Just so you know, the latest, greatest super-boxed set is out! Occupational Hazard is chock full of sexy goodness–and the ULTIMATE workplace romance box set. Okay, so that was clearly bragging, but I think you get the idea. It’s hot. There are ten juicy stories by ten of the hottest writers around (okay, so does that sound like bragging again?). Follow the link and buy your copy. You won’t want to miss a chance to find out whether I’m all hot air! (I’m not.)

In my non-writing life, I’m a lunch lady. No, I’m THE lunch lady at a parochial school. One of the benefits to this occupation is that I have a good part of the summer off (after a state convention and planning for the new school year that starts in August…August?!). But I have the rest of the time for myself, and that means writing.

The school year ended with creating my To Do list. Okay, realistically, I need about three summers to get everything done. It doesn’t help that I took a vacation right after school let out so didn’t jump immediately into a new schedule filled more with writing than cooking. Late May in Yellowstone is fantastic!

However it’s back to real life and now is the time to set the plan in place so each To DO becomes a Tah Dah! And a reason to celebrate. Even if that celebration is simply a sigh of relief as I’m scratching an item off the list. Ah, the simple things…

I’ve already blocked out a certain amount of time each week for day job work—menu planning with requirement changes takes longer, and more thought. I’m determined to start the next school year more organized and ready to go than last year. So, weekly menu planning. A bit of time each day is also set aside for decluttering. Too much stuff seems to be the bane of many folks I know—and I live with two other ‘collectors’ of numerous interests. That means a lot of clutter—which translates to distractions which, of course, means I don’t get as much writing done.

Not that my writing projects aren’t a distraction in themselves. I’m nearly through converting my originally epubbed backlist to an Indie pubbed list. At least one of those will be released this month. I’m also working on a tale that’s part of a series with a group of talented authors. And I’m going through manuscripts again with my red pen so they’ll be ready to go in whatever publishing direction I decide. So there’s a lot on my stove—as well as plenty of new ideas warming in the oven. Good thing I’m accustomed to stirring more than one pot at a time!

The first of the summer’s creations—the release later this month of Blue Keltic Moon, the first of The Children of the Keltic Triad.

Duty before love. As much as Breanna’s heart protested, Gowthaman would have to wait until she returned with the rescued Alfar-Sindhu prince.

Love before self. Following Breanna into the World Between Worlds, Gowthaman faces the pains of his past, risks his intellect, his sanity, and his life. For her.

Destiny before all. In the time of the blue Keltic moon.

Sign up for my newsletter for news of upcoming releases and events—including the grand opening of my new website. When you sign up in June, you’ll be entered in a drawing for a summer fun stretchy bracelet or an ebook download! newsfromthestarr@gmail.com

Now, off to make this summer a Grand Slam—and I don’t even like baseball!

Summer is upon us. The long, hot days are here and it’s time to let go of work and responsibilities and have some fun. For most folks that means one thing—VACATION!

The high cost of living coupled with the high cost of travel is keeping more and more people closer to home. The idea of spending thousands of dollars for a one or two week stay at an exotic location isn’t quite as appealing to families as it once was. So what are people doing on their holidays?

They’re taking a staycation and exploring the world closer to home. Maybe they’re going camping, discovering nearby museums and galleries, or taking in local music festivals. For sure they’re barbecuing, swimming at the beach or local pool and, of course, reading good books.

It’s amazing how we can live somewhere and never really explore it to the fullest. It’s fun to load the family into the car and travel around whatever state or province you live in. You can take day trips, traveling as far as you can in different directions but making sure you can get home by nightfall. Some people may even opt to spend a couple of nights on the road in a motel.

My sister and I are planning a three-day road trip this summer. It’s something we’ve never done with just the two of us. We plan to hit the road, spend a couple of nights in B & Bs, see new places, eat good food and have fun.

The idea is to try new things. You never know what you might discover.

Now, Allison Lewis isn’t on vacation, but she is trying out a new local hotspot in my latest Ellora’s Cave release Mad Loving. What she discovers is a fun bar with an Alice in Wonderland theme and an even hotter owner—Nevar Hatter. What starts out as a night of fun could turn into much more if only she has the courage to let down her guard and believe.

Allison Lewis finds herself in another world when she enters Hatter’s, a trendy New York nightclub. She’s a Midwestern girl living in the big city and has recently been through a bad breakup. But tonight she wants to put all that behind her. And she’s found just the man to tempt her to break out of her conservative mold—the sexy Nevar Hatter.

