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

* * * * *

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 »

True love. That mythical unicorn of emotion many swear doesn’t exist. And the rest of us? Constantly seeking, reading, hoping, validating the notion that one day we will either find it, or have already found it. Not to mention the constant prayer that some skanky home wrecking little bitch doesn’t try to pry it out of your cold, moist and clammy grasp. *grins cheerfully*

I believe in true love. Trust me, it’s easier NOT to believe, then I can justify settling for less. For a while I did. Years ago, when I was with my first serious relationship I thought I found it. I realize now a large part of it was him being my first, and he saw me thru some crazy shit and didn’t leave, and I know I’m not easy. In fact…the phrase two nuts short of a fruitcake often float around, but I ain’t saying who it’s about. It could be me. Perhaps. *stares at nails*

Mayhaps not. ANYwho…When reality set in, it’s obvious I confused lust with love. Haven’t we all done that once or twice? Or a million times…*sighs* I got used to sleeping with the same guy every night, or, in the illustrious words of that finer than a motherfucker Morris Chestnut from one of my all-time favorite movies, ‘The Best Man’ the way my pussy curved to his dick pretty much had a bitch thirsty as hell, lol. Brother could lay pipe, I will not lie. But was I in love? Nah. I was deep in lust. Sad thing is, I truly believe he loved me and would have probably made a decent enough husband too, but…I also know now that wouldn’t have been fair. I would’ve ended up hurting him, because in the end, I knew deep down from the very beginning, in that place where only you and god know the truth (praise jeebus) I couldn’t stay for the long haul.

And ps? Just because someone has been there from the beginning, or like in my case, has seen you though some dark times does not guarantee happily ever after. It just doesn’t. Brutal but honest. I remember reading how Janet Jackson and her husband Rene Elizondo were married 11 years, together even longer. And now they aren’t. For some reason I never thought they would break up. They just always….WERE, you know? Now, she is happily married to who I am guessing she really hopes is her soul mate. Here’s hoping, J. *holds up glass*

In all that time though, I’m sure she didn’t expect that Rene only wanted her for her money and in the end that’s what their break-up came down to. Moo-lah he wanted from her and sued her for. Mind you, we as outsiders can only speculate, but you get my point. It makes me wonder now what his agenda was all along. I hear so many celebrities say, he or she knew me when I was broke and didn’t have shit but you know what? A smart person, hell even an idiot can spot someone who’s got that “it,” or will soon get it, you know what I mean?

So what do they do? They invest in that person and stand by them, and then later when someone says you’re out for cheese, BOO YAH. Pull out that ace, baby. I knew you when you ain’t had shit, I can’t possibly have hidden agenda, right? Because gold diggers, after all are only hookers and hoes from the ghetto and from trailer parks and whatever else represents low-income and lack of class. Gotta love them stereotypes, folks. O_o

Now I know it’s not always true. Everyone is not always out for material gain, and it doesn’t mean that’s what happened to Janet and Rene, or anyone else, but bottom line? They weren’t soul mates, that much is clear. Familiarity and history does not necessarily true love make. It matters, but it should NOT be the only thing that sustains you. As I recall, familiarity often breeds contempt, but that’s another blog, eh? lol.

True love does exist. You can realize it ten years after knowing someone, or, god forbid, ten seconds. I don’t advise the latter, lol, but just because it hasn’t happened to me, doesn’t mean I won’t believe that magic and fairies don’t exist.

In my novella series, Give & Receive, this is the theme I think that drives the story. Lena, Danny and Ty really are caught in spider’s web of emotion. Hurt, anger, love, betrayal, heat, lust and downright lunacy just to name a few. She has to determine what she truly feels for both of these men, and they for her. Is it love? Is it just lust? Is she going to choose one, or risk everything and try to have them both? She’s what my one friend Moni luv calls a greedy bitch, so we’ll see how this all pans out.

So here’s my question to you guys. What IS true love? How do you define it? Is there truly only “one” true love? To me, it’s many things. It’s unconditional love. Your soul mate. Accepting all facets of a person. The dark side of a person and the skeletons that help define who they are. An extension of you. The sick feeling in your tummy you get wondering at any given moment what they’re doing, who they’re doing it with, or if they’re thinking of you and feeling the same way. You’re always anxious to see them, because when they’re not there, a piece of you is missing. It’s living a little inside of their skin and breathing them in. It’s a perfect line of coke. It’s euphoria. Explosive. Volatile. Carnal bliss.

Love is pain. It hurts. God it hurts. Like a jagged knife that repeats its tear across your insides. Dante’s 9^th circle of hell. Anyone who tells you different is fucking lying their face off and you need to hit them in the eye with a bag of pork chops mixed with dirty, wet sweat socks. Repeatedly. And it’s important that they’re mixed up together. And dirty. Read the rest of this entry »