Thank you Delilah for letting me guest blog today, because today’s a very special day for me. It’s Release Day for COLLECTOR’S ITEM, my new paranormal romance from The Wild Rose Press.

To find her missing aunt, a headstrong shapeshifter joins forces with a cynical Alpha to investigate an illegal hunt club, but when their plan backfires can she escape a trap of her own making?

To celebrate this special day, I’m sharing a little about the development of my shapeshifter story. Also, I’m inviting everyone to enter my COLLECTOR’S ITEM Release Week Contest, running now through May 23rd. See details below!

Paranormal stories are often about hiding the reality of being dual-natured from the rest of the world. I chose to have shapeshifters living openly in the population, but they haven’t been “out of the closet” for long. In my world, the emergence of shapeshifters was motivated by a threat to their survival–the Collectors. The Collectors is a secret society of human hunters. Their goal: to capture, hunt, and kill shapeshifters–the Ultimate Big Game. The Collectors have been so successful, shapeshifters are forced to seek legal rights and protections or become an “endangered species.”

When creating COLLECTOR’S ITEM, I decided that I wanted to use a feline shapeshifter instead of a werewolf. Nothing against werewolves, but I’ve always been a cat person. Also, by not choosing to do werewolves, my shapeshifters would not be tied to the moon’s cycles, giving them more autonomy. However, the biggest difference in my shapeshifters is that I gave the animal side of my shapeshifters their own names and distinct personalities.

The heroine, KT (Katarina Teresa) Marant, shares her consciousness with Andi (Andromeda). The hero, Peyton Allers shares his consciousness with Max (Maximilian). The animal personalities fulfill the role of “side-kick,” and provide a bit of comic relief as well.

The story of COLLECTOR’S ITEM begins when a member of KT Marant’s family disappears and KT Marant immediately suspects the Collectors. As the trained, but inexperienced Female Alpha of the Marant Clan, KT has the skills but lacks the knowledge to follow through on her suspicion. Enter Peyton Allers, an undercover Alliance Protector and Alpha in his own right.

EXCERPT:

Peyton Allers struggled to contain his temper as he faced the “princess” of the Marant clan, AKA Katarina Teresa Marant. Because a high-blood princess had slipped her leash and made herself a target for the Collectors, his cover and his operation were blown. No simple “chip & tip” would do for this Collector’s Item, damn it!

Added to the inevitable hysterics and demands for protection, he’d be elbow deep in politics. God, he hated politics. Bowing and scraping while maneuvering to find the best location to stick in the knife.

Not with this one, his jag, Max asserted.

The princess stood behind the couch, hands on hips, a tiny crease between her eyebrows while she looked from Massey on the rug to him and back. No hysterics in sight, Peyton noted with relief. Points for restraint.

Alpha, said Max.

Princess, Peyton countered. Even they had their moments of intelligence, but he knew better than to expect more.

To see how this all works out, I invite you to read COLLECTOR’S ITEM, now available from The Wild Rose Press.

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THE CONTEST: One lucky person will win a COLLECTOR’S ITEM mug filled with caffeine and chocolate! Rules are:

1. LIKE my Denise Golinowski/Author Page on Facebook = 1 Entry
2. TWEET about Collector’s Item using #collectorsitembook and @DGolinowski = 1 Entry
3. POST a comment here and mention that you’ve completed #1 & #2 = 1 Entry
4. WAIT – I’ll be drawing a lucky winner on May 23^rd and post the winner on my Denise Golinowski/Author Page
5. EXTRA CREDIT – LIKE FB page for COLLECTOR’s ITEM – Collector’s Item/Golinowski = 1 Entry

Easy Peasy you can have 4 entries in the drawing.

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ABOUT DENISE: Denise Golinowski has always been a writer. A hopeful romantic, she gravitated to fantasy and romance.  She is a PRO member of the Romance Writers of America, Virginia Romance Writers, and James River Writers.  A native of Richmond, Virginia, Denise lives with her uber-supportive husband and one devoted lap kitty. She is currently working on a Contemporary Paranormal Romance involving another member of the Marant Clan—KT’s older brother, Peter Marant.  You can find her on facebook at Denise Golinowski/Author and at her blog, Golinowski’s Gambol.

A Winner!

I forgot all about this! So sorry! For my defense, I have been a little busy. Still am. If you saw yesterday’s post, you have an inkling why. 🙂

Anyway, I used a random number generator to pick the day and the winner’s name. The lucky winner gets one handmade (by me!) “Night Crow” pendant with black leather cord necklace. I painted and inked it, then threw in some crumbles of silver leaf. It’s very pretty and dark.

From Tuesday, April 23rd, the winner is…Teresa Hughes! Teresa, congratulations!! Send me an email with your snail mail address, and I will get your pendant into the mail!

A Brand New Contest

Let’s make this super easy. Since I have so many books coming out in June, I’ll help one reader with her book budget!

