Seducing Her Rival Blog Tour!

I totally forgot to tell you all about this yesterday! I have a short blog tour going on for this release, and there are prizes! Other than today's post, I don't have direct links to stuff yet. I'll try to update through the week, but the links may just take you to the main blog page until I get to fixing them.

Anyway...

I'm giving away a Nook Simple Touch as well as two amazon gift cards, so get thee touring, people!

Tuesday 10/29: Fade Into Fantasy
Thursday 10/31: Margay Leah Justice
Friday 1/1: What I'm Reading
Saturday 1/2: A Bookish Escape
Monday 1/4: Simply Ali
Tuesday 1/5: (Change of plans here...) Herding Cats...Burning Soup
Thursday 1/7: Toot's Book Reviews
Friday 1/8: Nina's Literary Escape

That's it. Easy Rafflecopter entries. Get touring!

It's Here!

OMG! It's here!

*muppet flails and panic*

Yep, it's that day already, Seducing Her Rival is out in the big, wide world.

What? You hadn't heard about this one? New marketing plan. Blah blah blah. I will save you the boring details and just give you this...

When cruise ship turbulence sends children’s charity guru Mercedes Vega—and her tropical cocktail—flying into a mysterious stranger, she’s convinced her free vacation is a dream-come-true. But Lucas Bellamy isn’t just sexy as sin and richer than God. He’s her business rival, determined to outbid her charity for the land she desperately needs…a fact she doesn’t learn until after a night of mind-blowing, toe-curling sex. Unwilling to give up, she formulates a plan to make the charming playboy fall in love with her and back out of the property deal.

Lucas is drawn to Mercedes, but he won’t stand down—after all, he has promises of his own to keep. But one scintillating night with the enigmatic brunette leads to another, and before long, it’s unclear who’s seducing who, leaving Mercedes wondering whether the man she’s supposed to hate is the only salvation from her past.

What better way to beat the fall blues than escaping on a hot, sexy cruise?

I knew we were on the same page.

And so it's easier for you to sink into the pages of this one, here are links to most of the bigger ebook retailers:

Amazon.com
Amazon.ca
Amazon.co.uk
Barnes & Noble
iTunes
Kobo
All Romance

If you buy someplace else, feel free to hit me in the comments with where and I'll add it to the list :)

Also, if you happen to read Seducing Her Rival, I'd love it if you left reviews all over the internet.

Now I'm going to go finish panicking, because I excel at that.

NEWS!

So, a while back, I sold this quirky little book called Gaming for Keeps to Entangled Publishing. When asked, I described it as Chuck meets The Hulk. My editor described the series potential as The Big Bang Theory meets The X-Files. Needless to say, it wasn't your typical romance.

The path forward from that wasn't a super-smooth one. The challenge of keeping things quirky and geeky and romantic all at the same time while still remaining fresh took a lot of mental twisting.

That's why I'm super excited to announce that Entangled has signed me for not one, not two, not three, but FOUR new TRAIT novellas. (Yes, officially the series is called For Keeps, but I still call it TRAIT.) I can't say a lot about what happens next yet, but I will say the mash-up for book 2 is a little different. This time around, we're going a little more Leverage meets Dollhouse meets Warehouse 13.

Like I said, it's a quirky series, and I am so appreciative that Entangled is as excited about this as I am. And my new editor makes me squee. So keep your eyes peeled for news regarding the release of book two in the For Keeps series, Conning for Keeps! 

New Chapters

As I recall, a few weeks ago I promised an explanation for my absence from blogging this summer. Basically, I was waiting to discuss it publicly until all the Ts were crossed and all the Is were dotted.

None of it's been secret exactly. In fact, most of the world that pays attention to me knows that I relocated to the other side of the state in June. What I've talked about a little less is the reason why.

Next month would have been my 17th wedding anniversary. Yesterday, my divorce was final.

So yeah... I've been dealing with all the feels--good and bad--this summer in addition to moving. I've been doing my best to stay on top of all my upcoming projects, but something had to give and it ended up being the blog. I'm going to do my best to get back to it now, but I wanted my readership to understand I wasn't disappearing for no reason. I just didn't want my moodiness to rub off more than necessary.

On to good news.

If all goes well, I should have two books out before the end of the year! That's right. No hard core promises yet, but I think it's going to happen. Keep everything crossed. Just a reminder (since I haven't been around for a while) that I do have a street team. We gather on Facebook, and they get snippets and news before anyone else. So if you really want to be on top of everything I do, please send a request to join the Renegades: Outlaws of Romance. We supply the virtual booze; you supply the charming personalities ;-)

*raises glass*

Here's to new chapters in both writing and life. Let the adventures begin.

