An Update on Three--Count 'Em, THREE--New Projects!

Damn, I'm excited! 

 

There's so much going on behind the scenes right now.  I’m pushing like a maniac to get through the latest round of edits for DANGEROUS ANGEL, since the edits for A CRAVING FOR COOKIES are in a holding pattern.  And guess what?  My military holiday homecoming novella coming out from Carina Press is no longer called A CRAVING FOR COOKIES.  Want to know what it’s now called?  Huh?  Huh?  Do ya?

The team at Carina/Harlequin decided the title should be…

STARTING FROM SCRATCH! *confetti dance*

 

I love the new title.  It alludes to baking, something that’s integral to the story, but it’s also indicative of where Sully and Lucy must start to pick up where they left off.  Double entendre, FTW! (If you'd like to know more about this holiday novella, take a look at my Latest Projects page;) )

 

I’m also thrilled that this Bitterthorn, Texas holiday novella is coming out in November.  That means STARTING FROM SCRATCH's release isn't all that far away from the release of UGLY DUCKLINGS FINISH FIRST, the first novel in the Bitterthorn, Texas series. I love the down-home feel to this small town contemporary romance series, and I can’t wait to share it with everyone. :)

Speaking of UGLY DUCKLINGS FINISH FIRST... it’s appeared on Goodreads!  If you’ve ever been bullied, felt like an outcast or made to feel like you’ll never belong anywhere, you’ll understand the heroine, Payton Pruitt.  Drop by Goodreads to put it on your To Be Read list, and show your love for former-nerds who ultimately win at life!

Want to know more about DANGEROUS ANGEL (releasing 3/31/14), STARTING FROM SCRATCH (releasing 11/25/13) or UGLY DUCKLINGS FINISH FIRST (releasing 8/5/13)?  Feel free to look at their Pinterest storyboards, as well as my other projects.  Have fun!


(For more on Carina Press's contemporary romances, drop into the Contemporary Romance Café and say hi.  If I'm not hanging around to chat with, there's always someone there to keep you company :D)
 

 (gifs were harvested off of Tumblr, to be removed upon request of the original owner)

Winner of the WOUNDED ANGEL Blog Tour!

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to announce the winner of the $25 Amazon gift card! Ready?  The winner is...


Mary Preston!


Mary, I'm emailing you as well as posting this notification here, as well as with my lovely tour company, Goddess Fish Promotions.  Thank you for hopping along with me, and congratulations! *throws confetti*

The next blog-hop event will be in August to celebrate the release of UGLY DUCKLINGS FINISH FIRST, book 1 in my Bitterthorn, Texas series. Make sure you look for it! :)

Cover Reveal!

Guess what?  UGLY DUCKLINGS FINISH FIRST, releasing August 5^th from Carina Press, has its brand spankin’-new cover! *throws confetti*  (And yeah. I said spankin’ :P)

At first, I was going to make it another puzzle for the official reveal, like this:

http://www.proprofs.com/games/puzzle/sliding/ugly-ducklings-finish-first/

But then it took me five freaking minutes to figure that shuffle puzzle out, so I had another idea.  I decided I’d rent out a stadium to show it off, kind of like this:

 

Then something terrible happened.  I realized I wasn't a billionaire.  *cries* 

That was when I figured the best way to reveal the cover was to, y’know, reveal it.  So here you go—the cover of UGLY DUCKLINGS FINISH FIRST, the first book in an open-ended contemporary romance series set in the fictional town of Bitterthorn, Texas.  I can’t wait to invite y’all down to stay a while! <3

 

BLURB:

Metal Mouth. Queen Geek. Dr. Payton Pruitt heard it all growing up. But she's over it, and attending her ten-year high school reunion is the perfect way to prove it to herself. Even if there's only one person she's interested in seeing in Bitterthorn, Texas: Wiley Sharpe.

Now a respected lawyer, Wiley didn't live down to the label Most Likely to Be Slapped with a Paternity Suit. But recent acts of vandalism suggest someone still sees him as a heartbreaker, and the reunion seems a likely place to find the culprit. Instead, Wiley comes face-to-face with his old pal Payton—and is wowed not only by her transformation into a ravishing swan, but by the connection they still share.

