Vixenwriter

With a bit of a recap of 2009 and a contest too…

For some reason, Trinity is showing up at Amazon in the Kindle store, but it says it’s not available for users in the US. Which means you can’t buy it. I’ve been getting some mail about this and I’ve written to Amazon a few times over the last 10 days or so asking them to fix it, but nothing has happened yet.

So, I’m appealing to all of you to help me. If you go to the Trinity Page at Amazon at the bottom of the page there’s a “Feedback” box where you can email Amazon. If you have a moment, I’d love you all forever if you went over there and wrote to Amazon, asking them to fix the error so the book can be purchased.

BTW: Yes, Amazon has been telling readers that the book isn’t available in the US and that it’s Samhain’s fault. Of course, as I informed them last night, this is inaccurate and the error is theirs and most likely EASILY fixable should they actually look at the page and try. They tell me they’ll know by the 4th what the answer is. The answer is not that the book isn’t available and that it’s Samhain’s issue. It’s a matter of improper classification on their own website – no one but Amazon has the ability to fix this issue. I can only imagine that it was the letters they received that moved them to actually respond to me directly – as Samhain has contacted them several times on this issue and they’ve assured Samhain several times, that the problem would be fixed.

Thanks to everyone who has written!!!

Until then, if you’re a Kindle owner – you can buy the book in Kindle format directly from MBAM

Thank you all in advance!

Hey folks, thanks to Michelle Pillow for the hot tip that some of my books are on sale at a great price at EC:

Crown and Blade - a two novella anthology with my Sword and Crown and Anya Bast’s Whisper of the Blade

And ENFORCER, the first in the Cascadia Wolves series.

Both are $3.50!

Undercover is also on sale at Amazon -$4.62!

Today’s Theme is Departures so I thought I’d post the scene in RELENTLESS when Roman and Abbie have to break their relationship off…

FEDERATION CHRONICLES: RELENTLESS by LAUREN DANE
Copyright 2009, Lauren Dane
All Rights Reserved, The Berkley Publishing Group

“I’ll survive. That’s who I am and I knew, we knew.” She paused as he brushed against her sweet spot with the head of his cock. “I’d rather have had you for this short time than never at all.”

“Gods, look at me, look at me, Abbie so I can see how beautiful you are. I have all I want and still I want more. But what I want most, I can’t have. I’ve never had that feeling before. I can’t say that I like it.”

He reached up to cup her neck, her eyes locked with his and she tried not to cry. Tears wouldn’t make a bit of difference.
When she came it was deep, rolling muscle contractions that made her limbs warm and heavy. His lips opened and he exhaled softly as she felt his cock jerk inside her.

Roman kissed the top of her head as she rolled from atop him and to the side. All he ever wanted was right there in his arms.

“You’re going to need to keep an eye on Saul. I’ve got people on him now to try and protect you but I can’t stop all of it. I can’t stop the gossip and I can’t stop the speculation. I wish I could.”

She sniffed her tears away though her eyes shone with them and he wanted to howl his misery.

“I know. I’ll talk to Daniel tomorrow. Today I guess. My father…I’m afraid he’s going to try to use this. I’ll do what I can to rein him in. I’ll have Tasha keep all communication between her and Marcus or Deimos’ assistant. I know we can’t associate.”

She sat up and he looked at her, beautiful and tousled from sex. He swallowed hard. “Abbie, my Family is talking marriage negotiations. Things are so bad in inter-Family relations, infighting, lesser Families fighting to try and shove Walker and Pela out of the way to take over. A marriage would stabilize things a bit. I, I’m sorry and I want you to know I wish to gods it wasn’t happening but it will be. I love you. I want you and if the ‘Verse were different…”

A tear slid down her cheek, her bottom lip trembled and the cold, sweet splash of the tear fell on his belly. “But they aren’t. I knew you’d marry again. I’m not ready for it. I’m not ready to see you love anyone else. But I know it will happen.”

“Abbie,” he sat up and took her chin in his grasp, “I will never love anyone else. You mean everything to me. And if it was just me, I would walk away from it all. But it’s not. It’s my children and the entire Federated ‘Verses in such an unstable time. I’ve made mistakes and we’re already on the verge of war. There will never be anyone else in my heart. You own it. Always.”

She licked her lips, the tears flowing now. “Go. It’s very late. I know you have to go and people will be watching you. I love you. Just know that, all right? Do what you have to.”

He got up and pulled his clothes back on. “Stay here. I don’t…I can’t take it if you walk me to the door.”

