status 5/26/12

Hap­py Sum­mer­time! Kids are out of school, the sun is shin­ing, the dog stopped shed­ding, and that makes one hap­py author here! I’m clean­ing out my office (aka Goofy Shrine) so I can shut myself in Mon­day through Fri­day. Maybe I can get some­thing done this sum­mer. Maybe not.

Favorite Song of the Week ~ Although most of Owl City’s songs sound the same, I do love that sound. Here’s one of his new ones called Dimentia:

Sor­ry there’s no video. Amuse your­selves with the rest of my post…

Work in Progress News ~ I’ve been plug­ging away on Dean.  I’m at a point where I need to fig­ure out why one char­ac­ter is behav­ing the way he is. So I’ll ply him with liquor or some­thing until he opens up a bit.

Back­list News ~ Almost all of my books are up at ebookmall.com. This is a real­ly neat retail web­site. Check out Olivia’s Page. Has a nice lit­tle inter­view and it posts cur­rent tweets. Pret­ty cool, huh?

Search Term of the week aka How Peo­ple Found My Web­sites ~ Not sure how this found me, but okay! “juniper upright”

What I’m read­ing ~ Out of the Smoke by Bec­ca Jame­son is a con­tem­po­rary roman­tic sus­pense. It begins around 8:00 am on 9/11/01 on the streets of New York City. An abused wife uses the tragedy to get away from her hus­band. I love read­ing about women empowered.

Hero Quote ~ From Tyler, my IR short hot book At Ease:

Right now I can only think of one thing. One woman. You’re mine right now Jaycee. All mine.” 

I think that will do it. You all have a great Memo­r­i­al Day Weekend!

Saturday Status 5/19/2012

Hel­lo! Hope you’re hav­ing a great week­end so far. Pret­ty gray and gloomy here on top of this moun­tain, but at least it isn’t snow­ing! knock on wood

Favorite Song of the Week ~ I had a great song picked out for this post, but when it came to actu­al­ly post­ing it, I total­ly for­got what it was. So instead, here’s an oldie that’s mak­ing a cameo in my Pilot wip.

Bob­by sings all the parts in that song, by the way. You’d think he could play all the parts in the video too.

Work in Progress News ~ I’ve writ­ten a few thou­sand words in Dean. This is book two of Earth Scents.I did­n’t real­ize how fun it would be to revis­it Jade and Adam from Falling Star. No won­der peo­ple write series! Although I wrote a few K, I also cut a few, so although the word count has­n’t increased much, I swear I’ve progressed!

Back­list News ~ This week I got a new review for a back­list book, Posi­tion Secured. There’s not a rat­ing, but it sounds like she enjoyed the short hot fantasy.

Search Term of the week aka How Peo­ple Found My Web­sites ~Some weeks, I just don’t know about you Googlers. Like this weeks term? “jel­ly beans wrap­per” (Actu­al­ly, if I had to unwrap each bean I’d prob­a­bly eat a whole lot fewer.)

What I’m read­ing ~ Guys, I must tell you about this one. Bro Mag­net is one I’ve been hear­ing a lot of buzz about. Although I think the cov­er could be much bet­ter, this book hooked me and did­n’t let me go. It’s in first per­son, in the hero’s point of view, and he’s hilar­i­ous! I fell for him long before he met his match in the book. The best part? As of this post­ing, the book is FREE! That’s right. Check it out: click the cov­er, then click “look inside” at Ama­zon, you’ll love the excerpt.

Hero Quote ~ One from Lance, Jade’s brother:

 “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.”

Hm, that quote looks real­ly famil­iar. For­give me if I’ve already shared that. Okay, that’s it for me. Every­one have a great week!

 

Saturday Status 5/12/12

Howdy! A spe­cial hap­py Moth­er’s Day Week­end to all you moth­ers out there. And for all you Mutha’s too! You know who you are. Is this pic­ture not the great­est? Can’t help smil­ing back.

Favorite Song of the Week ~ You’ve nev­er seen five super­star rock musi­cians look this uncom­fort­able in your whole entire life:

I love this song, but have nev­er laughed through a video that much. Thanks, Beach Boys!

