Yesterday’s Winner!

The winner (by random number generator of the free download of Handy Men is…#6: Nina! Nina, send me an email to arrange delivery of your prize!

Sunday Report Card

Not a stellar week. I completed two chapters on my paranormal story and one chapter for the Samhain Western. I put together the After Midnight Fantasies newsletter and participated in a “Live Chat with the Pros” for ERWA. And I’ve been working on promo for my upcoming releases, She Shifters and Cowboy Lust.

This next week, I need a minimum of 4 chapters’ progress on the paranormal. Three chapters on the western. If I don’t, I have to do the walk of shame, because I’ll be boxed into a corner with my deadlines. So send those positive thoughts!

Sneak Peek at Fournicopia

First, isn’t it the greatest title ever?! How about this logline?

Here’s what happens when a cop meets the doughnut girl of his dreams…
and she’s a Domme…

Did it make you smile? Intrigue you? Then it worked!

How about this cover?

Not the handsomest guy, but I love that he looks like he’s surrendering to her. That’s what Gus does in this book. Want to meet my boy? Read on…

Unedited excerpt from Fournicopia:

Gus Taggert knew it was a cliché. A cop in a doughnut shop. The officers waiting for him to arrive for the sergeant’s morning meeting didn’t like making the run because of the inevitable roll of the eyes or smartass grin they’d get standing in line.

However, he didn’t mind being the “doughnut guy”. The plus for being the brunt of any jokes was that he ate for free. That was okay with him. He took any pointed looks or lame jokes in stride. He was an affable guy. Hard to rile.

He’d learned long ago to stifle his anger and look for the good in people, even when they messed up. Being oversized and strong, he’d always had to be more careful throwing his weight around. People could get hurt, and that wasn’t why he’d been drawn to law enforcement. He wasn’t a bully in a uniform.

Gus liked being a cop. Liked what it stood for. Loved the dark navy uniform and the camaraderie of his brother cops. He didn’t mind that his closest buds were all moving on to bigger and better things. He liked being a beat cop. Liked patrolling the neighborhood he lived in and getting to know the people he protected.

His father had been a small-town cop, and his father before him had been the sheriff of their little Arkansas berg. But then his mom had moved to Memphis—not because she’d wanted to, but because when his mom and dad divorced, she’d wanted to start fresh where everyone didn’t know her business and didn’t whisper to her ex about who she was seeing next.

Gus had missed his old school and friends, but had a natural gift for making new ones. That he was big and brawny, quick on his feet despite his size, had made him a natural for the football team.

And that’s where he’d met Jackson Teague and Craig Eason, who surprisingly enough wanted to be cops, too, when they graduated.

They’d all gone to college together, applied for the police academy and been accepted. That’s where they’d met the remaining members of their current posse, Beau McIntyre and Mondo Acevedo.

So, Gus was never lonely. He had his peeps, a job he loved, a city that kept him on his toes. And today, he was on his way to explore a new doughnut shop.

Mondo, although now in vice and no longer attending the station-house morning meetings, had given him a roll of bills the night before. “Treat the guys to doughnuts. On me.”

Gus had glanced at the roll. “This is too much.”

“Not for the place I want you to go.”

He should have known from the gleam in Mondo’s dark brown eyes that something was up, but Gus liked to think the best of people. Maybe Mondo really did just want to treat the guys to something special.

Well, it was special all right. Not like any doughnut shop Gus had ever seen before. He stood on the street in front of the small store front, eyeing the painted glass window with its pink awning, and felt the first rumbles of misgiving.
Read the rest of this entry »