Vixenwriter

Man, I’d forget my head if it wasn’t attached. At long last, Torrid Tarot: Sword and Crown has released from Ellora’s Cave!

This is my fantasy novella based on the Queen of Swords card (and the title refers to the elements of the card not anything porny, LOL).

You can read an excerpt here at my website as well.

Here’s the Blurby Bit: Sword and Crown is a fantasy novella based on the Queen of Swords Tarot Card – The Queen of Swords has been through many trials, many conflicts in her life. She has weathered them with strength and courage. She’s lost loved ones and experienced pain but those experiences have made her stronger. She is realistic and pragmatic, she is a loyal friend and determined ally. She is also intelligent, rational and has a cutting wit. This card, this woman, is extraordinarily astute and forthright and does not play games or tolerate falsehoods. She looks beyond the face others present and sees deeply into their true natures. This makes many uncomfortable. Her blunt nature is often considered aloof or cold when really she is simply very discriminating about who she lets into her inner life.

The Queen of Swords is portrayed on her card in the Rider-Waite tarot deck as standing. Light glints off her sword and crown, showing the relationship between truth (light) her thoughts (crown) and her actions (sword) amongst the swirling air that governs her suit. Oftentimes she bears a third eye of intuition, a sixth sense of wisdom. Butterflies symbolizing change after incubation fly around her. She has been through hard times and has become stronger, she is able to cut through illusions with clarity.

Rhea is a Queen of Swords woman. She’s a woman who’s discovered strength and wisdom through the trials she’s been through in her life. In Sword and Crown she’s on the verge of a change. She must reconcile who she used to be as a young woman to the changed person she is today. Her world exists in peril and she must greet that as a woman with her past as not a burden, but armor.

For most of Rhea’s life, she used her Talent as a Practitioner of sex magic to keep her world safe from a powerful dark menace. But tragedy struck and she found herself exiled to Earth.

Fifteen years later, out of the blue, a face from her past appears on her doorstep. The Nameless is back and stronger than before. Her people need her and they’ve sent her first love, Jax, to petition for her help.

As the stakes get higher with the balance of the very existence of her universe in her hands, she’s also fighting the loss of her heart to a man who walked away from her once before. She knows her past has changed her in elemental ways but while she knows she can trust Jax at her back, she has to figure out if she can trust him with her heart.

Tired and overwhelmed but I’m back and I’ll give a more thorough update later this week. I can’t think up all the words that describe RT – I don’t quite know what to do with it all but it was a wonderful time. I had so much fun with so many people and had so many truly amazing experiences that I’m still processing and to be honest, I’m a bit emotional about it. I had this dream of being a writer, all of my life really but as I walked through that hotel in the last several days, as I sat at the book fair with all those other authors, as my wonderful readers introduced themselves to me, as I met and got to hang out with authors I knew slightly from online or well – I realized this is real. I am a writer. This is real and it’s better than I ever could have imagined. It’s incredible and I’m so grateful and humbled by the whole experience.

from left to right – Danny, Renee, Lauren and Joy

Readers – you’re all even better in person! Thank you to everyone who said wonderful things to me last week. Thank you for making me cry when you told me you’d read my stories and cared about my characters. RENEE – THANK YOU! Thank you for all your help, your support and for your friendship. You are so wonderful. Joy – thank you for being such a staunch supporter of romance. Melissa – I only got to see you for two minutes, DUDE, where did you go? Danny, thank you for the chocolate and the support! Maryam – you rock! Terri – you’re such a dollface and I’m so glad I got to meet you. Ali – I’m glad we got to meet at last. And so many more – if I’m leaving you out, it’s only because I’m weepy and exhausted. Thank you to each and every person who I met this week.

I met so many other authors too! Do you know what a fangirl freak I was?

Look at Bonnie Edwards! Isn’t she fabulous? I LOVE her. She’s so fun and I must tell you, Midnight Confessions is such a wonderful book!

My batteries are recharged – I’m plotting two new ideas – one romance, one straight erotic novel. I met my harlequin editor and she’s wonderful! I had dinner with two of my three editors, which was fabulous and I feel so fortunate to have been able to get so much time with Angie and Susan. Ann, I wish you could have been there!

