The Ties that Bind

I think few things define a person more than their community.  Whether your community is your family, religion, or even hometown, it shapes you and has a profound affect on the person you become.  I’m from a small town and I’ll probably always be a small town girl at heart even though I live in a city.  My community had a profound influence in making me who I am.  And I’d like to think that in some small way, I might have left my mark on my community as well.  ‘Cause that’s what makes each community special…unique.  As it’s shaping you, you’re shaping it. 

So what happens when your community disowns you?

That single question sparked the birth of my newest heroine, Nicola Lillian Rathe.  When she was twelve years old, just after the death of her mother, she was cast out of her community.  To make matters worse, with no family or home, she was forced into human foster care.  Most children would find this to be a traumatic experience but for Nikki it was more than that.  It was shattering.  Her community was not just her family and friends.  And it was more than her home.  It was her race—her own kind. 

Nikki’s Community was made up of people of magic.  Some could shape-shift (take on any appearance at will), some could manipulate fire, some were empaths, and some were compulsors.  And Nikki?  She was one of the rarest and most dangerous of them.  She was born a seductress.  Able to bend a man until he broke with a single touch.

But just because she no longer had a place in her Community, didn’t mean they no longer shaped her.  And it most certainly didn’t mean she no longer shaped them.  They might not want her, might be afraid of her, but they still need her.  And when a handsome enforcer tricks her into a blood bond, she discovers she might still need them as well.

Excerpt:

Nikki heard the low growl of impatience, but it took a second for her to recognize it as her own. “You talk too much.” She covered his mouth with hers, silencing him.

The kiss was filled with challenge and desire, making it both hungry and vulnerable at the same time. His arms closed around her back as she deepened the kiss, pulling her closer, until every inch of her body was pressed against his. The feel of his skin under hers was intoxicating.

Pushing him away, she sat up and stared at him for a moment before lowering her mouth to his neck. Her tongue sought out and found his racing pulse. Savoring the lightly salty taste of his skin, she started working her way down to the sensitive spot where his neck met his shoulder. Biting him teasingly, she heard him moan as his hands clenched her thighs.

“You taste good.” Her voice was husky, seductive—intentionally so. Here, she was in her element.

“And what if I want to taste you?”

God, this was just what she needed. “Feel free.”

“No, I mean all of you.” Read the rest of this entry »

By Any Other Name

I have to admit that my husband is taking a lot of flack over my latest release, Ten Reasons Not To Date A Cop. See, my real life hero is a peace officer. We have been together for over twenty-five years (why, yes, I was ten when I met him <wink>) and I started this book long before he ever thought about entering law enforcement.

But he’s had a great time at work boasting that his wife is a romance author. They’ve taken to calling him Murtaugh after Danny Glover’s character in the Lethal Weapon Series. He’s told everyone how he’s my inspiration and if only they would read that scene on page 136…

But his limelight is diminishing. Ten Reasons Not To Date A Cop? He hates the title, fusses about it on a regular basis, and swears he won’t tell anyone at work about it.

I didn’t bother to point out that most of his friends at work are my friends and fans on Facebook and they already know about Ten Reasons. Nor did I inform him that titles aren’t always created by the author. I do remind him that Ten Reasons is a romance and well, Kaylee (the heroine) comes to terms with her reasons and finds a place in her heart for a policeman.

Living with a police officer does have its benefits as far as research goes. Even when he gets mad at me for interrupting the football game (yet again) with questions about police ethics, guns, and investigation proceedings. And then there’s the matter of that scene on page 136… Research people. It’s a necessary endeavor. And he’s always willing to “take one for the team” when it comes to that.

Maybe I should name the next book, Ten Reasons Cops Make Fabulous Lovers/Husbands/Heroes. Surely he can’t find anything wrong with a title like that.

Here’s a look at Ten Reasons Not To Date A Cop—

Luc sat for a moment in the cool interior of the Beemer and watched the woman shift from one pretty leg to the other. He made no move to get out of his car. He wanted her to wait. Or try to run. She shifted again.

His informant had been quite specific in his description. Their target was a female, very short with arrow-straight, platinum blond hair. She wasn’t reported to be armed, nor was she considered to be particularly dangerous. She drove a beat-up blue Nissan and wasn’t above using her feminine wiles to get what she wanted. But Matthias hadn’t told Luc she was a memory, all grown up and prettier than ever.

