Three Teacups for Fit to be Tied

I'm happy to announce that Happily Ever After Reviews awarded three teacups to Fit To Be Tied. The reviewer, Dodie, had this to say...

Kate Willoughby did an excellent job initiating Sadie into the BDSM world, and helping Sadie deal with some unpleasant issues in her past. Sadie and Max forge a tight bond, and relationship built on trust, and a shared history. This is a truly lovely love story, with some steamy love scenes, and a great read.

Review for Fit To Be Tied

The Romance Reviews gave Fit To Be Tied five stars and deemed it a Top Pick! Woot! Here's a snippet from the review:

I was engaged from the moment I started reading to the very last word...and I will definitely be looking forward to more stories by the author.

Here's where you can read the entire review by Paige Ray.

It's All About the Sex

Whenever one of my books is released, I like to tally up the sex scenes. Here are how the numbers fell for Fit To Be Tied.

Number of sex scenes: 6

Longest sex scene: 2632 words

Shortest sex scene: 484

Percentage of sex in the book: 25%

Sex sells.

At least, I hope it does. LOL

Don't Bug Me

In Fit To Be Tied, the heroine Sadie, gets a job as a bug wrangler for a movie. I really have no idea where I got the idea for her to do this, but there really are bug wranglers. If it's not a digitized insect, someone was in charge of bringing that bug to the set and making it do it's thing.

By the way, I can usually spot the fake bugs in movies, can't you? Like did you see The American with George Clooney? I think the butterfly at the end was computer generated.

But I digress.

I met a real bug wranger at the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History and asked him a ton of questions. I also got to handle a tarantula and he taught me how to make it go and stop. Unfortunately, I can only remember that if you hold your hand over the spider, it will stop walking. I can't remember how to make it go.

Here's a link to a real live bug wrangler whose resume is pretty impressive.

Do you think he has Raid in his house?

Spider Webs...Japanese Rope Bondage

Max, the hero of my novella Fit To Be Tied, is an entomologist who specializes in tarantulas and an aficionado of Japanese rope bondage, otherwise known as shibari. I think tarantulas are fascinating and I liked the subtle tie (pardon the pun) between a spider web and Japanese rope bondage.

In the book I mention one particular species of tarantula, Haplopelma lividum--the Cobalt Blue. Although beautiful, they're particularly quick and vicious. Here's a great quality video showing a Cobalt Blue snatching up a cricket. The action is over fairly quick, but you can really see incredible detail on the spider.

Are you afraid of spiders? Or are you like me, just a little bit morbidly fascinated by them?

Fit To Be Tied Excerpt

You'd think I'd realize by now that readers like to get a taste of the book and the writing before they buy. I'm an avid reader and I never buy a book without reading a little bit of it.

In order to better understand this excerpt, you should know that Max is an entomologist working late at the Natural History Museum. Sadie brought him some fried rice for dinner and is hoping for a little post Chinese food nookie…

____

As Max cleaned up his dinner mess, he noticed Sadie watching him, staring at him. Her eyes wandered all over his body, but they kept returning to his groin. His cock pulsed in his pants and he tried to ignore it, but she wouldn’t quit. In a few more moments, he’d have a full on erection.

“Don’t do that,” he finally said in desperation.

Sadie looked up. “Do what?”

“Stare at my crotch.”

“Why? As crotches go, it’s a nice one.” She gave him a slight smile. “And from what I can see, it’s getting even nicer.”

That did it.

“You know what? I’ve had enough,” he said, putting his pencil away and organizing his work. His tolerance had reached critical mass. She’d given off enough signals for him. He still had several bugs to label, and although it bothered him to leave that unfinished, his need for Sadie was more immediate.

Besides, the bugs were dead.

Sadie gathered her purse and keys. “Yeah,” she said. “It’s late and you can finish this on Monday.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

He stood up slowly and moved close, into her personal space. She didn’t back away, but looked up when he put a hand on her waist. “I’m tired of the flirting games.” Catching her gaze, he said, “If you have any objections to my kissing you, you’d better get them out now.”

