Small Town Charm

By Nikki Duncan

Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name.
Sometimes you want to go where no on knows your name.
Sometimes the “where” doesn’t matter as long as one particular person knows your name.

In the Whispering Cove anthology, that place is the same for all our characters. It’s the small town of Whispering Cove, Maine where a group of friends shared good times and bad before splitting up to build their individual lives.

A couple of our characters never left that small town where old men sit on a street corner gossiping, where the town doctor still makes house calls, where the waitresses know the favorites of all the customers, and where secrets are non-existent. Others escaped to the “big city” with zero, or limited, intentions of returning…until three scheming granddads use a high school reunion to get their runaways home.

A fun part of this anthology was seeing the transformations the different characters made. In WICKED, my heroine Danica left Whispering Cove as an awkward girl wrapped in shyness. With a desire to return to her roots and raise a family with the values she grew up with, she’s returned with her medical degree, bought the town practice and has gotten a new look that’s helped her build a new confidence. When the plans for the ten year reunion get started, she gets excited about the prospect of seeing old friends…especially her high school crush Braydon Mitchell.

Braydon never suffered low confidence or for a lack of female companionship, but he really thrived once he left town, bought a sailboat to travel and live on, and became a regular fixture in the water sporting world. Extremely comfortable in his bad-boy image with a strong penchant for no-strings relationships he’s returned home for the reunion and a visit with his favorite grandparents. The last thing he expected was finding a knock-out doctor with the shy girl he’d barely known in school wrapped inside, or that she would remind him of the adventures a small town offered.

Planning and writing about Whispering Cove reminded me of my youth and growing up in a small town. So, when you’re reading stories about small towns, what’s the appeal for you?

Chat with Nikki and be entered in a drawing to win a digital copy of her backlist (winner’s choice). WICKED is currently available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. And at Smashwords, it’s on sale 50% off until the 13th when you use this coupon code: SM42G.

Check out more about Nikki by visiting her website at www.NikkiDuncan.com. You can also find Nikki on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/NDuncanWriter.

I’d been itching to write a wedding story for awhile, but I couldn’t write about the bride and groom—they’re already at their happy-ever-after. The Nora Roberts bride books were intriguing, but I didn’t want to go to that level of research.

Then I went to a wedding in the Hill Country. It was a gorgeous setting, a limestone and glass building, an open floor plan, a gorgeous patio on the cliffs overlooking the Pedernales River. Perfect for my story.

And I watched a bridesmaid and a groomsman make eyes at each other. There was the story. Why should the bride and groom have all the fun? That it turned out to be erotic was just a bonus as Eric and Haven rediscovered the passion they’d found when they met at the bride and groom’s engagement party.

In my story, I added hotel rooms for the wedding party to slip in and out of, and lengthened the wedding to a weekend-long event to give my hero and heroine lots of time to sneak around.

Do you like wedding stories? What are some of your favorites?

Two Step Temptation is available from Samhain Publishing for $1.75 this week!

What Goes On Behind Closed Doors?

By Donna Alward

A big huge Thank You to Delilah for hosting me today! It’s kind of a special day. I have a print release from Samhain Publishing that hits shelves today and anytime a book releases it’s a reason to celebrate, I think!

SOLD TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER evolved from a simple idea: what if a wife bought her husband off a bachelor auction block? The first question of course is…why is a married man in a bachelor auction? Turns out the answer that came back to me was that the marriage wasn’t exactly a functioning relationship. In fact, the moment the heroine sees him on the stage is the first time she’s clapped eyes on him since right after their wedding. Over a decade earlier.

Most of my published works are written for Harlequin Romance, and as such the bedroom door is closed. Sometimes stuff happens behind those closed doors, and sometimes not. I’m okay with that—the emotional journey is always first and foremost after all! But every now and again I like to write a little hotter. Sometimes I write those “closed door” scenes just for me. They don’t make it into the book, but I know what’s happened. And knowing the details, I know exactly what the consequences—emotional and otherwise—will be for the characters.

