The winner of a download of All I Want For Christmas and a $10 gift card for choice of Amazon, B&N or Ellora's Cave is:

Susan! (susanmplatt@hotmail.com)

Susan I have also emailed you. Thanks to everyone who participated, wow this blog hop rocked my stockings off!! Happy Holidays everyone!

 

See the complete list of participants and prizes here

Welcome to the Stuff Your Stockings Blog Tour! To welcome you here to my site I thought I would give you the Top Ten Reasons a Christmas Tree is Better Than a Man:

1. A Christmas tree is always erect.
2. Even small ones give satisfaction.
3. A Christmas tree stays up for 12 days and nights.
4. A Christmas tree always looks good - even with the lights on.
5. A Christmas tree is always happy with its size.
6. A Christmas tree has cute balls.
7. A Christmas tree doesn't get mad if you break one of its balls.
8. You can throw a Christmas tree out when it's past its 'sell by' date.
9. You don't have to put up with a Christmas tree all year.

Okay I'm totally kidding with this list -  I love men! There's no way a tree is really better than a man!

Here's a little excerpt from my Christmas novella, All I Want For Christmas, which I'm giving away a copy of, and a $10 gift card for winner's choice of Amazon, B&&N or Ellora's Cave! Leave a comment and I'll draw one random winner.

EXCERPT:

Wow. Ladies’ bathrooms were really nice. She turned him and pushed him down to sit on the chair with the red velvet seat. He could just stare at her as she hiked her snug skirt up over her thighs so she could straddle his lap.

Holy shit. All the blood in his veins immediately rushed to his dick, which hardened painfully and made him dizzy. “Erin…” he croaked.

She laid her hands on his shoulders and leaned in to kiss him, a luscious, soft, lingering kiss. He held her waist and kissed her back, helpless to resist. Her lips were velvety and warm and, when she opened her mouth over his and touched her tongue to his lips, his head started spinning.

He slid a hand up her back, over the smooth bare skin above the strapless dress and into her long silky hair to hold her head. He tilted her head for a better angle and deepened the kiss. On and on it went, deep, open-mouthed, devouring, something he’d wanted to do for months. Heat exploded inside him. God, she was sweet and delicious and better than every fantasy he’d had about her over the last months.

“Erin,” he groaned. Her small hands clamped onto his shoulders through the suit jacket, and she squirmed on his lap to get nearer. “God, Erin.” Then her hands were in his hair, gripping and tugging. Jesus, she was hot, as hot and needy as he was.

He moved the hand on her waist down so he could slide it along the silky skin of her thigh, and she moaned into his mouth. He was throbbing everywhere, insanely turned on by this outrageous conduct, even more aroused by the knowledge that all their co-workers were just feet away merrily partying.

She wriggled closer to him, and he could feel the damp heat of her panties against his crotch. Then she bit his lip, just hard enough to make him jump. “Sorry,” she whispered, and licked his bottom lip. Then she kissed him again. My God, she was going to kill him. Lust rose in him like a tidal wave, threatened to sweep them both away, and he ate at her mouth hungrily, fiercely.

She sat up and arched her back in invitation, her breasts so close to his face. He hesitated only a nanosecond before reaching for the back of her dress.

“The zipper’s at the side,” she murmured, and lifted her left arm. He found the tiny tab and yanked it down, loosening the snug bodice, then tugged it down to her waist. God in heaven, her breasts were a work of art. High, round, just full enough, with tight dark nipples that begged to be sucked. His mouth actually watered as he looked down at her in awe, hungry to taste and lick and suck.

“Beautiful, Erin,” he muttered and, closing his eyes, he bent to taste her. He took the tip of one breast into his mouth, and she was sweet against his tongue. She quivered, arching her back even more, head falling back so her long hair was on his knees. He fisted one hand in that hair and tugged hard, tugged her back even farther, and he covered her chest with kisses, returning to the other hard little nipple to tug and suck.

“Dex, oh, God,” she cried out softly.

“Shh,” he whispered. “We have to be quiet.”

“Yes, yes, quiet,” she babbled mindlessly. Then she let out a long moan as he sucked hard on the budded tip of her breast. Her pelvis pressed against his hard-on, and he pushed her thighs farther apart to allow her closer. Rocking against him, she was clearly seeking satisfaction.

