Why, Yes. Yes, I Can

by Katriena Knights

I’ve seen some things on blogs and elsewhere recently that seem to represent a disturbing trend. At least they disturbed me. Maybe I’m easily disturbed. But I’ve had my medication today, and I don’t know any better than to keep my mouth shut, so I’m going to address the idea here.

Here’s the idea: You can’t make a living writing.

Here’s my idea: You can’t make a living writing if you spend most of your time telling yourself and everybody else that you can’t make a living writing.

I spent a chunk of my summer in an online workshop with Christine Kane, who is a life coach, successful entrepreneur and massively awesome musician. What we all learned in this workshop was that if we maintain the idea that our dreams can carry us wherever we want to, they will. In a big way. Over the past couple of years, I’ve seen this happening with my own career. Not all at once, mind you, but in increments and phases and with opportunities that came out of nowhere and smacked me in the head. Heck, a few of them damn near knocked me unconscious. (As my mother says, God is never subtle with you, is she?)

I do not have an agent. I do not have a contract with a major New York publisher. Okay, I got a few novellas optioned with secondary rights over to Pocket, but that’s not the same thing as an ongoing deal with Pocket. It’s one of those bits and pieces, though, that make up part of my ongoing puzzle. What I do have is a collection of publishers I work with regularly for fiction writing, a selection of clients for whom I write non-fiction pieces, and a stubborn streak about nine million miles wide. I also edit, which I originally never dreamed I’d do, but which has turned out to be a rewarding venture that allows me to help other writers and also goes a long way toward improving my own writing.

I also don’t have a day job. It took me a few years to get here, but I’m doing it. If I can, so can you. So keep those positive thoughts moving, say “thank you” to whatever power you believe in, or to the universe in general, for every step forward and every opportunity, and keep going. Because you can make a living writing, or singing, or walking dogs, or making art out of paper clips. But not if you keep telling yourself you can’t.

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Katriena Knights is the author of several paranormal and contemporary romance novels. She also writes erotic romance as Elizabeth Jewell. Her latest release is The Regan Factor, previously published under her Elizabeth Jewell pseudonym at Ellora’s Cave, now self-published at various outlets including Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Her next release arrives in March from Noble Romance. It’s a fantasy romance called Ring of Darkness.

Information on her books can be found at https://katrienaknights.com, and she blogs at https://katrienaknights.blogspot.com. She can also be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/crazywritinfool

HOUSE OF SIN is finally out!

My very first Samhain release is finally out. This story took a long time for me to finish. I wrote up until almost the end and then was sidetracked onto another proposal. When I came back to House of Sin I fell in love with it all over again.

This story is not only my first Samhain release but it is also my very first attempt at writing a story set in the Victorian period. I had to do a bit of research not only on the clothing and social aspects, but also on servants during this time period. I love to research and the Victorian period is so fascinating and filled with contradictions.

Here is the blurb:
Her most important duty—serve the master’s pleasure.

Emily’s dreams are simple: a life of dedicated service at a respectable estate, and a strong marriage filled with love and devotion for one man. Portage Place, the manor where her parents apprenticed, seems the perfect place to start. Though it is whispered that all is not as it seems behind its grand façade.

The rumors, it turns out, ring with truth. The halls are saturated with sensuality, desire and lust. Despite the scandalous duties she is asked to perform, she is determined not to stumble on what could be her first step toward her dreams. Dreams that, lately, have included the manor’s fiery haired groomsman.

A promise to watch over his younger half-brother brought Adam to Portage Place. For the first time in five years of enjoying the delights of the manor’s unbridled debauchery, Emily’s innocence touches the protector that still lives deep in his core. This house of sin may have ruined him, but he will see to it that it doesn’t ruin her.

It seems, however, that behind every door lurks a conspiracy to bind Emily in velvet chains of desire. Until the only way out is for Adam to take the biggest risk of all…

You can read a bit of the opening scene here: Read an Excerpt

You can purchase House Of Sin at Samhain, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.

Hope you enjoy!

Lacy

I’ll be heading out of town tomorrow for a plotting bootcamp in Jackson, Mississippi. I have fun stuff lined up for you while I’m gone and some great guests! And I started today because I have a million things to do before I leave. Take a look at the line-up—then be sure to drop by and play with my guests. On Saturday, I’ll be running a little contest for a free book, so be sure to post for your chance to win! ~DD

Friday: Lacy Danes
Saturday Snippet & contest
Sunday: Katriena Knights

The Accidental Series

By Teresa Noelle Roberts

This week, Phaze released my latest erotic fantasy/paranormal romance, Threshing the Grain: Seasons of Sorania Cycle 3.

