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!
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.
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!
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!
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...
Ever had a problem dreaming up your next hero? I was trying to picture my next hot guy, and so I was perusing the various photos that I have amassed. This one stopped me dead.
You know...I would LOVE to be that woman with her arms wrapped around this delicious guy! All thoughts of looking for a hero left my mind and I sighed.
Whatta hunk.
This is the same couple on my cover for Out of Her Dreams...except I sorta like him without the white towel. Rowrrr!
This is the problem of erotic romance authors who just happen to be old, chubby, and single. Damn, but I would love to get me some of that!
But I think he could easily outrun me if I did see him at Romanticon (if I were going). *sigh* Ah, well...at least my imagination is still in great working order. Do you ever wonder what on earth would happen if the heroes in all our hot novels suddenly came to life, and came knocking on our door? Now, those of you who have HH's might not be pleasantly surprised to find a batch of hard, hot, handsome hunks standing on your doorstep, all drooling over you, but this old fart would probably die of delight. Yum! Okay guys...I know I write hot stuff, but one at a time, please? This antique body and heart won't handle all the stuff I write. That was sort of the premise behind Out of Her Dreams. But Samantha could more than handle that hot, delicious guy...while this author would most likely hyperventillate and turn blue at the sight of a man like that grinning at me. Ah...the powerful imagination of an erotic romance author is wonderful, is it not? Fran http://www.franleeromance.com
When you write romance, you have a huge variety of possible characters and situations to pick from. Romance is not necessarily just "one boy-one girl" anymore. You can write about m/f, or about m/f/m, or m/m/f, or f/f,
or even m/m/m/m/f/m/f/f! *whew*
And for each and every type of story, there are readers who love or hate each type. That is one reason why many authors try to explore all the possibilities.
For example, my debut book, Out of Her Dreams, was a sensual (erotic) romance between a woman and a man. The bedroom door was wide open, but fans seemed to adore it! I received dozens of rave e-mails telling me how much folks loved it. I got several top notch book reviews for it. I assumed it would be the same with my second book.
Now, Hallie's Cats came out on July 31, 2009, and I didn't hear a single word about how readers felt about the book. And that was an ominous sign to me. Hallie's Cats is a shape shifter menage. In a world where people can be both cat and human, and mores and morals are shaped by a different set of physical rules, I had my heroine fall in love with two gorgeous brothers. But in their world, females shape shifters normally took more than one mate because it was acceptable. You must remember that every world has it's own rules of conduct.
I got an e-mail this morning from a fan who adored OOHD, but detested Hallie's Cats. She was very disappointed that I hadn't written a "normal" romance again, m/f. I actually expected that something of the sort had happened. Not all readers can accept a menage situation. I know, because once upon a time, before I sold my first book, I felt pretty much the same.
But then I began to read other books, and realized that not all romance is heterosexual, nor is it all "one boy-one girl". In the real world, there are realities that we do not all agree with, nor do we have to approve of them. But we accept the fact that others may not feel the same way about things as we do. In a fiction novel about romance, we have the choice to buy or walk on by.
But in a way, it upsets me to think that my readers may have been offended because they expected something entirely different from my second book, and bought it sight unseen simply because they wanted to read more from me. I was flattered that my reader loved OOHD, and dismayed that she seemed to think less of me for writing a different type of romance novel than she expected. So I wrote back to her to assure her than I did have other m/f romances in the pipeline (like Dictated by Fate) and that I would make certain that all my books that contained alternative lifestyles like m/f/m were more clearly marked as such.
So, if you are a reader who loved my first book, and absolutely hated my second book, please remember that we write for many readers, and that we do love our fans. Perhaps another reader hated OOHD but loves Hallie's Cats. And I will definitely write tons of m/f romances, so don't give up on me, okay?