Meanwhile he was going to get his satisfaction way to soon if she kept moving against him like that. “Hold on, gorgeous,” he whispered and shoved his hand inside the black lace panties she wore. His fingers found her wet and hot and slick, and he stroked through her creases, as low as he could go in the position they were in, finding the entrance to her tight sheath, then back up over the swollen button of her clitoris. She jerked on his lap when he touched her there, bit her lip, eyes closed.

“Is that good?” he asked softly, stroking her there.

“Yes,” she sighed. “So good.”

He felt the tension building in her body, her thighs quivering, muscles tightening, and then they both heard the door to the ladies’ room open. High-pitched voices chattered as two—or was it three?—women came in.

            Erin and Dex tensed and leaned their foreheads together, panting, trying not to make a sound. Erin didn’t recognize the voices. Damn! She’d been so close! 

All I Want For Christmas is available at Amazon B&N Apple iBooks Kobo

Today at the  Twelve Days of a Smutketeer Xmas Blog Party, The Nine Naughty Novelists have listed ways to make Christmas naughty, and we're giving away a Naughty Naughty Christmas prize package - come say hi!

 

http://www.smutketeers.com/

And...


It's the Grand Opening today of Book Trailer Showcase! Check it out! Prizes!

Today is my son's birthday. Happy birthday buddy! He is 19 and wow, does that make me feel old! My baby!

Every year I roll my eyes in frustration at his December birthday (I didn't plan it that way! He arrived two months early!) because it's so hard to come up with gift ideas for birthday AND Christmas within weeks of each other. Also he gets gift cards and money for his birthday, which he promptly goes out and spends, buying himself the things I want to get him for Christmas. Argh! I keep telling him, just wait until after Christmas, but he's not big on delayed gratification. 

So tonight I'm making beef stroganoff, one of his favourite meals. His friends are coming over for ice cream cake and then they're going out to the bar. Last year when he turned 18 (legal drinking age here) he was the first of all his friends to turn 18 and his big sister had to take him out to celebrate! It's good that they're good enough friends to do that.

So for today, Christmas gets put on hold and it's all about the birthday (which Christmas actually is, too, right? Just someone else's birthday!)

 ...is a fun, sexy little read, perfect for the holidays. We've all felt that pressure to make the season perfect, with perfect parties, perfect gifts and perfect decorations. When things don't go perfectly, it can seem like Christmas is ruined. But sometimes when things go wrong, it helps us see what's really important about the season.

If you bought my book All I Want For Christmas when it was previously published, this is the same book re-released with a new cover. But if you haven't read it, this is a good time to pick it up since it's only .99.

It's available at Amazon, B&N, Smashwords

 

Perfectionist Erin Nordman usually loves Christmas, but this year things aren't going quite as planned. Lost gifts, too much work to do and organizing the office Christmas party are stressing her out. When Dex Mitchell comes by, the gorgeous Director of Finance who she's had a crush on forever, she turns into a stammering klutz.What else could go wrong this Christmas?

How about too much to drink at the Christmas party, a sexy encounter in the ladies' room and an embarrassed hangover the next day? Can anything turn this around so Erin gets what she really wants for Christmas?

I've had quite a few emails lately from readers asking if there are going to be more stories about the Heller brothers. Maybe it's because we're into hockey season! You may remember Jase from Breakaway...here's his Romance Trading Card...

And Tag from Faceoff...

Yes, we're well into hockey season now and I have to say I am LOVING having my Jets back!! I've always loved hockey, ever since I was a little girl. When we had our NHL team I loved going to games when we could and when we couldn't, watching them on TV. I especially loved cheering for them in the playoffs. When we lost our team, I kind of lost interest in hockey and mostly only watched it during the playoffs or the Olympics. In the playoffs I'd pick a team to cheer for, based on various reasons. Vancouver - because they're Canadian. Chicago - because their captain is from my city. Pittsburgh- because of Sid. But now I'm into every Jets game and it's so much fun! (More fun when they win, but hey, they're a young team ).

So I wrote a couple of hockey romances, you might know. (Faceoff's selling quite well on Amazon!) And as I mentioned,  I've had quite a few emails lately from readers asking if there are going to be more stories about the Heller brothers. 