I have more latitude with my Samhain books, and I really enjoyed letting loose with this story. Dev is pretty darn sexy, and Ella would rather forget just how spectacular the fireworks are between them. But of course, she can’t! And I let the door stay wide open for those scenes. It was pretty fun, actually, and I ended up being quite happy with the results. One reader reviewed the book and commented that, “A reader would expect this book to be ‘hot’ and it really is. What I didn’t expect was for the ‘hot’ scenes to be so well integrated into the plot that the story would not have moved forward without them. How, when, where, and why the hero and heroine make love is woven seamlessly into the plot.”

I’ve got an excerpt for you—more of a teaser of what’s to come, really. It’s the first night Ella and Dev have seen each other since she left him, and they’ve toasted their troubles with a good amount of bourbon…

He tried to turn her and steer her to the bedroom. Good Lord, she was going to have a head on her in the morning. He hadn’t meant for her to get this tipsy. Of course, she was a little bit of a thing. Compact, a bundle of energy and passion. Her breast grazed his hand and he gritted his teeth. If she hated him now, she’d really despise him in the morning if they slept together. Almost as much as he’d hate himself. He was in control. It was time she knew that. If she thought she’d get what she came for easily, she had another thing coming.

He’d take what he wanted first.

“Dev?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re so tall. You know that, right?”

He smiled. She could make it so hard to hate her, especially when she used that soft, slightly plaintive tone like she had to have it or she’d just die. “Yeah, rumor has it.”

“No, I mean really tall. Tall like women like their men to be tall. So that we have to tip our head back and look way up.” She sighed, her sex-kitten eyelids drifting half-shut. “Sexy tall.”

“Shut up, Ell.” A muscle ticked in his jaw and in another strategic location. If she kept looking at him that way he was going to find it very difficult to put her in bed and walk away. But he’d be damned if he’d give in to her tonight. No matter what it cost him.

They took two steps.

“Dev?”

He sighed.

“Yes, Ell?”

She gripped his other arm so she was facing him, looking up at him with her dark eyes and lips red and slightly puffy, ripe to be kissed. He swallowed, hard. God, how he’d loved her.

She did it then, standing up on her tiptoes, melding her mouth to his, the flavor of the bourbon seducing them tongue-to-tongue. His mouth opened in an instinctive reaction to feeling hers on it. He lifted one hand and cupped her head, sending the prim twist askew, hairpins dropping to the floor. Her breasts were firm against his chest and she let go briefly to tug at the hem of his T-shirt.

“Take this off,” she murmured, pulling the hem up over his abs. “Not in front of the bar. Not for Katie McGrew.” She said the other woman’s name with just enough venom for Dev to enjoy the surprising fact she was jealous. “Take it off for me.”

For her. The words fired him up and he reached behind his head, grabbing at the collar and pulling it over in one swift movement. This much. He’d allow this much. He’d let her get a good hard reminder of what she’d thrown away. But no more. They didn’t dare go any further.

Her fingers trailed down over his skin, the sensitive skin of his ribs, down his shoulder and to his elbow. “Mmm.”

He slid his hand over her blouse, allowing himself one gratifying handful as he kissed her fully. Despite the Jim Beam or the years that had passed, her taste was as familiar to him as the smell of sweetgrass. Ella. His Ella. He kept his mouth fused to hers as he blindly undid the buttons of her blouse, filling his hands with her breasts once the fabric fell away. Her hand slid around to cup his bottom through his jeans.

A murmur sounded deep in her throat and he knew he had to stop, reminded himself that sex right now would only make things worse. He couldn’t afford to spend Saturday dealing with post-coital fallout. She’d blame him for…what? There would be something, he was sure, and it would be all his fault and none of hers. No, tonight he’d leave her wanting more. He was the one with the self-control here. He’d get her to damn near ache for him, the way he’d ached for her for months after she’d abandoned him. And then maybe he’d sign her precious papers. After his lawyer’d looked at them. His terms, he reminded himself. She owed him that.

It took all his resolve, but he backed away, leaving her standing stunned and utterly beautiful.

“Go to bed, Ella.” He pushed her towards the single bedroom. “If you don’t, you’ll hate yourself in the morning far worse than you hate me right now.”