Running Hatter’s takes up most of Nevar’s time. He never comes on to patrons, but he’s more than willing to make an exception for Allison. Fiery passion leads to a one-night stand. Nevar wants more but Allison is running scared. He pulls out all the stops, including a private tea party of their own to entice Allison to trust him with not only her body, but also her heart.

Buy from Amazon | Buy from Ellora’s Cave

What are your plans for this summer?

N.J. has always been a voracious reader, and now she spends her days writing novels of her own. Vampires, werewolves, dragons, time-travelers, seductive handymen, and next-door neighbors with smoldering good looks—all vie for her attention. It’s a tough life, but someone’s got to live it.

Visit me at:

Website: https://www.njwalters.com
Blog: https://www.njwalters.blogspot.com
Newsletter Group: https://groups.yahoo.com/group/awakeningdesires/
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/N.J.WaltersAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/njwaltersauthor
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/njwalters

Raise your hand if you love dark, intense alpha heroes. Raise it higher if your dream hero owns any of the following: handcuffs, blindfold, ball gag, paddle, flogger, or spanking bench.

Ah! The allure of the kinky alpha hero.

Do they get any better than that tall, strong, dominant man who craves his heroine – over his knee with skirts raised and panties dangling?

Even before Christian Grey there were superlative erotic romance authors crafting super-nova hot tales of love, longing and spanking. But since the colossal popularity of FSOG, new readers have discovered they love to get their kink on – fictionally speaking – and the genre has exploded and BDSM romance continues to heat up faster than a naughty submissive’s derriere.

The intensity of BDSM romance is what makes me lust after these torrid tales. I adore intense stories all the way around:  In the bedroom and out! Complex, tormented characters, nearly insurmountable obstacles as they battle for their HEA. Multiple areas of conflict both internal and external feed my lust as well, and even intense and heightened settings and plots are my preference. No middle of the road stories – or sexual journeys – need apply. And what better way to explore conflict, raise the stakes, and ramp up the tension than through exploration of these taboo desires?

So the BDSM romance, with all that rough, raw, sexy goodness; with a heroine tough and strong and loving enough to submit to her one and only – or her two and only (& raise another hand if you love love love ménage BDSM romance where there’s even more bang for your reader buck); and with a Master-ful hero who adores his submissive beauty, whether he’s got her plugged and spread-eagle under his flogger, or in his well-muscled arms sharing tender kisses. These are the couples who fight the odds, the aliens, and the bad guys of every stripe and then celebrate with a full-throttle love scene that could scorch the nose hairs of those hapless villains!

Click on Cover to Buy

My favorite characters fight hard – and they love hard. From the highest of highs, to the lowest of lows, the heightened emotion of these stories melds and blends perfectly with the edgy, extreme sexual relationships of the committed couple at the heart of the tale.

And that’s what makes me the happiest of romance reading campers.

Be they dramatic or hilarious, as Mae West once famously said, “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.”

So, what’s YOUR favorite BDSM romance?

Do you embrace the loving sadist? Or the tormented Dom? The 24/7 slave girl, or the bedroom only submissive?

What alpha Dom hero gets you all hot & bothered?

The saying goes “whatever blows your skirt up”, so the last time you turned that final page in a BDSM romance with a satisfied sigh, what tantalizing tidbit had blown yours way, way up?

Come on, ‘fess up! I won’t tell!

*wink*

Writing erotic romance as Lise Horton and erotica as Lydia Hill, her short story, “My Master’s Mark” in the recently released Cleis Press anthology (Ed. DL King), Slave Girls: Erotic Stories of Submission, earned a starred review from Library Journal and the praise “surprisingly poignant”. She loves kinky romance with heart and sting. Visit her at www.lisehorton.com and for a taste of what blows her naughty skirt clean off, check out her blog “Lust In the Afternoon” at https://blackrosediaries.blogspot.com/ .           

Some authors love it. Some hate it. All do it.

From mundane internet searches to exotic trips to faraway lands, research can take many forms. I’ve called strangers, governments, secret agencies, and once even the student loan agency in California (they couldn’t believe I wanted to talk to the about something other than debt). I’ve eavesdropped in bars, sampled less-than-tasty cuisine, and taken cross-country motorcycle rides all in the name of providing readers with the most authentic experiences.

But nothing can top the days I spent with the fighters in a local MMA gym.

Oh the sacrifices I had to make for my readers! The hours I spent, pen and notebook in hand, following the hard-bodied White Rhino and the lean, mean Flash around the gym. MMA is a brutally tough sport. I learned about how fighters use grapple dummies (not anatomically correct, I noted), punch bags, free weights, cardio machines, gloves and helmets, cages and rings.  I also learned that the hardest part is not always the fight, but the endless training sessions, drills, and head games.