So - am I going to write another hockey romance? YES.

I'd always planned at least three stories - Tag, who's the oldest Heller brother; Jase the next oldest; and Logan after him. Matt is still very young - he's in college, and that's pretty young for a HEA, but I haven't ruled out writing his story down the line! However, Logan's is yet to come and so I started working on it recently. Pray to the writing gods and goddesses that this goes well, but I think I've found the right woman for him. Stay tuned!

Author Beth Kery is having a huge contest to win a KINDLE at her blog this month, celebrating the release of her book Silken Rapture (wow, I love that title!!) You can find out all about it and how to enter at her blog . Today I'm a guest there and I'm also giving away a prize - a copy of One Wicked Night, my latest release. Come on by and leave a comment for a chance to win my book and the fabulous Kindle prize! 

There has been much discussion lately about the many choices writers have now when it comes to publishing their work. There are still the traditional New York Publishers; there are smaller digital-first publishers; and there is self-publishing. This has turned into flame wars between authors who, I would venture to guess, feel exactly the same about the pros and cons of each choice but express their opinions differently. And I’ve seen the heated opinions on Twitter about differing opinions on this.

So apparently authors have many choices.

Really?

I think there are a few authors who have lots of choices when it comes to publishing their work.  Authors like Courtney Milan who has self-reported her two six figure deals with a New York publisher, but chose to self publish. Authors like Barry Eisler, multi-published with New York, who turned down a $500,000.00 deal to self-publish (but instead went with a different choice yet – one of Amazon’s imprints, which isn’t really self-publishing). And authors like Amanda Hocking, who did things in reverse —established herself through her self-publishing and then signed a four-book contract with St. Martin’s Press which reportedly entered a bidding war that went over $2 million. 

But those are not the majority of authors. The majority of authors would probably say their first choice is to publish with New York (majority—not all) but the reality is that only a few will ever get contract offers by those NY publishers. That takes away a choice right there. There are also authors who will then choose to submit to digital-first publishers. Yes, there is a wide range of publishers from hugely successful publishers to tiny niche publishers, meaning a lot of choice but those authors might find their manuscript passed on by those publishers as well. Which then leaves really only one choice —self publishing. 

This past weekend I was at the Emerald City Writers’ Conference and I attended a workshop on author branding by Angela James. During a question and answer period, she made the comment to an author (who had submitted her manuscript to Carina Press but had been rejected) that “just because you can publish doesn’t mean you should publish”.

I don’t disagree with that entirely. I’d just had that conversation with some of my writing friends, when I’d noted another author who’d just self-published the first book she ever wrote. We discussed how that might not be in an author’s best interests in the long run. Sure, I could self-publish the first book I ever wrote. And some people might even buy it, because I do have some fans who like my work. But I know that book is utter crap and it would only damage my professional reputation to put that out into the world for people to read.

But I also know from my experiences trying to find an agent, then finding an agent and having her try to sell my manuscripts, that it isn’t always about the quality of a manuscript. There are very narrow things that editors are looking for, especially at the New York publishers. Anything that is outside that narrow box won’t even be looked at, no matter how good it is. Smaller publishers and digital publishers might have broader windows of what they’re looking for, but they still have those boundaries. So it’s entirely possible that good books go unpublished because they don’t fit within those strict boundaries of what publishers are looking for.  

In those cases, self-publishing is definitely a viable option. But let’s not kid ourselves — there are times it’s the ONLY option. Sure, Barry Eisler might choose self-publishing over a $500,000 New York deal. Courtney Milan might choose to self-publish rather than go for another six figure deal. But for most authors— those New York deals aren’t on the table for them to choose.  

So when we talk about “choices” we need to be honest and realistic. For the majority of writers, there really aren’t that many “choices”.

It's finally here! One Wicked Night is out tomorrow at Samhain Publishing! (And other fine book etailers everywhere!).

To go along with my One Wicked Hour party at the Samhain Cafe tonight I'm having a contest here at my blog and giving away a copy of One Wicked Night. Just leave a comment telling me which of my covers is your favorite! (They're all down the side of this blog  à  or you can also see them on my website.)

