One More Day...

One more day to the Celebrate Romance conference in Columbia, South Carolina! And I'm nowhere near ready to go. *sigh*

I have to pack, print up some bookmarks, I'm still not sure I'm book signing or not, and I need to print up my directions.

But I'm looking forward to talking with fellow romance lovers. Now time to start getting ready... can you say, PROCRASTINATE?

ack. Marie

New Release: Satyr's Myst from Loose Id

Woohoo! Today, Satyr's Myst releases from Loose Id. Click here for a sneak peak....

Lilah Tanner thought she'd finagled time on a private island for her own purposes -- to take a break from her dull, complacent life. She's a hard worker, a physical therapist, with a successful career but an unhappy love life. Not sure if it's due to her plain features or take-charge personality, she nevertheless wants more out of life than she has. So she does her cousin a favor and agrees to keep some rich playboy out of trouble on a tropical island. How hard can that be?

The danger around Rick Hastings is far more than she bargained for.

There's a stalker her cousin failed to mention, the threat of real harm from a hidden, outside source. But more than that, Lilah's bombarded with the reality of Rick Hastings and Trevor Reaper, two men too sexual for her own good. Because it isn't long before Lilah is tempted, seduced, and in love. And it will take all her courage to face her own insecurities and help Trevor and Rick face theirs in order to keep the men who've won her heart.

Publisher's Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: Anal play/intercourse, bondage (mild), domination/submission, homoerotic sex m/m, ménage (m/f/m with homoerotic content).

I Finished the BOOK!!

I'm happy to say The Perfect Creation is now finished. It's also 85% edited. I just have to let the last few chapters sit a few days before revisiting it for errors/content.

Hurray!! I'm so happy I feel like I won the lottery. :) See, there it is. That ooo--aaahhh moment.

Marie

Nearly Finished...

I've got that aaahhhh feeling, and I love it. That satisfaction you get when a book is near completion, only to be outdone by the ooo-ahhhh feeling of actually finishing the book. haha

I worked my tail off (unfortunately, not a literal expression) and am one short chapter from finishing The Perfect Creation, a futuristic romance starring one of the Mardu brothers, a group of special men from my first futuristic books. This is not part of a series, however, but a book set in the same universe as some of my others.

In The Perfect Creation, peacemaker Rafe of Mardu is concerned about his brother, Gar. In an attempt to force his stubborn brother to talk to him and under orders from his oldest brother to fix Gar's problems, Rafe is inadvertently mistaken for a world-class criminal. In no time at all, he's kidnapped by a beautiful woman with alien eyes and an agenda that sets his world on end.
Erin can't believe a criminal like Cheltam would take Blue Rim Laboratory's lucrative reward for her capture without even hearing her out. Supposedly a criminal who hates the law, Cheltam should have given her the benefit of the doubt. When he doesn't, Erin decides to persuade him to help her--by any means necessary. But she doesn't count on her fierce attraction for the warrior-like male, or her need to please him, a fact which really troubles her. Because Erin's lived a slave's life for too long, and she has no desire to serve anyone ever again... except Cheltam isn't just anyone. He's the man who awakens her heart and soul, and shows her the freedom that could be hers if she's strong enough to reach out and take it.

Coming soon to an electronic publisher near you. :) Yep, just one more chapter to go.. My bet, it'll be finished today. Crossing fingers...

Procrastinating....

Man, I really want to slap myself. Today the husband took the kids with him to see the oldest performing with the Carolina Crown, a drum and bugle corps in North Carolina. Taking the little ones was the husband's way of seeing to it that I had writing time, God bless him, since I had little of it this past week due to a school holiday that had all the young ones at home.

HELLLOO??? It's nearly two in the afternoon and I've yet to write. Why? I think I'm trying to make myself perform under pressure, oddly enough when I do my best work. I'm just a few chapters from finishing my book, and had hoped to complete it today. I still intend to do so. But I just had to blog first, didn't I?

Sigh. So now, back to The Perfect Creation, where Rafe of Mardu meets his match in a woman strong enough to handle the Xema warrior in any and every sinful, sensual way.

Chow!! Marie

Welcome to Cougar Falls

Last year, Samhain put out an open call submission for a feline shifter anthology. I wasn't going to write anything for it because nothing came to mind and I was busy with a bunch of other projects. But one night an idea hit, and I'm still not sure where it came from. From that, the town of Cougar Falls was born, a small town in Montana full of the Ac-taw, a special group of people with the ability to shapeshift into animal forms. With the help of a mystical totem, the town stays under the radar from the general human populace. But when the totem goes missing and its guardian dies, all hell breaks loose.

