Vixenwriter

WHEEE! Today I got notes from Amazon that The Outlaw Demon Wails AND Grimspace have shipped. Yes, that’s right, I have read Grimspace but I’m buying a copy too, LOL! Also about half an hour ago, Rhyannon Byrd’s new Nocturne showed up on my doorstep. Much squeeing on my part. OH, and I’ve got an early copy of something that won’t come out until the fall.

I’m trying to recover from being sick, which sucks but with three young kids, it’s sort of old hat. I’m sweaty, dizzy and now annoyed at my children but such is life, LOL. Anyway, I’m thinking a lot about three things:

First - The Romantic Times Booklover’s Convention in April. This will be my second year and I’m totally thrilled to be attending again. I’m trying to figure out all the basics, the promotion stuff, the swag for our reader party, costumes and clothes - all that good stuff.

The trip will be jam packed with stuff - I’m flying into Anya’s neck of the woods and she and I are driving to Megan’s! Then we’re getting our author shots with the super fabulous Scott Church. I’ve wanted so much to get him to do my headshots but he’s in PA and I’m in Washington so I wasn’t sure when to make it happen. I’m totally thrilled about it! And then there’ll be a signing and Megan, Anya and I will do a fun live webcast probably Monday night before we head into Pittsburgh for RT on Tuesday. Then you know, RT stuff for days and days. Books, authors, readers, dancing, friends old and new, it’s going to be fabulous.

Second: The release of What Happens in Vegas May 1! (and I’ve heard it’ll be available early at RT!!) Oh my goodness how excited am I about this anthology!! We sold it in late 2006 so the four of us have been waiting a while now for it. Recently we’ve received some early reviews so I’ll be posting those at my website soon and now it’s a matter of making sure the ads are in place, getting my prize baskets ready for RT and contests elsewhere and trying not to break my neck looking at Amazon and Barnes and Noble every three minutes.

Here’s a longer blurb for my story, Stripped:

Dahlia Baker had a reputation in her hometown. It was one of the things a woman with a body like hers had to contend with. As if large breasts and legs for miles made her a dumb bimbo. But it wasn’t like anyone cared that she had a 4.0 and a free ride to UNLV and so she grabbed opportunity with both hands and headed for the sunny heat of Las Vegas.

Still, she has bills to pay and if she wants to keep herself in books and a roof over her head, she has to get a job. And that’s where The Dollhouse came in where she worked as a burlesque dancer.

She’s got a plan for her future. But into her life strolls Nash, the brother of the man who owned the Dollhouse and a reputed player. Nash was literally the hottest man she’d ever clapped eyes on.

And he wants her.

Despite her reservations, they enter into a fiery affair and soon Dahlia’s heart is involved.

Nash knows Dahlia is skittish and over time, he begins to understand why. He may be a playboy, but he knows what he wants and he wants forever with Dahlia. It’s just going to take a very skillful combination of extremely hot sex and unconditional love to get her to see it too.

Third (and related to #2): Getting Sensual Magic finished. This is the follow up to Stripped, the novella I’ve got in the Vegas anthology. I’m nearly done and if I can stop feeling like I’m going to hack up a lung, I’ll be done by the end of this month and have plenty of time for crit and revisions. This is William’s story, he’s Nash’s brother and he owns The Dollhouse, the burlesque club Dahlia (heroine from Stripped) works in. This one has a paranormal storyline (as do the others in the second anthology!)

oy, there’s “pull my finger” talk going on in the other room, must put a stop to it before I get “the talk” from teachers.

Blarg, all the sudden I got hit with some stuff and had to finish it so I was in the land of deadline. But when I came up for air, I discovered several wonderful things!!

To wit - Undercover, my December 2 release from Berkley Heat is now up for pre-order at Amazon!

Here’s the blurb since there’s not one up yet at Amazon:

Journey to an erotic future universe of passion, danger and deceit…

As a lieutenant of the Federation military, Sera Ayers is more accustomed to giving orders than taking them. Now she must obey the one man she can’t stand—and can’t stop thinking about.

