Sunday, September 27, 2009

An Interview With Author Tessie Bradford

Welcome, Tessie! Thanks for coming over today!


Tessie Bradford writes hot romance for Ellora's Cave, and she and five more of my wonderful friends have joined me in writing the Anthology Series Carnal Reunions! that will be released by Resplendence Publishing on November 10, 2009!

Welcome! Tell us a little about yourself.


I’m a wife, mother, grandmother, animal lover, Human Resources Manager, and author.

You write romance for Resplendence. Tell me, what do you love most about being a Resplendence author?

The creative support and encouragement I’ve received. Training Randi is my first book with RP. From manuscript acceptance, to collaborating with the other Carnal Reunions authors, to cover design, and edits; I know there is a team of professionals who are dedicated to success. It is a pleasure to work with them.

How many books have you written?

I have one book published and three others are contracted. Five WIPs are on my computer and a multitude of ideas for more stories are bouncing around in my head.

Out of all of the heroes you have written, which one is your favorite? Why?

I find that my hero worship is a fickle thing; my favorite is always the one I’m currently working with. While doing edits for Training Randi, I loved getting re-acquainted with Jeff Briggs. Driven, confident, self-disciplined; he doesn’t give up when he wants something, and he’s been wanting Miranda Ellson for ten long years. Toss in his sense of humor, emotional openness, and “masterful” talents in the loving department, he’s a true force to be reckoned with!

Many writers have a set routine they follow when they write. Do you have such a routine?

Sorry for the cliché, but being a published author is my dream come true. I chose to answer this question as a personal intervention. I have NO routine! I continue to allow my day job (can’t help this one, health benefits and all) to take precedence. And then phone calls, pretty shiny things, checking emails, reality TV shows, house chores etc. all conspire to interrupt my creative flow. Mercifully, I love focusing on edits! There, maybe seeing this in print will force me to work on this particular shortcoming.

Do you have a book you would just love to discuss with us today? Did you bring an excerpt?

Of course! I’m thrilled to give the readers a sneak peek of Training Randi, my contribution to the Carnal Reunions anthology.

Blurb:

Miranda Ellson graduated from college with a degree in design in one hand and a ticket to London in the other. Ten years, five job changes and three boring, unfulfilling relationships later she’s back at WIU to re-connect with old friends, enjoy the campus activities and take a break from…oh who the hell is she kidding? Jeff Briggs, former college neighbor and best bud, now successful gym owner, lives in town. He’s the only guy she has ever known who could set her panties on fire by simply walking into a room and Randi is sick and tired of only hooking up with him in her dreams. This may be her only chance to discover exactly what kind of personal training he has to offer.

Excerpt

Miranda crossed the street and walked quickly over to a bench on the far corner. It was probably for the best if she just got back in her car and headed home to Chicago, but it was a long drive and she should rest first. She dug around in her purse, finding her cell phone and the list of hotels that the reunion committee had sent, and started dialing. By the time she hung up with the last hotel, still hearing the clerk laughing at her request for a room during one of the busiest weeks on campus, tears clouded her vision. Maybe she could nap in her car?

Not paying the slightest bit of attention to her surroundings, Miranda jumped up from the bench and collided hard into an immovable object.

“Whoa, impressive hit.” Strong hands gripped her hips. “If you’d lowered your right shoulder a bit, I’d be flat on my ass.” Lord that voice. The deep baritone mixed with the southern drawl sent butterflies dancing in her tummy. How many nights had she imagined him whispering all of the naughty deeds they were going to do together? Miranda squealed in surprise when he lifted her off the ground and hugged her tightly.

“Jesus, Jeff. You startled the crap out of me,” she wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged back. How freaky good was this? A faint scent, spicy and familiar, instantly sent a rush of heat to her pussy. “It’s not nice to sneak up on a girl, you know.” Her fingers inadvertently tightened on the corded muscles of his shoulders when he set her down. Maybe it would be okay if she held onto him for a second longer?

“You were so lost in your thoughts I’m pretty damn sure I could have parked my pickup right here on the sidewalk, and you wouldn’t have noticed.”

“Point taken,” she laughed. “It’s good to see you again, Jeff.” Her pulse rate sped up when his hands moved to lay scandalously close to the upper swell of her ass.

“Ah, Miranda, it’s a whole bunch better than ‘good’ to see you. What are you doing out here plowing into innocent pedestrians? Shouldn’t you be hanging out with the other Gracie Girls, getting caught up on ten years of goings on?”