Sadie’s arms crept up around his neck and she murmured, “No objections whatsoever.”

“Good.”

Her breath came out in a sigh as their mouths met. Her lips were soft and full and he couldn’t get enough. She tangled her hands in his hair and pressed herself against him as he deepened the kiss. Sexual energy vibrated from her body. He soaked it up like the desert does rain.

Pulling his mouth away, he tugged her elastic top down. “God, Max, yes,” she gasped, holding onto his shoulders. The sound of his name on her lips sent a wave of lust through him.

Her breasts came free and he wasted no time in capturing one with his mouth. The nipple was cool and sweet between his lips. As he sucked it, splaying his hand across her back to hold her still, she arched up and the peak hardened. He switched to the other breast which seemed to swell in his hand and teased it with his tongue.

The clatter of his pencil cup overturning brought him to his senses. He was at work, for shit’s sake. Yes, it was after hours, but Al could wander in at any minute. Surely Max had enough self-control to hold back until they got back to his house.

Reluctantly, he eased away from her. “We can’t do this here,” he said, pulling her top back up.

Sadie lifted her gaze to his and smiled, catlike. Her eyes were luminous, even in the unflattering fluorescent light. Without breaking eye contact, she started unbuckling his belt.

“Ah…Sadie, didn’t you hear me? We could get caught in flagrante delicto,” he said. “Again.”

Seemingly unperturbed, she shrugged, slipped her hand between them and rubbed his erection. Max gritted his teeth at how incredibly good that felt.

“But I think it’s kind of exciting, don’t you?”

“No.” He took a very difficult step back.

She sauntered over to his recently vacated chair and sat down. One corner of her mouth tilted as she said, “But we’re destined to do this.”

“We are?”

“Of course we are.” She rolled the chair over to him and then worked the hydraulic lever until her face was level with his groin. “That’s why we hooked up again. It’s Fate, and Fate is City Hall on a cosmic scale. It just doesn’t pay to fight it.”

He gave a strangled gasp as she opened his pants.

Tie Me Up!

I'm very excited to announce that my newest novella, Fit To Be Tied, is now available!
_____

Ten years ago, Sadie thought Max was a scrawny, hopeless nerd. She even said so to his face in front of the student body.

Today, Max is still a little nerdy but in a “My, Clark Kent, what broad shoulders you have!” way. And when she ends up as his temporary house guest, she discovers a lot more about the new him. He’s amusingly fastidious, independently wealthy, and most importantly, able to make her wet with little more than a commanding stare.

There’s just one thing she still needs to find out: what the heck is behind that black door—his bedroom door—the one he asked her not to open?
_____


If you liked Losing It, you will probably enjoy Fit To Be Tied. I like to think it's got much of the same humorous banter that readers seemed to like.

One reader, Liia Ann, already bought and read Fit To Be Tied. Here's what she had to say:

Loved it! Well done on another great book. It was an awesome read.

So what are you waiting for? Go buy one now!!! LOL

Once Upon A Kiss Celebration Week - Day One

Welcome to the countdown until Once Upon A Kiss comes out! I'm very excited about this because it's the third book in my Be-Wished series. The premise for the series is that three friends made wishes on "magical" woven bracelets while on vacation in Mexico. Little did they know that the Universal Wish Federation exists and that soon a fairy would make their wishes come true. It started with All In (Mariah's story), continued with A Wolf at Her Door (Paige's story), and now we have Livvy, the last of the three friends to get her wish granted. To start off the week, I thought I'd offer an excerpt from Chapter One of Once Upon A Kiss. I hope you enjoy it.

“What?” the fairy asked, a worried look on her face.


“Well, I…I had an idea. Can you, ah, manipulate time? See, I was thinking maybe you could bring us back to just before I told you to get lost…”


Paige put a hand over her heart. “Oh my God, that would solve everything.”