My agent Laura Bradford – I hogged her for the entire conference and I’m not one bit sorry.

I wish I could meet you all! Next year it’s Pittsburg, I hope to see more of you there!

More tomorrow when I’m not all weepy, LOL…

Lauren and Megan at last night’s faery ball

Lauren and the most fabulous Renee

Lauren and Laura Bradford (my wonderful agent!)

Megan Hart and Lauren Dane in Club RT

So busy! So tired! It’s been a constant whirlwhind and fabulous fun. THis is one of me and Megan last night at the Moulin Rouge party – which was really wonderful. Anyway, more later…

Rhian has asked for poetry today, as she asks, I comply…

Okay okay, let’s get the disclosure out of the way lest anyone get shirty – Megan Hart is a friend, a dear friend and someone who, if I had to choose a group to be stuck on an island with, she’d be on the list. However, that aside, I can tell you it is my sincere belief that Megan is an amazingly talented author as well as having the very good taste to be one of my partners in crime.

Her second Harlequin Spice novel, Broken releases May 1 but it’s shipping now and showing up on shelves so I wanted to take total advantage of our friendship and coerce her into a quick interview for my blog or I’d pester her relentlessly at RT where we’ll be roomies and she can’t escape me.

Tell us about Broken (and don’t bore the kids at home with your recount of how Lauren Dane hated the idea because you know that was before you changed it and made Joe into a likeable guy instead of a tool):

Broken started, simply enough with an image: a man and a woman on a park bench. I had this overwhelming image of a very lovely man who couldn’t be faithful – why would a man like that be constantly seeking out women? Why would the woman with him listen? And what would stop them from just giving in to lust and consummating it? That’s how it started and it grew from there. And oh, yeah, you hated the idea when I first mentioned it. HAHA! (editorial note: I hated the idea of an icky cheater! Joe is not an icky cheater in the version you showed me and wrote, so there.)

What writing rituals do you have?

Well, I mostly write Monday – Thursday while my kids are in school, while I drink copious amounts of Diet Coke with Splenda and listen to music. Sometimes to shake it up, or if I can’t get away from the distraction of the internet, I got to a coffee shop and drink copious amounts of coffee and listen to my iPod while I write on my Alphasmart. My writing ritual is: WRITE.

What draws you to a certain idea?

How invested I become in the characters. How believable I can make them. How much I want to find out what happens to them.

Are you a pantser or a plotter?

Pantser. I usually know the beginning and the end but not so much the middle…I keep notes but often end up with a different idea that comes to me in an AHA moment while I’m writing. It sort of flows that way. One thing leads to another (to quote the Fixx, yeah yeah yeah!)

What’s your favorite spot on a man’s body?

I really dig forearms. And the small of his back.

Give us three books you’ve read more than once and what about them made you want to pick them up again?

Imajica by Clive Barker – a great, fantastical love story that I can read over and over and still find something new to love.

The Stand by Stephen King – ooooh, whee, I do loves me some post apocalyptic stuff!

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein: I love the whole message

Two doors, behind one is a naked Ewan all ready to go, the other has Keanu with a bouquet of flowers and a bottle of Jameson – which door do you pick?

Curse you. How can I possibly be expected to choose such a thing? I mean, really. That’s hardly fair. Let me think on that…well…I guess I’d have to choose Keanu because though I do love some naked Ewan, Keanu is and has always been my number one, numero uno (a love that’s lasted twenty years!) and flowers and Jameson would only be icing on the cake.

Lastly, give us a sneaky peek into Perfect or whatever it’s going to be called, pretty please:

Haha, well, when I figure out what they’re going to call it, I’ll let everyone know. Here’s a bit about it:

Anne Kinney has a perfect marriage. Her husband James is handsome, charming, sexy. So’s his long-lost best friend Alex Kennedy, who shows up after years away. It shouldn’t be a problem, right? Any friend of James’ and all that. But what Anne finds is that Alex and James share a friendship deeper than it appears, something she’s not a part of. At least, not until the two men set out to seduce her into a relationship that seems at first glance to be for her pleasure. As the summer moves on, Anne and Alex forge a relationship beyond being the bridge between him and James. As she learns more about Alex and her husband and the friendship they began so long ago, Anne also learns more about herself and what she expects and wants from life and love. And how sometimes, being honest is more important than being perfect.