She turned and stared up at him with dazed, hurt eyes. He couldn’t bear for her to argue, so he walked out into the cool September air, letting the screen door slap behind him.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Thanks for sharing today with me! You can catch up with me at my site, or on twitter—@DonnaAlward.

WHERE IS MAINE?

by Pam Champagne

I often wonder if Maine is part of the United States of America. CNN news and weather seldom mention us. Their national weather map stops at lower New Hampshire and Vermont. Perhaps they think Maine is part of Canada? Or perhaps we aren’t media sensational as other States during blizzards, ice storms and floods. Oh wait! We did make national news when the ski lift fell at Sugarloaf. The media loves tragedies or potential tragedies and such.

Granted, Maine’s population is low. The majority of Maniacs are self-sufficient with generators and woodstoves, so are able to survive a week or more, if not forever, without electricity. I’d guess there’s no news if people aren’t freezing or starving to death. If your vehicle goes off the road, you either winch it out or wait for the next truck to come along and pull you out.

A few years back, I recall a contestant on the Wheel of Fortune won an island off the coast of Maine. The winner asked, “Where is Maine?” Pat Sajak replied he wasn’t quite sure, but thought it was “in the northeast somewhere.” I’m not making this up folks. It’s the God’s honest truth.

There have been rumblings in Maine about dividing the State into two States. About 75 percent of the population lives from Portland south. In my opinion, this area is an extension of Massachusetts, since many of the people who live there relocated from southern New England “to move to the country.” News flash! They brought the rat race they hoped to escape in their luggage.

The vast majority of residents of central Maine get by and the ones in northern Maine for the most part are impoverished. They work seasonal jobs and collect unemployment for much of the year. Tough new fishing laws hurt these coastal residents. The Go Green movement has hurt our logging industry, which is strange since trees are a renewable resource. Shoe shops, once the main employer in Maine, are for the most part extinct thanks to our Asian imports. My Dad actually raised his family by hand sewing in a shoe factory.

Many celebrities and Fortune 500 people have seasonal homes on the coast and their taxes keep the towns running smoothly. On the downside, locals have to pay those taxes too.

I’m lucky to live within commuting distance of Bangor (takes me an hour or more), so my skills as a legal secretary enabled me to find a job. Many aren’t so lucky. Yet, for all its hardships, I can’t imagine living anywhere else. I can be in the wilderness and mountains or the beautiful coast in about 2 hours. Who could ask for more?

For a taste of life in Downeast Maine, one of the poorest areas in our State, check out my book, Bed of Lies. If you’re not familiar with Maine, you will be enlightened.

The Ah Hah Moment

By Taige Crenshaw

In my opinion what makes the difference between an ok book and a great one is that all-important “ah hah” moment.

So what is an “ah hah” moment?

Ah Hah Moment ~ Taige Crenshaw Definition:
A moment that elevates a story beyond just a book to a book that makes the reader remember a line or scene that makes them go back to it time and again. This is a true keeper book that has wear and tear from continued reading. The book you buy multiple copies of and don’t lend it to anyone.

These “ah hah” moments aren’t only in books. They can extent much further than that. They also happen in movies, TV shows and things that happen in your everyday life. In movies and TV shows these “ah hah” moments are those you remember and discuss with others. This is what happened to me recently. Some friends and I were discussing some of our favorite shows and movies. I noticed that each person had an “ah hah” moment when they talked about their show or movie they liked. In the everyday instances they ranged from falling in love, loss, and just a feel good or bad thing. Whenever I talk with others it is interesting hearing all these moments that resonated with each person.

No matter that type of “ah hah” they all had one thing in common – they leave a lasting impression. Resonate with you long after done.

Now back to books. So what makes an “ah hah” book? There is no sure formula. It has to be something that resonates with the reader. For me an “ah hah” moment is what makes the story more real. A book that from the first line they capture me. To that last line that makes me feel not only content but when I go to sleep I dream of the book. And long after that last word I think of what I read. Give me everything. Emotions laid bare. Build the setting so I can feel it like I am there. Bring me along with the characters step by step. Give me a plot that is intriguing and makes me flip the pages.