“They don’t know I’m in town yet. I never exactly committed to when I was going to get here or where I was staying. I was kind of working up the nerve to go in when I bumped into you.”

“You were starting to run down the street in the opposite direction, darlin’.”

“Oh you noticed that, did you?” She glanced down at the ground while nervously shuffling her feet.

“It was hard to miss.” Jeff chuckled, lifting her chin with a finger. “Why the sad eyes, Randi?” The look of concern on his face was heartwarming. “Tell your old buddy what’s going on. We used to be able to talk about anything.” Jeff stared down at her with a crooked grin and a raised eyebrow. “If I remember correctly, we would have done a lot more than just talk if you’d had your way,” Heat instantly infused her cheeks.

During the two years they had been neighbors and friends, they’d spent countless hours studying together, solving the world’s problems with high-spirited political debates and talking about their plans for the future. They had also spent a great deal of time and energy not dealing with the serious sparks of sexual tension that arched every time they were in the same room. Miranda had shamelessly used every trick in the book to seduce him, but despite her most fervent efforts, he always gently refused her advances with soothing compliments and vague explanations of her not understanding what a relationship with him would mean.

“It’s not very gentlemanly of you to remind me of that, Jeff,” she admonished with a grin. “I was young and inexperienced, and with you being so much older and wiser than I was; well I was just bowled over by your manly goodness.” Miranda stared up at him with mischief dancing in her eyes.

“There’s the Randi I know: sharp tongued and sexy as hell.” She gasped in surprise when he hauled her up against his solid frame and planted a kiss on her forehead. “What do you say we take a walk and get reacquainted? Maybe if you start out with me it won’t be such a big deal to meet up with the others.” He let her go, took a step back and held out his hand in invitation.

Miranda didn’t hesitate. She placed her hand in his, allowing him to guide her toward the southern end of campus. His grip was strong but the pace he set was slow and comfortable. She glanced over at him and smiled, taking her first good look at the man he’d become. He hadn’t gotten any taller, not that he needed to at probably six foot three or four inches. His deep brown hair was cut short now, his face a bit fuller and there were little personality lines around his piercing green eyes. The black t-shirt he wore did nothing to disguise the muscular physique beneath, and did everything to accentuate his perfectly defined biceps. The faded, snug blue jeans sitting low on his hips further accentuated the fact that physical fitness was still a big part of his life.

Images of him pumping iron, shirtless and glistening with perspiration, assaulted her, and she clumsily stumbled over a piece of uneven pavement. Jeff released her hand and drew her against his hip without breaking their stride. She felt the heat of his palm right through the thin cotton material of her skirt. Oh yeah, this was going to help her pay attention to where they were going.

That was absolutely fabulous, Tessie! It's gonna be a wonderfully hot anthology! Thanks for joining me today and sharing.

Thanks so much for having me, Fran.


Monday, September 21, 2009

Chat over at Seven Sexy Scribes Group!


My friends from my shared blog site are having a chat for my new release over at our Seven Sexy Scribes Yahoo Group! The date is September 25, 2009!

You are invited to attend, but you must go sign up to participate! Click on the link below!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Seven_Sexy_Scribes/

The chat will begin at 9:00 pm Eastern, 8:00 pm Central, 7:00 pm Mountain, and 6:00 pm Pacific! It will run for two hours. I hope you will join me to celebrate my new release!

I will be giving excerpts and giving away prizes!

Hope to see you there!


Fran

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Her Own Set of Rules ~ Coming 9/25/09

Another new release coming up on September 25, 2009!

I am celebrating with another FREE copy contest over at my website at:

http://www.franleeromance.com

So drop on over and toss your name in the hat to win a FREE copy of
Her Own Set of Rules.


The contest will run until September 30, 2009 and a winner will be drawn on October 1, 2009.

Here's a blurb and and excerpt:

Bored with her sex life with a husband she still loves, but who has the Saturday-night, three-minute orgasm—his—down to a fine art, Haley takes the first step on a journey of sexual discovery when Josh, younger brother of her closest friend, expresses a decidedly carnal interest in her. The result is more than she imagined in her raunchiest fantasies.

Josh has had a crush on Haley since he was a kid, gangly and too damn tall for his weight. But he isn’t a kid anymore, and he grew into his six foot five inches, plus some. He’s come back home for one thing only—for a shot at the girl he fell for when he was too damn young to do much about it.