But Davina was shaking her head. “No. Sorry, no can do. Turning back time requires like ten tons of red tape, clearance that I don’t and probably will never have, not to mention a unanimous vote of the regulatory court, and those old fogies are so conservative they never vote for anything. I’m still PO’d about their decision on de-legalizing… ” She trailed off and stared into space.


“Davina, what is it?” Mariah asked in a low voice. “You thought of something just now.”


“No, I didn’t.”


“Yes you did, you crafty fairy, you. I distinctly saw that I-thought-of-something-just-now look on your face,” Mariah said.


“I saw it too,” Paige piped in.


“Well,” Davina said, “to tell the truth, I do feel that the three of you were a package deal, seeing how you all wished at the same time. Even though technically I’m not obligated, I feel obligated to see this through.”


Livvy felt a faint flicker of hope.


“So, what I thought of is this,” Davina said glancing left and right. “I can try to grant you a wish under the table. Because you relinquished a claim on the other wish, I’m not allowed to use Federation magic on you, but there’s magic out there on the black market I could get.”


Mariah looked all for it, but Paige’s expression was pinched. “I don’t know. I’ve had experience with bad magic.”
“Black market magic isn’t bad necessarily,” Davina said. “It’s just not guaranteed. Sort of like generic drugs. Same thing, but without the big company to back it up. Sometimes you hit a minor glitch but I should be able to handle whatever comes up. However, if we do this, you can’t speak of it to anyone.”


“She’s totally not kidding,” Paige added. “You have to be super careful.” She went on to explain how she’d gotten Davina in trouble when she’d mistakenly blabbed something to the wrong person and it had almost ended in disaster.


“But you do have to tell the guy involved. That’s Rule One that I had to learn,” Mariah said.


“No, actually, this is non-Federation, so the pamphlet doesn’t apply to her,” Davina said. “But it is generally a good rule of thumb to not keep secrets of this magnitude from your true love. So if we’re all agreed?” Davina arched her brow and looked at each of them in turn. “Good.”


The fairy then whisked away the gelato with a flat-palmed sweep of her arms and garbed herself in an austere black pants suit, aviator glasses and a short-brimmed trilby hat with a leopard band.


Leaning forward, Davina said, “Now here’s the thing, Liv. Because we’re using the street stuff, you have to be broad when making your wish. In fact…” Davina held her hands up in front of her, her eyes wide. “Pretend I’m Tiger Woods. I am the Tiger Woods of magic.”


“Oh, brother,” Mariah said.


Davina ignored her. “Now, you wouldn’t make Tiger tee off in a closet would you? Of course you wouldn’t. You have to give him room to maneuver. So think in broad terms. You don’t have a certain person in mind, do you?”


For one crazy moment, Livvy thought of Joe, the next door neighbor who had moved in not long ago. The man was ripped. Like Rambo ripped. He had a buzz cut and a wicked-awesome tat of butterflies on his upper arm.


He was also severely handicapped.


The property manager had told her he’d served overseas in the Army and come back disabled, which explained his military bearing, evident even though he used a wheelchair. This filled Livvy with compassion and admiration. She’d suddenly become eager to meet him. She’d gotten along very well with Henry, the man who’d lived in the apartment before. That sweet old guy had found love, gotten married and moved away, leaving his handicapped-accessible townhouse behind as a rental.


One Saturday soon after the ex-soldier moved in, she saw him and a friend coming out of his house. She had baked cookies for him a few days ago, but hadn’t seen him until now. Worried she might not get another chance before the cookies went stale, she hurried outside.


“Oh, hey, wait!” she called.


They stopped. The neighbor, dressed in khakis and an Army t-shirt, turned his chair toward her. He wore a cap and sunglasses and didn’t look like he’d shaved in a couple of days. His legs leaned toward the right, perfectly parallel—knees, ankles, feet, all side by side.


“I wanted to introduce myself,” she said, a little breathlessly. “I’m Livvy. I live next door.”


“Hey, good to meet you, Livvy. I’m Joe.” He flashed a dazzling smile at her. “This is Noah, my caregiver. Are those for me?” he asked, gesturing toward the bag of goodies.