Megan Hart has written approximately a buttload of books and novellas in several genres. She likes to dye her hair purple and wear striped socks and she’s a very good writer. If you haven’t picked one of her books up yet you really should. And by the way, I bought my copy of Broken – just so the FCC knows. She just did a website overhaul – g’wan, check it out.

Today I’m gonna talk about my favorite book of last year that isn’t officially out until May 1 – Megan Hart’s, Broken. All the usual disclaimers apply – I know Megan, she’s my friend and we’ve given each other nicknames and all that stuff. Still, she’s not ensorcelled me so I’m incapable of an actual honest opinion on her book although dude, if she had that power it would be so cool, I’d totally make her use it on my behalf. Anyway, I digress…

Broken is a lot of things. It’s one of those books that stays with you a really long time after you finish because there are a lot of layers to it. In my opinion, it’s the best thing Megan has written and she’s a damned good writer so that should say something. Each time Sadie sits next to Joe and we hear a tale of his latest conquest, we’re really drawing down another layer of Sadie.

Whatever Broken is about, I can tell you what it’s not about – Broken is not about infidelity. I want to make that clear up front. Sadie loves Adam, her husband. But Adam has withdrawn himself emotionally after an accident has left him a quadroplegic. She’s lost him in many ways even though he’s there physically. Her entire being centers around his care and schedule – it isn’t that she hates him or wishes he didn’t exist, it isn’t that she wants to fuck Joe behind Adam’s back. Her life has made her into a mechanism – she takes care of everyone else and she doesn’t get much emotional feedback because her husband has lost himself and she’s helpless to help him regain what he’s lost. So for that one brief time every month, she’s unfettered from all that responsibility and context and she gets to be a woman.

She wants to be held and listened to and those brief times once a month as she sits and listens to Joe tell his stories, she can transport herself elsewhere in her head.

Sadie’s loneliness is sharp and painful at times. Her loss throbbed in my gut as I read. Her connection to Joe, his attraction to her, her committment to Adam and her embracing her life no matter what it has become creates a book that sent me reeling over and over.

Broken is not an easy book. It’s not lighthearted and romantic. It’s an unflinching look into someone’s inner life. I cried when I read Broken. It made me furious. It made me laugh and grumble. It drove me to email Megan a few times and give her what for.

Broken is evocative and deep and disturbing and yet, it’s uplifting too. Because Sadie can be any of us, you know? And she survives and rises and finds her way in a world that could easily drive her to give up for let go of the things that anchor her – to her life, to her husband, to everything she finds important. She’s not a saint, she doesn’t take care of Adam because she loves the hairshirt, she takes care of him because he’s her husband and she loves him and it’s the right thing to do and she believes that. That makes Sadie a character that rises above so many other characters in books. She’s flawed, yes, but she’s *real*

Broken is erotic, yes. The sex is integral to the story as a vehicle for Sadie’s mental escape and also as a glimpse into Joe. The story is in first person but I really felt I knew Joe and his insecurities as he told his stories. In them he’s not a sex god, his vision of himself is interesting and pretty unflinching. The moments between Sadie and Adam are heartwrenchingly beautiful and skillfully done and the connection between Joe and Sadie is powerful as well.

I’ve gone back and forth writing this, it’s hard to distill what Broken is because I think everyone will read Sadie with their own filters. And because Broken is a complex book. It’s not easy. But it’s worth it. Broken is, without question, an amazing book and I truly hope it gets the attention it deserves. Technically, it’s mindblowing. As an author, when I read it, I was floored by the skill Megan used as a writer. The story is marvelous but she tells it perfectly.

Go. Buy it. Read it. You won’t be sorry.

>

Thirteen Totally Random and Unrelated Things About Me

1. I’m religious about breakfast. I take breakfast very seriously and without a good breakfast I’m ravenous and slighly woozy all day long.

2. I put 300 tassles on bookmarks last night and I have a thousand left to go

3. I absolutely hate things that don’t make sense. Even if I don’t agree with something, if there are rules that led to that opinion or situation, I can accept it. But when things happen for no apparent reason, it drives me nuts.