Then the most important thing of all “ah hah” me. Give me something in the story that will flip that special figurative switch inside. This will bring reading to an all-new level. When you hit that “ah hah” level you are on my automatic must buy and read now list. Again we go back leaving a lasting impression. One that resonates with the reader.

As a reader I seek out that “ah hah” moment in books. Those books are keeper ones that line my shelves and I read often. As a writer I strive to give the reader that “ah hah’ moment. Since reading is so varied and goes by what resonates with the reader I don’t succeed with everyone. Yet when I do with even just one reader I feel I have done what I set out to do – given that “ah hah” moment that will make me a keeper for a reader. I have a few readers who have contacted me letting me know that my story resonated with them in someway. That is it’s own “ah hah” moment that makes me as a writer proud.

What are some of your “ah hah” moments in books?

****
Taige Crenshaw is a multi-published author with books available at Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Liquid Silver Books, Loose Id, and Total-E-Bound. Taige has been enthralled with the written word from time she picked up her first book. It wasn’t long before she started to make up her own tales of romance. With novels set in today, in alternate dimensions, or in the future she writes with adventure, fun sassy heroine’s, and sexy hero’s. Always hard at work creating new and exciting places Taige can be found curled up with a hot novel with exciting characters when she is not creating her own. Join her in the fun, frolic, interesting people and far reaches of the world in her novels. You can find out more about Taige at her website: https://www.taigecrenshaw.com or blog: https://www.taigecrenshaw.com/blog.

Wilde Seduction – What happens when a woman who doesn’t know how to relax meets a man whose lust for life will change her and make all her deepest desires come to life?

Buy here at Total-E-Bound

Heroes…

Okay, I have a confession to make. I’m huge fan of Survivor, but not for the usual reasons. To be honest, I wasn’t at first, the idea of a bunch of people trying to out-nasty each other just didn’t do it for me. One show, though, was different. I won’t give the season because it doesn’t really matter. They were having one of their challenges, a test of strength and endurance, this one involved bags of sand. All the attention was on the two big muscle men on the show. Neither of them won. Instead it was the quiet lawyer who was the leader of one of the tribes. He didn’t make a big deal out of it, he just stood, endured and got the job done. The fact that he was sort of cute in a lean and sexy way didn’t hurt. (Yes, I wrote a book about him, but not the one I’m talking about today.)

From then on I was hooked. Not on the ‘stars’ but on those people, the ones in the background, the ones who get the job done. Once or twice, they’ve even won.
My heroes have always been different. One of my favorite authors was mystery author and ex-jockey Dick Francis. For many reasons not least of which that I loved his heroes. They were simple stories of good men trying to do the right thing against all odds. They weren’t anti-heroes nor were they your classic hero types. They weren’t snide or mean, they didn’t sneer or smirk, they just got the job done. Stand-up guys, the ones who are there when you need them.

He was the only three-time winner of the Edgar awards and a romance story in his own right. He was deeply in love with his wife, who was his researcher on many of his stories until her death. When she died, he was heartbroken and retired until his son Felix got him writing again. He and Felix wrote three stories together before Dick Francis died. Now he is reunited with his Mary.

There are a lot of people who write stories of Alpha males, of dominance and whatnot and they write them really well, so I think I’ll let them keep doing that. *grin* I want to write stories of good guys, of strong men who defy all the odds, strong men who respect strong women. I liked 300 for the same reasons, that Leonidas was a great King, powerful and sexy, with a strong Queen.

So, you’re asking, how does a book about Demons fit in there? Aren’t Demons the bad guys? Especially Asmodeus, the Prince of Demons himself?

I had started writing the story of Asmodeus because a lot of people were writing stories of vampires and werewolves and I wanted to do something different. (And I’d written one myself.) Just as suddenly I started noticing there were lots of stories about big bad demons popping up.

