Full Disclosure has a release date!

And it's next Friday, so anyone I owe blog posts, answers, etc. to can expect to receive them very soon!

Happy Halloween! ;)

The witching hour is at hand...

Halloween Countdown Generator @ Myspacejunks.com

Want to read some great Halloween short stories? (And yes, including one of mine?) Please stop by Lindsay's Romantics! My story is called One Kiss Before Midnight.

Have a wonderful holiday!

The last week before NaNo...

and I'm buried in galleys, edits on a requested full, new writing...and general life. So I figured what better time to show off my pretty new cover for Full Disclosure (my first ever cover!) I've badgered lots of you with it already, but for those of you that haven't seen it...

Huge thanks to artist Angela Anderson and my awesome editor, Karen Welwyn at The Wilder Roses.

Before you go, please stop by Word Wenches. I'm looking for feedback on what kinds of contests work best for you. Oh, and my cover's up over there, too... ;)

Now I'm heading back to my cave...

Keeping it fresh...

Who among us doesn't find writing sex monotonous once in awhile? Especially when you've written a lot of it. But the following advice can apply to any kind of scene - action, the climax, etc. Always making sure your scene is unique to your characters is key.

Via Charlene Teglia's blog...

"The thing with writing good sex scenes, as the thing with writing everything else, is this: telling detail, man. Not a chair: this chair. Not a cat: this cat. Not a sex scene, idealized or farcical, but this sex scene, right here, right now, with these two characters having this sex. When you get the off-beat, perfect detail just right, and it makes the scene concrete and real, that’s called fabulous reality. If you have that, you can do no wrong." - Elizabeth Bear

Also, please stop by Word Wenches, the blog I share with my lovely CP, Tara Leigh Coons, and share with us why YOU write. It's amazing how different the answers have been so far, yet they're also so similar. 

Welcome Becca Simone, author of Midnight Treat

It's almost Halloween and I'm very excited to welcome Becca Simone, author of Midnight Treat, the #1 bestseller at the The Wild Rose Press Wilder Roses. Becca generously agreed to answer some questions about her scorching Halloween-themed release. Buy it here.

1) Midnight Treat is your debut release. What juicy details can you tell us about Josh and Cassie?

Well, as of right this moment, it’s #1. What an awesome feeling. I love my characters in this story, especially my heroine. I think a lot of readers can relate to her because she’s just like us. She’s not beautiful, she’s of average size and weight, she has a regular job—just your average Jane. She’s always the one in her group of friends who goes home alone, who is the designated driver, who never gets the guy. Until Halloween night. Josh breaks into her apartment by mistake, thinking he’s about to fulfill the naughty sexual fantasy of a woman he met at a Halloween party. Cassie knows immediately his mistake, but chooses not to tell him he has the wrong woman. For just one night, she wants to be the right woman.

2) Nothing is quite as sexy as a Halloween story. (I may be a wee bit biased since it is my favorite holiday and all...) There's just something about putting on a costume and letting go of your inhibitions. How did you come up with the idea for Midnight Treat?

I remember a friend telling me once that she’d gone to a costume party with what she thought was a one-of-a-kind costume. Turns out she was wrong. Her friends kept getting her mixed up with the other woman. That idea stewed in my head a long time, just waiting for the perfect story. When I decided to try my hand at writing erotica, that’s the idea that screamed to be written. Which leads to your next question.

3) Are you new to erotic romance? And what made you decide to take the big plunge?

Yes, Midnight Treat is my first published work. I’ve been writing for years (straight contemporary), and always enjoyed reading really hot stories. A couple of my good friends write erotica, and while I loved reading their works, it never really dawned on me that I could write it. I’m shy and somewhat conservative, for goodness sake! But after a big-time agent rejected one of my manuscripts a couple of years ago and I later ran into her at a conference, I asked her if she had any suggestions for me. She said she thought I had the ability to write REALLY hot and suggested I try it. So I did. And I love it. I have so many ideas, I wish I had all the time in the world to write them.

4) For the aspiring authors among us: what is one thing you wish you'd known before getting published?

I wish I’d known how much time goes into marketing and promo. I would have come up with a plan before I’d sold, rather than running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

5) What else are you working on right now? Any upcoming releases we should know about?

I have an upcoming full-length release under my real name, but because my mother googles my name daily and I really don’t want her to know this side of me (nor do I want my conservative boss to know…YIKES), that name shall remain, um, nameless. I’m currently working on three erotica short stories/novellas which I hope to submit by the end of the year. This is a busy time for me in my “real” job and personal life (yes, writing is a real job, too, but it’s so much fun writing erotica, it doesn’t feel like work), that I don’t have much writing time.

6) And for fun: boxers, briefs or...nothing at all? ;)

Hmm, that’s a hard one (no pun intended). My DH looks awesome in all three. Do I have to choose? Maybe I’ll go make him model all three, then I’ll get back to you. :)

Want to find out more about Becca or her books?  Visit http://beccasimone.com/

You never forget your first...

