Romance so hot...it melts your Heart

Maid for Sunday 4/29

Welcome to another Six Sentence Sunday. Because the reading world seems to have fallen for “50 Shades of Grey”, I thought I’d pull something from my own BDSM novella MAID FOR MASTER.

“Does the public dungeon intrigue you?”

A male voice, thick and rich as honeyed molasses shivered down her spine. When Claire attempted to turn, he pressed into her back, nestling his face against her neck so that only a whisper separated his lips from the shell of her ear.

Power buffeted her but didn’t smother and rather than drowning, Claire felt swaddled in the absolute security of this man. When she inhaled to speak, the clean scent of soap and fresh air filled her nose. “Yes.”

Click HERE to check out other authors participating this week.

MAID FOR MASTER is also available for Kindle and Nook.

The Outlook is Grey

I’ve been writing erotic romance for about six years. I have lots of wonderful readers who enjoy my books. And though my family is very proud of all that I’ve accomplished, very few of them want to read my books. That’s fine. They aren’t for everyone. And up until the last year, most of my extended family didn’t even know the words kindle or nook. Now, many of them own one.

It’s only recently that authors have been able to take complete control of their publishing careers and self-publish their books. Many of the books on the NYT Bestseller list are now self-published e-books. But I’m not sure any of them are getting the buzz that 50 Shades of Grey is receiving. It seems every time I turn on the television someone is talking about this book. This erotic romance book with BDSM themes. Kelly Ripa was discussing it on her show. Ellen DeGeneres was sorta reading excerpts on her program.

The book world is on fire with chatter about this trilogy. And I keep wondering … why this book? Did the author, EL James, a television executive know some trick to marketing that the rest of us haven’t tried? I can’t say I’ve seen an interview of her, though I do understand she’s been on a couple of morning shows.

In the long run all this attention is helpful for all erotic romance authors … like me!

The media is terming her story “Mommy Porn” because so many mainstream romance readers are falling in love with Mr. Grey, Anastasia and their less-than-mainstream relationship. I’m not sure readers are happy with this catch phrase, but hey, why not? I’ll be the first to tell people I write smut. Of course I say it lovingly, knowing that my stories (like all good erotic romance books) aren’t just one sex scene loosely connected to another sex scene. There are flawed characters with real emotional problems all set within a plot that twists and turns and hopefully surprises my readers.

But I know, most of you stopping here already know that.

I don’t know about this particular book. Since reader reviews are all over the place on this one, I’m not sure if I want to plunk down part of my monthly book budget (don’t laugh, I can pretend I have one) just to see what all the buzz is about. But whether people like this book or not, there’s no arguing with the number of books flying off the virtual shelves. Which means these readers, many who are new to the erotic romance genre, may be looking for other sexy reads. That’s wonderful news for the rest of us working to market our books. Because the truth is, some of us are just trying to figure out what Ms. James did right to bring so much attention to her trilogy. I’d like to repeat her success.

What about you? Have you read this? Are you planning on checking it out? And if you have insight as to why this particular book has hit the big time, do share. You know me, I’m always curious about stuff like that.

A Little Hump Day Humor

This came through one of my loops without any information on the original source. But it was just too funny not to share:

Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, “If Ford had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.”

In response to Bill’s comments, Ford issued a press release stating:

If Ford had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash………Twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive – but would run on only five percent of the roads.

6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single ‘This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation’ warning light.

7. The airbag system would ask ‘Are you sure?’ before deploying.

8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

10. You’d have to press the ‘Start’ button to turn the engine off.

PS – I ‘d like to add that when all else fails, you could call ‘customer service’ in some foreign country and be instructed in some foreign language how to fix your car yourself!!!!

May I Have a Drum Roll …

Wow! Such a great blog hop this past weekend. I had so much fun chatting with everyone (and staring at all those lovely men who helped with my blog post ). I had 39 wonderful people stop by and leave comments so I rounded up and donated $40 to the Wildlife Conservation Society . (And I took my recyclables down to the bin. *vbg*)

And without further adieu, the grand prize winner of the NOOK SIMPLE TOUCH is:

Shadow

And the winner of HEALER’S GARDEN (and whatever other goodies I can tuck in the mailing envelope) is:

Michelle of
Louisville, Kentucky

Thanks again for hanging out with me this weekend! I hope you all had a wonderful Earth Day!

An Earth Day Six 4/22

Welcome to Six Sentence Sunday where I share six sentences from one of my stories. This week in celebration of Earth Day, I thought I’d share something “earthy” from my dystopian erotic romance, HEALER’S GARDEN.

They rode through the fields bareback, climbing into the hills. The grassy farmlands gave way to palm trees and exotic vegetation Jahara had never seen. Emerald leaves fringed large flowers in all shades of the rainbow, their honeyed aroma filling the air in a sweet fog. Birds hidden among the foliage warbled and sang, permeating the jungle with their melodious tunes. The air grew damp with humidity, surrounding them like a comforting blanket. It was a banquet for the senses and she closed her eyes, committing it all to memory.