I'll run the contest overnight to give people a chance to get her after the party and will draw the winner tomorrow afternoon!

Ana y Jose Beach Club, Tulum, Mexico, Photobucket

Every year I hear of someone I know who's planning a "destination wedding" and often it's in Mexico. When we were in Puerto Vallarta a couple of years ago, I swear there was a wedding on the beach every day. It was actually really beautiful - right beside the ocean, breezes blowing, tropical flowers and palm trees. So romantic. I thought maybe my husband I should renew our vows just so we could do that, LOL.

This week in the news I read that legislators in Mexico have proposed a bill that would require all couples getting married to sign a prenuptual agreement that would speicify the period of time they expect the marriage to last.

Whoa!! Why didn't someone think of this sooner??

Romantic as I am, I know a lot of marraiges end in divorce and know how painful and expensive that whole process can be. So if you're getting married, why not just do it for a couple of years? That way if things aren't going well, the marriage just ends. Done. No muss, no fuss.

If things ARE going well, I suppose you could get married again! What fun! I love weddings. It could be another wedding on the beach in Mexico!

The Catholic Church naturally was not amused by this. Rev. Hugo Valdemar, spokesman for the Catholic archdiocese  said, "This denigrates the concept of the family ... and makes it more like a pact between friends..."

But Carlos Torres, spokesman for legislator Lizbeth Rosas, one of the bill's sponsors, said that people can specify whatever term they want (although apparently it can't be less than two years). So they could say 50 years, 99 years or even until death do us part if that's what they want.

Yes, as a romantic it does seem somewhat cold and practical. But I do see some positive things about it too. The law hasn't been passed yet, but it will be interesting to see if it does and if destination weddings to Mexico increase because of it!

The Nine Naughty Novelists are celebrating our SECOND anniversary!

 I can't believe it's been two years. I have to say, hooking up with these ladies was one of the best things that has happened in my writing career. It is so awesome to have friends who understand exactly how I feel and what I'm talking about with every rejection and review, and with every sale and celebration. We've had so much fun together and I'm especially proud of our serial stories. Putting The Zillionaire Vampire Cowboy's Secret Werewolf Babies up for sale on Amazon and Smashwords seemed kind of crazy to me - we wrote it just for fun! But the reviews and the sales have blown my mind! And our second serial story was just as much fun. Not only is it fun brainstorming these ideas (this is an amazingly creative group of writers!) the writing part has made me stretch as a writer. I've never TRIED to write funny before, although I'm told there is a lot of humor in my stories. I've never written about vampires or werewolves. I've never written a historical romance. And I've definitely never written a virgin before. I'm amazed at how we each come up with some little idea, and then the rest of us take it and run with it.

To celebrate we're giving away books! Lots of books! And an Amazon gift card! Go to the Nine Naughty Novelists' blog to find out how to participate!

In other news...

My critique partner Nara Malone has a release out this week:  SNATCH ME from Ellora's Cave.

This is such a unique (and HOT!) story! I'm not much into virtual worlds like Second Life, but Nara is a total tech geek (I say that with admiration and affection - one time she totally helped me rescue a document I thought I'd lost forever and she's encourage me to step our of my comfort zone and into her virtual world). Yes she has even created her own virtual world to show people what it's like. I really loved experiencing that virtual world after having read Snatch Me, so I could better imagine what Jolie was experiencing in the story. You should definitely check this one out!

And in morenews...I'm gearing up for my next release which is out October 25. ONE WICKED NIGHT - I can't wait!!

AND...I have official cover art for my February Samhain release and it is HAWT!! I totally love it and thank you to the amazing Scott Carpenter for this cover:

I think I had more to say but now I can't remember what it was. Must make notes. And I'm sorry I haven't blogged for a couple of weeks! Time got away from me - in my defence, I've been deeply into my "work in progress" and it's going great!

I've seen the posts on the various publisher and author loops, where someone posts their social networking link - Facebook link or Twitter link or Goodreads page and says, come like me, or follow me, or whatever. And everyone does, because we all want more followers or fans or whatever they're called.

Then I see blog posts and Tweets and Facebooks posts about authors who "spam" other authors with news about their books, their contracts, their reviews.