But Harry’s not done with his wife—not when he finds out that inside that prim repressed shell, she’s been hiding the sexual temptress he’s always hungered for. Now all Haley has to do is ask, and two men are ready to give her everything she wants.

Excerpt:

Josh dropped his gym bag with a thump and reached for her. Krissa wrapped her arms enthusiastically around her little brother as he swung her off her feet then set her back down on the doorstep. “I missed you, Krissie! When’s supper?”


He was always hungry. Had something to do with the size of him, he figured. Standing six foot six inches, and weighing in at a clean, lean two hundred and fifty pounds, he had a hard body because he worked hard for a living. He grinned down at his sister and laughed as she swatted at his hands and flushed prettily.


God, how he had always loved to watch Krissa and Haley giggle like that and put their pretty blonde heads together, thinking he couldn’t hear them if they whispered. Shit, he’d heard every damn word. But he never let on. He learned too much information to want to tip them off to the fact his hearing was excellent, even across the room.


“Haley here yet?” he asked casually, and Krissa grinned up at him conspiratorially.


“Be patient! You know I had to damn near threaten to break off our friendship if she didn’t agree to come. You know Haley…she’ll be here if she promised.”


He’d switched jobs to come back to Spring City and be closer to family—and Haley Grant. No, Haley Gregory now. But what the fuck? Getting around a husband wasn’t the hardest thing he’d ever done. And from what Krissa had told him, Harry Gregory was a fairly inattentive husband. So much the better for him. He’d waited twelve years for a piece of Haley, and a husband wasn’t about to stand in his way now. He’d fallen hard for her when he was a gangly ninth grader and she was the Junior Prom Queen.


He had wanted her from the day she flashed her hot little breasts at him. He’d only been fourteen, but when he’d seen those delightful morsels bared for his delectation, and her fingers pinching them to tease him, he’d decided she wouldn’t be averse to letting him touch them. If she hadn’t hooked up with Harry Gregory, and if Harry hadn’t been so fucking possessive of her, Josh would definitely have sampled those nipples.


Over the twelve years that had passed since she’d dared him to taste her, he’d savored that memory. He had compared those lush, youthful breasts to every other set he’d tasted and licked, and all the rest had faded from his thoughts once he’d enjoyed them. Oh, he loved fucking and sucking. He’d gotten damn good at it over the years. But it had all been practice…practice for the next time she bared those amazing round globes to him…and he planned to see them again—soon.


As Krissa led him into the kitchen, he waved at Jim, who’d poked his head out of the living room and yelled a welcome. Talking with Krissie and Jim was appealing, but right now, food was his objective. Food then a hot shower. Krissie had invited Haley over tonight, and he wanted to be clean and sweet-smelling for her. Oh yeah. For what he planned with Haley tonight, he wanted to be sweet and clean all over.


Josh had always had it bad for her. But Harold Gregory was the jock-stud-prom-king dude who had stolen her away after graduation before anyone less almighty got a shot at her. And Haley wasn’t one to take on some gangly kid three years behind her in school and dump Mr. Hotstuff.


When Haley had married after graduation, Josh hadn’t gone to her wedding, even though he’d been included in the invitation. He’d spent that whole day walking by the stream that bordered the pasture a couple of miles from his house. He’d walked there with Krissa and Haley many times. He’d imagined her smiling up into his face, tucking her slim arm around his waist as he bent to catch those lush lips in a hungry kiss. He’d gone home and jacked off pathetically as he thought of that prick Harry Gregory taking her to bed when it should have been him, Josh Barnes, in that bed with her, fucking her blind.


Josh Barnes had been a gangly, awkward and fairly shy kid back then. And that wasn’t what a girl like Haley wanted. But he wasn’t a gangly kid anymore, and he’d had enough experience with women to know that what he had to offer was not something a woman would stick her nose up at. Oh yeah. He had big plans for tonight.


Haley was nervous. She checked her hair and her makeup three times before sliding out of her car and making her way to the wooden front porch of Krissa and Jim’s home. Hesitantly, she climbed the three steps to the front porch and pressed the doorbell button.


She almost lost her nerve, and was debating on making a run for it when the door swung open, and she found Joshua Barnes standing there.Filling the whole damn doorway.


Her eyes must have shown her shock, because his crookedly sexy smile was enough to blow her away. “Hi! Um, is Krissa here?” Her voice sounded breathless even to her. My God! She was acting like a teenybopper on her first blind date.