Healer’s Garden is also available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Click HERE to check out other authors participating this week in Six Sentence Sunday this week. Thanks so much for stopping over. I love that you take time to comment!

Earth Day’s Hopping …

Welcome everyone to my Earth Day celebration. I’m participating with all kinds of other authors in a weekend blog hop. We’re giving away a NOOK SIMPLE TOUCH loaded with all kinds of ebooks to one lucky participant who follows the whole tour bus between 4 am EDT FRIDAY, APRIL 20 through 4 pm EDT SUNDAY, APRIL 22.

Click HERE to join the beginning of the tour.

I love Earth Day. The first time I heard about it was in the mid-90′s. I travelled to Washington DC with my kids and they happened to have a whole celebration taking place on the mall. It was a lot of fun and very cool. I had always been an advocate of the earth, but that day really brought it home for me.

So what are some things you can do to protect the earth?

1. Think Green
Sometimes being eco-friendly is just thinking about something before you do it. Like refilling a mug at your local Starbucks instead of using a Styrofoam cup. Or packing your lunch in plastic washable containers rather than ziploc bags. I mean really … a picnic in a field with this guy sounds about right doesn’t it?

2. Conserve Water
Run your dishwasher and washing machine only when you have a full load. And of course you can take smarter showers by using low flow shower-heads. Better yet … shower with a friend.

3. Conserve Fuel
A car that gets 20 miles to the gallon emits 50 tons of carbon dioxide over it’s life time. Double the gas mileage and cut down the amount of air pollution. Cutting your mileage by combining errands helps cut back on the consumption of fossil fuel and for more conservation. At some point hybrid vehicles will be more affordable for all of us. Until then … wrap your arms around someone and share a ride!

4. Save the trees
Use rags instead of papertowels for cleaning. Don’t print out every memo or email at work. When possible print on both sides of paper. Be sure to recycle used paper. And to save more trees of course you should buy digital books! All the benefits of a print book without any of the waste of paper! Sometimes being a tree-hugger can be a sensual experience!

5. Throw Away Less Trash
And of course there’s the simplicity of recyling glass, cans, plastics and paper. Most towns have curbside recycling which makes the whole separating trash relatively painless.

And of course the best way to celebrate Earth Day is to go out and enjoy nature …

So there you have it, my tips for earth day! Hope you enjoyed the photo illustrations. I know some people are visual learners. (Sorry, I can’t help you tactile learners! )

If you leave me a comment and tell me which suggestion you liked the best or what little thing you do to protect Mother Earth. For every comment left on this post between now and SUNDAY, APRIL 22 at 4 pm EDT, I will donate $1 to the World Wildlife Foundation (up to $50). I’ll also choose one commenter to receive a print copy of Healer’s Garden (**NOTE: Shipping to US and Canada only. An international winner will receive a digital copy of Healer’s Garden and a $10 gift card from Amazon.)

Is it really necessary?

I’m in the process of rewriting a book I’ve always loved, but it really just isn’t ready for public consumption. It’s hard. I LOVE this story, but finding the gold in the pile of crud is really a daunting task. Mostly because I love writing narrative. Long, flowing descriptions of people and places. Paragraphs of personal introspection. But guess what? Readers don’t want to wade through all of that, regardless of imagery. They want action. Things to happen. This means stories need to clip along. No meandering chapters. Every word carefully chosen. Nothing wasted.

So how do you find those words and phrases that can be cut without changing your story?

* Search your manuscripts for words ending in “ly”.

It’s unnecessary to say:
- She whispered quietly.
- He banged the table loudly.

“Whisper” is inherently quiet. A “bang” is loud. Those adverbs don’t help you draw the picture for you readers. You’ve already done that.

* Remove unnecessary descriptive words.
- The baby kitten purred.
- The giant tank rolled through the streets.

Kittens are babies and have you ever seen a small tank? There is no reason to include these words. The nouns themselves already give the description.

* Trust that your description explains without stating it again.

Stomping around the room, she couldn’t meet his gaze. “Because I don’t want to!” she yelled. Damn she was angry.

The last sentence isn’t needed. By using strong verbs like “stomp” and “yelled” you’ve already painted the picture of her anger. You don’t need to restate it.

Luke studied her face. Her unfocused eyes were heavy lidded, the long lashes brushing her flushed cheeks. Little puffs of breath feathered through her full lips. Sarah was so turned on.

Again, the reader knows she’s turned on. The author has done a wonderful job painting that picture. Don’t waste words stating the obvious.

* Make your verbs work for you. This also goes to writing action vs. passive.

Incorrect: The ball was bouncing across the driveway.
Correct: The ball bounced across the driveway.

It’s amazing the number of words you can cut from your manuscript by searching for “was”, “were”, and “been” and choosing a stronger verb to get your point across.

These are just a few of the easy steps to streamline your manuscript. Don’t let the word count limitations limit your story.