Work in Progress News ~ Well, I’ve tried a few dif­fer­ent begin­nings to the pilot sto­ry Olivi­a’s been work­ing on. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, I’m still not in love with it. I’m going to set it aside and work on some­thing else. Instead I made a trail­er for a friend of mine Gem Sivad (be watch­ing for it!) and read a few books as a con­test judge. And a few books that aren’t part of the judg­ing, because I tried to make my WiP jeal­ous. It did­n’t work.

Back­list News ~ Speak­ing of awards, At Ease was nom­i­nat­ed for a Swirl Award! It’s the first annu­al award for inter­ra­cial romances. At Ease is in the Novel­la cat­e­go­ry, and it’s up against some real­ly great books by some real­ly great authors. Just being nom­i­nat­ed is an hon­or, and I’m not just say­ing that.

Indus­try News ~ Not sure if this is news or just a rumor, but Ama­zon is rumored to launch a col­or e‑book read­er in the sec­ond half of this year. Just when you thought you had the lat­est and great­est, right? [source]

Search Term of the week aka How Peo­ple Found My Web­sites ~ Lots of terms made me gig­gle, but a good chunk weren’t repeat­able! Whew, folks. This one found me, but I’m not exact­ly sure how: “har­le­quin romance nurse nolan no. 580”

What I’m read­ing ~ Ava March writes deli­cious his­tor­i­cal m/m. So when the buy link appeared on my lap­top screen (I swear I don’t know how it hap­pened) to the third in the Brook Street tril­o­gy I just had to have it. I did­n’t read books one and two yet, but they weren’t nec­es­sary for me to enjoy this one.

Hero Quote ~ from Dean’s sto­ry, Earth Scents Book Two (unti­tled). This is actu­al­ly a quote from Dean’s father, as he makes fun of Dean’s choic­es in men:

You say you like men, son, but you keep dat­ing imma­ture women.”

Okay, every­one. Get out­side and enjoy spring while you can! And again, hap­py Moth­er’s Day!

Welcome, Kerrianne Coombes

Ker­ri­anne Coombes has a new book com­ing out! It’s called Beau­ty and the Beast, and she’s gra­cious­ly  giv­ing a copy away to one com­menter here.  Wel­come, Ker­ri­anne! Why do you like paranormal?

I think the rea­son I love a good para­nor­mal romance is because it taps into my imag­i­na­tion per­fect­ly. Para­nor­mal romance, for me, is all about dark, tor­tured souls, with buck­et loads of pas­sion. And don’t we all love a tor­tured soul–especially when he/she finds their oth­er half?

Para­nor­mal Romance is usu­al­ly full of strong, dom­i­nant males that ignite our fires and make us swoon. Don’t get me wrong, in real life if a vam­pire came along and tried to tap my neck, I would prob­a­bly run screaming–not even notic­ing if the vamp is a sex god or not. But, in my imag­i­na­tion, the idea is sexy and com­plete­ly acceptable.

That is what I love most about a good Para­nor­mal book. For that moment, when I am read­ing the story–it all seems real, and com­plete­ly …right.

In that moment, all men are built like Greek gods with per­fect hair and super human strength. And the women are self assures and treat­ed like princess­es by their man.

Para­nor­mal romance, for me, is escapism at its best. A door into a world where men are gods and orgasms are compulsory–and excite­ment is a must!

When Princess Call­indra of Tem­path, wakes up hog-tied and bruised in the bow­els of hell, she real­izes that her plan to escape her up-com­ing mar­riage has gone hor­ri­bly wrong. Her only hope of escape comes in the form of Brigg, cursed Rain Demon and bit­ter, human hat­ing bas­tard. But beg­gars can’t be choosers.

When Brigg finds him­self in pos­ses­sion of a human and a horde of angry demons des­per­ate to get her back, he flees. When he real­izes that she is the daugh­ter of the witch that cursed him and his fam­i­ly, he believes that he has final­ly got the oppor­tu­ni­ty he has been hop­ing for. The only thing he must decide now is what is more impor­tant to him, the rever­sal of the curse, or revenge?