She almost lost her courage as he stood aside to allow her to step inside the house. He was so tall. And so gorgeous. Oh…my…God! He was all prime, succulent male. Leaning in slightly as she scooted past him, she couldn’t hide her telltale blush as she didn’t quite manage to keep her breast from brushing his chest. She heard the quick inhalation of his breath and knew he wasn’t immune to her, either.


Her nipple tingled as if she’d leaned into an electric wire fence. Fighting down her glandular reaction to his appearance and his proximity, she stepped into the familiar foyer, and wrapped her arms around her body as if that might insulate her from his potent presence. The experimental contact told her what she had wanted to know—he was very much aware of her sexually. What she hadn’t counted on was her own reaction to the little brush of tight nipple to hard, delicious male muscle! Holy shit. Was she nuts to be here? Had she been kidding herself? Deluding herself that all she wanted was to regain an old acquaintance with the neighbor’s kid?


Haley bit the corner of her lip as she turned to face him in the tight confines of the tiny foyer, waiting for Josh to make the next tentative move. He moved slowly, and she watched as he closed the door, and shot the lock home.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Finding the time to relax...HAH!


I love these darling little cartoons...

I would love to be able to find a hammock, flop down under the shade of a wide tree, and take a long, soothing nap. Sure. In my wildest dreams, maybe. In reality, I spend about 18 hours a day glued to my keyboard, buried in sniffing out pirates, building and maintaining websites, organizing and then orchestrating things, editing books, submitting edits, and generally looking like that damn little hamster on the treadmill...galloping madly and not getting anywhere.

Well...that isn't totally true...

I find that I am most at ease while writing. When I am lost in a scene, creating something hot and lush and sexy, I am in seventh Heaven. Actually, I would settle for third or fourth Heaven, but I manage to find my way to the highest. Writing is like creating, and the freedom it renders is such that I simply float away into another realm. Wow! When did I ever wax so poetic? Not!

Anyway, getting back to relaxation...

I figure I'll have plenty of time to rest and relax when I'm pushing up daisies. So for now and in the near foreseeable future, I will be orchestrating, organizing, building, maintaining, and socializing...all worthwhile activities indeed!

Fran Lee
http://www.franleeromance.com

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Seven Sexy Scribes Blog is up and running!


Why start another Co-op Blog?

Authors start co-op blogs to become better known...to be more visible...to join with friends and have some fun. By working with others, we don't have to think up a brand new idea to blog about every day...and we can have some fun blogging about anything that strikes our fancy.

Thinking up a catchy name...

Hmmm...that's the trickiest part. Our group thought up a dozen fabulous names...great names! But then we Googled them. :P

Okay, so one led to a couple of porn sites...another led to a group from a women's penitentiary...yet another led to fifty other websites with identical names...and so on. Face it...no one wants a plain old uninspired name like 'Seven Sexy Scribes'. At least we could come up with something hot...neat...sensuous. (That didn't sound like a batch of ho-bags.)

But there is something to be said for choosing a plain name. For one thing, nobody else wants it. It's unique. Sorta like the name "Mary". How many young gals have that name today? Huh? Hey! My grandmother was named Mary. It's a grand old name.

And then to pick a color scheme...

Ever tried to do that with seven women? Luckily we settled quickly on that. Most of us love blues/aquas. But I tend to get bored with one color. Maybe I'll sneak in a purple theme on my blog day. When they look, they'll wonder who turned the lights out! LOL!

And dealing with several strong personalities...

Oooo, yeah! We all have very strong ideas about what we want. What we like. But that's not really a problem, because we all want the same thing...to promote our books and promote our names. Easy enough. Heck...our blog may be stuffed to the rafters with covers, videos, and fun stuff, but we certainly won't bore anyone!

So drop on over and check us out!

Seven Sexy Scribes






Friday, September 4, 2009

Have You Ever Had A Wet Dream?

Does this cover look familiar?

Yep...Remember me wishing I had a man? I uploaded a great photo of a hot man with a gal's arms wrapped around him? Well...I sent that photo to Syneca and asked for a great picture like that on my next Ellora's Cave book...and here is my own personal wet dream! Ooooh...yeahhh....

The delectable Bobby K!


I am far too old for this cute guy...but I have a fertile and very active imagination, and this guy is NOT safe in my dreams. I find him running through them all the time...and he'd better run, 'cuz if I ever catch him, he ain't goin' nowhere for about three months!

Do you have a walking wet dream out there somewhere? Wanna share your hotties? Let me know who your favorite hotties are...

Fran