What can you win? An Amazon gift card worth $20!

What do you have to do to win? Simple. Comment on my blog—on any posting, from now thru May 30th! I’ll choose a winner at random from among all the comments. Good luck!

A Question

My DVR is filled to bursting with shows I’ve taped and hope to have time to watch soon. Last night I watched the season finales for NCIS (love the very special Tony DiNozzo!) and NCIS: Los Angeles (you thought I’d love on LL, right? Oh he’s still  hot, but Marty Deeks is stealin’ my heart!).

Of course, both shows left us with maddening cliffhangers. What both shows also gave us were two long-time-coming kisses. Tony finally kissed Ziva—on the freakin’ forehead! Dang-it! But did you see Marty kiss Kensi? I wanted to see him grin afterwards, but I’m guessing he’ll be regretting the impulse in the new season when she puts him firmly back in “partner” status.

What about you? Are there any shows that are just killing you? Will Juliette ever fall back in love with her Grimm? Will Patrick Jane ever catch Red John? Have we really seen the last of Lena and H.G. in Warehouse 13?

I’m still not recovered from the RT Convention in Kansas City. Can’t seem to make myself sit and write. Maybe moving immediately to another house to house sit while my dd is in DC has something to do with it. I like my writer’s cave. Like the fact I don’t have interruptions. Who knew 4 dogs and 4 cats would be so needy?! 😕

In the meantime, there are some things I thought you all might like to know about. First, for you readers…

Two scintillating full-length volumes of erotica are currently on sale for just $.99 each! So what if you don’t read lesbian erotica! Readers have loved taking the walk on the wild side for these stories. If you thought you knew everything there was to know about vampires or shapeshifters, think again! These are very original, very unique, award-winning stories. And for such a great price, don’t you think you owe it to yourself to see what all the fuss is about? Click on the covers to head straight to Amazon!

And then there are the June books up for pre-order now!

Crescent Moon begins releasing June 4th! What do I mean by that? It’s a serialized full-length book. Montlake, an arm of Amazon, will release a new installment every two weeks. You pay one price, $1.99, and get the new installments shipped automatically to your Kindle every time they release! Fun, right? And the story? Well, think mummies and demons and cops…

Twice the Bang? It releases June 18th! You know what to expect there if you’ve been reading the Delta Heat books. It’s book #4 in the series. I plan 5 stories total for my horny Memphis cops!

Lost Souls is the sequel to Shattered Souls, the next Caitlyn O’Connell PI story, and there are more spooky happenings in Memphis! It releases June 25th!

I promised something for you writers… How about a big ol’ nag! I need stories for Hot Highlanders and Wild Knights! If you’ve ever thought you’d like to give writing a medieval romance a go, now’s the time! The stories are due to me by June 1st, so there’s still time. You can write a short story in a weekend, promise! See the details regarding the call here:  Hot Highlanders and Wild Knights

My first firefighter crush was on John Gage (Randolph Mantooth) on the TV show Emergency! I was in elementary school. Ever since, I’ve had to check out TV shows with firefighters.

One of my favorites was Third Watch, especially in the wake of 9-11, where the characters would head to the rubble of the WTC after their shift. That was really intense and heart-breaking, but so cathartic to watch.

Then came Rescue Me, which my husband loved but I loathed. I didn’t find one character I could root for. Not one of them was heroic, which my husband said was the point–they were just regular guys doing a hard job. But they spoiled my ideal of the firefighter, which I am convinced is more the truth than that show would have me believe.

Now I’m loving Chicago Fire. That show has its share of firefighters making bad decisions (CRUZ!) but there are redeeming moments and characters you can root for, and a hottie or two. I love the overarching storylines, like Casey’s problems with the cop. My favorite character is Christopher, the down-on-his-luck firefighter who has so many money problems. He makes the show for me.

I love my fictionalized firefighters, because they remind me of the dangers these brave men and women face every day.

What about you? Do you have a favorite TV or movie firefighter? What about in books? How flawed can a character be before you can no longer root for him?

BIO: MJ Fredrick’s first two books were about firefighters: Where There’s Smoke is about a city firefighter who falls for his best friend, and Hot Shot is about a wildfire fighter who falls for the reporter who wants to make him out to be a hero when he sees himself as anything but.

Falling in Love with Characters

As a reader I often become emotionally involved in the story. I’ll learn to love and hate the characters and become attached to them. I miss them when I’m done and often count down the days until the next book in a series is released. So you might be able to imagine how much worse the hero worship gets when the characters are my own. I live with them, dream about them, and let them speak through me. Aside from feeling a bit narcissistic it can also be heartbreaking when they stop talking to me. I’m a pantser so my characters write my stories. Sometimes they go on and on. Sometimes it’s like pulling teeth to get to the end.