Nei­ther one are pre­pared for the flame that ignites between them. But will the spark be enough to break to the curse that holds them apart?

Excerpt

Brigg walked back to the cas­tle and opened the heavy wood­en door. He was utter­ly shat­tered. His mus­cles burned from run­ning but his mind was still filled with Cal­ly. No mat­ter how hard or fast he had run, he couldn’t clear her from his thoughts. He had wait­ed until he was sure she was asleep before he came back.

What was he going to do tomor­row? Lust was so heavy in his body, it burned and urged him–even when she was nowhere near.

The moment his feet set down in the hall­way, Brig­gs atten­tion was drawn to the library. A dull, but cozy light shone out from the gap around the door and Cally’s scent hit him hard. She was still up? Cant a demon catch a break?  His feet took him to the library door with no con­scious thought oth­er than…

Mine.

His heart-rate picked up and throbbed in his ears. He grabbed the door han­dle and yanked the heavy dark oak back. Cal­ly sat in the mid­dle of the room on a large leather chair, on her lap sat a big, leather-bound book. Clear­ly star­tled by his entrance, she jumped a little.

Brigg!” Her eyes wide, she watched him as he stood in the door­way. He was unable to move, struck dumb by the image she made sit­ting the chair, hold­ing the big book–looking all sleepy and sweet. “Are you ok?” She frowned and then set the book aside. She dropped her ele­gant legs to the floor and stood up. She was wear­ing his shirt, the one that he had loaned to her, but she no longer had the bag­gy trousers on–and Brigg couldn’t look away from the creamy flesh  on display.

She had beau­ti­ful, shape­ly, fem­i­nine legs, and as she moved clos­er, he could see that her skin was smooth. Fuck! He want­ed to taste her. His head pound­ed and his chest drew tight. She was a vision, an image plucked right from his dreams. Many a time–before the curse–he had dreamed of such a beau­ty being his. She would look at him with a soft expres­sion, just as Cal­ly did right now. And he would take her in all the ways he craved. But he was no longer that young Rain Demon, the young demon with smooth skin and a face as human as hers. He was a beast, an ugly mon­ster who didn’t deserve the look of inter­est Cal­ly was flash­ing right now. He let out a low growl. Cal­ly stopped mov­ing, her eyes flar­ing wide.

That’s it, human, be scared of the Beast.

What are you doing awake?” The growl still sat in his voice when he spoke, and he wasn’t sur­prised to see Cal­ly swal­low visibly.

I‑I couldn’t sleep.” She took anoth­er slow step in Brig­gs direc­tion, all the while she watched him as if he might run, or attack. Brigg stayed per­fect­ly still, aware that the moment he allowed his body to move, it would go in her direc­tion. Every­thing inside him homed in on the Princess. The Beast, the Rain Demon–it all focused on Cal­ly and her bare flesh and bright eyes. The clos­er she got, the hard­er his beast was to control.

Stop, Human.”

I love it! Thanks, Ker­ri­anne. Don’t for­get to leave a com­ment to be entered to win a copy of Beau­ty and the Beast.

You can find Ker­ri­anne at her web­site, and fol­low her on Twit­ter like I do.  

Saturday Status 5/5/12

It’s Cin­co de Mayo! To me, that means Mex­i­can food for lunch!  Please cel­e­brate respon­si­bly today. Make sure what­ev­er you beat with a stick real­ly is a piñata.

Favorite Song of the Week ~ A few weeks ago, I shared a song (that I still love, even though many are over­play­ing it) by Gotye, “Some­body that I Used to Know”. Here’s Bad Lipread­ing with their take on Gotye’s video. Be sure to hit the cap­tions but­ton for the full effect.

Work in Progress News ~ Work­ing on my pilot sto­ry. I had a few thou­sand words in, then decid­ed it need­ed to start at a dif­fer­ent point in the sto­ry, so I start­ed over. This is where plot­ting might help. Still, now that I fig­ured out the prob­lem, I should be able to go full steam ahead!