Here's the story (what might be the first of a series depending upon how well the book is received and how many other projects take up my time) of the Ac-taw, coming to Samhain April 15th. Read a short blurb below...

Cougar Falls is much more than a small town, and to Rachel Penny, it might very well provide a new beginning to a life she’s happy to leave behind. Recovering from an ugly divorce, Rachel has no intention of falling for a “pretty face” ever again, so her attraction to a rude Adonis in the local diner makes no sense. But then, nothing has made sense since she’s stepped foot in Cougar Falls. Having just arrived for a reading of her aunt’s will, Rachel quickly finds herself embroiled with brawling mountain men that seem more animal than man, orgasmic from a scorching sexual encounter with the rude stranger from the diner, and up to her eyeballs in town mysticism and tales of the Ac-taw, Shifters—people with the ability to transform into animals. But the Ac-taw aren’t just legend, they’re real. And Rachel soon finds she’s inherited much more from her aunt than some property, but a destiny to protect her newfound home, and a love she’s been waiting for her entire life.

Happy Friday!

You Have to Read This Book!

I love books. Some more than others. I can always tell a good book when I'm drawn into the story, so much so that everything around me fades in the background. Last night I started Sabrina Jeffries's latest historical romance, Let Sleeping Rogues Lie. Oh my gosh!! I LOVED IT! I read for three hours straight, ignoring my husband, kids, my life. But I finished the book. WOW.

Since it's been a while since I've been wowed, I wanted to share my excitement. The book is part of her The School for Heiresses series, but the only thing consistent throughout the series is the school and Mrs. Harris, the proprietress. So you don't have to read them in order at all to understand anything. The setting is Regency, or Victorian, I can never remember the difference between the two. But there are parties, the Ton, and governesses and rogues aplenty.

What a wonderful romance between a strong hero and an equally strong heroine. And Ms. Jeffries peppers plenty of sensuality and well-written bedroom scenes that will have you fanning your collar from the sheer heat of her characters' passion.

Sabrina Jeffries is on my auto-buy list, and I have to say I've never been disappointed by any of her romances. So if you need something good to read, complete with that warm feeling you get once you put down a satisfying book, I can't recommend Let Sleeping Rogues Lie enough.

Guest Blogging at Rose Marie's

Today I'm guest blogging at Rose Marie Wolf's blog. Come on by and check it out!!
The topic is Single Title versus Series.

Revision Monday

Ack. Not starting out the week right, I can tell you that.

Last night I received revisions due back today. And they weren't normal revisions, they were painful line edits that had my eyes crossing. Good attention to detail, but man, I had thought my work would be cleaner after the fifth round of edits! But hey, I'm not complaining, not really. Because the editor STILL caught stuff I'd missed.

So this morning, after little sleep and awakened by screeching children waayyy too early, I finished my edits. But those edits reminded me that I had some final line edits pending for another story. So I jumped on those. So far, so good. Now if only I could go back to bed and get some sleep. Because I won't be writing much today through Wednesday. The @@##$#$ schools are having a winter/teacher break through Wednesday, so all four of the kids are home. A better mother would be jumping for joy, but I have two teenagers and two little ones. I miss my routine!!!

SIGH. Needing coffee now.....

The February Newsletter is Live

Happy Friday!! My February newsletter is out, and I thought I'd clue everyone in on some key points to entice you to join if you haven't already.

• I'm running a new, kick-*ss contest with a grand gift basket for a prize. The basket will include chocolates, books, candles, and other goodies to make your bundle a treat. Contest ends March 15th, so enter now. Go to my website for more details.
  
• I announced the next two winners of my monthly drawing, selecting two of my newsletter subscribers at random for free downloads from some great Samhain authors.
  
• My agent is traveling next week pitching stories, so here's hoping someone up there takes a gander and mine and says, "Remarkable! Just what we've been looking for!!" with not one, but TWO exclamation points.
• Enjoying the Show is now a Fictionwise Bestseller. So that makes ARe, MBaM and now Fictionwise where my contemporary romance has scored well. Go Show!!
• And I posted a short though steamy teaser for my upcoming romance Satyr's Myst, arriving from Loose Id in just two short weeks on Feb 26th!
  

My good news for the day. Hope you all have a nice weekend! And now back to my current WIP...

Happy Valentine's Day

Have a wonderful Valentine's Day with the ones you love.