Only if you look on my author page at Phaze, you won’t see covers that say Seasons of Sorania Cycle 1 and 2. The books are there, all right. Lady Sun Has Risen is Book 1 of the series and Rain at Midsummer is Book 2. If you read the blurbs, you’ll see the series mentioned. But I didn’t set out with the intention to write a series when I stared Lady Sun Has Risen.

It was supposed to be a one-off, a story written for a particular call that was a homage to Conan the Barbarian and other stories with slightly barbaric alpha heroes and semi-captured heroines. When I ran it by my critique partner, though, she said my world seemed too generic. She knew I’d been reading a lot about Arabic-ruled Spain in the Middle Ages and suggested I incorporate some elements of that rich setting. But that seemed too grounded in a specific monotheistic culture—and it was important to this story that the setting be a pagan one with multiple deities. So I stole some elements from the late Roman Empire and some from pre-Islamic Persia, added a lot of imagination—and being me, a healthy dollop of sex magic—and Sorania was born. In the process, my heroine ended up less ditzy, with real strengths of her own, even if she’s out of her depth, and my hero ended up less barbaric and more complex. Oh, and they both ended up kinky.

(Mind you, I missed the call deadline while doing the rewrites, but I ended up with a far better story.)

It seemed natural to return to this setting and elaborate on it for Rain at Midsummer. I’d mentioned that the mother of the Lady Sun hero was an escaped slave from a neighboring country. Her story deserved telling, and thus Rain at Midsummer was born.

Unfortunately I came up with the series title after I turned in Rain at Midsummer and approved the cover. Oops! Maybe someday they’ll be reissued with new covers.

But once I came up with the series title, it was obvious that the next book would involve the Harvest Festival and that it would be a much darker book. In the ancient world, harvest festivals were a time of rejoicing, but often had elements of mourning for the vegetation god, cut down so humans might live—and in the very ancient world, the sacrifice made in the god’s honor might not have been a barnyard animal, but a young man. Fall pagan holidays also call to mind Samhain, Halloween, Day of the Dead. Threshing the Grain plays on these elements of horror and pits the hero and heroine of Lady Sun has Risen, Adimir and Miryea, against a demonic threat that demands Adimir sacrifice his life in exchange for his people’s safety and prosperity.

Adimir’s a nobleman, and in the remote province where he was raised, that means he has magical bonds enforcing his responsibility to the land and the people who live on it. In his worldview, sacrificing himself to a demon to save others might be his destiny. Miryea is city-raised, the child of a university-educated doctor and studying medicine herself. Although the events in Lady Sun awakened her own magic, she takes the “modern” (roughly 5th century AD) view that the gods let you shape your own fate—and she’s determined to save her husband by any means necessary.

Even means that might undermine the very foundations of their marriage.

Did I mention there are mysterious, sexy satyrs? And kinky sex, of both male-dom and fem-domme varieties? And both blood magic and sex magic?
Read the rest of this entry »

They’re Doing It Everywhere!

by Myla Jackson

Okay, so other authors, even my sister Delilah Devlin, are doing it. They’re doing it on their blogs, in their newsletters, on Smashwords, in the closet, under the bed… Oops, I digress. My mind hits the gutter way too easily when I’m anywhere near Delilah. Ah the joy of the older sister rubbing off on me.

And what, might you ask, are they doing?

Free Reads!

Good grief. Who wants free reads? Don’t we all want to read books we paid for—spent our hard-earned dollars on to seek a few minutes of escapism? Spew…choke…snort!

Free Reads? Who wants ’em?

We do! We do!

I see your hands up, and finally I’m convinced. So where do I start? What makes a good free read? What does the audience want from a Myla Jackson story? I have to say, I’m stumped and in need of a little help.

Should I write a western with sexy cowboys and strong women, willing to hog-tie their men if that’s what it takes? Or should I craft a contemporary comedy sure to tickle a funny bone here and there. Or maybe a dark paranormal story with shady shifters, vicious vampires or ravenous beasts of all shapes and sizes?

The selections are endless, the time is limited and I’m still on the fence about what to write. It’s not for lack of an idea, it’s drinking from the fire hose of ideas. Sigh…

Such is the nature of the writer’s life. So many stories, so little time. So help me please… Help me by choosing a premise that pleases you, a genre that gets you going, characters that you can’t let go. Step on over to my web of intrigue (my website and my blog ) and let me know your choice of suggestions and you’ll be entered in a drawing for a $20 gift card from Amazon.com. Then join my newsletter to read the installments of the free read you’re going to help me build…

And check out my newest western ménage in the Bound and Tied Series: Duty Bound. Also check out the other contests I have going for a chance to win more gift cards and free books!