4. I’d really like to sell a book this week.

5. I have an airplane book for RT – Night Rising

6. Every once in a while for no apparent reason I’ll sing the chorus from Electro Woman and Dyna Girl (see how I date myself?)

7. I love green olives

8. I am a not so secret fan of Laguna Beach. Oh the teenage drama!

9. I cannot believe Sci Fi is going to make me wait until next year for more episodes of Battlestar Galactica

10. I bought hot curlers the other day

11. I need to buy body scrub stuff this weekend

12. I don’t like banana splits

13. I am of the sincere belief adding cheese to just about anything makes it better

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

I’m doing book stuff twice this week because, well, because I can and because I’ve had a few books I’ve really wanted to talk about and haven’t had the space I felt they deserved so there.

First up – Vivi Anna’s Blood Secrets. This is, IMO, the best book Vivi has written so far and my very favorite Nocturne from the line as of yet. Vivi uses some excellent worldbuilding, strong characters and really wonderful sexual tension to create a memorable paranormal romance with substance and heat. I never got the sense that Vivi rushed or pulled a romance fast one to put the characters together. I will most definitely be back for the next book.

I loved Caine and the hints of his pain and struggle with his feelings about humans and his growing feelings for Eve. We’ve got a vampire who isn’t afraid of his otherness at all. He’s not an emo vampire who bemoans his existence, he’s who he is and I quite enjoyed reading him.

In Eve we get a woman who compared to the others she’s working with is fragile and deals with a great many setbacks. They get to her, she’s not perfect, she’s not a superhero at all. She’s human which is a fabulous contrast in Necropolis. She faces a lot of crap but doesn’t give up even when she’s visibly shaken, which is a nice thing. She’s no doormat but she also realizes she needs help in some situations.

Fabulous sexual tension and Anna uses every word to build it to the time when Caine and Eve finally consummate their relationship. It takes skill to not rush and to let things build so the reader is as impatient as the characters are and Anna succeeds here.

You can check out what Vivi is up to next at her website (also designed by Frauke!)

And then there’s Sasha White’s Lush. This is a three story anthology of erotic romances and as always, I was drawn in by Sasha’s voice immediately. Sasha has some indefinable quality that shines through and I always connect with it, no matter what it is she’s writing about.

But in Lush, she exceeded my expectations. Last week I talked about BDSM in writing and how so many writers failed to get into the heads of the characters? Sasha kicks ass with this in Principles of Lust, the first story in the anthology and my personal favorite. We’ve got a strong woman who isn’t afraid of or ashamed of her sexuality and a strong man who knows what he wants but isn’t afraid to admit he’s been presented with something he didn’t even realize he needed.

I think her writing with Principles of Lust in particular although all three stories are smart and sexy, is deft and clever. Novellas are damned hard to do well. You’ve got a lot to communicate in a short span of words but she does it and she does it well. We get into Zack’s head as he’s attracted to a woman but knows she’s way too aggressive for his appetites. The scenes where he’s topping her are sexy and not overdone. He’s not a stereotype and neither is Teal. I appreciated the strong woman who gives up control aspect of the story and also the struggle of what it means to give up power and what submission truly given is. This novella will forever be one that I’ll point to when people ask about what kind of BDSM writing I like.

Passion Play – the second story is told in alternating first person between the hero and heroine. Again I think the power behind this story (and all of them in the antho) is how White takes unlikely romance characters and makes them into wonderful romance heroine and heroes. First person can be risky but I think she gave us a great glimpse with the alternating chapters and POV.

The last story, Sexual Healing has a fantastic wounded hero and another woman unshamed of her sexuality. I think that’s what I enjoyed the most – I’m pretty bored with the “oh I hated sex until he came along” heroines in romance. I loved that each woman in Lush loved her sexuality even as she learned more about herself through her interaction with the hero. All three women are interesting and quirky and I enjoyed each one of them and well, I can’t complain in White’s use of dominant alpha males as heroes, they’re my favorite and she writes them in vivid strokes (heh) instead of making them cardboard jerks who claim to be alpha.

Lucky for everyone, Sasha’s got more books in store. You can keep track at her website.

The winner of an ARC of Sword and Crown is… TEHYA!

Email me with your format preference and I’ll send your copy your way. Congratulations!