Thanks!!

I just wanted to thank everyone for posting on yesterday's topic, and if you haven't yet, please do. Whether you agree with me or not, I encourage responses. I find language fascinating, and profanity, specifically, seems to generate all types of responses in authors and readers alike. Feel free to express yourself, just watch your language.
hahaha
(Well, I don't want to be banned for being offensive on Blogger.)

WHAT did you say???

I've talked about profanity before, but only as pertains to the language I use in my blog. But I think this is an interesting subject that many readers have issues with.

How do you feel about certain language used in books, in particular, coarse language and cursing? Erotic romance certainly demands blunt language. Male and female genitalia are called what the are, and purple prose is NOT welcome. No man root or woman's flower, but c**k and p***y and words of the like.

What fascinates me more than the language that's used is who's using that language. I think it's interesting that in this day and age, with the many sexual freedoms women seem to share, that I'm bothered by a woman referring to her private parts as "p***y or c**t." I mean, I'm certainly no prude. I write erotic romance, for heaven's sake. But I have a hard time having my heroines refer to their parts as the p-word and the c-word. Frankly, I've only ever heard the c-word used in a negative context toward women. But I've read it in a lot of books. Granted, I'm married and no longer in my twenties, so Sex and The City I'm not, but even when I was swinging single and on the dating scene, my language was a lot more tame than what I read.

If a woman is talking dirty in a sexy scene, I can deal with it. And I've spent the majority of my adult life around men, particularly Marines, so I totally get how guys talk. And yes, they use the p-word quite frequently. The c-word (c**t) less, unless they're cursing someone out.

And that brings me to another point. How do you feel with the heroine who's a potty-mouth? That turns me off to a book, when the heroine keeps telling the hero to f-off, or sh*tdam*f**k-- run-on cursing. It's just laughable, to me. Because how many of us really talk like that?

And most people that use excessive profanity in their everyday lives are ignorant, likely unable to think of intelligent descriptives. (So again, more power to the versatile word f**k. A verb, a noun, an adjective..hahaha) I find profane characters boring. Yet, a male detective or SEAL who runs around chasing bad guys who can't say more than, "Darn it, I missed him again," does not ring true. Nor is the alpha hero who refers to his penis as "my one eyed dream chaser." Ack.

If characters speak they way they're actually portrayed, it all works out. No potty-mouthed heroines or mealy-mouthed heroes for me. And please, let's save the c-word (not c*ck but c**t) for those villains or prostitutes being paid to say it.

My humble opinion. :)

Cover for I Dream of Dragons

I Dream of Dragons vol. I will be coming out in print from Samhain on March 25th. It's an anthology with me, Bianca D'Arc and Summer Devon. A GREAT group of dragon stories. :)

Check it out...

To HEA or not to HEA??

Happily Ever After, what we in the romance community call HEA. Today I saw some commentary on another loop about this very topic and wanted to write about it, because I see it as such an integral part of the genre.

Well, you know what, I want my romance to have a HEA. That's mostly the reason I read it. I like the romance, a couple or group (depending upon what floats your boat) finding each other and falling in love. But it's just not a great story for me unless the happy couple has a happy ending. Too often in life good things happen, but the ending isn't pleasant. Half the marriages today end in divorce, and there's nothing wonderful about a couple in love that hate each other at the end of their relationship.

So yes, I want my happy ending. I want to bask in the happiness of a fictional romance where roses forever bloom and the hero always wants his lady. Heck, if I wanted reality, I'd read the newspaper or delve into the nonfiction section of my bookstore.

My two cents, but heck yes, gimme a happily-ever-after ending every time.

Blogging Today at Loose Ends

Today is my first day posting to Loose Id's unofficial, official blog for its authors. Check out Loose Ends for my post on a Go With the Flow.

LOOSE ENDS



Satyr's Myst
coming to Loose Id Feb 26th

Suspending Disbelief

We've all been there. Watching a magic act and trying to enjoy the thrill of what you know is a trick. Or better yet, watching television commercials that try to tell you all those gorgeous women will go out with a skanky, ugly man as long as he uses a particular body wash or brand of beer.

Which brings me to my point today. I was recently reading a story in which a woman suddenly finds herself in danger. The typical romantic suspense. She's whisked away to a safehouse by two hot cops. Okay, I'm with it so far. But then, the very night she's taken into protection after nearly being killed, she succumbs to the undeniable passion between he and Detective A. And to make matters worse, the Detective B jumps in on the action. Now the heroine hasn't ever been into kinky sex, has suffered a tremendous shock and admits to a bit of attraction to this stranger, Det A, she must now put her trust in. But to have her just jump in the sack with not only him, but his partner as well?

