Wel­come! Halfway through Jan­u­ary already! So far I’ve had a mild win­ter, weath­er-wise. I hope that trans­lates to an ear­ly spring and a nice warm sum­mer. Well, I can hope.

This pic­ture was tak­en yes­ter­day by author Gem Sivad from her back yard. I love birds of prey, they’re so majestic!

Favorite Song of the Week ~ Just try to watch this with­out smil­ing. Yeah I know, I’ve regressed in age here, but seri­ous­ly. Fun song:

Work in Progress News ~ Can you believe I start­ed two new wips this past week? Crazy. But I final­ly start­ed Dean’s sto­ry, book two in the Earth Scents series.  I’ve been mean­ing to write this one for years. It feels good to get some words down.

Search Term of the week aka How Peo­ple Found My Web­sites ~ Well, this does­n’t sound good, but okay: “his tongue was sud­den­ly in my mouth “nasty” kiss”

What I’m read­ing ~ I read a few short sto­ries this week, as well as re-read­ing some old faves. I think I might spend as much time read­ing as I do writ­ing. That’s okay, right? So I reread Tri­na M Lee’s Once Bit­ten this week. If there’s ever any­thing that will help me clear my mind of all things con­tem­po­rary romance, this will do it. Although this isn’t a romance, there are some very sexy scenes, and some extreme­ly alpha male scenes:

Alexa O’Brien has nev­er been like oth­er peo­ple. A dead­ly assas­sin, she is a were­wolf with extra­or­di­nary pow­er. Pow­er that fierce­ly draws her to Arys, a mys­te­ri­ous vam­pire who awak­ens her dark side. What they cre­ate togeth­er is dan­ger­ous and bind­ing, forc­ing her to ques­tion the source of her abil­i­ties. She risks los­ing her remain­ing human­i­ty as well as the one man she dares to love.

When Alex­a’s wom­an­iz­ing for­mer lover and pack Alpha is framed for mur­der, he turns to her for help. She would like noth­ing more than to watch kar­ma at work but as the body count ris­es, long buried secrets are exposed. Alexa is forced to face the painful truth that not every­one is who she thinks they are. Not even her.

This is book one of an ongo­ing series. Not for the Twi­light fan, I’ll tell you that.

Hero Quote ~ From my book Last Call, com­ing March 27th:

“Now, I don’t know what your ex said to make you feel inad­e­quate as a sex­u­al being, but let me tell you some­thing. You sure as hell know how to turn me on. You’re def­i­nite­ly a sex­u­al being.”

All right, that’s all I’ve got for you this week. Thanks for stop­ping by! 

Wel­come! This week went by so quick­ly! Please, 2012, slow down! It’s been beau­ti­ful weath­er all week here, which usu­al­ly means some­thing big and nasty is loom­ing on the hori­zon. I’ll let you know.

Favorite Song of the Week ~ I had to look on past posts to make sure I haven’t shared this song yet, because I’ve loved it for a long time. This is INXS with Afterglow.

Work in Progress News ~ Alan­na wrote a free read last week, since she actu­al­ly FINISHED Wyoming Solace rewrite! Tol­ja she would! The free read is a pre­quel to Retreat, titled Treat. Michael at Booknibbles.com made the cov­er, and it goes so well with the cov­er Aman­da Kelsey cre­at­ed for Retreat, I just can’t believe it. The cou­ple even looks like a younger ver­sion of the cou­ple on Retreat. And his eyes…what do you think? Click to go to Smash­words where you can down­load your favorite format.

Indus­try News ~ Uh…from now on I’m just going to post this when I actu­al­ly have news for you guys.

Search Term of the week aka How Peo­ple Found My Web­sites ~ This one made me laugh: “good­luck olivia at yahoo dot cum”

Yeah.

What I’m read­ing ~ One of my very favorite authors released a new book late last month. I forced myself to wait until I fin­ished my projects so I could real­ly relax and enjoy it. It’s total­ly worth the wait, guys. Cameron Dane’s A Per­fect Storm. “On an island off the coast of Maine, Lucien Cabot mon­i­tors the dark clouds rolling across a bleak sky. Patience and plan­ning have been Lucien’s two clos­est friends for years, and now Moth­er Nature has aligned to cre­ate the per­fect storm he needs to exact his revenge.

Tele­vi­sion pro­duc­er Sophie Emer­son can’t believe her luck when the mys­te­ri­ous own­er of Raven Island offers her a sto­ry about the island and cas­tle. She real­ly can’t believe it. Still, if real, this offer could be the break her career needs. Although sus­pi­cious, Sophie agrees to meet Lucien at his home.

Gotcha. Lucien can taste vic­to­ry — if he can resist the keen intel­li­gence, beau­ty, and light in Sophie. Falling for his guest is the last thing Lucien can afford to do.”

Cameron has a flair with putting emo­tion into every page. Brilliant.

