A big thank you to Delilah for this guest spot! Today, to celebrate the release of Cowboy Overload, I’m chatting with the fabulous Lana Fox, editor at Go Deeper Press and author of erotic novel Cream, which releases on February 10. Look below for links to both books and a giveaway.

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Lana: The title of your book is such fun! How much can you reveal about the “overload” in Cowboy Overload?

Mia: I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced this, but when I’m overloaded—with information, stimulation, sights, sounds—there’s a moment when my brain switches from thinking to feeling. (Las Vegas and Black Friday shopping come to mind!) I wanted to recreate this experience for my main character Andie as she’s faced with the prospect of not one, but two sexy cowboys. There’s a moment in the story when she lets go of her anxieties and just feels. On a goofy side note, a friend of mine often sends me pictures of kittens and piglets from a site called Cute Overload. That inspired my title!

In the introduction, you say that Cowboy Overload contains “some of the most intense sex scenes I’ve written to date.” Can you fill us in a little on one of the sex scenes in the book? What makes it so sizzling? Was it exciting to write?

There’s a ton of steamy action in this story, but one of my favorite things to write was the scene where Andie watches Dean undress for the first time, right before he joins Andie and Decker in bed. He undresses slowly, like he knows she’s reading his body like a book. Dean is older and heavily built, with scars and a couple of mysterious old tattoos. It was exciting looking at him through her eyes. With erotic ménage romance, there’s quite a bit of choreography involved. What I want to avoid is writing a catalog of body parts and actions! At the heart of each scene are three people sharing not just pleasure but intimacy. Andie must trust both men, one of whom she’s just met, so it’s important to establish that Dean and Decker are experienced, trustworthy lovers who will take care of her every step of the way. That kind of trust leads to incredible chemistry in the bedroom.

Cowboy Overload takes place in Oleander, a “dusty little California cow town.” For a Brit like me, this is so exotic! What makes this setting perfect for sizzling erotic romance?

For a lot of people, California means Hollywood, San Francisco, the beach. But California also has an enormous interior. The Central Valley is about the size of Egypt. It’s farms and orchards and oil fields and ranchland…and cowboys! This is the far west, the California of Merle Haggard and Cesar Chavez. The people who work this land are tough, and for me, tough is hot. When I was envisioning Dean and Decker, I was thinking about descendents of the Joads, Steinbeck’s hardscrabble Okies who had to get through hell to make their home in California. These people are durable, body and soul. That’s sexy.

One of the many things I enjoy so much about your writing, Mia, is the way you immerse us in a character’s sense experiences, including the scents and textures that less talented writers often leave out. What are some of the scents from Cowboy Overload that stay with you, as the author? And what about textures as well?

Thanks, Lana! As a reader, I love sensual details. And let me just say that it was fun to imagine what two perfect, freshly-scrubbed cowboys would smell like! They’re on the road together, so they’d probably be staying in the same motel room. They’d probably use the motel soap—something cheap but serviceable…Ivory soap. It’s a distinct, sharp smell, not floral but clean. I thought of the worn leather on their boots and belts—that’s such a sexy scent. When you spend a lot of time physically with another person, you begin to smell like that person, so it made sense to me that they’d smell similar. But Andie can smell the difference. She’d know Decker blindfolded. Also, like a lot of writers, I’m really in love with the sound of certain words. There’s a line that stuck with me: “Tires hissed on the pitted asphalt.” This is near the beginning of the story. The parking lot of the steakhouse is run-down, and Andie’s run-down physically and emotionally. The sound of the cowboys’ big truck approaching is not a loud rumble, but a whisper, enticing her to make a choice: stay, or get in the truck?

Would you share an excerpt from Cowboy Overload to entice us yet further?

Absolutely! Meet Andie, Decker, and Dean.

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Excerpt from Cowboy Overload

The motel room was a picture postcard from 1963. Faux wood paneling, a flocked green bedspread, and two plaster lamps carved and painted to look like eagles. The oil painting above the headboard was a woodland scene: three trees on a lone island in the middle of a lake.

