Review for Once Upon A Kiss

Happily Ever After Reviews (how apropos for this book!) gave Once Upon A Kiss...

5 Teacups!

Here's a little snippet of what they said.

Beginning with the blurb, this talented author immediately drew me into the lives of these two amazing characters. Kate Willoughby delivers a well-balanced story with a twist and I didn’t want it to end. With just the right mixture of romance and sizzling sex scene, this book is an excellent read with a fairy tale ending.

Color me really happy. Hopefully lots of people will take their advice and buy it. I'm really excited to see what the royalties are for this first month because, don't forget, I promised to put aside a percentage for the Wheelchair Foundation, an organization that provides wheelchairs for people who need but can't afford them. It costs about $150 for a wheelchair and I'm determined to make a difference in one person's life via my writing.

True Love

I just sold a short story to True Love magazine! I don't know what issue it will be in yet, but I'll post here when I find out. Woot! I'm really excited because a couple of the other True magazines rejected this story and I'd almost shoved it under the bed, never to see the light of day.

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?