Indus­try News ~ It looks like Tar­get is going to stop car­ry­ing Kin­dles in their stores, cit­ing “con­flict of inter­est”. This means that like­ly many shop­pers vis­it Tar­get to see and touch a device, then pur­chase from Ama­zon any­way. Also, Microsoft and Barnes and Noble are team­ing up. Imag­ine Win­dows on a Nook, folks. That could change the tablet wars as we know it, and con­sumers win!

Search Term of the week aka How Peo­ple Found My Web­sites ~ Noth­ing too enter­tain­ing, but this one made me smile: “beau­ti­ful sat­ur­day sta­tus”. I’ll take that as a compliment!

What I’m read­ing ~ The Psy­chic and the Sleuth by Bon­nie Dee and Sum­mer Devon. I’m not sure what it is about his­tor­i­cal m/m sto­ries that just make me auto­buy. This one is won­der­ful, with a great plot. Robert Court is an inspec­tor, try­ing to debunk Oliv­er Marsh’s claims of psy­chic abil­i­ty. He does­n’t expect Oliv­er to sud­den­ly spout clues to a mur­der close to Robert’s heart.

Hero Quote ~ So, sor­ry about last week’s quote. That entire scene was cut, so it’s no longer there. I don’t have any­thing new for him yet either, at least noth­ing quote-wor­thy. So here’s a quote from Mario, from Flipped:

Tiny Tim? A com­plex? The only com­plex that boy will ever suf­fer from is the Napoleon kind. From his overblown cock­i­ness, I could tell he had more dick in his per­son­al­i­ty than he could ever have in his pants.”

I guess that’s it for me. Have a great week, everyone!

Saturday Status 4/28/2012

I got­ta say, April 2012 was a great month for me. I’m sor­ry to see it go. May? Bring it on.

Favorite Song of the Week ~ I bet you nev­er thought you’d see a Justin Bieber song on my FSotW. Well maybe you did, because my tastes are pret­ty eclec­tic. But I found myself danc­ing to this, and only lat­er found out it was by the boy won­der. This cer­tain­ly does­n’t sound like his oth­er stuff. I guess there’s no offi­cial video yet. Whad­dya think?

Work in Progress News ~ I’ve been slow­ly work­ing on my pilot sto­ry. I usu­al­ly name my WiPs my hero’s name until I can come up with a good one, but I haven’t even named my hero yet! I like to wait until his per­son­al­i­ty shows through. Know any good pilot names?

Back­list News ~ After the release of Flipped last Sat­ur­day, I’ve been hop­ping from blog to blog pro­mot­ing. I also got some real­ly good reviews from Brief Encoun­ters (B-) Hearts on Fire Reviews (4 Hearts) MM Good Reviews (5 Hearts) and QMO Books (No rat­ing giv­en) Not bad, eh?

Indus­try News ~ The Sci-Fi pub­lish­er Tor (Also Forge, Orb, Starscape, and Tor Teen) announced this week that “by ear­ly July 2012, their entire list of e‑books will be avail­able DRM-free.” That’s great news! I hon­est­ly don’t think DRM does any­thing but pun­ish hon­est read­ers, so I’d like to see DRM go the way of the 8‑Track.

Search Term of the week aka How Peo­ple Found My Web­sites ~ I hope I was on page fifty or so on this one, because I don’t see myself in this at all. “what is a romance nov­el that the char­ac­ter is a mata­dor” What do you guys think?

What I’m read­ing ~ I’ve read two great books this week. I’ll tell you about one of them, and save the oth­er for a week where I don’t read any­thing new. I read With the Band by L.A. Witt. I actu­al­ly pur­chased this dur­ing the RT Con­fer­ence ear­li­er this month. I sat next to the author as we imbibed in some black­ber­ry brandy. She start­ed telling me about this book, and I whipped out my Kin­dle and bought it on the spot. That’s called “Bar Mar­ket­ing.” Look it up. I just invent­ed it. With the Band is about the lead singer and bass play­er in a rock band. Lots of ten­sion in this one, includ­ing the fact that both heroes are still in the closet.