With the enemy Imperialists gaining ground, a new covert team is assembled by Ash Walker. Ten years before, Sera had lovingly submitted to Ash’s dominance in the bedroom. But when he was forced into a political marriage, she left him rather than become his mistress. His marriage now over, Ash wants Sera on his team—and back in his bed.

The third team member, Brandt Pela, has an elegance to match Ash’s savage sexuality. And when their undercover plan requires Sera to pose as Brandt’s lover, it ignites a passion among the three of them more dangerous than their mission…

And, Making Chase is also up for pre-order at amazon. It comes out in print June 24 and I’m totally thrilled. This one is the last Chase Brother book so I hope folks who haven’t read it yet enjoy it.

Still cooking on Sensual Magic for Spice. I’m hoping to wrap it up next week! I’m off again, more busy! I’ll be back in a moment to draw a winner for the Grimspace contest!

This is potty training central. Sigh. Time number three. This one a girl so I don’t have to constantly redirect penises, which is nice and far less messy. (Again, I know, so glamorous!!). I find myself giving praise for bodily functions, which is, um odd outside of sex, LOL, and no, I don’t give my dude stickers or clap for him, even when he’s got his A game working. She likes to bring her barbie in with her and put her on the back of her seat. Whatever. As long as she doesn’t fall in, I’m game with whatever will get her out of pull ups because after what seems like an eternity of changing diapers (and my oldest will be 10 in November so yeah, a looooong time, each time I get one trained I ended up having another)

I’m in that “in between books” stage. I’m trying to settle in and work on something. I just figured out the opening to dirty/bad/wrong last night and this morning. My husband always listens to me so patiently when I pelt him with my ideas, LOL. And he’s a great sounding board and helps me plot too. I’m also revising something so that’s a task which uses a different writerly brain muscle.

Chased is out in print today! Wheee! I don’t see it listed at My Bookstore and More yet though, grr. It is however, now shipping from barnes and noble!

Even more good news? To Do List will be in a print combo with Jaci Burton’s Unwrapped in September of next year. How freaking thrilled am I? More details as they’re worked out.

Well, the last book in the Chase Brothers series is now available from Samhain! Warning: My Bookstore and More is slow to load this morning! Just give it a bit and it’ll be up.

Blurb:

Book Four In the Chase Brothers Series.

Tate Murphy is a girl from the wrong side of the tracks. She grew up a million miles away from the easy life Matt Chase has had. She’s spent her life pulling herself and her siblings up and out of that trailer by the railroad tracks and she hasn’t looked back. Matt Chase is a dream of a guy and she’s certainly not going to turn down a short fling with one of the most handsome men she’s ever seen!

Matt Chase has watched each one of his brothers find love and he knows he’s ready for that too. It’s all a matter of finding the woman who captures his heart. He’s certainly sampled his fair share of them but none has moved him the way Tate Murphy does when he goes to her shop to thank her for some cookies and a thank you note.

But as Matt gets to know Tate and appreciate her strength and unique beauty, he also realizes she’s got some big self esteem issues about her past. To build a future, he’s got to find a way past some big road blocks.

At my messageboard it’s Titilating Tuesday which means I’ll be putting up excerpts!

I’m List Momming it today - Monday June 11, at the Samhain Cafe to celebrate the upcoming release of Making Chase! Please come by to say hello!

I’m sitting here surrounded by Chase boys. You did know I had two releases in June right? Well on Tuesday, the very last Chase Brothers book, Making Chase, releases from Samhain. So I’m snuggling up on Matt while I can (when Tate isn’t looking) because after Tuesday he’s all hers. Too bad because he’s very cute and he smells good too. In my brain, they’re all mine. Hey, why do you think I write them anyway? Jeez.

So moving along, I thought it would be fun to oh, I don’t know, give away an ARC of Making Chase if folks are so inclined. What do you say?

