Vixenwriter

Hey everyone! I’m over at Naughty and Spice today guest blogging about burlesque. Come over and say hey and be entered into a contest to win any of my available books!

I’m over at Julie K. Rose’s Blog being interviewed about music soundtracks! You can listen to it here and read the full transcript here at Julie’s Writer Soundtrack blog.

And tomorrow/Wednesday the 30th, I’m doing an Author Day at the Raven (Mandy and Michelle’s place!) from noon to three eastern/nine to twelve pacific. I’ll be talking about Stripped, my story in the What Happens in Vegas anthology as well as Celebration for the Dead and my upcoming release, Fated from Samhain. Come by and hang out for a while, say hello and hopefully win something too!

So Vegas is now shipping from both Barnes and Noble and Amazon!

Behind closed doors, the real games begin…

Winning it big.

That’s the name of the game at Las Vegas’s Liege Hotel and Casino, where the hottest fantasies hinge on a roll of the dice…and the tantalizing knowledge that anything could happen before sunrise.

Cocktail waitress Carinna wants a man to tie her up, not tie her down. Little does she know that her most willing partner yet has something else planned for this fiery Latina bombshell.

Dahlia is a burlesque dancer with a brain for business and a bod for sin. Her latest admirer may be a sweet-talking Casanova, but despite what he thinks she’s not giving anything away free.

Meanwhile, Amy has the perfect plan to rob the Liege Casino blind…until the intimidating owner catches her red-handed. Now she knows she’s going to pay… with both pleasure and pain.

Professional shill Cassidy is ready to experience a breathless rendezvous with her “friend with benefits.” But when he proposes five delicious nights of sexy blackjack, the stakes have never been so high.

My story is Stripped. I came up with the idea while, not so surprisingly, I was on a trip with my husband to Las Vegas and we went to Ivan Kane’s Forty Deuce - a fabulous old style burlesque show/lounge in the Mandalay Bay. I came back, ready to write the book and my agent called and asked if I’d be interested in being part of a Vegas themed anthology pitch. I think for me, it was meant to happen and I’m glad it did.

Anyway - an excerpt of Stripped exists right behind the cut!

Read the rest of this entry ?

You wanna know what happens? Well, you’ll have to read the upcoming anthology featuring what Loveromances calls: Fasten your seatbelt, because four of the best authors of the erotic romance genre take you on a wicked and wild trip to Sin City. 

Now, here’s the thing - you can wait until May 1 when the book comes out or come by the Pittsburgh Hilton on Saturday April 19 and get one there.  OR

You can enter to win one of the shiny, pretty author copies I received.  

If you choose the latter, simply use the handy dandy contact form at my website and be sure to put VEGAS CONTEST in the subject line.  I’ll begin choosing winners at random, oh any old time I want to and up through they’re gone. Just make a note of where you’d be putting your review up (and no, it’s not going to make a difference if you post at Amazon v a review blog) - it just helps me to know where things may be going up.

Is there a catch? Not really. What I would like is if you’d put up a review of the anthology either at your blog, another review blog or at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.com.  A good review is obviously desirable but not required - all four of us want you to love our stories but we want you to be honest too.

So that’s it - you want a free, early copy, enter to win!!  I’ll be notifying winners via email so be sure the address you use is valid.  ONE ENTRY PER PERSON PER HOUSEHOLD PLEASE

All Winners Have Been Notified By Email!
Mary
Laura K
Tez Miller
Catherine Corbett
Amy Smith
Christy Hawkes
Sunflower95_daisy
Heather Nestorick
Bungluna
Gail Martin
tmealhouse
Joy Roach

My husband is home! Yayayay! He’s been away for the last week on a business trip and between all the writing work I’ve needed to do, running three kids around and sleeping like ten kinds of awful when he’s not here - I was just TIRED yesterday afternoon. But he’s home and I missed him and we had pancakes and did the nice, Saturday morning family thing.

I did update my website with excerpts for Taking Care of Business and Undercover should anyone be interested in checking those out and also, I put up a page for my next Cascadia Wolves book, Fated. Yes, Unexpected is now Fated because as the very clever Angie pointed out, Unexpected sounds a lot like Undercover and we didn’t want readers to confuse the two. Anyway, there’s a loose blurb up now.

AND…I’m told the author copies of What Happens in Vegas are on their way! Which means I’m going to be doing some contests soon so keep an eye out. I didn’t want to start a contest until the books were actually here though, LOL. I can’t wait to see them. Anya has hers already and she said they were very pretty so I can’t wait.

That’s about it. I need to deal with laundry and get some writing work done. It’s sunny today so I’d like to get out and plant some of the seeds the kids and I picked up last week as well.

Enjoy your Saturday afternoon!

I am finally finished with revisions on Undercover. They were pretty light but I wanted to be sure they were as good as possible so I was extremely careful with them. Whew. Now I’m on to a last polish of Sensual Magic, which is due to Harlequin April 1, that shouldn’t take more than a day or so, and finally I can get back to Unexpected. Yay!

I have to say, I got pretty sweaty when I read back over the sex scenes in Undercover. It’s hard when you’re writing something and then editing the first time. You’re very close to the book so you can’t really gauge. But reading it over again, some months later I was like, “wow!” I think this is the hottest book I’ve ever written but also, I was pleased to see the emotional depth in places too. I feel better about it and I already liked it before. Sweet relief.

I ordered some goodies for RT for our Love Shack reader party on Friday (don’t miss it folks!) This party will have goodie bags filled with excellent swag that’ll be exclusive to the party including books from the participating authors. I also ordered postcards for Undercover and Vegas and they turned out so pretty.

I wanted to take a moment to say thank you to Frauke, the person behind the creation of this website (and also the hosting service for it, Janus Portal Hosting) and a great many other websites you you see around. As well as the person who designs my bookmarks, my RT ads and other various graphics like business cards etc. She is truly wonderful. I will give her a few elements and she always turns them into something wonderful. I’ve been a client of hers for several years now and I’m always just so awed by her talent. Plus she helps me with technical stuff when I just can’t figure it out. She always takes pity on me and with good humor. So thank you, Frauke - truly, you make my job so much easier and you do it with style.

Totally UNconnected to any of the above - did you know there was Fraggle Rock fic? I sat in a corner and rocked for a while once I found that out. And then I saw a guy in a furry suit with black leather assless chaps. Don’t ask where I found it. But, well just don’t ask. I think I may have bad dreams.

Now, I’m off to catch up on the stuff I let slide today to finish up with Undercover. Happy Hump Day!!!

In closing, to combat bad dreams - my dreamboat, let me show you him…

Marcus Patrick

My story Stripped, comes out in the What Happens in Vegas anthology on May 1 (although I’ll have it to sign at RT, wheee!). Stripped is the story of Dahlia Baker, a small town girl living in Las Vegas to get her MBA and to pay her bills, she works at a burlesque club called The Dollhouse where she meets the owner’s brother Nash Emery. Sparks fly, and you know, sexin, arguing, angst, dancing and HEA.

So I thought for Poetry/WIP Monday I’d give a little glimpse into Dahlia and Nash’s world…

Excerpt behind the cut with a tiny bit of adult content…

Read the rest of this entry ?

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.

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?