That's why I won't follow, like or friend every author I know. Okay, I actually have done that before - so when I get invitations to events, or news about a release, if I'm not interested I just disregard it. I *don't* complain about that author spamming me. If I didn't want to know about that stuff, I shouldn't have friended/liked/followed them -- right?

But now I've figured some of this stuff out, I'm not doing that any more.

So I will ask the same from others so I don't get accused of spamming other authors - don't like my page, or friend me, or follow me if you don't want to read about my new release or my release party coming up. I don't want to be afraid to invite people I follow to my release party because they'll think I'm spamming them. I want to invite people who might be interested in what I'm doing, so if you're not interested,  don't friend/follow/like me. I'm okay with that. I'd rather have fewer followers and have them people genuinely interested in what I'm doing, than a gazillion friends who aren't interested and get annoyed when I tell them what I'm doing

Here are my links if you're really interested!

http://ninenaughtynovelists.blogspot.com/

I'm a guest at fellow author Tara Kingston's blog and I'm giving away a copy of Faceoff! Come on by and find out a bit more about me and say hi! I'll draw the winner Sunday Sept 25/11.

There was recently a fascinating discussion at Dear Author about accuracy in historical romances. Some very interesting and intelligent perspectives were shared. Here are my own thoughts about it. I don’t write historical romance, and I don’t read a lot of it any more. It’s not that I don’t like it, but it’s not my first love (which is contemporary) and these days my time for reading is limited.

I suppose if I read a book that was full of inaccuracies that kept pulling me out of the story, I would be annoyed. I might think less of that author because he or she didn’t do enough research, or was sloppy or careless in their world-building. I suppose there are books like that out there. But more often you’re likely to encounter a couple of small slip-ups in a book.  How serious is that to readers?

When an author writes a book, he or she is building a world. A world that readers have never been to. Whether it’s science fiction, paranormal, or contemporary, it’s still building a world. In science fiction (which I fully admit I do not read) I’m guessing that writers make stuff up. It might be based on science or scientific principles, but I bet a lot of it is made up. In my contemporary romances, I’m building a world that my characters live in that nobody else has ever seen. We may all live in contemporary settings, in houses and apartments, and work in office buildings or whatever; but nobody has ever seen the world my characters inhabit―because I’m making it up. A reviewer commented on my contemporary romance Breakaway that I had gotten the names of the NHL teams wrong. I didn’t get them wrong―I made them up. And to me, a historical romance is the same. It’s building a world that readers have never been to. Base it on reality to make it realistic for me, something I can visualize in my mind and enhance with my imagination, make it plausible―as with any fiction. But the writer is making it up.

I don’t think it is possible for an author to write a romance set in an historical setting without having some inaccuracies and anachronisms. Even scholars don’t always agree on history. We all know that personal hygiene standards were much different then than now. (Or do we?) I will admit that when I read a historical romance and the hero has perfect white even teeth I chuckle a little. In historical romances, it seems the characters do a lot of bathing, which is also apparently inaccurate. If romance characters talked the way people really talked in the middle ages, nobody would want to read it. On the other hand, few contemporary romance characters ever have morning breath. We forgive these inaccuracies because it is a romance. I guess I’m forgiving of some inaccuracies in any romance sub-genre. Yes, I’ve read books where I’ve come across a detail I know is wrong. I enjoy my little moment of smug superiority, but if it’s a good book, I move on with the story.

I guess I don’t understand reading a book for the purpose of finding things wrong with it, rather than just reading it for the enjoyment of it. So there was no such thing as yellow silk back then? I don’t care! And I also can’t imagine doing research to find out if I’m right. Oh...I know there was no yellow silk in that time period. Or do I? How do I know that? Do I know it because I read it in another romance novel? Or do I know it because I studied history in such detail? Maybe I’d better make sure I’m right before I spout off about this historical inaccuracy and do the research. No, thanks. I’d rather just accept that in that fictional world, there was yellow silk. I’d rather just read the book for the pleasure of it than spend hours doing research to prove I’m right and the author is wrong.

