Review

Leap of Faith came out a while ago, but Heathermh of Night Owl Reviews recently reviewed it, saying it was, "A wonderful quick rainy day read."

But she's wrong, wrong, wrong!!!!

I think you could read it on sunny days, too. LOL

Here's a link for the full review.

Ready for Phase Two!

All right! I chatted with my new editor, Grace. She is very encouraging. We talked about a new direction for the book that concentrates more on the relationship between Joe and Livvy, and I'm excited about it.

I also sent off a Woman's World story. It's been over a year since I submitted to them, so I have my fingers crossed. It's called "Better Than Partners."

Book Utopia Mom reviewed "Leap of Faith." She wasn't that impressed. I don't blame her. It's not among my favorites either. I'd love to know what she thinks of Secrets of the Jin Hakku, though.

Recently, I offered as a prize the opportunity to be a character in one of my books. A woman named Amanda won. :) So, in Leap of Faith there is a character named Amanda, a noble and brave woman who attempts to save the hero. The real Amanda emailed me yesterday to tell me how exciting it was for her to read the book, waiting to see what I had done with her name. The fictional Amanda doesn't appear until about three quarters of the way in, so she had to read almost the whole story. Still, she seemed pleased.

I'd definitely offer up a character naming as a prize again. It was fun.

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. :)

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.

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. :)