Vixenwriter

This is the book table from the Reading last night. As you can tell, it’s at Babeland, a most wonderful sex toy store here in Seattle. Excellent background for the pictures I must say. I was fortunate enough to have been in excellent company. Lacy Danes I already know and love but I finally got to meet Bonnie Edwards, Celia May Hart and Susan Lyons.

From L - R Bonnie Edwards, Celia May Hart, Lacy Danes, Lauren Dane and Susan Lyons

Bonnie and Susan write some really hot contemporaries - Bonnie’s reading was from Midnight Confessions - a ghost story! Bonnie had great rapport with the audience and didn’t seem a darned bit nervous. Susan read from Hot in Here and Hot Down Below - yes, you guessed it, sexy firefighters!

Celia May Hart and Lacy both write historical erotica - Lacy read from her recent release, What She Craves while Celia read from Made for Sin and Show Me.

I read two excerpts - a short MMF scene from Vengeance Due and a longer one from Enforcer. The best compliment of the night was from the manager who told me she’d start recommending Vengeance Due to customers who came in asking for how to books on fellatio! I was nervous at first but once I started reading it was fine. In the end I had a great time and a great many of my friends came so thank you! I’m hoping to do it again some time now that I’ve done it and survived.

This is just before reading from Enforcer - it was a good thing I blushed when I read because it was cold last night and the door was open. I didn’t feel the cold at all until I finished my spot both times. Odd how that works!

So tonight I’m taking part in an “erotic reading” with four other erotic romance authors at the most wonderful Babeland - a sex toy store that’s very womancentric and I love it. Anyway, I’ve spent a few days trying to figure out what to read! I have excerpts from Triad, Vengeance Due and Enforcer set aside so we’ll see what happens. I just heard from several friends who’ll be there tonight and I’m excited and relieved. It’s not that I’m shy, I’m really not, but it’s sort of daunting to read my stuff aloud - I find myself re-writing it in my head and finding every flaw.

Speaking of Enforcer and Vengeance Due, recently I sent in review quotes for both books and I hope sincerely that it means they’ll see print dates before the year is through! I do know that there are also anthologies planned for the Fun in the Sun quickie series that Sudden Desire was a part of and the Autumn Animalia series Reluctant was in so I hope those come out this year too.

Anyway, I hope everyone is enjoying their Tuesday. I’ve got to go and finish gathering all my stuff for the reading.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a post that touches on the finding flaws thing…

(just bumpin this up!)

March 13 6 -9 pm at Babeland 707 E Pike Street
During Art Walk

An erotic reading featuring:
Lauren Dane
Lacy Danes
Bonnie Edwards
Celia May Hart
Susan Lyons

There’ll be short readings from each of us and then a Q&A and a signing at the end. I’d dearly love to see some familiar faces as I say naughty words out loud!

So yesterday was aggrivating during the early part of the day. First my webhost’s servers went down for several hours so I couldn’t get to my email, messageboard or any other part of my website including the blog. But we had a sitter coming and four hours to ourselves (happy sigh) so that wasn’t going to stop me - even after the espresso machine went wonky and died.

On the trip out, my dude and I went to Waldenbooks at the Southcenter mall. There aren’t enough words to express my joy in a bookstore that’s welcoming to local authors and authors of all genres in general. They went out of their way with me, their manager, Beth, went above and beyond the call in working to help me set up signings there and was just really wonderful. Contrasted with the comment that my books and readers weren’t consistent with “shared community values” of a certain other manager and chain, this experience was really heartening and I left with several books I’d been looking for and a spring in my step and tentative plans for two signings - one this summer and one in November.

I also got two new dresses, one for RT (which I need to get shoes for) They’re going to be perfect for summer - or April in Houston. We also got a new espresso machine with a coffeemaker along side. It’s ginormous but really cool.

We wanted to get out and see The 300 but the lines were so long we wouldn’t have been able to see the showing during the time we had a sitter. Next time though! Still, we came home, had dinner, got the kids ready for bed, I wrote and later in the evening we watched Dresden and BSG - all in all, yesterday was a very good day!

I’m working on figuring out what I’m going to read for tomorrow’s reading at Babeland. I’m not sure just yet.

Got a review of Chased from Talia at Joyfully Reviewed! It’s totally wonderful so thanks to JR and Talia both. She says in part: Chased is extraordinary. Completely different from the previous two installments of Ms. Dane’s, Chase Brothers series, I found myself enthralled with Marc. A total ladies’ man to the core, I was at first as unsure of him as Olivia. Charming to the core, his wooing of Liv was exquisite.

Happy Monday all! Don’t forget you’re all invited to my reading tomorrow night at Babeland!

Tossing all the entries up to random.org - it chose entry #5, which was Christine (cpb557)!

Congratulations, Christine! Please send me your snail mail address so I can forward it to Alison. Thanks to everyone who entered.

Anya tagged me. I’ll tag NJ, Shelley, TJ and Charli

Turn to page 123 in your work-in-progress. (If you haven’t gotten to page 123 yet, then turn to page 23. If you haven’t gotten there yet, then get busy and write page 23.) Count down four sentences and then instead of just the fifth sentence, give us the whole paragraph.

I’ll do that and give you a teeny bit more from Goddess With A Blade…

He jerked his head, gesturing at the room. “I get here, three floors below and Ben is there, telling me you’ve moved. What did you do to warrant this place, Rowan?”

“On a case. I told you that before. Things got complicated. I needed to deal with some fall out and it’s done. I’m back.”

The Maverick Authors (me, Anya Bast and Megan Hart) are having a chat in our chatroom tomorrow (march 10) at 5 pm pacific and our guest is Laura Bradford of the Bradford Literary Agency (AKA, my agent and Anya’s as well). She’s an exceptionally open and friendly person so if you have questions, come on out and ask them!