Do readers need to be alerted that there are inaccuracies in historical romances? Or in any romance sub-genre, for that matter? Do you want to know that she could not possibly have been driving east on Main Street in Anytown, USA because that street runs north and south? Do you want to know that that was not the type of corset women wore in 1844? Do you want to be told that there are really no such things as vampires or werewolves

Faceoff is a novella featuring Tag  Heller. You may recognize the name from my book Breakaway. Tag is the oldest of the four hockey-playing Heller brother. When I wrote Breakaway I intended all the brothers to have their own stories and when my publisher Ellora’s Cave put out a call for submissions for an “Oh Canada!” theme, I thought, what is more Canadian than hockey? So I wrote Tag’s story.

Although this book is short, it’s special to me for a couple of reasons. One is that I get to use my own city as a setting. You all may have noticed that most of my books are set in California, in either a fictional or real city. This seems to me a much more exotic and romantic location than my own city, but California is also special to me. My husband went to school there and we love to go back often to visit. But writing a book set in my own home is pretty cool! Even though I still had to spell words “funny” (favor instead of favour, canceled instead of cancelled!!) I got to talk about degrees Celsius and kilometres per hour! Also my city is pretty cool – yes we have problems with poverty and violence and crumbling infrastructure, like many cities, but we have a vibrant arts culture with a lot of theatre, concerts, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, etc. We also love sports here – our Canadian Football League team the Winnipeg Blue Bombers has a long and proud football history, and our baseball team the Winnipeg Goldeyes are having a great season. But what are we missing...? A National Hockey League team!

We used to have an NHL team but in 1996 the owners were forced to sell the Winnipeg Jets and they moved to Phoenix to become the Coyotes. At the time, the Canadian dollar was weak and it was expensive to pay those players’ huge salaries in American dollars, plus travel to the US cost more. Also, the arena they played in was old and didn’t have luxury boxes or concession stands to generate a lot of revenue. The city was devastated to lose our team and like most, ‘Peggers, I always kept hope that some day the Jets would come back.

Which is the other reason this story is special! It is a Canadian fantasy come true—a hockey fantasy. It’s been no secret for years that two businessmen wanted to purchase an NHL team and bring it back to Winnipeg. I so much admire how they went about it, very low key. They built a new NHL quality arena, purchased a farm team and ran it like an NHL team, found financing that was solid and made it known to the NHL that they were interested in purchasing a team. There were years of rumors, disappointments and false reports of done deals, but hockey fans in Winnipeg continued to fantasize about the NHL returning.

As I worked on edits to Breakaway, it seemed these Winnipeg businessmen were very close to purchasing the Phoenix Coyotes (which were the Winnipeg Jets). Thinking ahead, I changed the team Tag Heller played for to a (fictional!) team in Phoenix (called the Stars, not the Coyotes) and when I started writing Faceoff, Tag’s story, I wrote the fantasy—the NHL had returned to Winnipeg!

I had not yet submitted Faceoff to my editor when the real life story changed—it was no longer the Phoenix Coyotes being purchased, it was the Atlanta Thrashers. I couldn’t change my story to match reality because I’d already planted the seed in Breakaway that Tag Heller played for Phoenix. Oh well. I named the new Winnipeg team the Jets in my book, even though every other hockey team I mention in Breakaway and Faceoff are fictional NHL teams—at that point we didn’t know for sure the deal would even happen and if it did, whether a new Winnipeg team would be called the Jets or something entirely different.

The day after I submitted this manuscript to my editor, the story did come true—the NHL was returning to Winnipeg! The true story didn’t play out exactly as it does in Faceoff (which is fiction), but the basis of the story is accurate and the hockey fantasy is the backdrop for the romance fantasy between Tag and Kyla. (And they did name the new team the Jets!)

Of course you’d think a Canadian-set book would take place in the winter, right? But I wanted to show that we also have awesome hot summers here (we sure did this year!) and the local culture of summer weekends at the lake cottage. We are fortunate to live near a lot of wonderful lake country. So Faceoff takes place in the hockey off season, just after the deal has been made public that the team is coming back to Winnipeg. In real life, there is no Winnipeg born and raised player on the new team, but I liked that idea of a “home town hockey hero” returning to his roots – which has its complications for Tag!

Here's an excerpt from Faceoff:

They were alone on the beach. Around the rocky point that separated the public beach from the cottages, the public beach was probably filling up with people, beach blankets and umbrellas, but here nobody else was out yet.