Although I had caught quick glimpses of cage fighting on television, I never really enjoyed watching it until I understood the techniques and strategies. At a professional level, fighters have to train in and master several martial arts styles, the key ones being jiu-jitsu, muay Thai, wrestling and boxing. A weakness in any area makes a fighter vulnerable. A strength has to be used carefully because every strength can be turned into a weakness.

What interested me most, however, aside from the incredibly fit dudes wandering around in their tight shorts, was the fight terminology, and I couldn’t resist using it in my MMA fighter romance series, Redemption. A fighter on top takes the “dominant position” and might have an expertise at “mounting” (full, rear, half…you get the picture). Other fighters are “submission” specialists and some prefer to “ground and pound” where they get their opponent on the ground and pound away from a dominant position. Maybe it’s just me and I have a dirty mind, so I won’t share my thoughts on the “hold”, “collar tie”, “rear naked choke”, “missionary control” or my favorite…the “rubber guard.”

In Your Corner, the second standalone book in my erotic romance Redemption series, takes place in an upscale MMA gym. Our hero, Jake, is a cage fighter, trying to win back the girl who loved and left him. Yes, there are fight scenes (in the cage and in the bedroom), lots of sexual innuendo, and even more smokin’ hot smex. Oh, and of course, there is a love story. Because who doesn’t love a man who is all about holding on?

In Your Corner will be released on July 1^st and is available for pre-order at:
Amazon: https://amzn.to/1nnCUlx
Barnes & Noble: https://bit.ly/1hvHV3u
ITunes: https://bit.ly/1re3WNA

And if you like darker, but just as sexy MMA fighters, check out Yield to Me!

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Website https://www.sarahcastille.com
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Twitter (@sarah_castille): https://www.twitter.com/sarah_castile
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6920675.Sarah_Castille
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I just returned home from the Romantic Times Convention in New Orleans and what an amazing time I had.  I ran in to many old friends and over the course of the week I made many, many new ones!  I must say this was one of the best conventions I’ve been too!  Even the hotel food was good.

Over the week I took part of a pub crawl on Bourbon Street, went to visit the warehouse where all the Mardi Gras floats were stored, tasted authentic New Orleans Cuisine, visited two amazing plantations, ate beignets at the famous Café Du Monde, took a horse trolley around the French Quarters (Brad Pitt was in town and I went by his house) and went on a bayou tour where I fed alligators marshmallow.  Yeah, I know, who would have thought alligators liked marshmallows!

I also participated in a huge book signing, danced the night away at Samhain’s Saints and Sinners party, had hurricanes at Bourbon Heat, got my beads on Bourbon Street, wore matching sweater with my favorite gal, Nikki Duncan, went to see the mighty Mississippi, took selfies after to many Grenades, hung out with two hotties from the TV series Necrolectric, had breakfast with awesome Invitation to Eden authors at Court of Two Sisters, had some quiet time with other authors where we brainstormed new book ideas, and spent lots of time at the bar!

I was completely exhausted by the time I returned home and when my flight was late in New Orleans, I knew I was going to miss my connector.  Even though I was anxious to be home to my family, a delayed flight was out of my control so I simply went with the flow.  When I arrived in Toronto, long after my connector flight was on its way to Nova Scotia, I just collected my luggage and prepared to go check with an airline rep.   Except they came to me first with a new boarding pass.  I tell you, Air Canada is like a well-oiled machine, and now I won’t fly with anyone but them.  They told me they were trying to get me on a later flight.  So my travel companion and I grabbed a bite to eat and went to check in.  At first we weren’t sure the flight had enough room for us, but then we were given tickets!  Yay!  When I looked at the ticket, I noticed we were in business class.  Double yay!  OMG, after being treated like a princess—salmon dinner, wine, nuts, more wine, blankets and pillow in my own private first class pod, I have no idea how I’ll ever go back to coach!  Talk about the icing on the cake after a wonderful trip.

But now it’s back to reality and working!!  But that’s okay, because I’m ready to focus on my new release, FLIRTY in WHISPERING COVE.  I LOVE this story so much, and if you’re following the whispering cove series (p.s.  Each book is stand alone but it’s a lot of fun to read them all) then you’ll have heard about my awesome Ghost Hunter Sam in SILK in WHISPERING COVE!  I hope you’ll all celebrate the release with me, and check it out on your favorite site!

Flirty in Whispering Cove

A summer fling so hot, it can raise spirits…

Home renovation specialist Alexis Miller thought snapping up an old Victorian fixer-upper in podunk Whispering Cove would put her on the fast track to proving herself to her brothers.