Payton is pleased the playboy she used to tutor has grown into an honorable man, but she's too smart to fall for a guy with roots in a place she couldn't wait to leave. But while Payton is an academic genius, Wiley is the one with the PhD in pleasure, and he intends to use it to convince her to stay…

63,000 words


Sound good?  If so, please feel free to look through the Pinterest storyboard I made for UGLY DUCKLINGS FINISH FIRST, or any of my storyboards.  They're there to be shared. <3

Also, if you'd like to learn more about Carina Press's upcoming contemporary releases in general, why not pop over to the Contemporary Romance Café?  That's where we're all hanging out, so swing by and say hi.  We're waiting for you! ^_^

Just Write

My BuNoWriMo avie, created by the great
Joris Ammerlaan Design

The month of June has always been hugely busy.  For starters, it’s the traumatic changeover from school skating schedule to summer schedule, and for a couple of weeks I’ve got students showing up for skating lessons that have been rescheduled (or worse, I’m the one who’s got the schedule wrong *facepalm*).  There are long weekends at the beach, Father’s Day, graduations to attend, and always—ALWAYS—there’s at least one wedding or baby shower thrown into the mix.

But more than anything, there’s one thing I think of when I think of June.  BuNoWriMo.

BuNoWriMo was started by a group of talented writers who keep a blog called Burrowers, Books and Balderdash (or The Burrowers).  As rabid Harry Potter fans, they met online and found common ground in their love of both the HP series, and in writing.  This is how I met several of them long before The Burrow was officially founded (I’m not ashamed to let my HP-geek flag fly), so when they organized a month-long 50,000-word novel-writing sprint, I was thrilled to hop onboard.

What’s great about BuNoWriMo is that their rules are on the flexible side (yay for flexibility!).  They have the same belief that I do—if you’re writing, it’s allllllll good.  For instance, one year I wanted to write a novella (it was NOBODY’S ANGEL) that had to be around 35K words, and not the required 55K. 

No problem.  Just write. 

Other people have had to get epic amounts of editing done in this span of time. 

Understood.  Just write. 

This year, I’ve been so busy with slogging through the developmental edits for DANGEROUS ANGEL that I could barely get myself together. When I finally sent those edits off, I realized I’m in the middle of the first draft of the next Bitterthorn novel, SECRETS SO DEEP.  After I’m done with SSD, I’ve got another story lined up and ready to go, yet another Bitterthorn novel that’s going to need a ton of research before I launch into it. Normally, this would be an issue for a WriMo.

But it’s not a problem for BuNoWriMo.  I just have to write.  Every day, all I have to do is write.

That’s why I love BuNoWriMo so much.  It’s run by a bunch of people who aren’t all about following the exact rules or regulations that other WriMo events follow.  BuNoWriMo isn’t about rules and regulations.  It’s about putting your ass in your seat and making words every single day for one month, and at the end you have a shiny new book to show for it.  It’s painful, it’s maddening, and it’s totally doable.

Just write.

Would you like to join us for BuNoWriMo?  We gather here on FB!

WOUNDED ANGEL Blog Tour, Plus an Excerpt!

Annnnnd, we’re off! WOUNDED ANGEL is on an excerpt blog tour, brought to you by GoddessFish—yay!  Follow along and enter at each stop, and you could win a $25 Amazon GC.  Here's where I'm headed:

June 3:  It's Raining Books
June 4:  Regina May Ross's Blog
June 4:  STOP 2  Simply Ali
June 5:  Ramblings From This Chick
June 6:  Words of Wisdom from The Scarf Princess
June 7:  Books and Other Spells
June 10:  Wicked Readings by Tawania
June 11:  Bea's Book Nook
June 12:  Deal Sharing Aunt
June 13:  Brianna Lee Book Reviews
June 14:  Flirting With Romance

What’s an excerpt tour?  Well, I took about a dozen or so snippets from WOUNDED ANGEL so that people could get a glimpse of what’s going on.  Teasers, if you will, to whet the appetite… kind if like this:

EXCERPT:

“Last chance to be smart and back out.” He pulled her close, and the fierce tenderness in the arms that held her warmed her more than their shared body heat. “I can’t tell you to hide out until it’s all over, because I know you won’t. I’ve finally figured out that hiding from a fight is something you won’t do.”

And she’d thought he would never learn. “Damn straight.”

“So I’m not telling. I’m asking.” As if he found the feel of her body irresistible when she was so close, he rubbed his hands over her back then, with a quick glance around the sparsely populated area of the pier, slid them lower to cup her bum. He massaged the rounded flesh until she could no longer feel the cold. “I’m asking you to stay out of this. Protect yourself like the irreplaceable treasure you are. Value yourself like I do, and let me do this on my own.”

 

See how that works? ;)

 

Also, since it’s June, I’m now engaged in BuNoWriMo big-time.  I’m hoping to get about 2K words daily (with a minor lull when I have family visiting) on a project I’d already started.  SECRETS SO DEEP is the third Bitterthorn, Texas book focusing on Chandler Thorne and the rebuilding of Thorne Mansion.  But there’s something hidden in the rubble of the once-great mansion, a secret no one even imagined was there.  I’m having such a great time with this story! :D

 

That’s it for now.  Happy reading!

 

 

 

Buy Links:

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