Last month I won an ARC of this book, which I’d been looking forward to for some time because I’m a fan of the SG-5 series. I gotta say I wasn’t disappointed.

What I like about Alison Kent’s writing is that you’re never sure just what she’s going to throw your way. She takes romance into some bold territory, thank god.

This is a book that keeps moving from page one until the end. Not a whole lot of romantic suspense novels are set in a third world country ruled by an evil dictator but this one is and it works.

Perhaps it’s the nature of a series that focuses on men instead of women, but I did find myself identifying with Jack more for most of the book. There were places - generally toward the last 20% of the book, where I did begin to see Jillian’s character more clearly and found myself liking her more.

I absolutely loved how much she dug sex. Can I say how sick I am of heroines who hate sex? Jillian’s not a slut or a skank but she likes pleasure and she has no shame taking or giving it. It makes the sex scenes in this book very raw and sharp. Oh and hot.

The ending made sense, it wasn’t one where I felt the author turned herself into a pretzel to achieve, the characters act the way they’re supposed to. The suspense is suspenseful and the romance isn’t safe or fast or even easy. The Perfect Stranger takes some risks but in the end, they work.

I also read High Stakes by Erin McCarthy and I enjoyed it. McCarthy is one of those authors I discovered via novella and I’ve loved her ever since. I think she does snappy, funny dialog well and her sex is usually hot too. There were moments where I thought it tested credulity but overall, I was entertained. Bit the Jackpot - not so much.

I’ve got a very big TBR pile so next week’s entry should be long! Have a great weekend and don’t forget to enter the contest to win an advance copy of The Perfect Stranger. I’m drawing a winner tomorrow!

Thirteen Things I Do For Comfort

When I’m down or anxious there are several things I turn to to make myself feel better.

1. Sex. My husband is always glad to help on this one. The endorphins, the physical activity, closeness with my partner - it all helps.

2. The Matrix - I love this movie. Every time I watch it I feel recharged from all the eye candy, brilliant filmmaking and script. It’s one of the things that never fails to get me out of a writing slump.

3. Bladerunner - Another movie I love. It’s one of the best movies ever made - creative, innovative, great mystery, fab sexual tension, stark sets. I fall into the world Ridley Scott and Phillip Dick created and it always feels like I’m in a museum or in church or something. I’m in awe of that talent.

4. Steel Magnolias - sometimes you need to laugh and cry and then laugh again when you’ve got the blues. Every freaking time Sally Fields is at the funeral and she’s beating her chest saying talking about how it wasn’t right her child should die first, I weep and weep. And then I laugh when Clairee pushes Ouisa forward and tells M’lynn to hit her. It’s such a beautiful play and book about women and the relationships they have. Makes me weep buckets.

5. Retail Therapy. What? You don’t think I can’t be a shallow chick who feels better after buying a new purse or pair of shoes? Or eight books at once?

6. Mashed potatoes - Oh god, so good.

7. Cupcakes. Okay the thing is, I haven’t yet met a problem buttercream and a good cupcake couldn’t make at least a tiny bit better. Cupcakes are like, a tiny bit of heaven. Not so much you feel guilty, but enough you know you’ve treated yourself.

8. Reading The Outlander. I love this book and I love the way it straddles several genres. Jamie and Claire are a wonderful couple. Lots of emotion and action.

9. Reading Dune. Holy moly. I was in my early twenties before my husband finally convinced me to read this book (this is my problem you know, all of my favorite books are ones I pick up and put down a dozen times and end up reading because I have nothing in my TBR pile - I should be less judgmental about blurbs). Anyway, Herbert’s sweeping epic about religion, politics, empire building, addiction, sex, power with a healthy dose of magic thrown in is without a doubt my favorite science fiction novel of all time. It reminds me that there is truly amazing writing out there and to keep working, keep trying to make myself better.

10. A mug of decaf chai in my retro Minnie Mouse mug. A few years back we did a family vacation to Disneyland and my husband saw me looking at these cups that had this great sort of forties era diner design on them. When I was unpacking when we got home I saw he’d bought them and hid them for me to find later. Have I mentioned lately what an amazing husband I have? Anyway, every time I drink out of the mug it makes me happy. I had a Bellagio mug that was similar but my daughter broke it, sigh.

11. Read Welcome To Temptation because it always makes me laugh. It’s one of the most perfect romance novels I can think of, it’s just a great combination of humor and sex, chemistry and plot. It’s totally unexpected and odd, I love it.

12. Snuggling with my kids in my bed. On the weekend mornings when no one is rushed, having those small people who mean everything to me hugging me and excitedly telling me about their Saturday plans just warms me. I love it that my daughter just repeats every third sentence one of my sons says. I love it that my husband will look at me and his face tells me how much he loves what we’ve created together. It’s a great reminder of what is truly worth fretting over.

13. Time alone with my husband. I miss not having more of this. Last night I’d hit this wall as I was writing a series synopsis, I was a bit agitated and he hung out with me and plotted and let me bounce ideas off him and gave me some of his own for well over an hour. As it happens, I was able to totally plot out the second book and finish up the first one because of that. I love him and i love our connection.

Thursday Thirteeners - add your comments and I’ll link ya!
1. Rhian
2. Ciar
3. Anni
4. Riley Merrick
5. Spyscribbler

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I won the ARC for this last month and finished it a little over a week ago. I’m going to blog on it on Friday for Friday Booktalk. But as it happens I also have an early copy to give away via contest.

So, if you’d like to have your name tossed into the randomizer to win a copy of this most exellent book send me an email with “The Perfect Stranger” in the subject line and I’ll choose a winner on Saturday afternoon (let’s say 3 pm pacific)

Good luck!