Well now, that’s the other thing. I don’t tend to write anything the way anyone expects. I like to put a new spin on things, look at them from a different perspective. So from there I went to, what if? What if everything everyone thought or was taught about demons was wrong? As a student of history I knew that over the centuries various groups have been ‘demonized’ for reasons that were just as varied, tribe, religion or race, or a bad case of I just don’t like you or I want what you have.

And then I had it, that first scene, when Gabriel, the heroine, meets Asmodeus for the first time. It was clear and sharp in my mind’s eye.

The stage or platform area captured her attention. She was transfixed, riveted by what she saw there. Her heart seemed to stop.

Completely naked from the top of his horned head to his clawed feet, it was impossible for her to miss any part of him.

All six foot five or six or so of gleaming muscle, silken hair, rampant… Oh, sorry…

Didn’t I say I don’t tend to write your standard leather clad Alpha males? I don’t and he isn’t.

He was naked. *grin*

Did I say he wasn’t sexy? No.

It probably doesn’t hurt that Asmodeus is not only gorgeous but has some mad skills in bed and out. And up against the wall, among other places. Then somehow, something else was introduced into the mix. When I wrote it I was a little concerned because he has some…uh…extra…assets. Then I read a few books by other authors and stopped worrying. He wasn’t given the title Demon of Lust for nothing. The boy is talented. That little something extra doesn’t hurt either.

To find out more, you’ll have to read Demon’s Kiss, coming from Ellora’s Cave this week on January 26, the first book in a possible series called Demon Allure. You’ll also learn about the Book of Demons and meet battered, scarred Ashtoreth, the hero of book two. But that’s for another day. For now, I hope you enjoy Demon’s Kiss.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Book 1 in the Demon Allure series.

F.B.I. Agent Gabriel Nicholas is kidnapped and dragged into a vast, underground chamber. Spotlighted in the center of that room is something—someone?—quite unbelievable. He’s also, without doubt, the most magnificent specimen of masculine beauty she has ever seen. He is absolutely stunning.

Despite the circumstances, Gabriel burns to touch all that gorgeous, gleaming skin—a living palette of shifting red and black. She wants to run her fingers through his silken, ebony hair, feel those strong hands on her flesh.

He is Asmodeus, the Demon of Lust, legend come to life. But Gabriel soon realizes that Asmodeus is just as much a captive as she is.

Freed by HD

by Adele Dubois

“No one looks good in HD”, an actor said on TV. I had to laugh at his remark, because it’s true. High definition resolution shows every flaw on an actor’s skin. Scars, pimples, lines and moles that make-up and filtered lenses used to hide are impossible to cover in high def.

Seemingly overnight, celebrities have transformed from impossibly perfect icons into regular people dressed in their Sunday best. We’re able to see them as they really are—flaws and all—and I find the change refreshing. It not only removes the impossible standards women, especially, are pressured to emulate, but also levels the playing field for us authors, who never had the benefit of filtered lenses, plastic surgery or make-up artists in the first place.

At book signings, I always wonder how readers see the people behind the stories. We authors aren’t celebrities like the actors on TV. We’re more like the man behind the curtain in Oz, whose stories might intrigue us, but whose appearance might sometimes be better left a mystery. As long as there have been books, there have been ordinary people behind the stories. Our imaginations, not our physical forms, are what inspire readers.

I like that high definition television has opened the wizard’s curtain and let us see actors a bit clearer. It makes life so much easier for the rest of us.

REV ME TWICE Summary:

Crystal is a bad, bad girl in the most delicious ways. She tries to be good and is tempted to commit to her Navy MP boyfriend, Tomas, but has no experience with an exclusive relationship or healthy family structure. She likes her life as a cable TV stripping weather girl and sex party host, and resists conforming to the traditional lifestyle Tomas craves. Without her weekly ménages and wild orgies, can she become the partner Tomas wants?

When Crystal receives death threats, a media frenzy erupts. During a break-in, the threatening letters are stolen, erasing evidence that thwarts an arrest. Tomas sports Crystal away on his Harley to protect her, but a deadly crash changes everything. Faced with the choice between self-interest and self-sacrifice, Crystal must decide if she will embrace a new life with Tomas or walk away.

Buy The Book!

*****

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