So it goes like this - those of you who’ve read my Chase books, which is your favorite and why? Those that haven’t - why do you like contemporary romance and toss a few favorites my way because I’m always looking for new books.

And that’s all. I’ll toss names into the hopper at say, 6 pm pacific/9 eastern tonight and choose a winner. G’wan - you know you want to!

Let’s see…I’m getting ready to go to Lori Foster’s Reader Author Get Together next weekend. I’ve never been so I’m really excited about it. I get to finally meet Barb and Pam in addition to many other authors and readers I’ve known online forever so that’ll be wonderful. I also get to see the ever-so-wonderful Anya Bast, who I just love to death and I haven’t seen her since October so I can’t wait! I’ll be at the book signing on Saturday, June 2 from 4 - 6 at the hotel (Cincinnati Marriot North) so come by and say hello if you’re in the area! If you’re attending the get together, please find me and say hello!

I’m blogging my reads in the 10,000 books challenge at eharlequin. I did a count a few days ago but every day I remember other books I’ve read. I should keep better track, LOL. I think blogging them will help me do that. I did make a personal decision not to blog the books I hate. Yes, yes I know some people get shirty about that and I’m sure I’ll be accused of something or other because of it, but it’s a personal decision. Generally, I don’t want to spend time on books I hated over books I love. Now I will talk about books I enjoyed but may have had flaws. But I have my share of wallbangers too, god knows I have preferences just like anyone else. Still, I think I’d rather talk about books I want everyone to read instead of books I didn’t like. I bitch enough without that.

It’s a long weekend, yay! I hope it means a lot of writing but in truth it most likely means breaking up a lot of inter-sibling bickering, laundry and the cleaning of bathrooms.

Ascension will be out in less than two weeks! Whee! And then Making Chase on the 12th! It’s going to be a really good June.

I’m reading Gennita Low’s Virtually His, nearly done as a matter of fact and it’s so good! It’s also movie night for me and my dude.

Okay, off to clean the kitchen…

OH! Anya Bast’s Witch Fire is starting to show up in some bookstores! This is such a fabulous book and Anya is one of my favorite authors so you should go and grab it. If you like paranormal romance, magick, really hot chemistry, sexy heroes and smart heroines - this is the book for you. I’ll be reviewing it later in the week along with an interview with Anya as well.

I also found out Giving Chase is up for Book of the Month at Sensual Reads and Reviews!! If you’d be so inclined - a vote would be much appreciated!

Now back to the writing cave!

I wrote 12K this weekend with the help of my dude who gave me scads of alone time holed up in the bedroom so I could finish Making Chase. I’m about 2K away at this point from finishing and I’m pretty pleased at this point. I’ll need to print it out and do a read from beginning to end on paper to see where it’s going but it feels coherent at this point. Interesting though, there’s a fist fight and nearly another in this book. I don’t normally do that and of all the brothers, this one is the least likely to plant a fist in someone’s face. Still it works for him.

The heroine is “plus sized” or “rubenesque” or as Tate says, “fluffy” and when I write fluffy heroines I try to make them approach their size from different perspectives. I don’t write self loathing heroines, it’s not something I do. She doesn’t “find her beauty through the eyes of a man” or lose forty pounds or whatever either. She’s beautiful and she knows she possesses qualities that make her special.

At the same time, Tate knows that she’s with this man who’s been with many extraordinarily beautiful women and she knows she’s not the same on the outside. There’s a struggle with this because of course Matt’s sisters-in-law, especially Cassie and Liv are really stunning and Tate is put off by it. Still, she gets over it because Matt loves her. And not in a I was awful until he loved me sort of way, but when someone looks at you like you’re the best and most wonderful thing ever, those other beautiful women out there aren’t so daunting. It’s a fine line but I hate it when a larger heroine is written and she’s redeemed through the man - like being fat is a moral failing.

I just hope I write it right! Because Tate is a fun character but she’s broken too in many ways so I want to celebrate the parts that aren’t broken and write the parts that are.

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!