Little Kaylee Stephens. My, my, my. She was the last person he had expected the K. Stephens to be. When he’d heard the name, she hadn’t even crossed his mind. It had been what…? Ten…fifteen years? He mentally did the math. Sixteen. It had been sixteen years since he had seen her. And she’d looked a sight different now. Back then she had been the awkward, tag-a-long sister of his two best friends. All pigtails and braces and now…well, now she wasn’t.

She checked her watch, then cast a frustrated glance in his direction. She had to be smothering in that raincoat. The temperature was at least a hundred and three. She looked as if she had something to hide, bundled up the way she was. The statue? A weapon?

Luc had glanced into her car while he wrote her citations, but the interior of the Nissan looked like a twister had recently blown through. He would have to search it if he was going to find what he was after. Damn what a day this was turning out to be.

She whirled around as he opened his car door. Her silvery hair contrasted starkly with the black of her raincoat, and he wondered how it would look splayed against his chest. How it would feel. Read the rest of this entry »

So the company I work for sent me to a resort for a week….

There I was surrounded by half-naked delicious men lying beside one of the swimming pools or wandering through the gardens. There were two different restaurants and a pool-side bar as well, with every imaginable kind of yummy food.

The sun shone brightly every day and the staff were amazingly friendly and helpful.

I bet you’re all jealous of me, right? Ready to turn bitchy and scratch my eyes out with jealousy?

Well don’t bother. I was wearing a prim, navy blue business suit, with the jacket buttoned up, hunched over a table, stuck in meetings for sixteen hours a day and too exhausted to do much more than have a shower, a meal, and sleep the other eight. I only got to swim in the pool once the whole time I was there and that was on the last day, because I figured I could sleep on the plane going home.

But instead of sleeping on my flight home, I got to thinking, “What if?” and “Resort Romance” was born.

Imogen agrees to accompany Gage and Liam to a resort for a week’s vacation and some extra hot ménage sex. The gardens are beautiful, the meals are delicious and the facilities are excellent, especially the three swimming pools. The men are delicious too, but Gage is bossy and Imogen is not going to be anyone’s sex toy.

But the men are awfully yummy and Imogen is having a wonderful time. Until Gage makes a few autocratic decisions which remind Imogen of her manipulative father. Then Imogen has to decide whether the best orgasms of her life are worth risking potential heartbreak.

Buy link: Resort Romance

Berengaria Brown
https://berengariasblog.blogspot.com/
Friend me on Facebook. Follow me on Twitter.

Thank you, Delilah, for having me. Your support and encouragement have made all the difference.

MY LIFE IS OUT OF CONTROL —
NO, IT’S THE FIRE NEXT DOOR!

Whew! What a whirlwind life can be.

Like so many other unfortunate souls who’ve crashed and burned in recent times, we’ve known what it’s like to go from rags to riches, and then lose it all. Three years of teetering on the edge, I’m finally beginning to get the feeling back in my legs. Long story short, we’re starting over­.

We used to think success, and therefore happiness, was gleaned from what we’ve acquired—things. Life is about so much more.  Meaningful elements like love, good health, and honest friendships are greater gifts than anything money can buy.

I’m sitting in the cozy comfort of our friends’ tiny bungalow writing this post, and I couldn’t be more content.

Of course, having two steady paychecks calms the nerves a bit, too.   

My latest story was inspired by a fiery event next door.  The adjacent property owner raises chickens, roosters, rabbits, cats, dogs and God only knows what else on his small parcel of wooded land. He doesn’t live there, just comes and tends his animals and fiddles around the place.

A couple of psychedelically painted sheds and a dilapidated lean-to give the small compound a 1960s hippie flair. And the long-haired, gray-bearded loner in the jeep only feeds into the conclusion that he’s not all there. He sets fires and burn things.

One afternoon, I thought I smelled our friend’s barbequing out back. You’d think I’d be able to tell the difference between someone grilling food and a brush fire. Come to think of it, maybe I’m not all there either!

But anyway, the fire flamed out of control and the woods caught on fire. There are houses all around, set on five and ten-acre parcels with lots of trees. The possibilities were devastating.

The men in our group were all down at the barn (their man-cave) drinking beer, when my female friend next door came banging on my door screaming, “The fire is out of control!”

My heart dropped to my stomach. “You mean you’re not barbecuing?” I probably had my mind on a story. That’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it.

I stepped into my flip-flops, grabbed my purse and keys, jumped in my car and called my husband down at the barn. He assured me we were fine. The fire department was on the way.