His last look at the woman he loved, the way he’d loved her most, was at that last moment before he turned and left the room. Her soft sobbing echoed in his ears all the way home.

Be Sure To Visit the Other Snippeters!

Vivian Arend
Ashley Ladd
Jody Wallace
Kelly Maher
Eliza Gayle
Lauren Dane
Taige Crenshaw
Shelley Munro
Savannah Foley
Moira Rogers

Ella Tipton is a survivor. In the wake of an attack that left her nearly dead, she’s spent each day putting her life back together. Once vibrant and outgoing, she’s needed to reclaim the best parts of who she was while retaining the hard won lessons. There hasn’t been room for any romantic entanglements, even if she were ready. Still, it didn’t mean she had to stop sneaking looks at Mister Tall, Dark and Tattooed himself.

Security professional Andrew Copeland isn’t quite sure when his jones for the lovely and decidedly skittish Ella developed. He’s known her for years, has watched her triumph over the pain she’d been dealt. Cope is no stranger to women, but he knows the nervous flush he gets every time he talks to her is different than any attraction he’s had in the past. Determined to get Ella to let him in, Andy does the one thing he can think of to get close: he offers her hands-on training in self-defense.

While Ella’s sure he’s just being nice, the prospect of being able to touch him and gain the tools to push away the last vestiges of her fear is more than she can resist. Soon enough, Cope shows Ella his feelings are far more than friendly and re-ignites something deep inside her. Before long desire and love turn them both inside out.

Today is Thanksgiving Day here in the United States and I imagine I’m up, the bread is rising and the beginnings of today’s feast are being sliced and diced and marinated. Most likely a football game or a parade is on the television too. I love Thanksgiving – I love the idea of making a meal with my loved ones, of sitting down and hanging out with them and of being thankful.

Last week I gave a shout out to some people and I said I’d be back with more and here I am. There are two people who’ve been with me since pretty much the start – we all met in person at a conference in the summer of 2005 and in the years since, I’ve watched their careers grow and grow with so much happiness -

Anya Bast – I met her online first – at Livejournal. She’s the one who encouraged me to send Triad to EC and hers is the first EC book I bought too! She’s been a good friend to me, she’s critted for me a million times, she’s given me great advice, has cheered me on when things were good and supported me when things got bad. She’s one of the most genuinely nice people I’ve ever met. Thank you, Anya, for being such a great example!

Megan Hart – I used to think she was “authorm” sounds like norm at the end – It wasn’t until I met her that I realized it was author M. One of the first face to face convos we had was about scissoring in anal scenes (no the lesbian kind but the spreading kind and yes, this is graphic, LOL). It’s how I ended up being called Scissors for years after, LOL. Megan Hart is a consummate professional – and she’s a dork like me, only she does it with way more style. I’ve learned a lot from having her crit my work, from reading her stuff and from writing with her. She’s the kind of no-nonsense person who will pet you and then kick your butt. It’s one of my favorite qualities, LOL. I don’t know that other than my husband, I’ve laughed so hard with any other person.

Because Tuesday would have been her birthday – Thank you to Tracy, who lost a pretty damned heroic battle with breast cancer. Far more than a beta reader, Tracy was my friend and the world is not nearly as wonderful without her in it.

Today’s guest blogger is the fabulous Angela James! I’m sure many of you don’t need me to tell you how wonderful and talented Angie is – but you can look below at her bio and see for yourself!

In addition to a more than full time job, I have a number of hobbies and interests like reading, crafting, blogging (and I just added a new craft/cooking blog!) so it’s quite common for me to hear people say, “where do you find the time?” And so often, I also see authors saying, about promotion, writing and editing, “I just don’t have the time!”

The truth is, for me and everyone out there reading this, we have time because we make time for what we want, what is easiest for us or most fun. Let me give you an example. I enjoy sewing, and I find shopping with coupons very rewarding (holy cats, you can save a boatload of money shopping the sales with coupons!) but though both are things I’ve done in the past, I’ve done neither recently. When asked why, I always say “I don’t have time” but that’s not really true. What I really mean is, “I’m not making time in my schedule for that because there are other things I’ve made time for instead.”

For one thing, I probably spend far too much time working (according to my husband I do, anyway). If I put aside work at a reasonable hour (instead of writing blog posts like this at 9:15pm at night), I would have time for sewing for at least an hour each evening. If, instead of surfing blogs, chatting on forums and nattering away on Twitter, I shut off my computer at 9:30p every night, I’d get far more books read for pleasure. But I make my choices of doing one thing instead of making time for others.

