Vixenwriter

So there’s this gorgeous, talented author and her name is Anya Bast, I happen to be fortunate enough to call her a dear friend and also to write with her in Harlequin Spice’s first anthology – What Happens In Vegas.

Anya creates book videos and she made this one for the antho. It’s fabulous, no?

I haven’t done this one in a bit because I haven’t had much reading time but I have managed to get some reading done as my brain is still racing from nightly writing and I’m trying to relax.

Several of them had been in my TBR Pile for some time and I finally got to them and I wasn’t sorry:

Jaci Burton’s Wild, Wicked and Wanton – Loved it. I’ve been reading Jaci for some years now, in fact she was one of the first authors I tried at EC and I’ve just always thought she’s really talented. In Wild, Wicked and Wanton she gives us a trio of novellas centered on three friends and a bet. Loads of fantasy variety here, you’ve got some menage, voyeurism, exhibitionism, some D/s – lots of great stuff and all done well. Burton also manages to give the reader characters they can like, which is often a difficult task in a novella. The women and their friendship is lovely as well and I liked the variety of ages and walks of life too.

Jaci Burton, Eden Bradley and Lisa Renee Jones’ Exclusive - Another anthology, this one featuring three very fine authors. I’m extremely picky about BDSM themed books because well if you’ve read this blog any length of time you’ll know I think most authors miss what I find so interesting about D/s which is internal and emotional and about trust and nto just spanking. Bradley shines here in Sanctuary. There are moments when we’re inside the heroine’s head and it’s a true thing of beauty. Emotional and striking. I liked how she portrayed the hero as well. I’m not always a fan of sex club based stories but this one is so wonderfully internal, the point is really about the two people and the path they’re on.

Burton gives us Wild Night, following up with a character she introduces us to in WWW. What I liked here, was the unconventional way Grace and Mike come together. I think what I enjoyed most was the idea not that opposites attract (which I do love) but that sometimes what we need is someone who mirrors us in many ways. Mike and Grace are a lot alike, lots of defenses, lots of walls and as they learn each other, they learn about themselves.

Lisa Renee Jones Purple Magic throws a really wonderful paranormal ending to the anthology. She gives us Jolene, a half vampire needing help to save her human friend from the clutches of a pretty evil vampire and so she goes to Drago, a slayer and one of those fabulously dark and reluctant heroes that when he gets all sweet you melt because it’s so genuine. Jolene is loyal and wary but also not stupid when it comes to depending on the experts to do their job. Sexy and really well done and I hope to see more from the other slayers we met.

Rachel Caine’s Thin Air – oh wow. Seriously, just wow. If you’ve read the series you were made of stone if the end of the last book didn’t move you (for me, to tears). But this one opens with danger and action and really sucks you right into the book and you don’t get much chance to breathe until halfway through and then something else happens! You don’t quite know who to trust and neither do the characters. It makes for a really fast paced and edgy read and I really loved it.

1. Cynthia Eden’s release of Red Hot New Year

2. Sasha White’s release of Sexy Devil

3. Red Garnier’s release of Sheeman

4. Lori Armstrong’s Fabulous Announcement!

5. All those fabulous videos of Julian McMahon on youtube

*fans self* sighs

6. A sex scene I’ve been writing for the last three days. It makes me so happy, I actually just giggled about it!

7. That’s it for now, but really, it’s a lot of fabulous!

Sexy Devil is a book containing two of Sasha White’s novellas – The first – The Devil Inside which was previously pubbed in ebook form at Samhain and the second, Devil’s Jewel which is a sequel.

One thing I love about Sasha’s writing is her voice. Doesn’t matter what it is, her voice is always clear in her books. It’s a young voice, smart, sharp, insightful. Her characters are real people with flaws and as usual, in The Devil Inside and Devil’s Jewel, really likeable. The sex, without a question, is hot and well written although you’ll find more in TDI than in DJ, they’re both erotic and sensual stories.

I do love an opposites attract story with a fun loving and carefree heroine, it’s a nice change from the usual where it’s the man who’s all wild and the woman more uptight. It’s done well here. Caleb is hot because he’s solid, grounded and yet, he’s the kind of guy who, once you scratch a few layers down, is wilder than you thought. I like that and Gina likes that too. I like that the misunderstanding wasn’t spun out into something silly either.

All in all, TDI is a hot story with a sweet edge. And as usual, Sasha does a great job with well drawn characters and hot chemistry.

Devil’s Jewel brings back Angelo (yum), Gina’s brother from TDI and he’s on the hunt. And he meets Jewel, a gypsy who’s also looking for her sister who’s been kidnapped.

Right from their first meeting (hot dangerous action), there’s great chemistry between the two. The paranormal aspects of the story are interesting and dark.