About that time, the big red fire truck came barreling down the long dirt drive and my heart began to calm. We dropped the tailgate of one of the pickup trucks and sat like idiots watching the delicious firefighters put out the fire. There actually was a yummy fire investigator, to which my friend said, “There’s your next hero, Joyce.”

And Familiar Flame was born…

A contemporary erotic romance

Warning: This story contains sexually explicit content, including anal play and the use of erotic toys.

Brandy rushes to release her neighbor’s pets when an unattended fire rages out of control, only to be confronted by a disgruntled fire-cop who vows to teach her a lesson in self-preservation.

Fire Inspector, Lucas Martin, arrives at the chaotic scene of a fire gone wild, and learns the sexy neighbor narrowly escaped her own demise while rescuing an irresponsible property owner’s animals.

As Lucas returns Brandy to her home next door, he discovers real meaning behind the phrase: Keep the flame burning.

https://joycepalmer.net 

The highs make you giddy, but the lows’ll bury you

I’m Michelle Moore, half of the writing team responsible for the Ylendrian Empire scifi series, and Delilah has been kind enough to let me invade her blog with a guest post today.

The past few weeks have been interesting, to say the least.  Right before Halloween, my other (and most would say better) half, Reesa Herberth, was hospitalized with pulmonary embolisms.  Actually, do you use the plural term embolisms if there are multiple blood clots in both lungs or is it always just a pulmonary embolism singular?  Funny, never thought to ask the doctor about correct terminology.  Anyway, can I say how terrifying it is to hear that someone you love was within a day of dying if she hadn’t gone to the ER?  Pretty damn scary.  You know, just in case you were wondering.

The day Reesa got out of the hospital we got the news that we’d sold our newest novel to Riptide Publishing.   We sweated blood and tears over Peripheral People, mainly because it was a real stretch for us, a mystery with a psychic serial killer (in SPACE!).  Never having written a mystery before, we had a trial-by-fire learning experience, and while we both had the utmost faith in the story, we were still worried about finding it the right home.  So talk about euphoria when Rachel Haimowitz at Riptide contacted us.

I don’t think I’m mentally equipped for extreme ups and downs.  I have a tic in my left eye, I’ve chewed my cuticles to the quick, and if I were given the opportunity to get in bed with Delilah, I’m afraid it would only be so I could pull the covers up over my head and hide!

Anyone else been on an out of control see-saw?  Comment with your gory details for a chance to win an e-book copy of The Balance of Silence or The Slipstream Con.

Michelle

Snow Bound (In All the Right Ways)

Snow. The very sight and sound of it’s descent to the earth is magical. The hushed anticipation that comes with the first few snowflakes as they drift to the ground before melting.

I know those of you who live with it knee-deep several times a year might not feel the same, but for those of us living in the southern United States, the appearance of this enchanting weather phenomenon is few and far between. My debut novella opens with the little town of Cadence experiencing the worst snowstorm the Tennessee valley has seen in a decade. While it takes several feet to confine those of you in other places to your homes, down south whole towns can be incapacitated by a few inches because we don’t have the equipment to keep roads clear and make travel safe on icy highways.

I have wonderful memories of few and far between snow days. The still silence of standing in the woods while crystallized flakes blanket the ground in a crunchy white crust. Watching the first reactions of my babies, totally unused to this freezing ground cover. My father and neighbors clearing our little rural road with their own chainsaws after waiting days for the county to move downed trees. And refusing to get on the roads because, in case you don’t know it, us southerners are dangerous on ice! Not near enough practice, in my opinion. But one particular memory stands out in my mind.

During the first year of my marriage, we had a major snowstorm that covered the state with a layer of ice underneath the white stuff, along with a week of temps that kept the slick surface from melting. And since we weren’t keen on getting run over, my hubby and I holed up in the house with a heating unit not nearly adequate enough to keep the freezing air at bay. Best defensive action? 2 bodies. 1 blanket.

I guess I don’t need to explain where that type of scenario might lead? Especially for newlyweds. SNOW BOUND’s hero and heroine are certainly tempted to heat up their nights while snowed into the heroine’s isolated farmhouse – if they can keep safe from the past determined to terrorize their cozy little nest.

What’s your favorite way to pass the time if you’re SNOW BOUND?