For authors, the same holds true for the questions of “when do I find time to write/when do I find time to promote?” The answer is: if you want it bad enough, you’ll find the time. I’m sure we’ve all heard from authors who get up an hour earlier in the morning to utilize that peaceful time to write. And how about novelist Peter Brett who says he wrote his novel with his thumbs (on his smartphone) during his daily commute? Those writers wanted to write and they found the time to do it.

Don’t have time to promote? If you’re an author, it’s a bit like saying you don’t have time for your job. More and more in these days of publishing, marketing and promotion is a much a part of an author’s job as writing—no matter which publisher, following whichever business model you publish with.

So how does a busy writer find time for these activities of writing and promoting? Evaluate your schedule. Make sacrifices. Be ruthless with yourself. Live for your dream, not just for the moment.

So when you evaluate your schedule, look at what you’re spending time on and where you’re spending time. Could you get up a half hour earlier and write? Write on your phone or a notepad during your commute or lunch break? Give up watching on reality TV show (or five) so you have an extra hour a night to write or spend on promotion.

Evaluate your time spent on the computer (this is a big one for me). Where is your time being spent? 45 minutes on IMs and forums chatting with friends? 2 hours reading blogs, commenting on the latest drama and chasing it around the internet? An hour on Zappos shopping for shoes? Keep in mind, marketing is part of my job. I know how much time marketing and promotion can take (hi, see me here? The one writing a blog post at…now 9:30 at night?) and what a time suck social media can be. When I evaluate my schedule, I tend to look at much of my time spent on writers’ forums, blogs and Twitter as a form of marketing and promotion, so part of work, but I also recognize there are days when I need to skip this so I can focus on other, more important things. Authors need to do the same.

Make sacrifices. Finding time to do these things is not always going to be easy, and don’t think that’s what I’m saying. Sometimes you’ll give up something that will hurt (like an hour of sleep), but will your sacrifice be worth it in the end? In the long term, what will have a more lasting impact on your life—watching Dancing with the Stars or getting an hour of writing done?

Be ruthless with yourself. No one else is going to monitor what you’re doing (though your editor and publisher might be interested in your marketing and promotional efforts—and subsequent sales numbers). But in the long run, writing is largely a solitary pursuit and you’re mostly answerable to only yourself. So you have to be ruthless with yourself. Allow yourself a few minutes of whining, grumbling and self-pity. Then remind yourself why you’re doing it.

Because you’re living for the dream, not for the moment. Living for the moment is indulging in sixty minutes of mindless browsing on Amazon. Living for the dream is spending those sixty minutes writing the best damn dialogue you’ve ever written—or even the worst damn dialogue you’ve ever written—or sixty minutes of promotional effort or developing a marketing plan. Whichever it is, every word is one more word towards polishing your craft, every promotion is one more reader who recognizes your name, buys your book, tells a friend. Every minute you invest in the business of being a writer is a minute closer to reaching your dream, whatever it may be.

Executive editor of Carina Press, Harlequin’s digital-only press, and veteran of the digital publishing industry, Angela James is a well-known advocate for digital publishing. James has enjoyed a long and varied publishing career that has included ownership of an independent editorial services business, work as a copy editor for electronic book and small press publisher, Ellora’s Cave, and executive editor for Samhain Publishing. James frequently travels to regional, national and international writing conferences to meet with authors and readers, and present workshops on digital publishing for both authors and readers of all genres of fiction.

You can follow Angela on her blog, Nice Mommy, Evil Editor www.nicemommy-evileditor.com/blog or on Twitter http://twitter.com/angelajames

When I was a kid parents were really fond of the saying, “Words can never hurt you.” As an adult I can say what I thought as a kid – words are important. They can hurt, lift up, tear apart, rationalize, give comfort, joy, kindness and surety.

I like words. This isn’t much of a surprise to people who know me, of course. I like to talk as well as write. Words frame things, they create a feeling, a lack of feeling, they cast a light onto things simply by their selection and use.

In erotic romance, or any kind of writing where sex and sexuality are part of the story, words are equally important and sometimes the search for the right words to set a mood gets forgotten in the never-ending quest to be a dirty as possible. Sadly in doing so, I think the book becomes *less* sexy/dirty and more checklisty “Page 56, time for anal!”