“Yes. They’re to welcome you to the neighborhood.”


“That’s really nice of you. They look great.”


As he took the bag, Livvy noticed his eyes dropping to her breasts and lingering there. When he again met her gaze with a half smile playing around his full lips, her breasts tingled and she felt a flush of desire between her legs. A split second later she remembered he was in a wheelchair and got so flustered that when he invited her to go with them to the movies, she’d babbled a lame excuse. Later, she felt embarrassed and angry with herself. Having lived next to Henry for so long, she had always thought of herself as very accepting of and savvy about paraplegics. For instance, she knew that some of them had healthy sex lives, but for some reason, when faced with the prospect of actually having sex with a man in a wheelchair, she’d freaked out. Irritated at her apparent prejudice, she berated herself soundly and resolved to be more tolerant and open the next time she saw him, but hadn’t seen hide nor hair of him since.


“Earth to Livvy,” Davina said. “Do you have someone special in mind or don’t you?”


Livvy started, then shook her head. “No. No one special. I trust you to find the right man for me, Davina.”


Davina raised a brow and graced both Paige and Mariah with a smug look. “That, I shall,” she said. “Just make your wish.”


“Something with possibilities,” Livvy confirmed.


“Exactly.”

Hopefully, you're well and truly hooked and will want to buy Once Upon A Kiss when it comes out next Wednesday, August 25. Until then, every comment made during this celebration week will be an entry in the contest to win your choice of any of my electronic books, either from Ellora's Cave or Liquid Silver Books.

Shorter Fiction Woots

I sold an 800 word story to Woman's World magazine, and it'll appear in the August 6 issue. :) It's about a guy who has to start eating healthier.

I also sold a 5,500 word story to True Experience magazine. That's coming out in the fall. This is about an older woman who built a cupcake empire and the man who woos her.

It'll be interesting to see if either of my ebooks (Fit To Be Tied and Once Upon A Kiss) will come out before then. I doubt it. But I don't mind. I like it when there's a little time between publications.

Another Sale!

I submitted a story to Liquid Silver Books' call for geek stories and they decided they want to publish it! WOOT again! I'm very excited and I can't wait to talk to the editor about it.

This is a picture is of the Los Angeles Natural History Museum, where the hero of the story works as an entomoligist, which is a bug expert. This is not to be confused with an etomologist, which is a word expert.

Best Novella Award!

I'm thrilled to announce that Book Utopia Mom named my story, Losing It, her very favorite novella of 2009. This lady reads a lot of electronic books and she's extremely discerning, so I consider it a great honor to have made her year-end list. I'll even admit I was actually awaiting the posting of her year-end lists to see if I made it on! Tee hee. Yes, I'm that greedy for recognition.

Here's a link to her original review of Losing It.

Here's a link to buy it, if you feel so inclined. ;)

Will Draw Names on Sunday

Two more days before the awarding of the books! Make a comment on any of the Leap of Faith posts and you'll be entered into the drawing. I'd sure love to see more mad lib suggestions. :)

Leap of Faith Celebration - Day 5

Being an erotic romance author, I know a lot sex occurs in my books. Hello. I put it there. LOL

When a new book comes out, I always like to take a good hard look at exactly how much sex got in. Here are how the numbers fall for Leap of Faith, which you can buy here. :)

Sex scenes: 4
Shortest sex scene: 269 words
Longest sex scene: 1283 words
Sex percentage: 15%

Hmm. Only 15%.

Well, it's quality, not quantity, right?

Today's question: Have you ever skimmed over the sex scene in a book? Why? Answer in the comment section and you may win a free e-book from my backlist.

Leap of Faith Celebration - Day 4

The Incan civilization was grand. Although, I learned a lot researching for this story, I took some creative liberties, especially concerning the punishment for defiling a Sun Virgin. But hopefully the result justifies the tweaking of historical fact.