Whenever I have a new release I don’t read it right away. I, of course, read the book through during the final editing phase. However, when I’m sent the absolute final copies before the release date I put them into a file and ignore them for a while. Why? Well, I’m usually already onto another story and another set of characters. In essence, I’ve already fallen in love with someone else. I know I’m such a floozy. I do find myself going back months later to read my books and sometimes I’m surprised by them. I usually fall in love with my heroes all over again too.

In my series, Love Beyond Barriers, it was easy to fall in love with each one of the heroes. All of them share the traits of patience, honesty, and loyalty. All of them showed true concern for their heroine and the other people in their story they call friends. In the final installment, Too Much to Lose, Ben is unique. He’s a young, single personal trainer who has set his sights on his friend’s sister. Don’t worry, the friend doesn’t mind but the sister does. Shayla is from New York and just can’t see things working out between her and the insistent Texan. But of course love will find a way, especially with all the sparks flying between these two in the bedroom.

Too Much to Lose will be available on May 15^th!

Here’s a little taste:

Shayla loves her life in New York. She loves her job, her freedom and her friends. What she doesn’t love is going home to an empty bed every night. There’s definitely a solution for that in Texas…Ben. The only problem is she’s not certain she’s ready for another serious relationship.

Ben fell head over heels for Shayla almost from the moment they met and it was obvious the attraction was mutual. However, great sex is all she’s willing to give. She tests his patience at every turn and his endurance whenever they’re alone together. He doesn’t know what more to offer.

It might take a force of nature and the emotional past coming back to haunt her before Shayla realizes what they have is definitely Too Much to Lose.

A Romantica® erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave

Want more? You can find all of the books in the series here: https://www.ellorascave.com/too-much-to-lose.html

-Missy Jane

*Make reading a guilty pleasure…*

www.authormissyjane.com
www.msmissyjane.blogspot.com
www.twitter.com/msmissyjane
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Missy-Jane/208776832491620

The winner of the free download is Amber H! Amber, congrats, and send me
an email to let me know which if the prequel books you want! ~DD

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Okay, so my choice of excerpts isn’t a perfect fit for today’s topic. I’m at my dd’s house and I don’t have access to files not stored in “the cloud.” But I did want to tell you about the next book in the Delta Heat series that’s coming your way June 18th. I know you like smutty fantasy. What’s sexier than a cop or a firefighter? How about both? Yeah, simple premise. But you know the fun’s in the execution. And BTW, Twice the Bang is ready for pre-order. 

 If you post a comment today, you’ll be entered to win
a free download of one of the prequel Delta Heat books!

Who says it’s better to share your toys?

Delta Heat, Book 4

Beau McIntyre has had his eye on Pansy Patton for a while. But after their friends’ coming out party—where Pansy wears nothing but a sexy smile—Beau isn’t the only one jockeying for the best view of her pretty backside. Realizing it was a mistake to opt for a drawn-out seduction, Beau plans on staking his claim.

Billy Sorenson knows he’s out of his league with a submissive like Pansy, but it was lust at first sight. Now he’ll do whatever it takes to have her, even if he has to be penciled into her schedule for equal time.

A smoking-hot firefighter with ice-blue eyes, or a mysterious cop…what’s a girl to do? Pansy has the answer: refuse to choose and savor the consequences of both men pursuing her.

Doe she expect her lovers to play fair? Oh, no. She’s hoping they’ll play dirty. Real dirty…

As they drove to the Italian restaurant where Billy had made reservations, Pansy watched the handsome firefighter from the corner of her eye. He was all wrong for her. A vanilla guy who didn’t understand the first thing about what a girl like her needed.

And yet she couldn’t do the right thing. Couldn’t tell him take her home and forget about seeing her again. There was something about him she really liked.

Didn’t hurt he was easy to look at. Tall and thickly muscled everywhere, he looked like a Viking come to life. Only with short, bristly blond hair. And with pale, penetrating eyes that were completely swoon worthy.

The first time she’d felt that arctic-blue gaze settle on her naked body at the party, she’d felt an electric spark sizzle across her skin. She’d been so excited her nipples had tightened as though pinched by naughty fingers.

Or maybe it was the added bonus that Beau’s whole body had stiffened beside hers as Billy had approached. She’d been trying to get Beau’s attention for the longest while, every time he entered the club. At last, that night, he’d given a hint of jealous possessiveness regarding her.

Billy’s expression was open for anyone to read. Predatory, stark, his gaze raking her nude body and snagging for long moments on her breasts and bare mound. His chest beneath his orange University of Tennessee T-shirt had expanded. His arms had tensed, both displaying impressive bulges, but not a show he’d purposely given. He’d just been in a rush to reach her. Like a heat-seeking missile homing in on a hot target like the ones she’d watched on the news.

She’d never gotten that reaction from a man before. She’d been nude in many settings—at the club, at private meet ’n’ greets, at BDSM conventions—but she was used to polite interest, not the hungry intensity she’d felt all the way to her bare toes.

She’d creamed on the spot and then wondered how to hide the evidence, clamping together her thighs. Read the rest of this entry »