Fresh Fiction: The Silly Side of Hockey

Stop 2 on my mini blog hop is Fresh Fiction. I asked them if I could write about hockey pranks, since pranks are so prominent in my books and they were nice enough to host me again.

So, check it out. There is a short video of some Blackhawks playing a prank, which I found hilarious, and an excerpt from Across the Line in which Calder and Mac initiate certainly the most elaborate prank in the In the Zone series to date.

There's also a giveaway in which you can choose which In the Zone book you would like to win!

Give Me Books Giveaway!

My blog tour for ON THE SURFACE has officially started! The Give Me Books blog is helping us promote all six Sports Week romance releases from Carina Press. They created this very cool graphic for us.

I've been very lucky to be working with some terrific ladies, Kat Latham, Michele Mannon, Rebecca Crowley, Rhonda Shaw, and Allison Parr. They are the other authors whose books are part of Sports Week. We're giving away a $20 gift card and a copy of all six e-books. The contest ends on Release Day, so enter at the Give Me Books blog or below! a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Celebration and a Giveaway!

Here is what Dustin Brown looked like when the Kings won the Stanley Cup. Happy, right? That's how I feel too!

After weeks of working closely with Melissa Bandera of Jelly Design Studio, my new website is finally live!

I'm thrilled with it. It's so bright and cheery. It looks fresh and inviting and I hope it's easy to navigate.

Here are some things, other than the cool design, that I'm really excited about.

I now have a home page so people aren't shuttled directly into the blog.

I have a (long!) list of appearances coming up to commemorate the release of my first hockey romance, On the Surface.

On the sidebar you can see my beautiful cover art for On the Surface and it stays there no matter what page of the website you're visiting.

There are social media buttons!! Quick, go follow me on Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. I try to post fun stuff.

My book pages are really easy to navigate now and there are handy links in case you feel like buying one of the books. (You know you want to...!)

You can now get my "authorgraph." It's a cool widget that allows readers to get their electronic book autographed by me.

Amazing site, right? I'm so in love with it. My designer Melissa was wonderful to work with. The process was so painless and she was very patient with all my requests as we tweaked and modified, tried different options, until it was the beautiful site I had only imagined before.

To celebrate the unveiling, I'm giving away a copy of On the Surface, In the Zone Book 1 from Carina Press. Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Winner!

It's finally time to announce the winner of the complete set of Be-Wished books--ALL IN, A WOLF AT HER DOOR, ONCE UPON A KISS, and JUST WINGING IT. I made a list of everyone who was eligible from this site and the blogs (see list below) where I was a guest:

And the lucky winner is....

DRAMATIC DRUM ROLL AND CYMBAL CRASH

Ann Mayburn! Congratulations!

Ann, please email me at kate_willoughby at yahoo dot com so we can arrange delivery. :)

To everyone else, thanks so much for participating.

And to the blog hosts, Cristal Ryder, Passionate Reads, Ye Olde Inkwell, Tara Kingston, and Stephanie Julian, thank you for the hospitality.

Guest Blogging at RomCom

The folks at RomCom invited me to be a guest blogger and my post is up. It's exciting to be on the same blog as such popular authors as Erin McCarthy, MJ Davidson, and Deborah Cooke.

Of course, I'm blogging about my recent release, Once Upon A Kiss, and all the other Be-Wished books. I'm also offering a free e-book to one lucky commenter, so get over there and comment. :)

Grasshopper Leaves the Nest

Recently, I volunteered to be a mentor for Romance Divas, a superb online community for romance writers of all abilities. My mentee, Lauren Fraser, and I worked on several projects over the course of a couple of months, fighting conflicting schedules the entire time.

Needless to say, I'm extremely excited to help her promote her new release, Aged to Perfection. Check it out.

There is something so damn sexy about a younger man.

Dumped by her husband of thirteen years for the younger model, forty-year-old Rachel Michaels needs to jumpstart her life. After years of fitting into her husband’s rigid mould, she’s ready to reinvent herself, and a fling with a hot younger man is just what she needs. Her sexy landscape designer is the perfect man for the job.