“You coming skiing later?” He rubbed the towel slowly over his chest.

“Sure.”

“Mom’s planning a game night tonight at our place. You’re all invited.”

Kyla nodded. “Cool. Just like old times.”

“Yeah.”

She studied him, his tanned skin gleaming in the bright sun, remembering the game nights of the past, how competitive he and his brothers were. And how competitive she was and how they’d had cut-throat games of Monopoly and Rummikub and Trivial Pursuit. She watched a drop of water slide down the side of his neck, then lower, slowly trickling down his chest. She wanted to go up on her tiptoes and lick that drop of water.

Heat suffused her body, and not from the noon sun overhead. Flashes of her dreams returned, hot glimpses of Tag naked, underneath her, on top of her. She swallowed. She lifted her gaze to his face and the heat in his eyes had her breath stalling. Tension arced between them as they stood there eyeing each other. When he looked at her mouth, her eyes went heavy-lidded and her heart began to thud.

“Oh man,” he said. He swiped the towel across his forehead, breaking the eye contact. She blinked. “Kyla.”

“What?”

“Don’t look at me like that.”

“Um...like what?” As if she needed to ask. She wanted to eat him up. But did it show that much?

He looked her in the eye again. “Your brothers would kill me.”

Her breath came in choppy little pants. Her insides went hot and liquid. “What am I supposed to say to that?” she said, her voice breathy. “We’re not teenagers any more.”

“No. We’re not.” They were both remembering the last time this had happened. A long time ago. Heat built hotter between them.

She was used to going after what she wanted. She had a plan for her career and she worked to make things happen. If she wanted Tag, why couldn’t she have him?

Last time he’d tried to make a joke of it. As if he didn’t want her. This time, older, wiser, more experienced, she could tell he did. Was he really going to let their families stand in the way of what they both wanted?

“My brothers have no say in who I...” She stopped. They’d been tiptoeing around it and when it came to saying it outright, she found she couldn’t.

He smiled, that sexy lift of his wide mouth that melted her. She couldn’t breathe. Her body thrummed with sexual tension. “Think about it, Mac,” he said, his voice low and raspy. “We may not be teenagers but we’re here with our families. Every bed in both our cottages is occupied. You’re sharing a room with a three year old. I’m sharing a room with Matt.”

She couldn’t get air into her lungs and her heart thudded wildly against her ribs. She opened her mouth to tell him that she was very good at solving problems when she heard a little voice calling, “Auntie Kywa!”

She turned to see Emily appear on the path through the poplar trees edging the beach. “Shit,” she muttered under her breath, but she plastered on a smile and reached for her niece as she hurtled toward her .

---

If you'd like to win a download of Faceoff, leave a comment here! I will draw a winner Saturday afternoon.

This week I had to make a tough decision with respect to my writing career. It was something I gave a lot of thought to over the last few months. I talked to writer friends about it, weighed the pros and cons, talked to my husband. It was difficult but it had to be done. And I did it. I'm a little sad but I'm also ready to move on, feeling more free and at peace with it.

Music is powerful for me, especially when a song speaks to me, and I listened to this song over and over this week. It really lifted me up. Sadly I could not find this version on YouTube, only a weird distorted version. Some of the lyrics:

Took a long hard look, at my life.
Lost my way, well I was fighting the time.
A big black cloud, stormy sky.
Followed me, while I was living a lie.
So heartless, so selfish, so in darkness, when all your nights are
Starless,
You're running outta hope.
But I found the strength inside to see, found the better part of me,
And I'll never let it go.
I've come a long, long way,
Made a lot of mistakes,
But I'm breathin, breathin, that's right and I mean it, mean it.
This time I'm a little run down, I've been living out loud.
I could beat it, beat it, that's right, 'cause I'm feelin, feelin,
Invincible.

http://grooveshark.com/#/s/Invincible/46fLiw?src=5

I love Hedley!!

And in other news.... The UP part of the roller coaster... I have a new sale to Samhain Publishing! Sweet Deal will be out in the spring of 2012! Stay tuned for details (Yes I know it's a far far away. But I do have three releases between now and then, including one next week- Friday!)