I loved how Devil’s Jewel is more like a continuation of TDI than a separate story. You get a lot of Gina and Caleb, which I really loved as well as getting to know Angelo (Devil) and Jewel. As such, the phyiscal relationship between Jewel and Angelo goes slower although they have lots of heat between them. I liked that, I liked that it wasn’t a two minutes after meeting they were having sex thing but the story was still sexy. It takes an artful hand and White does it. When they finally do have sex the tension has really made you work for it and believe it.

The paranormal parts of the story, as I said above, were well done and drawn nicely. I really liked that part.

Taken together, the whole package of Sexy Devil is very satisfying, very hot and a whole lot of fun.

The winner of the Sexy Devil contest was email #5 – T Warner!

I’ve got your mailing address so I’ll get your book your way! Congratulations. By the way, I’ve tossed the remaining folks into a drawing for one of my paperbacks as well. I’ll choose a winner on Friday.

I don’t know what the deal is but I have been so cold this fall and winter! I’m suddenly the woman you work with who wears like a coat in the office and has a space heater under her desk. My poor husband walks around in shorts and I’m wearing three layers and the heat is on full blast. Today it’s really, really cold and it’s not just me. We may even get snow mid-week and this morning as I took the middle monster to school we even had a bit of wet snow for a bit. The boys are whipped up about snow days but I’m so ready for them to be in school, LOL.

Last night I met my Sven goal and surpassed it by 2k! This morning I woke up having written 102K words since October 15. I’ve written several books (from partial and one from word zero) as well as partials and a metric ton of edits and revisions. I feel very productive and now that I face the end of this year and start of 08 with loads of deadlines, I’ll be needing those extra days for revisions and crit on Battlefront as well as edits on Standoff and Celebration for the Dead and FLE on Wolf Unbound. I’m totally in love with Sven.

Battlestar Galactica Razor was pretty darned good on Saturday night. I had some lovely red wine and we snacked on chocolates two little birdies sent me in congratulations for my Berkley sale. My kids actually stayed asleep and no one interrupted!

Okay back to work! Don’t forget to enter the Sexy Devil contest!!

So this week, Sasha White’s newest book, Sexy Devil releases! So, because I happen to love Sasha and her writing, I thought a contest would be fun (and really, aren’t free books always fun?) You can check out excerpts at Sasha’s website.

The deal is this – I’m going to run a contest from now until Tuesday the 27th (the day the book releases officially) and on Tuesday evening at 6 pm pacific/9 eastern I’ll choose a winner of a shiny new paperback copy of Sexy Devil! I’ll post the winner Tuesday night and my review on Wednesday (hint – refer back to my earlier statement about loving Sasha’s writing)

What do you need to do: Answer these two questions and email me the answers with SEXY DEVIL in the subject line.

1) What is the name of the heroine in “Devil’s Jewel”?

2) What is the name of one of the two novellas in the book?

Answers can be found at Sasha’s website.

First a shout out to Frauke at Croco Designs who has (as usual) gone above and beyond the call of duty to not only create a fabulous splash page for my Vegas anthology but who’s spent a huge amount of her time in moving my website from my old host to her fabulous new digs at Janus Portal. She’s a fabulous designer and I adore her work and her as a person!

Also, the fabulous Dreamforge Media is designing a new blog template for the Maverick Authors! I can’t wait to unveil it. All kinds of exciting stuff going on!

Also, yesterday, the new RT came in the mail. I already knew I’d gotten a fabulous review for Ascension but EC had a backpage ad with one of the anthologies I’m in – Feral Fascination as well as in the Spring books preview, the Vegas anthology got a mention! It was quite lovely to see. Also, some friends got some great reviews, which is also nice to see.

Cooking on Battlefront – and I made a Battlefront book page here so you can read the loose blurb for it and get an idea of what the book is about. I’m just shy of 50K now, over halfway finished with the book and now that I’m getting ready to transition, I’m feeling better about pacing. The middle of a book is always the hardest for me to write!

Tonight is Battlestar Galactica Razor with my dude! It’s a movie that gives you the story of what happened on the Pegasus when the Cylons attacked up until the start of this upcoming season. Yes, yes I am a sci fi freak and I’m proud of it! This movie is on my calendar I so love the series, LOL. Plus, it’s good date night fodder with my husband.

Monday I’ll work on Standoff, it’ll have been a week since I finished so it had some time to digest.

Um, that’s really about it. I’m going to gorge on Gordon Ramsay today on the BBC. I love him so much.

I’m so beyond thrilled! It’s here!

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days of the year. Why? Well certainly pie has a lot to do with it but beyond the food, it’s a day where I’m surrounded by the people I love most in the world and I get to take care of them and have them take care of me. I think being thankful is something one should do more than once a year and gratitude and graciousness are two very important qualities to a good life.

So here goes in no particular order:

Have a lovely Thanksgiving. May you have lots of lovely food, family and friends. And ice cream on your pie. And for those who live outside the US – I still wish you ice cream on your pie.