Thank you to Delilah for inviting me to pop in today and thanks to all of you for stopping by during what is a very busy holiday season. This year the season has been a bit different for me. While most people are making plans for New Years Eve and penning their soon to be broken resolutions for 2011, I find myself anticipating something else—the start of a new PBR season (that’s Professional Bull Riders not Pabst Blue Ribbon for you non-fans. LOL)

Perhaps it’s that my Twitter follow list over the past year has become filled with bull riders, stock contractors, ropin’ rodeo cowboys, and fellow cowboy-lovers from all over the world. And in this world, which a few years ago was quite foreign to a New York girl like me, we (me included) are counting down not to New Years, but instead to the opening day of the 2011 season which kicks off at Madison Square Garden in NYC on Friday, January 7th. I’ve got my tickets and am waiting as anxiously as the rest.

How did I, a born and bred suburbanite, get hooked on bull riding and cowboys? It started out of necessity. I was writing a book about rodeo cowboys a few years ago and was forced (ha, real hardship there!) to consult with real live cowboys for research as well as watch anything I could find about the sport on TV. It’s apparently addicting, both the cowboys and the sport, and now I’m hooked on both, book research or not. But it’s not just me who is easily addicted. A reviewer recently wrote that reading one of my Studs in Spurs series books made her want to watch bull riding and one of my readers bought tickets to a PBR event after reading my book. The love of cowboys proves universal!

Anyway, Friday night, January 7th, when my friends join me at MSG (they got me and themselves tix as my Christmas gift), we’ll see if I can get them hooked as well. There will be lots of questions because they are more suburban that I—at least I own horses while all they own are prints of horses for their walls—but I’m ready for them. After all these years of research for my bull rider series, I can quote the announcers and analyze the rides with the best of them.

I’ve included a short blurb from my newest bull riding cowboy book. I dare you not to fall in love with him!

Happy New Year and Happy Reading to you all and Let’s Buck!
Cat Johnson

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

What happens in Vegas…sometimes follows you home.

Studs in Spurs, Book 3

Pro bull rider Chase Reese knew things move faster than an eight-second ride in Las Vegas. He just never expected to be driving home with a national championship under his belt and a wedding band on his left hand with no clue how it got there.

Yet he can’t complain about the stripper bride beside him. From the moment his buddies bought him a lap dance from her, her trembles told him there was more to her than stiletto heels.

Leesa Santiago has met the perfect guy. Her timing couldn’t be worse though. If it was just their explosive sex, she could walk away. But from the moment her lap dance brought her this close to his baby blues, she was hooked. She can’t lie that she couldn’t be happier to bear his name—or guiltier that she’s using it and his Oklahoma farm to hide out from mob hit men.

That’s before Chase’s family gets involved. And his determination to do the right thing pushes her to do the one thing that will keep him safe. Break his heart.
Do cowboy boots mix with stripper heels? And can a love that started out on the wrong foot end up on the right one? That’s the risk you take waking up in Vegas.

Warning: Contains one happy-ending lap dance that will make you squirm, some pretty hot sex between two strangers who also happen to be married to each other, and a huge surprise conclusion.

Find more information about Cat’s other Studs in Spurs series eBook and paperbacks featuring hot bull riding cowboys at: Cat’s Website and Samhain Publishing

What’s going on through your walls?

By Keri Ford

Nothing overly exciting leaks through the sheetrock for me. When I was younger my room was against the living room. I got to listen to episodes of Cheers and Seinfeld when I was supposed to be sleeping. When we moved my only wall share was with the bathroom…. Yeah, a few breaks from Sister through the night (something I could have done without!) was it.

And that’s it. I married and we moved into a rental house. The bedroom was in the back and butted against the laundry room. I got to hear the dryer. *whoo-hoo*. I’ve again moved into a single-wide and let me tell you, the walls are so thin on these puppies I can hear my son playing with cars in his room. On the opposite end of the trailer. Nothing more exciting than that.

I know other people get some pretty cool eavesdropping through their walls. Shortly before my book was to release, I set up an alert for “Through The Wall”. Sixty-plus hits were rolling in everyday. None of those about my book, mind you, but about people just hearing crap through their walls. Sex, TV, some kid’s music practice (eek!), singing (most likely another, eek!), fighting—you name it and somebody somewhere is hearing about it right now.