Now, I like a good menage, but I can't suspend my disbelief enough to enjoy the story. The sex scenes were very well written, but I still can't believe a particular publisher, who will remain nameless, would release such nonsense. A good erotic romance, in my opinion, has to be about more than just the sex. So for me, this story had no magic.

And let's not forget the thirty-year-old virgin living life in the city. Come on. In this day and age, very rarely are women virgins past their teens. Now I'm not talking about a heroine who's suffered some trauma, but the perky, happy-go-lucky girl who just hasn't found the right man. That might appeal to some readers, but I have a huge problem with it unless the story is written incredibly well with subplots that maker her virginity plausible. I'm not saying there aren't older virgins out there, but then to make them puritanical nuns who have no idea what sex is all about? Gimme a break.

In order to capture my attention, no matter the genre or premise of the story, the author has to force me to believe their plot and characters as "real,"and throw myself into the story, head first.

So that's my little addition for today. Have any rants about story trends that bother you?

Dreams and Deja Vu

I thought this picture by Salvador Dali, Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bumblebee around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening, appropriate for this post. Odd, yes. But I had a weird dream the other day that stuck with me. Great fodder for a new story.

In my dream, I was in my real life, in my house with my kids. Everything was the same, except for a few key details, like a giant ant hill in my front yard, complete with giant ants, and furniture and toys from my youth stuck in odd places in my house, as well as a cat I used to have roaming my living room. But it was the fact that I knew I was dreaming that struck me, and that I woke myself in one dream, only to wake in another! So totally bizarre. I'm not normally cognizant that I'm dreaming in my dreams, and yesterday I not only knew it, but tried to wake myself from it, only to find myself embedded in another dream. I tried to scream to wake myself up, but couldn't speak. And then, like that, I just opened my eyes.

I would love to experience the sensation again, simply because it was so unbelievably odd. Which led me to another moment a few days ago. Sitting in a restaurant at a long table reserved for a group of friends celebrating a birthday. Green walls. People passing dessert plates and homemade dessert brought into the restaurant to celebrate a birthday....deja vu hit big time. Studying the sensation, I knew it wasn't caused by having eaten in a restaurant before or by being surrounded by green walls. I don't normally dine out with those folks (my aerobics class :), but I did that night. And that's what I'd envisioned doing before.

Okay, off my weird vibe weekend. But still, makes for interesting thoughts and future stories, you know?

Happy Monday

Chat Tonight!!

Man, I just don't know where my head has been! I'm chatting at the Smut Sluts. (Love or hate the name, the ladies know erotic romance.) I'm chatting from 9-10 EST, and if you'd like to join me, just click on this link...
I'm holding a contest, a free download of Emergence for anyone who posts or chats on the blog this week. So I hope to chat with a few of you who might be home on a Saturday night, like me. And that's not a pitiable state of being--not like it used to be for me. Personally, I like my space, and since the husband took the kids to a Lynx hockey game, I have some breathing room to write, chat and chill out without someone clinging to me leg.(I include the husband in that comment too, haha)

Have a great Saturday night, no matter where you are!

Sickness, that final frontier...

Well, I'm in that rut again. I was cranking along on my story that really needs a title--I'm sick of calling it Rafe of Mardu--when I just settled into a "where is this story going?" mode? Normally I have a general idea of length, especially after the first few chapters. But with this one, it keeps wanting to be shorter, the publisher hints that they want it longer, but I don't see it going anywhere unless my characters start unveiling their hidden motivations.
I think it might be the heroine that's thrown me, because she's strong yet very vulnerable, and I haven't yet reached the point where she starts showing her weak spots. I'm impatient to get there, to see how the hero will react. But unlike some writers, I have to write my story in order. I never write the end or a middle scene and work around it. So I need to let the rest of the story flow and carry me to where I need to be right now.
It doesn't help that I'm suffering a stomach virus, or that I feel like the world's worst mother because I don't have the energy to play with my 2 year old much, so I'm letting the TV entertain him. (Ack. Yet another Backyardigans song stuck in my head.) And my night time writing has been nonexistent since I can't focus on more than how sick I feel.
Okay, enough of the pity party. I'll try to manage something good this weekend, and do my best to fill in another few chapters and maybe grab a title for this poor story.
Hope you all have a nice weekend, at least.