My critique partner and super talented author Nara Malone has a unique contest she's holding at her blog to introduce more people to the wonder of virtual worlds. Nara says: "Inner space is the true final frontier, and the Internet is an amazing example of what can happen when we use technology to facilitate a meeting of creative minds. Virtual worlds are shared inner space, a creative collective’s vision made real in a way that allows one person to walk through another’s dream, to interact with it, to reshape it into a new vision. I’ve spent weeks constructing worlds that will be easy for beginners to navigate and fun for them to explore."

Six Weeks!

Six Worlds to Explore!

Six Ways to Win!

Each week players will have multiple activities to engage in to earn points. These could be as simple as earning points for tweets or comments, or as challenging as finding hidden items in a virtual world. At the end of each week everyone who has obtained the minimum level of points for that week’s prize will be entered in the weekly drawing.

Week One: The first week is easy. You only need to enter the contest to get into that drawing. The prize is a $10.00 gift card (winners choice of Amazon or B&N).

Weeks Two- Six will present contestants with new challenges and new ways to earn points each week. Each Thursday I’ll count up points earned for the week and draw the winner for a gift card. Value of the gift card goes up each week. On the sixth week, every contestant with a score of 1000 points or more will be entered into the drawing for a NookColor.

You’ll need a Facebook account to play along, so if you don’t have one, get signed up.Nara will be posting daily contest detail updates at www.naramalone.com leading up to launch day so check there for more.

Here's a video Nara made as a preview of the first world being explored:

Faceoff will be out September 9!

Faceoff is a spin-off story from Breakaway. As you may know, the hero in Breakaway, Jason Heller, has three brothers. This is oldest brother Tag Heller's story. It's set in the off season, so there isn't a lot of hockey in it, but it's still about a hot hockey player during a hot summer week at the cottage.

I wrote this novella for the "Oh Canada" theme series at Ellora's Cave and it is a true Canadian fantasy - not just the sexy fantasy but the HOCKEY fantasy! The story features the long-awaited return of an NHL team to a city that was devastated to lose their team years ago. Yes, it's based in reality, and as I was writing the "fantasy" the story actually came true! Okay, not exactly as it is in my book, but the book is fiction after all.

Here's a tiny sneak peek at Faceoff - here are Tag and Kyla at the beach after he's just rubbed sunscreen onto her in a super sexy massage:

He went to his knees beside her, scooped his arms beneath her and lifted her. “Tag! Put me down!”

“Want to get dropped into the water or want to walk?”

“I’ll walk!”

He lowered her until her feet touched the soft warm sand. “Okay.”

She followed them into the water, wading through it up to her knees, the shallow water pleasantly cool on her heated skin. She kept walking, the water climbing higher and higher, and when it touched her stomach, she tightened her belly muscles and went on her toes. Tag turned to look at her, the water still at his thighs because of his height. He grinned. “Coming, Mac?”

She gave him a look, up through her eyelashes, as if to say, I just did, remember? His eyes darkened and her heart fluttered. Was she really going to go to his tent tonight?

“It’s cold,” she said.

“Yeah, and I need that,” he muttered. And he strode further out, then jumped to do a shallow, perfect dive. She sighed once more at the male perfection of his body, his athletic grace. And taking a deep breath, she too dove under. Cool water closed over her head, shocking her body, stealing her breath, and she emerged with a gasp. But it didn’t take long to get used to the water and she rolled to her back and floated, staring up at the blue sky and the clouds gathering right along the horizon.

“There you go,” he said. “Swimming’s good exercise.”

She kicked her feet and splashed him a little. “Why are you trying to get me to exercise?”

“It’s good for you. It’s good for your body and your mind. And your soul. Actually the best exercise for all that is sex.”

She almost sucked in a mouthful of lake water. “Okay then!” She rolled and dove beneath the surface again, kicking hard. When she came up for air, she heard him laughing. She couldn’t resist turning to look at him, at the water glistening in his hair, his eyes gleaming, his wide mouth parted in a sexy smile that tugged a curl of heat inside her.

Oh god. What was he trying to do to her? He’d practically seduced her there on the beach, touching her like that, so intimately, and her pussy clenched at the memory. Now he was flirting with her.

Maybe he was right. Maybe some hot sex in a tent was just what she needed.

This week it's Dom Week at Day Dreaming