I know I use words some people don’t like. And that’s okay, we all have our own filters and perceptions. We like what we like! But I use the word “cunt” and I use the word “pussy” and I use the word “cock” – when a character would say so. Writing sex is complicated by how people think about sex. Some readers cannot read words on the page and feel comfortable. I’m totally fine with that – we all have our hot buttons.

However, I totally must object to the comment (and I’ve seen it several times) that women who ARE comfortable with the use of harder edged words for sex are somehow trying be men or are dirty and disgusting locker room whores. I call bullshit on that and it’s the kind of nasty crap that always keeps women down.

If *you* don’t like those terms, more power to you! But many women do, many women would say pussy and cock and it doesn’t make her a whore for saying so. This attitude really galls me, I have to say. It’s one thing to dislike a term and to not want it in your romance, but it is another to proclaim any book with these words is not a romance simply because these words exist on the page.

The solution is simple – put the book down. All books are not for all people. Personal taste rules reading choices, just like everything else. So stop being such a judgy grumpypants because others do like those words. Stop it with the gender slurs against other women whose tastes are different. I’m not calling you a prude, I’m totally supporting your right to be revolted by some words and to toss a book across the room. Even to say so in a review! I draw the line at being okay with women who aren’t revolted being referred to as whores or wannabe men.

I see this a lot with many things – people seem to think *their* opinions are general feelings. This is not so. If you don’t like a book, movie, pizza, song, whatever, that’s what YOUR opinion is. You have a right to that opinion, absolutely, but what you don’t have is a general statement of belief (for everyone) on the issue and any other belief is wrong or biased or whatever.

If you don’t like to see the word pussy on the page so much you can’t get past it, my erotic romances are not for you. And that’s totally fine – preferences make the world go around. I hate to see “slash” on the page and it may very well mean I put the book down. But that’s me and my preferences.

If I put a word in a scene, I’m doing it on purpose. No because I’m a whore, or want to be a man, but because I’m using words to paint a feeling on the page. It won’t work for every reader, or every scene, or taste. But really, it’s fine to understand words have impact and how they impact you may or may not be how they impact others.

Today’s theme is Arrivals so I thought I’d put up a snippet from COMING UNDONE:

COMING UNDONE by LAUREN DANE
Copyright 2010, Lauren Dane
All Rights Reserved, The Berkley Group
Releasing January 5!

Brody rode his bike up the driveway and turned the ignition off. When he slid his sunglasses down his nose, he watched Elise get out of her car, and smiled at all the crap she wrestled from the trunk as the kid bounced around the yard.

He saw her trash cans at the curb and thought, Why not?

Hailing her with a call of her name and a smile, he took one can per hand and carried them up toward where she stood. “Can I put these somewhere for you?”

“Um. Yeah, the garage. Here.” She bent into the car and hit the garage door opener. He didn’t fail to see how flexible she was, and a
brief flash of what she’d look like naked, sweaty and beneath him, flitted through his brain.

He hurried past and put the cans inside, stepping out as she closed the door again.

“Most people park in their garage.” He grinned.

“I will soon enough. Pete and Emmabeth—the couple who lived here before? They’re friends of a friend. They sold me this house on very short notice and asked if they could leave their furniture here in the garage until the fall. They went on a trip to see their kids and then to Europe.”

“Oh. I was wondering what happened to them. They were nice people. I’m glad they sold their house to another nice person.”

“Wow. You’re really good, aren’t you?”

She cocked her head ,and he realized she’d relaxed around him enough to actually joke, partially even flirt. Christ, her mouth, those eyes . . . He swallowed back the tide of longing, the urge to lean down and brush his lips over the curve of her cheek.

Instead he struggled for nonchalance. “I do try.”

“Thank you for bringing my cans in. How are you feeling?”

“Much better. No soreness anymore. My brother finally went home, and he and my sister only call to check on me twice a day. The bruises on my side”—he raised his T-shirt to show her—“are all gone. They arrested the guy, by the way. The one who hit me. He confessed it to several people. They tell me he’s going to make a guilty plea and go to rehab.”

She touched his side, a quick breath of a touch, and pulled back, blushing. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to touch you. I didn’t think.”

“It’s okay. I’m pretty sure my innocence is unsullied.”

She grinned. “Oh. Well, good. Um, listen, are you hungry? I was about to make some dinner.”

The air between them charged, heated. He shoved his hands in his back pockets before he ended up reaching out to touch her like he really wanted to. By the look in her eyes, she’d have been just fine with that touch, and that drove him insane. Still, he liked that
expectation in the air, liked the way it felt before either person made that first move.