“Home sweet home,” said Andie.

Decker put a heavy gym bag on the table. Dean went into the bathroom, brought out a glass, and sat down at the table in the corner. He took off his hat and ran a hand through his wavy brown hair. Then he poured himself a couple fingers of whiskey from a flask and sat back with a sigh. He looked around.

“Why here?” he asked.

“They don’t hassle us.” Andie took off her coat. The men looked at her in appreciation. She was wearing her new black dress: tight and short and strapless, it made her feel fearless. She’d had to sneak off to Bakersfield to buy it.

“Damn, girl. You’re fuckin’ beautiful.” Decker took Andie’s coat and hung it in the closet. Then he took off his hat and put it next to Dean’s. Andie sat down on the bed and slipped off her shoes. Decker knelt down and took her feet in his big hands, running his thumbs slowly along her arches. “That better, sweetheart?”

She nodded. She reached forward and ran her fingers through his thick black hair, mussing it with a smile as Decker’s warm hands slid up her calves and rested on her knees.

“Did you miss me?” he asked.

She said nothing.

He took her hand and pushed her palm against the hard ridge behind his fly. “Did you miss this?” he asked.

She smiled. “I guess so.”

He raised his eyebrows and spanked the inside of her thigh—not hard, but hard enough to leave a little redness on her skin. “You guess so?”

He put his hand on the back of her neck and brought her mouth to his. “You guess so?” he whispered again, and the warmth of his breath washed over her lips. She shivered and closed her eyes just as he kissed her, hard and hungry, a textbook Decker Daniels kiss. He tasted like peppermint toothpaste with a hint of whiskey—he’d taken a hit off Dean’s flask.

Andie felt herself plummeting into the kiss, getting lost in the familiar sensation of his lips and tongue. She planted her hands against his solid chest and leaned forward, hungrily drinking him in, only mildly aware that Dean was watching them from the corner like a silent, predatory shadow.

Decker’s hands skimmed down the sides of her neck and over her bare arms. He raised goosebumps on her skin. When he ran his thumbs over her breasts, her nipples hardened behind the thin, tight fabric of her dress. Decker moaned into her mouth; Andie felt the rumble of his deep voice in some sad, empty place in her chest.

He hooked his thumbs behind the neckline of her strapless dress and dragged it down to her waist. She was wearing a pink satin strapless bra. Decker broke their kiss to look at her. As he fondled her, his big, scarred hands looked brutal against the smooth fabric.

“Magnificent,” he murmured, kissing the tops of her breasts where they spilled over her bra. He reached behind her and with the flick of his thumb, snapped the hook.

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COWBOY OVERLOAD
Mia Hopkins

The daughter of a ranch foreman with a violent temper, Andie Rich hungers for glitz, glamour, and a life of her own. One night, she sneaks out and runs into her former classmate, professional bull rider Decker Daniels. Taking a short break from the circuit, he’s in town with his good buddy, bullfighter Dean MacKinnon. Dean and Decker have big plans for the passionate homegrown hottie. But does Andie have the guts to take on two cocky cowboys at once?

Click here for more!

Please visit my website for more sexy stories.

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CREAM
Lana Fox

Sultry jazz singer Caroline Spence has a penchant for smokier numbers—and, as it turns out, men of a similar temperament. So when the darkly dominant Marcus takes her on as his submissive, she surprises him by sharing his love of double cream, both in a bowl and on her body, as well as a passion for kink that could lose him his job.

Still, it turns out Marcus isn’t the only one who wants Caroline. The young, rich, and audacious Kyle could listen to her sing forever. Caroline soon finds out, however, that Kyle’s obsession has a dangerous side. But with his charm and smoldering good looks, she finds it easy to let him push her a little too far.

Two men. One siren.

And a challenge that changes her life.

Click here for more!

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CONTEST

I’d like to send a free e-book of COWBOY OVERLOAD to three random commenters who answer this question below: I love sensual details. The heroes of Cowboy Overload smell like Ivory soap and leather. What is your favorite sexy scent?