Hero Quote ~ From Jake in the new free read TREAT. This is right after Andi tells him that his mouth dri­ves her crazy:

“Good. I like you crazy. Then you stop think­ing. Then you’ll do some­thing irre­spon­si­ble like take your clothes off.”

Men! Got­ta love ’em tho, right? Okay folks, that’s it for me. Every­one have a great week!

What? The last day of 2011?  It has been a good year to me. I’ve got three releas­es lined up for 2012, and plen­ty of wips to keep me busy.

Favorite Song of the Week ~ One Day, by Matisyahu, fea­tur­ing Akon. This song was played at the 2010 Van­cou­ver Win­ter Olympics:

Work in Progress News ~ I came up with a bril­liant plot idea. Unfor­tu­nate­ly I can’t start writ­ing it until I fin­ish Wyoming Solace. I’ve real­ly slacked over the hol­i­days, and since the kids are out of school and it is a hol­i­day, I’ve ratio­nal­ized my lazi­ness. I’m now about ³⁄₄ done with it though, and I hope to fin­ish by next Sat­ur­day’s sta­tus. Next on the list, a free read com­ple­ment­ing Retreat. It will act as a pre­quel, maybe 10K or so, noth­ing big, but just a lit­tle taste of the book.

Indus­try News ~ Sor­ry. Again, I have no inter­est­ing news. I’m sure there’s some out there…

Search Term of the week aka How Peo­ple Found My Web­sites ~ 99% of the terms this week were pret­ty nor­mal. This one stuck out: “i asked him to come on my face erot­ic blog”. I refuse to even find out where that took them on Olivi­a’s site. Now that I’ve post­ed that sen­tence, I’m prob­a­bly ask­ing for more of the same.

What I’m read­ing ~ Okay, so San­ta brought me a Kin­dle. In fact, before he wrapped it and put it under my tree, he got on my com­put­er and loaded my TBR pile onto it. He’s so thought­ful! So yeah, while I’ve been slack­ing in the WiP area, I’ve more than made up for it in the TBR area. I read a few Christ­mas shorts, noth­ing that thrilled me too awful much. I think my favorite of the last two weeks was Want­i­ng, by Piper Vaughn. This is a free­bie over at All Romance Ebooks, but I’d for­got­ten that when I start­ed read­ing it. It’s very well writ­ten, and I enjoyed the premise. Kind of a May/December best friend’s lit­tle broth­er for­bid­den thing. Lots of lit­tle con­flicts, and sat­is­fy­ing emo­tion­al scenes.

Hero Quote ~ From Cody, the hero in Wyoming Solace.

“I won’t hurt you, Elise. I promise. You’re in charge here. I’ll fol­low your lead.”

Okay, that’s it for me. Let’s hope that by next week­end I’ll be able to say that I’m fin­ished with the rewrite. Every­one have a great New Year’s Day!

Wel­come! Are you in the hol­i­day spir­it yet? It’s slow­ly seep­ing into my bones.

Slow­ly.

I think the music is help­ing, and I’ve got a believ­er at home, so it’s hard not to get sucked into the joy. Wow, sound so cheer­ful, huh? Maybe I’ll try pep­per­mint candles.

Favorite Song of the Week ~  Some­one tweet­ed a link to this one a few days ago, and I read the copy. I did­n’t know that Bing Cros­by died just one month after record­ing this song, and one month before it aired on tele­vi­sion in 1977. I think this is one of my favorite cover/mashups. I found a ver­sion that left out the cheesy act­ing in the begin­ning, because I’m nice like that.

 

Work in Progress News ~ Work­ing dili­gent­ly on Alan­na’s Wyoming Solace. Did you know the word “okay” was­n’t in use in 1894? I’m using the online ety­mol­o­gy dic­tio­nary and find­ing lots of gems like this. I also dis­cov­ered that Cody, the hero in Wyoming Solace is the strong silent type. I can’t seem to get the man to say more than three sen­tences at a time. I guess that’s just how it’s gonna be.

Indus­try News ~ I’ve got noth­ing. You’re welcome.

Search Term of the week aka How Peo­ple Found My Web­sites ~ Well, oth­er than the nor­mal “hairy {celebri­ty} naked” search terms, which I won’t repeat here again, I got this one that made me smile: “sexy hairy trail”. You got it, Googler. Wel­come to the sexy hairy trail that is Olivia Brynn.com

What I’€™m read­ing ~I bought one of the Cari­na Press Hol­i­day novel­las. This is a con­tem­po­rary friends-to-lovers sto­ry that I’ve always been a suck­er for, and I read it in between chap­ters of my west­ern rewrite. I love Shan­non Stacey’s style.

Claire Rut­ledge still believes in love, despite los­ing her hus­band. So, after two years, she’s not sur­prised by the steamy dreams telling her it might be time to start mov­ing on. But she didn’t expect her friend Justin to have the star­ring role.

