You Can Play

I'm deep into writing hockey romance #2 for Carina Press. Part of the plot of this book came about from a video I watched months ago. It features two of the Los Angeles Kings, Alec Martinez and the captain, Dustin Brown. They wanted to record a message that showed they support people who want to play the sport of hockey, regardless of their sexual orientation. I really liked and respected that they alone out of the entire Kings organization took the time to make a short (albeit stiff) video. It stuck with me until the time came to plot my second hockey book. 

The You Can Play project strives to "promote respect for all athletes," a worthy goal, and one I hope will resonate in the book.

Save the Date!

I have received the release date for the Untitled Hockey Romance! 

April 21, 2015

I'm so thrilled and excited. This is to coincide with Carina Sports Week. It's also just in time for the NHL playoffs. (Go, Kings, go!)

I am still waiting to hear on what the editorial team at Carina has chosen for a title. I submitted a long list of possibilities for both the first hockey romance and the rest of the series. 

Out of that list, my personal favorites for this first hockey book are:

A KISS FOR LUCK
THE TROUBLE WITH FANS
WHEN ERIN MET TIM

I can't wait to hear what they pick. 

New Cover Art

Got the new cover art for my upcoming release! Here it is. I'm excited.

A New Print Release!

Today is a wonderful day.

The Be-Wished series, five years in the making, consists of four books: All In, A Wolf at Her Door, Once Upon a Kiss, and Just Winging It. The first two stories were published in their own print anthology last year called Wolf Wishes. 

Now, the second volume, Midnight Wishes has been published in print!

I hadn't seen the cover until today, but I love it. As an author who has most of her stories sold digitally, it's exciting and special when you see your work in print. One of these days, I'll do a book signing. Maybe at the Romance Writers of America Conference or the Romantic Times convention next year.

Until then, I'm just thrilled to have these books available.

I'm A Fantasy Geek

I adore George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. I love the HBO series based on it, Game of Thrones. Last time, I read the book (LOVED IT) and watched the first season of the series after I read a chapter or two. It was helpful because there were so many characters and story lines going on, watching it play out on the TV clarified things in my head.

This season I'm going to watch the episodes first and then read the part in the book. I'm interested to see how my enjoyment differs.

New Print Release!

Ellora's Cave decided to combine the first two Be-Wished books (ALL IN and A WOLF AT HER DOOR) together into one print volume, WOLF WISHES. I'm very excited, and isn't the cover beautiful?

To help me promote the new book, Voirey Linger, herself a successful fantasy romance author, interviewed me. Read it HERE.

Also, I finally figured out how to make separate pages from my blog, but attached to my blog. You'll see the new links in a menu at the top of the blog. Now my sidebar is much less crowded. It's still a work in progress, but I like how it's shaping up.

The Big Day

O happy day! Once Upon A Kiss is finally available! It's the very first book there on the front page of Ellora's Cave. I'm very excited. It's even next to Cricket Starr, a very popular and long time Ellora's Cave author.

All week I've been blogging about the book and anyone who commented was entered into a drawing to win their choice of one of my books. This morning I wrote all the names on bits of paper. If you commented twice your name got written twice, and so on. I'm happy to announce the winner is...

Terri Osburn!!! Terri, email me to arrange the details. kate_willoughby at yahoo, etc. Thank you, all you other commenters.

If you're in the mood to read a fun, sexy romance, get yourself a copy of Once Upon A Kiss. I think you'll have a good time.

Once Upon a Kiss Celebration - Day Six

Obviously in my newest novella from Ellora's Cave, Once Upon A Kiss, a kiss plays an important role in the plot. This is typical fairy tale fare. Snow White and Sleeping Beauty needed the lips of a man in order to get their happy ending. In my story, it's the hero, Joe, who needs a lip lock.

So, today, just for fun, let's pretend you're deep in enchanted dreamland. Who would you want to give you your up-close and personal wake up call? (Boyfriends and husbands don't count.)

Comment and you are entered to win your choice of one of any of my books. Winner to be announced Wednesday, August 25!

Once Upon A Kiss Celebration Week - Day Four

When one of my books comes out, I traditionally do a sex tally. Here are how the numbers fall for Once Upon A Kiss:

Number of sex scenes - NINE. Wow. I think that's a record for me.
Percentage of sex in the book - 8%
Longest sex scene - 1,418 words
Shortest sex scene - 175 words

I'm wondering what the shortest sex scene you could write would be... Maybe, if you really used your imagination it could be one word.

Yes.

Can you write a sex scene in ten or less words? Give it a try and get a chance to win a free book. (Winner to be announced Wednesday, August 25, the day Once Upon A Kiss comes out.

Once Upon A Kiss Celebration Week - Day Three

Fairy tales will always appeal to me. Maybe I was a princess in a previous life. Or maybe a frog.  I especially like the ones that end happily with two people in love.

In Once Upon A Kiss, the erotic romance that will be coming out on Wednesday, Livvy wishes for her own "fairy tale ending." All sorts of trouble ensues when the wish fairy granting the wish uses unauthorized street magic, but that's the nature of fiction. Sh*t happens. It has to, otherwise no one would read it.

Anyway, I just wonder what your favorite fairy tale is, happy ending or not. If you name your fave in the comment section, you might win one of my books. (Winner to be announced August 25.)

Artwork Old French Fairy Tales (1920) by Virginia Frances Sterrett

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.

This Eye Candy Belongs to ME

Here is the cover for my new book, the third in the Be-Wished series. Isn't it gorgeous? Don't you just want to touch those muscles to see if they're as hard as they look?

Heh heh.

His name is Joe Kimball. But don't get any ideas. He's taken. ;)

The book is scheduled for release on August 25. I can't wait. I've been working on this one for over a year.

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.

Books Out of Thin Air

I just found out that many of my books are available on the Kindle! How cool is that? It really makes me want one, a Kindle, that is. I have my Sony e-Reader, but Amazon makes it so darned easy to download books.

The End

I've finished ASKING FOR IT, the third Be-Wished book! I'm so happy. I can't wait for my editor to read it, but she doesn't get back from Jamaica until Monday. Even though she and I have never worked together before, I love her already because she gave me a hard deadline that really lit a fire under me.

The very last line in the book is

Love him forever.

Tee hee. I don't think I spoiled the ending for anyone.

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. ;)

My Pants Are on Fire

Okay, I lied. I'm sorry. I didn't get the names up. It was my mother's birthday yesterday and my sister and I were cooking a Chinese feast all day long. Literally. Chopping up stuff all over the place. Ten courses. The works. I completely forgot about the blog.

I apologize.

I have a long shift at the day job, so will post winners tonight.

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 2

Well, the Mad Libs thing was a roaring success.



But I shall blithely go forward.

In the course of revising Leap of Faith, which you can buy here, I found out that Peruvians like to eat guinea pigs. Roasted on a spit. I don't find this disgusting, like eating live baby octopi, but I don't know if I could ever taste guinea pig. Especially since they serve it still looking like a rodent. If it was like a McGuinea Pig Strip, I might try it, but otherwise...

Anyway, today's question is, would you try "cuy" as it's called in Peru? Answer the comment section and you might win a free e-book from my backlist.

Woot! Great review of A Wolf at Her Door, by Book Utopia Mom. She's one tough cookie and was impatient for the sex to be over with so she could get to the meat of the story. I can see how someone could feel that way. That makes me think about the third Be-Wished book and consider changing a couple of things.

Anyway, here's the link if you're interested in reading what she said. I got a 42/50. Yay!