Identity Crisis

This happens every once in awhile. The whole “to blog or not to blog” argument I have with myself. Yeah, it’s reared it’s ugly head … again.

This time it’s not just the fact that–in this time of 140 character (Twitter) or photo (Pinterest) updates–people are running around the internet looking for a quick way to keep in touch. I’ve come to realize that I have no platform.

No, that’s not the right word. It’s not like I want to be the voice of a “cause”. What I mean is, I’m not sure who I’m blogging for. I mean, who do I expect to stop by and read my posts? I know it’s mostly my writer friends (whom I appreciate *mwah*), though I get some people stopping by who aren’t part of the publishing world. So do they really want to read about editing or rejection? Perhaps they do. Perhaps they want to know about the life of the writer including it’s ups and downs.

Do I want to attract people with posts about my books or invite them to check out excerpts? Are people interested in that or is there just too much of that out in the cyber world?

Maybe the best I can expect is to just spew whatever is on my mind and hope to have different people stop by who are interested in that topic. Of course that means I have to talk about it on facebook and goodreads. I don’t know. But since you’re here, I’d love to hear what blogs you visit and why. Do you think blogs are going the way of the wall phone?

A Villain’s Six 4/15

Welcome to Six Sentence Sunday. This week I thought I’d share another six from my current project. This week is from the villain’s perspective.

It had been a long time since he’d found someone who so obviously hungered for the kind of solace only he could offer. As he replayed the scene over and over, thinking about the grace of her walk, the gentle swell of her hips and breasts—he knew.

You are the one. I’ve been waiting for you.

In the solitude of the new moon, he sat for a long time, formulating a plan to make the woman his own. When he was satisfied, he strolled back to his cottage—his heart and soul as dark as the murky shadows swallowing him.

Thanks so much for stopping by and a special thank you to those of you who take a moment to comment. I always appreciate your feedback. And click HERE to check out other authors participating this week.

Caution: Promo Ahead!

You know, it occurred to me I’ve never shouted out about my print book Dangerous Affairs. It’s a print anthology of BLIND HER WITH BLISS, DECEIVE HER WITH DESIRE and CHEAT HER WITH CHARM.

I thought I’d share some of my favorite lines from these stories:

BLIND HER WITH BLISS:
1. The loss of her best friend had ripped away a piece of her heart and Julie doubted the ache it left in its wake would ever subside.

2. Wind whistled past the tinted visor of Damon Corey’s helmet, but it couldn’t muffle the roar of the chrome dual exhaust. Noise equaled power, and at the moment, he had both.

3. If you’re looking for the person I was last night, well, you’re in for a big surprise. He’s as fake as Santa Claus.”
The tip of her tongue darted out to wet her full lips. “I still believe in Santa Claus.”
She would.

4. Until she understood how Damon, Jason and Elvis were connected—-and Julie did believe they all knew each other—-she would troll the waters of Damon’s sexual past with caution. No sense baiting a shark without the right equipment to catch him.

DECEIVE HER WITH DESIRE:
5. “I did a nice job? Me? You were the one sneaking up like some pirate looking for lost treasure.”
The woman had no idea how close to the truth she was.

6. “We’ll get the drug arrest straightened out, Dee. Don’t worry,” said Julie.
And just like that the family unit solidified as the Tilling clan circled the wagons.

7. “Too much vending machine coffee and not enough sleep.” He popped a couple of tablets. Yeah, not even close to the truth. The fact was, when the Jameson deal went down, there was no way Ayden was going to be able to walk away from the sexy redhead who’d crawled into his bed and wrapped herself around his heart.

CHEAT HER WITH CHARM:
8. Meghan Tilling’s body quaked with fear and the bone-chilling thirty-eight degrees of the cooler where she was trapped. She pressed her forehead against the icy metal of the door, her palm caressing its pebbled surface, trying to fight the panic lurking like a sinister shadow and threatening to overwhelm her in despair.

9. Peter had lied to Meghan about staying put in a hotel today. He’d lied to the guy at the rental counter at the airport about a family emergency just to get one of the last four wheel drive vehicles left in the lot. More importantly, he’d lied to himself that this whole damn catastrophe-waiting-to-happen wasn’t going to derail his relationship with his fiancée.

10. She wasn’t sure how it sounded, but Peter’s own embarrassment and hurt added to the confusion clouding their discussion. “I didn’t say that. I—”
“No, you didn’t say anything. Your expression says it all.”
“Peter, if it’s something you want to try, I’m willing to—”
“Forget it.” Peter held up his hands as if to shield himself from her judgment. “I just thought it might be fun to try something different.” He backed away from her. “You’re right. It’s not something normal couples do. Seriously, just forget I mentioned it.”

11. And though Peter loved his fiancée with a fierceness that clawed at his soul, lately even Meghan’s love couldn’t fill the growing chasm in his heart. He wanted it to. God, how he’d tried to ignore the gnawing in his gut–the cold emptiness that was sated only when Meghan was in his arms.

BUY from Amazon
BUY from Barnes & Noble

« Previous Page — Next Page »