It's October 9th, and today I'm thrilled to welcome debut author and fellow Scarlet Rose Lynne Roberts! First Date is out now from The Wild Rose Press Wilder Roses, and to commemorate popping her publishing cherry, Lynne is celebrating in a big way on her blog and elsewhere. And I'm happy dancing with her! She generously wrote up this great post about her journey to this day, and I hope all of you enjoy it as much as I did. Then go off and buy First Date! ;)

Take it away, Lynne!

In the spirit of my first release, First Date, I’m here to write about being published for the first time.

When I sat down and to write this blog, I thought I could focus on the road to publication or the tricks of the trade (not that I know many).  Definitely, I could write about perseverance and how to handle rejection. But as I thought about it, I realized that the road to publication is different for everyone. So instead of going into generalities, I thought I’d stick with a brief glimpse of my road I’d like to call: There is a contract with my name on it. Ready?

There it is, in your email. You feel the excitement bubbling up inside of you, perhaps a little squeal escapes. So what do you do? Well, tell everyone. You receive the congratulations with a kind of stunned disbelief. Yes. This is really happening to you. I bet you’re even looking forward to the editing letter. Hello! It’s. An. Editing. Letter! Like from a real editor, at a real publishing house.

It seems like you’re waiting forever. And then you get it. Deep breath, okay, you can do this. You’re a writer *teehee* At this point you giggle because it still feels kind of like cheating to say that.

You work hard and send that editing letter back way before the deadline. A few weeks later, here it comes again.

Mmm. Not quite so excited to see this one, but okay, obviously you didn’t get all the kinks out. You glance through the letter. Holy Moly! No kidding didn’t you get all the kinks out. Who knew you could even use the word ‘pull’ that many times. I mean pull? And how many times can there be ‘as’ in 8K words? Hold on a minute:  1,2,3…20! Yikes. 20!

So back to work and the manuscript you slaved over becomes a puzzle. You can’t use groan here because you’ve used it on the prior page, but growl is out too. Twine, wind, bury…. It’s time to play the synonym and clever rewording game. I’m not even going to go into the autonomous body parts—my mind is wandering.

Okay screech stop.

Somewhere around this point you get to see your cover for the very first time. This is truly an overwhelming moment. And yes, you’ll celebrate… as soon as you get those revisions done.

Suddenly it dawns on you. This book is actually getting published. You need someone to buy it! So, you jump right into the promotion whirlwind, which begins to feel more like a tornado. Blog? Website? Trailer? Oh my! Yes, you will feel like Dorothy.

Eventually, you finish the last revision (after try number 6) your editor said it’s a go and by this time you don’t want to see the !@$%^ manuscript for a long time.

No! I’m joking. It’s great! Buy it. Please.

Okay seriously. You’ve worked hard and under a deadline and you’ll celebrate, as soon as you get a little energy. *cue dramatic music* and then here come the galleys.

Galleys, piece o cake right? Um, no.  Galleys:  in which you pick apart every single word you’ve written... several times… to get them all just right… again.

But then comes the day, the long awaited release day. There it is, your book, available for purchase and suddenly, everything was worth it.

And then you get your first review… LOL I haven’t gotten yet. Stay tuned. : )

Cari, thank you so much for letting me borrow your blog! You rock! 

Right back at you, Lynne! Huge congratulations and wishing you many more release days! Now I'm off to buy First Date...

Edited to add... because I was a remiss blogger last night...don't forget to pick up Helen Hardt's Blood Wolf, and J.A. Saare's Soft as Moonlight. Both released TODAY!

Ink me...

Okay, that's a lie. I have no tattoos, but only because I'm indecisive and a big wuss when it comes to pain. But thanks to my friend J.A. Saare's insightful comment on last week's blog post, I decided to blog on this topic.

I know some people have negative opinions of people with tattoos. I'm not one of them. To me, tattoos are creative self-expression and show the bearer has confidence. Confidence and creativity are sexy. Just like some people aren't forthcoming with what they write, some get their tattoos in secret spots. A gift they only share with a select few...

Who hasn't used a tattoo to reveal more about their character's traits? What they choose to put on their body and where they choose to put it show so much.

In my erotic vampire short,  my heroine Sydney has a dragon tattoo on her spine. Her dragon's tail has spikes...spikes that look a lot like fangs and reveal a lot more about her than even she guessed. ;)

What about you? Do you have a tattoo? Visible or hidden? And I'd love to hear if any of your characters have tattoos, and what they symbolize.

But before you go...I want to congratulate my friend, Christina Phillips,on signing a two-book deal with Berkley Heat! She's got details on her blog all about her upcoming books!

And my good friend and CP, Helen Hardt, has a release this Friday. Blood Wolf won The Wild Rose Press's Got Wolf competition last year and is the perfect choice to get you in the mood for Halloween!

Okay, just one more...LOL

Please be sure to stop back on Friday when my friend and fellow Scarlet Rose author, Lynne Roberts, stops by to pop her publishing cherry in a big way with her first release, First Date!