Hero Quote ~ One of my unnamed pilot hero’s ear­ly lines:

We’ll be in the air soon, and you can catch anoth­er pow­er nap.” He grinned, show­ing off a set of straight white teeth. “That’s when I catch mine.”

He’s jok­ing! Of course he’s jok­ing. I hope you all have a great weekend!

Saturday Status 4/21/12

Wel­come!! Busy week­end for me. Right now I’m neck-deep in the JustRomance.Me blog hop! Just scroll down for my post, and click the link to join in the fun. We’re giv­ing away a Nook Sim­ple Touch Glow eread­er! Also today is Release Day for my book Flipped! throws con­fet­ti

Favorite Song of the Week ~ Mario, one of the main char­ac­ters in Flipped loves Whites­nake. I thought I’d give him a treat by post­ing this song:

Noth­ing says “80’s Hair Band” like a woman in a dress doing front walkovers on clas­sic mus­cle cars, right?

Work in Progress News ~ I haven’t writ­ten in any of my wips, I’ve been busi­ly prepar­ing for my Book Release Blog Tour, which begins today at Ker­ri­anne Coombes’ blog. Come and vis­it me, where I’ll be draw­ing a win­ner from the com­ments to receive one of the first dig­i­tal copies of Flipped! The rest of my blog tour stops are post­ed HERE or right here on my side­bar–>

Back­list News ~ Well Last Call has slipped to the low­er rungs of the top 100 list at Barnes & Noble. It was a fun ride while it last­ed, and Last Call peaked at #2 on their list! Now with all my new read­ers, I’m get­ting some won­der­ful reviews. Oth­er­wise not much going on in my back­list this week.

Search Term of the week aka How Peo­ple Found My Web­sites ~ Noth­ing but the usu­al this week. Peo­ple look­ing for my books for free, and peo­ple look­ing for satin back­grounds. Come on, folks! Let’s get cre­ative, here!

What I’m read­ing ~ This isn’t the first book in the series, but I’ve been want­i­ng to read it for a while. This one is on my Kin­dle, though, and I was too lazy to put book one on there, so I start­ed read­ing this, and each chap­ter in, I thought, “This is the last chap­ter before I read book one.”  Well yeah. KZ Snow has such an engag­ing voice. I just pic­ture her smil­ing as she writes each word.

Hero Quote ~ From Flipped, my friends-to-lovers book. Meet Carter:

Your per­son­al­i­ty quirks were too much to han­dle years ago, and I still like you.”

That’s it for me today. Don’t for­get to join me on the JustRomance.Me blog hop, and at on my Flipped Release Blog Tour this week!

 

Love a Tree, Read an E! (book)

Hap­py Earth Day Week­end! This post is part of the JustRomance.Me blog hop. If you need to get on the tour bus, just click HERE to get start­ed. For each com­ment I get on this post, I’ll be donat­ing  at least $1 to the Rocky Moun­tain Elk Foun­da­tion. I say “at least” because I’ll be donat­ing any­way, but this way you can con­tribute to the sentiment!

The first time I heard some­one use the phrase “dead tree” to describe a paper­back book, it kin­da struck me as sad. Thanks to dig­i­tal for­mats, books are being pro­duced with­out any eco­log­i­cal waste! Even if you don’t own an e‑reader (yet…good luck in the draw­ing!) you can enjoy dig­i­tal books on your com­put­er, or even your cell phone! There is real­ly no excuse to be away from your favorite reads. To tell the truth, I now look for­ward to a few hours between flights at the airport.

I changed into my Olivia Brynn sweater to find two char­ac­ters in my books who will be cel­e­brat­ing Earth Day in earnest. Jade and Dean from Falling Star are two friends and botanists who own Earth Scents Florists. I’ll share with you the green­est excerpt I’ve got of these two, which only hints at the joys the earth can bring if only you know where to look. This excerpt begins as Dean and Jade join Adam, a coun­try music star, at his home for dinner.