Today I’m giving away a cute little “snow” pack to 1 lucky commenter, including hot chocolate, a snowman cookie, fuzzy lap blanket, and a $5 Amazon gift card. My heroine would most definitely approve!

* * * * *

SNOW BOUND

Available now through Amazon and Smashwords.

The last thing Damon West wants is a trip to his bookish neighbor’s house in the midst of the worst snowstorm Cadence, TN, has seen in a decade. Still, his military instincts warn him that Miss Priss could use a little help. His arrival is met with an attack by an unknown assailant and the sight of Miss Priss in a sexy wisp of nothing-much, confidently wielding a double-barreled shotgun.

Tori Anderson carefully portrays herself as a responsible bookstore owner and capable young woman to anyone willing to look twice. But two men grappling in her backyard called for speed more than decorum. That’s how the guy she’d been secretly lusting after since he’d bought the house next door sees her in a silky robe and panties—with nothing in between. Damon’s sudden interest thrills her, but she can’t help worrying about the unknown threat scared off by her shotgun blast.

Trapped in her house under several feet of snow with no way to reach the outside world, Tori finally has the chance to indulge her wildest fantasies. But she isn’t sure which is more daunting—the abusive boyfriend back to punish her or her desire to have more than one night with the town’s most unavailable bachelor.

NaNo Day 9:
SS-2—0 words (vacation)

When It Rains, It Pours

You’ve heard the old adage, “When it rains, it pours”, right?

Well, Superstorm Sandy poured rain and wind all over me and the rest of the east coast over the weekend leading up to Halloween.

What does this have to do with writing?

To set the scene, I submitted my twelfth book with Ellora’s Cave to my editor on April 30. Got an acceptance June 15 for Mercy and Redemption with the notation to send a blurb and fill in a cover request form. I got my cover within a month and it was awesome! But edits? I was waiting and waiting and waiting…

Until, you guessed it, Sunday night, October 28, when I opened an email from my editor with “Revisions” in the subject line. This was the night before Sandy ravaged the power grid in eastern Pennsylvania. Not only that, I couldn’t upload, format and post a scary blog about sexual predators by Dr. Matthew Scrivens on my blogsite until the lights came back on late Wednesday, October 31. That’s also the day my electronic calendar reminded me I had committed to writing a guest blog for Delilah that would be due, yes, the next day.

So, it rained writing obligations that Halloween day, and it was a trick to get them all done. S’okay, I’m a procrastinator and I work well under pressure. Um, I used to, anyway.

Based on all of that, Frankenstorm Sandy gave me the subject matter for this blog, which was sent in a timely fashion to Delilah. My own blog got uploaded. The edits for Mercy and Redemption have been submitted and soon, I hope, I’ll have a release date. Meanwhile, here’s the blurb:

Searching in an old cemetery for likely gravestones to illustrate her colonial cookbook, Mercy Howe meets two hunks who are tracing their ancestry and sparks fly. Literally.

When Mercy casually touches Seth and Adam, her vividly erotic vision involving all three of them feels like a memory, not a dream, and awakens long-dormant sexual urges. Their kisses are achingly familiar, and she welcomes each in turn into her body. Then she spends a no-holds-barred weekend with both men in her bed and discovers an intimacy—and a past—that blows her mind.

As memories resurface from three hundred years ago, Mercy will have to choose whether to relive their experiences from the past or forge a new bond with either Seth or Adam. Or both.

Mercy and Redemption is a present-day sequel to Punishment and Mercy, which was set in 1694 Massachusetts. To one commenter chosen by Delilah at random, I’ll award a prize of a download to Punishment and Mercy to whet your appetite for the upcoming release.

About Cris Anson:

I write erotic romance because I firmly believe that life doesn’t stop at the bedroom door. I had a deeply romantic relationship with my husband of 22 years, and I want to celebrate his memory in my writing. After he died, it took me a long time to come out of my grief, but parts of him — his honor, courage, optimism, tenacity, and lust for life — live on in all my heroes. They’re all alpha men, as well.

And I write erotic romance because I feel you’re never too old to give or receive love. Many of my stories have older heroines who dazzle younger men (one of them was Adding Heat, a novella for the Cougar Challenge series), and I wouldn’t mind being such a heroine in real life. But that’s another story…

You can find more information about me here:

Website www.crisanson.com
Blog www.crisansonspassions.blogspot.com 
Author page at Ellora’s Cave https://www.jasminejade.com/m-14-cris-anson.aspx
Author page at Amazon https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0036LJT7A