Justin McCormick has loved Claire since the moment he first saw her, but his best friend got there first. Now that Claire is ready to move on with her life, Justin is find­ing it hard­er than ever to hide his true feel­ings. And when they both get caught up in the hol­i­day spir­its at a par­ty, their sim­mer­ing mutu­al attrac­tion boils over into a night nei­ther of them can forget…

See? I read a Christ­mas themed book. I’m try­ing folks! Mistle­toe & Mar­gar­i­tas is def­i­nite­ly worth a read. Click the cov­er to get to Ama­zon and buy your copy.

Hero Quote ~ I went through Cov­er Sto­ry today, not sure why, but I found a typo and a plot­hole that drove me crazy, I had to fix it and reu­pload it to the ebook­stores. I’m so glad I have con­trol of them in order to be able to do that. While I was there I found a quote from Bo, the younger man in the May/December romance. I’ll have to set this one up though. Cate has just asked him if the dumb­struck women they just passed by was a com­mon occur­rence for him. His reply:

“I pre­fer my women strik­ing. But not dumb.”

Last but not least, you’ll see in the post below that there’s one hel­lu­va blog hop going on right now! Just click the ban­ner below to get start­ed. We’re giv­ing away a brand new Kin­dle Fire, tons of ebooks, and you can meet some new authors and read some fes­tive snip­pets.  We’ll also be chat­ting at Gem Sivad’s chat room on Sat­ur­day night. Come on! Join the fun!

 It’s up at Ama­zon! So far that’s the only place I found it, but I’ll keep looking.

When sparks flare, stop, drop and roll with it.

When Eric Lay­ton lunges for his ring­ing cell phone in the mid­dle of the night, he’s halfway to the door before he real­izes it’s not his chief sum­mon­ing him to an out-of-con­trol fire. It’s an out-of-con­trol woman who’s too tip­sy to fig­ure out she’s dialed the wrong num­ber. But the line goes dead before he can explain he’s not her brother.

His con­science won’t let him leave the woman to wait for a ride that’s nev­er going to come. Yet noth­ing pre­pares him for the chem­istry when he helps Joanne into his truck. She’s curvy, blonde, and vulnerable–a three-alarm warn­ing to do the right thing and keep her at arm’s length.

Still keep­ing watch over her through the night sounds rea­son­able. Until she awak­ens, and desire burns rea­son to a crisp…

This book has been pre­vi­ous­ly published.

Warn­ing: Con­tains explic­it sex scenes that may be too hot for sum­mer read­ing. Author rec­om­mends you check to make sure your air-con­di­tion­ing is in work­ing order and turned up full blast.

How about an excerpt? I’ve got the first chap­ter post­ed on the Last Call Book Page.

Hap­py Sat­ur­day!  Busy week­end for me, along with work­ing extra hours at the Evil Empire, the grade-school­er has some func­tions that should keep me out of all kinds of trou­ble. Not that I’m leav­ing my house to enter the deep freeze for any­thing except the most impor­tant things.

Favorite Song of the Week ~ I’m mov­ing this fea­ture to the top, so you can lis­ten to the song as you con­tin­ue read­ing the post. I just heard this today, thanks to Rhap­sody’s Hol­i­day Playlist. The First Noël by Toby Mac fea­tur­ing Owl City There isn’t a video, so I did­n’t even both­er post­ing the visu­al. Have a lis­ten! What do you think?

Work in Progress News ~ Cur­rent­ly about ²⁄₃ through Wyoming Solace.  I’m chang­ing a few things, but I doubt any­one would notice except me. There’s a plot thread I snipped, so now I’m darn­ing the weave back togeth­er. I’m also adding dia­logue and some UST in the first few chap­ters. Let’s hope it all turns out. As an author it’s very hard to open a three year old file and re-work it to incor­po­rate every­thing I learned since the book was first writ­ten. I’m try­ing my best to keep the sto­ry the same, just cut­ting some of the extra cheese.

Back­list News ~ Over at Dark Moun­tain Books, I final­ly put my indie books up at Book­Strand and Google. I’m not sure how many read­ers I’ll find there, but this also puts the books into the Google­books data­base. Tri­na and I are also mak­ing plans for Hol­i­day pro­mo­tions, so stay tuned!  Also, Olivia received the final ver­sions of Last Call in her inbox yes­ter­day. They’re all wrapped and ready for March!

Search Term of the week aka How Peo­ple Found My Web­sites ~ This week some­one found my site by search­ing for “coca liar”.  Liar is such a hate­ful label. It’s fic­tion, boys and girls.

What I’m read­ing ~ This week I’ve been so busy work­ing on Wyoming Solace, I did­n’t get a chance to read any­thing new. I hope I fin­ish this rewrite so I can reward myself with some of my Cyber Mon­day purchases!

Hero Quote ~  Direct from Josh the cow­boy hero in Olivi­a’s con­tem­po­rary west­ern Tes­sa’s Pride 

“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.”

Okay folks, get back to your hol­i­day shop­ping! I’m right behind you.