My heroine, Stephanie, gets some pretty freaking cool eavesdropping. Instead of sleeping, she stays up late and listens to her neighbor’s headboard banging against her bedroom wall. And where there’s headboard knocking, you know there is other awesome stuff to be heard!

What’s the most memorable thing you’ve heard through a wall?

~~~~~~~~~~

She doesn’t want wild and raunchy, just a little spice…

Stephanie Faulkner listens to her neighbor’s nightly sexcapades through her bedroom wall. What used to make her blush now has her reaching for her vibrator. But she’s had enough self-fulfillment and now wants the real thing.

He wants commitment and long-term, not a quick roll…

The only woman Parker Madison ever wanted for long-term was Stephanie…but she’s off-limits. He’s tried to find a substitute but there just isn’t another woman like her. Now that she’s available, if he gives her time to get over her ex-husband…will he finally get his long-desired chance?

Short-term doesn’t lead to long term. Or does it…?

Read Chapter One HERE!!

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Visit Keri At:
Website
Twitter
Facebook

Through The Wall is now available in ebook format for only $1.99 from Amazon Kindle | Smashwords

Thanks so much Delilah for having me today!

Psst! You still have time to vote on Monday’s poll and enter the contest for the Amazon e-gift. I’ll close it tomorrow. ~DD

I’m honored, Delilah, to be guest blogging for you again today.

With the holiday season upon us, I started thinking about some of how my characters would celebrate Christmas. My heroine in ADDING HEAT, Giselle Sheridan, would be most likely to celebrate and decorate the way I do.

Giselle is a widow in her 40s who struggles to keep her late husband’s landscape business running and her two sons in college. She’s gutsy and determined and open to having a man in her life again, if only she had the time to search for one. So I gave her an early gift — a cougar cub of her very own.

She met CPA Conlan Trowbridge during the busiest season for them both—the week before the income tax deadline of April 15. But of course they find a way to get together.

Both Con and Giselle grew up in a semi-rural area in Pennsylvania and have traditional values. It’s important for them to have family gathered together during the holidays.

Much like in my own household, they will use traditional, indigenous decorations—fresh pine and spruce boughs and cones, holly, pyracantha and juniper berries, osage oranges and other natural elements gleaned from the acreage surrounding her home and business.

Because Giselle is in the landscaping business, their Christmas tree will, of course, be a live conifer, balled in burlap and resting in an old galvanized tub. They’ll plant the tree in the spring as a memento of their first holiday together. And I can see them starting a tradition that my own family has followed—each year giving one special ornament to the other.

Our tree was always decorated with wooden nutcrackers, hand-crocheted snowflakes, a few precious heirlooms of colored glass, sterling silver stars inscribed with meaningful dates. There’s a guy on skis, a wheelbarrow, a crocheted angel atop the tree, a needlepointed truck (yes, I actually designed and made it!). One year I received a set of Russian matryoshka dolls nested one inside the other. I treasure the tinkling glass wedding bells on a silver ribbon. We found a wooden farm couple: a man holding a rake and a woman with a pail. A replica of a steam engine and coal tender. Musical instruments. And more, but you get the idea.

Back to Giselle and Con, they aren’t always traditional, especially in the romance department *big grin*. Here’s the blurb for ADDING HEAT, a stand-alone story in the Cougar Challenge series from Ellora’s Cave.

Encouraged by friends she met at RomantiCon, widowed landscape contractor Giselle Sheridan decides she’s finally ready to take the cougar challenge and explore sex with a younger man. Except she’s too busy during planting season to go on the prowl.

CPA Conlan Trowbridge is battling the IRS deadline for his clients, but when Giselle saunters into his office with a tax question, all he can think of is sex. She’s all luscious curves and smoldering brown eyes, and he doesn’t care if she’s a dozen years older, she’s a wet dream come true.

Oh yeah, they’re both ready for some hot and heavy sex—in the tub, parking lots, their offices—anywhere and everywhere. But Giselle is afraid her age will eventually bother Con, and her longtime foreman also has designs on her, in more ways than one. When Giselle faces some hard decisions, will she ultimately be able to keep the heat?

Who is Cris Anson?

An older woman who still wants romance in her life. After my husband died in 2005, it took me a long time to come out of my grief. Because my marriage was long and happy, I wouldn’t say no to another love interest in my life. So I find myself writing cougar stories (although readers probably wouldn’t want to read about heroines as old as I am LOL). I’ve also written the four-book DANCE series for Ellora’s Cave as well as several novellas and Quickies.

Read excerpts of my books at www.crisanson.com

Find the entire Cougar Challenge series here: Cougar Challenge