Twenty-eight-year-old Mark Beaumont is fascinated by the woman in her sexual prime. She's assertive and fun, with a vulnerable core. After giving Rachel her first partner-induced orgasm, he knows he wants more than just a brief fling—he wants to help her explore everything she kept suppressed during her boring marriage.

But can he convince her that there is more between them than just great sex or will she let her fears stand in the way?

Doesn't it sound yummy??? If you want a copy, go here. If you'd like the chance to win a copy, go here and click on the contest tab.

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 Seven

Tomorrow is the big day when Once Upon A Kiss comes out! I'm so excited and can't wait.

If you are interested in on-screen kisses, check out this list of the Best and Most Memorable Film Kisses of All Time in Cinematic History. It's twenty five pages long and the first one is from 1896! It's current to 2009. Check it out. I got lost looking at the various kisses for quite a while.

Today, I want to know if you have a favorite on-screen kiss. One of my favorites is actually Lady and the Tramp--the spaghetti kiss.

Is there a kiss between humans that you especially remember?

Comments enter you to win your choice of one of my books. Winner to be announced tomorrow!

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 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

Thankfulness Guest Blog

I was invited to blog at Romance in the Backseat recently. They're doing an entire month on thankfulness. Here's what I wrote. You could win a copy of my book ALL IN if you comment. :)

WINNERS!

Congratulations, Fallon and Jeanette Murray! You two have won a free e-book from my backlist. Choose your title and email me at kate_willoughby at yahoo dot com. Thanks for participating. :)

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 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 3

Turns out that no one would be brave enough to try cuy. Maybe I shouldn't have answered myself. Maybe I turned people off to the idea of roasted guinea pig...

Since no one wanted to do my Mad Lib, I decided to have a go at it. You were supposed to think up

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

And here is the Leap of Faith blurb with the Mad Lib words inserted:

A split second ago, Vladimir blew up the Incan flip flops and has since been condemned to a life of pancakes and dirt. Only through tongue will he find forgiveness. But is it his tongue that is required, or that of the young woman who stumbles into his busty world?

Well, that was pretty funny, if I do say so myself! Feel free to provide a list of zany words, and I'll insert them tomorrow.

Today I'm posting a short excerpt from Leap of Faith. I hope you enjoy it. I even hope you buy it!

Sometimes what seemed enchanting at night lost its glamour by light of day, especially when it came to men, but even in the bright sun Amaru was one spectacular example of masculinity. The man was all muscle, not a scrap of fat on him, and although his face wasn’t handsome in the classic sense, the rugged, primitive strength Kira saw there was just as appealing as any of the pretty boy looks she might find on the pages of a men’s magazine.

He thrust his head under the stream, washed his unshaven face, then combed his hands through his hair. The water ran in rivulets down his neck to be soaked up by his tunic. Until today, she’d never considered necks to be particularly sexy, but if her lips had had free will they would have been on his neck like magnets on a fridge.

Reluctantly, she pulled her eyes back up to his face, but judging from his smile, he knew she’d been ogling him and he didn’t mind one bit. In fact, still grinning, he said, “It is already hot today and I am somewhat sweaty from working the garden."

And sweat never looked better.

Then, to her shock and delight, he stripped off his tunic to reveal his magnificent body clothed in nothing but an honest-to-goodness loincloth. Having never seen a loincloth in person before, she realized now how little they actually covered.

Her lips suddenly had a different destination in mind.

Question for today: Would you prefer your hero garbed in a loincloth, chaps, a tux, or a kilt? Answer in the comment section and you may win a free book at the end of the week.

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.

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.

Booksigning Tomorrow

I will be signing copies of Ellora's Cavemen: Seasons of Seduction, Volume 3 tomorrow. It's an anthology of six hot stories. Mine is called "A Man of Vision."

Location: Barnes & Noble Encino, corner of Hayvenhurst and Ventura.

Time: 12:30 - 2:00(?) I'm not sure of the ending time, but I'll stay until the enormous line of fans dies down. LMAO

I'll also be passing out the personalized M&Ms I got just for this occasion. If you come and buy a book (or books) make sure you take one of Los Angeles Romance Authors' (LARA) flyers and bring it to the register with you. LARA gets a percentage of the sales. The money will help our organization continue to provide support and education for published and aspiring Los Angeles area romance authors.