She can handle cooling her heels to wait for the right permits. It’s the ghost hunter claiming he needs to spend the night to check out the “cold spots” that’s got her body temperature fluctuating.

When Sam Doherty responds to an emergency phone call to cleanse a haunted house in Whispering Cove, the first thing he notices is how Alexis hides her femininity behind baggy coveralls—and how she wants to cover up the old home’s beauty with modern frills. As a guy who “sees” things others can’t, he sets out to teach her to appreciate the hidden beauty, inside and out.

Scary noises soon send Alexis into Sam’s arms, and when a kiss leads to passionate lovemaking, Alexis wonders if it’s possible to find common ground in this small town. Or, once the house is “clean”, if Sam will disappear faster than a ghostly apparition.

Warning: Contains enough sexual tension to raise spirits and turn any cold spot into a sweltering vortex of heat and passion.

Amazon https://amzn.to/1vH4FXw
BN https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/flirty-cathryn-fox/1118818375?ean=9781619220928
KOBO https://store.kobobooks.com/en-CA/ebook/flirty
iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/flirty/id828897156?mt=11

Someone once asked me why I love romance novels. Reading, writing, they were genuinely curious what the big deal was.

I’ve got a thing for angst.

A big-raging-over-the-top-monster-sized love for angst.

As a reader I don’t want to read how easy love is for characters. I want them to work for it—burn for it. I want it to exist just out of reach until the very last possible second and hot damn I want to ache when they finally, finally get to reach out and clutch their Happily Ever After in their little hands and never ever let it go. When a story leaves me breathless by The End I can’t help but fall a little bit in love.

This love of mine translates to my writing. I love, love, love putting my characters through the ringer, if only for a little while.

Usually my guys need to work their own issues out before they can even think about accepting the love of another. They have issues and they’re comfortable with them. They see them as their penance for whatever hand life had dealt them. Really, they could all just used a big, sweaty, man hug. It takes a special kid of man to pull my broken heroes out of their (usually) self-imposed exile from mankind. They’re usually mouthy and a bit pushy. So, you know, the best kind of man.

My Southern Honor series stars a whole group of men who boldly wear their tattered, broken existance on their sleeves. They think they’re not worth fixing and they’re not about to let anyone close enough to really try.

And really…who doesn’t like their hero a bit broken?

Here’s a bit from Homecoming, book one in the Southern Honor series. Just a little taste of what Jack and Dillon are up against:

“What the hell, Jack?” he huffed, opening the passenger door and forcing the bigger man to the bench seat. “What were you thinking?” He pushed Jack’s blunt-fingered hand out of his way and probed as gently as he could at the ribs his friend had been holding. He tried to ignore the way the play of muscles under the body-warmed shirt brought his own body to life. “No, don’t answer that. You weren’t thinking, you big dumb gorilla. You were reacting.” He felt more than heard Jack’s painful hiss as his fingers passed over injured bones. “Nothing’s changed has it?”

When he moved his hand under the hem of Jack’s shirt and made contact with his bare skin, he thought he was going to lose it. This close, he could smell the essence of the man. The scent that would always be Jack—dark and seductive—it was the same and so much better than he remembered. Trying to talk his wayward body into believing he was only touching the other man to make sure he didn’t re-injure himself, Dillon let his fingers move slowly over lightly fuzzed rippling abs. His slow journey to the offending ribs ended abruptly at a puckered ridge.

“What the—?”

He lifted the black shirt and couldn’t hold back the gasp at the sight of Jack’s torso. A map of livid bruises, all in varying stages of healing, colored the skin beneath the hand resting on Jack’s stomach. It was the sight of the angry red scar, a jagged semi-circle running from his ribcage to hipbone that made his heart stop. What had the Delta Force done to this man? Logically, Dillon knew it wasn’t the military that had put these marks on Jack’s skin but his heart was looking for someone to blame.

Under their own volition, his fingers began tracing the red line under them. He knew Jack was home on medical leave, but he’d had no idea it was this bad. These marks, and the other scars, some small burns, spoke of something horrible. Something Dillon didn’t know he wanted to face. When his hand reached the barrier of Jack’s jeans, he noticed Jack had stopped breathing. Looking up, the sight he was faced with made his blood run cold. Jack was staring off over his shoulder, completely shut down. His eyes were an empty void and Dillon had to fight the physical reaction to the sight of those dead blue eyes.

Dillon just stood there not knowing what to do with the rage and longing to take this wounded man into his arms and protect him from horrors he didn’t know how to fight. He just stood there as Jack brushed his hand aside and slipped past him. Watched as the man walked away from him. Just like he had ten years earlier. The bruises were different, but the pain settling in Dillon’s chest was just as deep.