Dean filled her in on the week­end at Earth Scents in between Adam’s direc­tions to his house. When they pulled into a huge cir­cu­lar dri­ve­way, Adam hand­ed Dean a key to the pan­el cam­ou­flaged by dec­o­ra­tive stone, and the tall iron gate opened.

Jade had a hard time keep­ing her mouth closed. She’d seen tele­vi­sion shows that show­cased celebri­ty hous­es, and she could almost hear Robin Leach’s voice point­ing out amenities.

The dark brick dri­ve­way bor­dered the neat­ly trimmed front lawn, sur­round­ed by native trees and boul­ders. The botanist in her sali­vat­ed at the well-main­tained foliage, and could­n’t wait to walk through the prop­er­ty and cat­a­logue each species. A dec­o­ra­tive foun­tain sat in the cen­ter of the dri­ve, angels and birds of white mar­ble direct­ing water flow back into the basin.

Dean stopped the car in front of the door. The stoop was cov­ered in a lush green vine, clema­tis, if she was­n’t mis­tak­en, and gave the entrance an invit­ing feel.

You can just park here, unless you want it in the garage,” Adam told Dean. Jade pressed her fore­head against the car win­dow to see the house in its entire­ty. A two sto­ry Eng­lish Manor-style brick estate, with huge arch­ing win­dows that emit­ted a warm yel­low glow from the spa­cious rooms inside. The clema­tis climbed all the way to the roof, drap­ing the grey and maroon brick with a lush green shroud.

Adam opened her door for her, and smiled at her expression.

Do you like it?”

She nod­ded, try­ing not to look like a coun­try bump­kin with her first look at indoor plumb­ing. “I sup­pose you already have a gar­den­er…” Who­ev­er land­scaped the front lawn knew what they were doing. Jade spun around for a full look at the Eden-like setting.

There’s always room for one more.” Adam reached to pull her into his arms.

“Jade! It’s Tropae­olum majus!” Dean was on his knees in front of a bricked-in enclo­sure between the dri­ve­way and the home. Jade rushed over and mind­less of her attire, knelt beside him.

The plant was gor­geous, the bloom was a per­fect red-orange spec­i­men, opened to its full glo­ry and releas­ing the dis­tinc­tive per­fume in the evening breeze. “It’s amaz­ing! But I can’t tell if it’s from the T. moritzanum or T. pel­topho­rum, it has both characteristics.”

It must be a hybrid. Who­ev­er plant­ed this knew their stuff. Look how it’s flour­ish­ing along with the Trifolium.”

You know,” Adam said from behind them, “I’ve brought a lot of peo­ple to my place. This is the first time they’ve been on their knees in the grass dis­cussing the landscaping.”

What a shame.” Jade looked up at Adam, a lit­tle embar­rassed at her exu­ber­ance, espe­cial­ly in her dress and heels, but she could­n’t stop. “This Tropae­olum majus…or Monk’s Cress, is one of the species that Dean and I stud­ied in Colom­bia. I think we could spend hours out here.”

I’d like to take cred­it, but this was all here when I moved in three years ago. All I know about plants can fit into a thim­ble, with room to spare. But I should get in the show­er and make myself pre­sentable. You two are wel­come to look around out here, or come on inside.”

Jade stood up and dust­ed her hands off. From the look on Dean’s face, it was obvi­ous he want­ed to see what oth­er trea­sures he could find in Adam’s yard.

If you don’t mind, we’d love to snoop around your gar­den.” Jade gripped both of Adam’s hands. “But hur­ry back.”

Adam kissed her cheek before leav­ing the two plant sci­en­tists to their dis­cov­er­ies. Jade watched Adam’s retreat, her gaze focused on his ass, shak­ing her head at his bag­gy shorts.

I’d ask how he was in bed, but the look on your face already told me.”

Falling Star is avail­able now in all for­mats (even dead tree). Click the cov­er for a blurb and buy links. Oth­er­wise, I hope you enjoy your hop through the dig­i­tal hall­ways of JustRomance.Me. Enjoy your Earth Day, and please join us in the after hop chat par­ty 422 at 7pm!