I was going to make up a trivia quiz for today's blog entry, but saw that there are many perfectly good quizzes already out there. Why reinvent the wheel (which the Incans didn't have, by the way)?

Take this quiz if you want. If you'd like the chance to win a free e-book from my backlist, to to the comment section and let me know something you learned about the Incas that you didn't know before.

My score: 40% (How embarrassing!) The quiz was hard!

If you'd like to purchase the book in which those creative liberties were taken, go here. :)

Leap of Faith Celebration - Day 1

It's release day! Leap of Faith is now available for purchase. I'm going to be celebrating all week. Make a comment any day this week and I'll enter your name in a drawing to win any electronic title from my backlist. If 10 people comment, I'll pull five names. If 12 people comment, I'll pull six names. I suck at math, but I think that might mean you have a 50% chance of getting a free book.

Let's do a Mad Libs sort of thing today.

Think of:

• a period of time
• a name
• a verb
• four nouns
• an adjective

Put your answers in the comments and I'll insert them into the mini-blurb for Leap of Faith and post the (hopefully hilarious) results tomorrow.

Can you wait three more days?

Leap of Faith is going to be released on October 26. I can hardly wait. This story was previously published by another e-publisher, but during a time of intense turmoil for that company. Hence, Leap didn't get the exposure or the sales that it might have. Years later, I submitted it to Liquid Silver, where Maria Rogers, my editor, helped me strengthen the story and in three days you can see the result.

Here's a blurb:

Kira de la Fuente’s vacation to the land of her ancestors turns into a nightmare when her guide abandons her in the mountains of Peru. Without provisions or shelter, she is relieved when the enigmatic Amaru comes to her rescue. A powerful, self-assured man in his prime, he possesses an uncanny knowledge of ancient Incan ways. And for good reason.

Ever since he crossed the sun god centuries ago, Amaru has been paying the price—a life of isolation and misery, prayer and atonement. Kira’s arrival brings many good omens and Amaru comes to believe she might be the one to finally free him from his unearthly prison. But one last test has yet to be revealed, and it is Kira, not Amaru, who must pass it.

Leap of Faith Update

I just turned in the final line edits of Leap of Faith. It's a novella that was once briefly offered by Phaze Books, but is now being released by Liquid Silver Books. Yay! It's been revamped a bit. Ended up adding another sex scene.

The release date is sometime in October. That's about all I know.

The first chapter opens with the heroine crossing a dangerous bridge and lo, I found a picture of an Incan bridge. How cool is that?

Here's a short blurb for the book:

Centuries ago, Amaru defied the Incan sun god and has since been condemned to a life of isolation and misery. Only through faith will he find forgiveness. But is it his faith that is required, or that of the young woman who stumbles into his closed off world?

Together Again

I heard from Liquid Silver Books about Leap of Faith. Maria Shaink is going to be my editor again on this one. :) She was also my editor on Hostile Takeover, my best selling title, bar none. Soon I'll be revisiting L of F, adding, tightening, revamping. I'm interested to see what Maria wants done to it.

Revamp Announcement

I'm going to try changing my blog habits to allow more time for writing. I think it may be more professional to rein in my tendency for TMI.

My plan is to post at least once a week with news about my writing. So, here we go!

I recently spoke with Tina Burns at Liquid Silver about the recently contracted story, Leap of Faith. They have information from me about the cover art. I should be seeing some cover art in the next couple of months. My editor will contact me soon regarding revisions, too. We're looking at a release near the end of the year. :)

Fast-paced, exceedingly funny erotic romance

It's official. I love Book Utopia Mom. Here's her review of Losing It (Eppie Award Finalist).

If you want some highlights:

I laughed more in the first 700 words of this novella, than I have at most full-length stories in a very long time.

I can’t emphasize enough how real the interactions in this novella felt. That’s the very root of why I loved the romance in this so very much.

Ms. Willoughby is the most exciting new author I’ve found so far this year. This was an exhilaratingly funny, wonderfully sexy romance. I can’t wait to get my hands on more of her work.

WOOT!