There would be something between him and Elise. There was so much energy between them in the brief meetings they’d had, it would only grow the longer they knew each other. When the time was right, it would happen and he’d enjoy every single moment.

She licked her lips and he swallowed, hard, suddenly feeling like he was sixteen years old. He took a step closer and she didn’t retreat.

Just then Adrian showed up, honking his horn as he pulled up to the curb in front of Brody’s house. What timing his brother had.

He managed to bite back his groan of annoyance. “I’d love to, but my brother has apparently chosen now to stop over. Checking on me, I’d wager. It was Erin’s turn yesterday. You know how family can be. I’m sure he hasn’t eaten yet, so . . .”

She licked her lips again and little zings of chemistry buffeted between them. He enjoyed the intensity of it, the chemical soup of their connection.

“I’m making spaghetti. It’s not like making it for two instead of four is a problem. I mean . . .” Again the blush as her pale blue eyes met his, cruised down to his lips and then away as she took a deep breath. “If you’re hungry, Rennie and I wouldn’t mind the company. We’re new to Seattle, so it’s nice to get to know our neighbors.”

Rennie scampered up and nuzzled into her mother’s side. Elise’s arm automatically went around her daughter’s shoulder, and it pleased
Brody to see the easy affection there.

“Plus, we know you’re not no mad killer or nothing. The lady next door to you, the one with the dog who has all the sweaters, told us you look scary but are sweet as pie,” Rennie said.

Elise’s eyes closed again as she fought a laugh. It wasn’t like Rennie could help it; she was a blurter, much like her grandfather, Elise’s father, was. “A mad killer or anything, darling. If you’re going to insult our neighbor, let’s use proper grammar to do so.”

Brody’s ridiculously big brown eyes danced with amusement.

The way his bottom lip slid against the line of his goatee made her sort of tingly. Sort of? That was a joke. The man had torched a freaking thousand-acre wildfire within her. Perhaps if she hadn’t been masturbating to Brody fantasies so much, it wouldn’t have made
her all achy to just stand there near him. Pathetic.

“That’s good to hear. Mrs. Cardini, the lady with the little dog—his name is Stoney, by the way—is a good judge of character. I also think Adrian, my brother, would love a home-cooked meal. Neither one of us is much for cooking. If you’ll give me a few minutes,
I’ll go grab him and be back. That is, if you’re sure it’s not an imposition.”

“No imposition at all. Go on. I’ll get started. Oh, I guess I should ask if either of you is a vegetarian. I got sausage for the sauce, but I can make it without.”

“Nope, we’re both meat eaters. Be back in a few. And thanks again, Elise.”

She pretended not to watch his ass when he walked across the street, but hello, the way his waist tapered down to such a spectacular behind, the way it all contrasted with the width of his shoulders and the powerful muscles of his thighs. The whole package was pretty stunning in that bad-boy-with-a-Harley sort of way.

Don’t forget to visit the other snippeters!
Vivian Arend
Ashley Ladd
Leah Braemel
Taige Crenshaw
Shelley Munro
TJ Michaels
Juliana Stone
Eliza Gayle
McKenna Jeffries
Jody Wallace
Lauren Dane
Juliana Stone
Kelly Maher
Shelli Stevens
Victoria Janssen
Moira Rogers

Not a lot of reading this week I’m sorry to say. I’ve been working on Inside Out, my next contemporary for Berkley and finishing up an extended partial for my agent on an older project that I had to back burner until I had the time to get back to it again.

I realize I’ve neglected to share some good news!

COMING UNDONE received a TOP PICK from RT Booklovers Magazine!

Dane revisits the Brown family from Laid Bare in this knockout erotic tale. This is a major “feel good” book about two people rebounding from hard knocks without bitterness. It also comes with emotionally mature characters, palpable love and caring among family and friends, an adorable child and suspense. If that’s not enough, there is also passionate fun and intense sex. Hero Brody is a winner — sensitive and sexy.

Thank you RT Magazine and Joyce Morgan for this wonderful review!

I’ve also signed on to be part of the Mammoth Book of Hot Romance along with some of the best hot romance writers around (Charlene Teglia, Shiloh Walker, Sasha White, and Michelle Pillow to just name a few)

This has been a very long week. Lots of stuff going on, lots of stuff to think about as things develop. I am really looking forward to this weekend to chill out a bit.

If you’d like to relax and you love well written, hot romance - Alison Kent’s With Extreme Pleasure is a FREEEE download at Amazon!

Have a great Friday, everyone.