I'm Late

No. I am NOT pregnant, thank you very much. I meant late with my post. And...other things. But not that thing. *shudder*

I realized something during my blogging hiatus this summer. I hate forced blogging. That whole "oh no, it's Tuesday, I have to post something!" Not a fan. Especially since my best ideas tend to come say...the day after I post, but by the time it would go live the following week, it'd be old news.

As much as I'm trying to organize my life (and believe me, I am), I think I need to make a return to disorganized blogging. I'll be starting back up at the Evil League of Evil Writers as soon as I get a nudge on when, but for here, I think I'm just going to blog when I have something to say. I know that goes against all the rules of blog-building. But let's be honest for a minute...a lot of people have moved on from regular blogs. They're pinning and tumbling and whatever-elsing. And I'm doing all of that too...when the urge strikes.

That's the aspect of Pinterest and Tumblr that I love. No one gets in a huff if I miss a day or whatever. No one cares that I'm mainly just posting things I find pretty or inspiring. And it never feels like I'm standing around shouting, "Buy my book!" ...even when I mention my books. I love that.

I'm not saying I won't blog here. I built this place, damn it. I'm going to use it--in fact, I'm still planning to strive for 4-5 posts a month. However, it does mean that it won't be consistent. It means I'm going to post when I have something to say (whatever that might be), but not worry about the day of the week or if I already posted the day before. I won't worry about "talking" too much or too little. I'm just going to be.

So, in case you want to comment on something....two big casting announcements have come out in the past week. Team Charlie & Dakota (50SoG) or Team Sam & Caitriona (Outlander)?

New Year, New Life

My kids started school today, and for the first time, it was kind of a bittersweet experience. There have been a lot of life changes in the past several months (more on this in the weeks to come, I'm sure), and it all kind of culminated today. You see, we moved across the state to be closer to family. Which means the kids had to start at an all new school. Which would be awesome, if any of their cousins went to their school. The one that lives closest is in a different district, and the ones that are in the same district go to a different school (different levels entirely as mine are in elementary, and the two cousins are finishing their last years of Jr. High and High School). Needless to say all back-to-school excitement was tempered with a lot of nerves.


And today was anticlimactic. They went to school. They met some kids. They came home. The biggest differences were the new rules for the new teachers, which they would have had anyway. Life...went on, as it likes to do.

It was kind of a mirror of everything else that's happened. All this life-altering to-do and...life just kept on going. It's strange how that works, and even stranger that it's rarely seen in fiction (at least not genre fiction--maybe this is what literary fiction is for but I'm not the person who would know such things).

You see, in a book, you get a snapshot of reality. The characters care about each other in some way (even if that way is hate). You don't get a much of a look at the people who are just there, the ones that show life just happening. And even with those close characters--they are all right there through everything.

People say that art imitates life, as if it's a mirror in the way my kids' first day of school was, but I don't think that's true. Art, to me, takes life and experiments on it. It filters it and removes all the mundane details. It condenses it into a concentrated fraction of what life would have been. And then, it takes another concentrated substance (or more than one), and throws them all into a fire to see what happens. Where life ebbs and flows around itself, art...explodes. It doesn't show you the big picture, it shows you the flash.

I'm not really sure there's a magical, important point to this post. It was just where my mind went after walking the kids home from school.

Tomorrow I think I'm going to take a little tiny piece of my life, sit in the sun, and hold a magnifying glass over it. Something's bound to happen. Just wait and see.

I'm Back and Siri Is Stupid

Hi all! The summer of madness officially ends a week from today, at which point I'll start filling you all in on the drama and whatnot that has been consuming all my brain power. For now, I'm going to share a silly story from yesterday instead. (Please bear in mind that the conversation was not archived, so exact wording may be off, but the conversation is basically correct. And the later, funnier, bits are exactly what the damn thing said.)

So, I'm in the car with my kids driving to the grocery store when we start discussing bacon (as we often do). This led to the kids arguing about what male pigs are called. They both had solid arguments and I wasn't really sure who was right. (Turns out they both were in their own ways, but that's beside the point.) So I do what any good mother with an iPhone and her hands on the steering wheel would do--I turn to Siri. This is what happened...

Me: What are male pigs called?
Siri: I'm sorry, I don't see Mal Pecks in your phone book. Should I search the web for Mal Pecks?
Me (frustrated): What are male pigs called?
Siri: You have ____ new email messages. Which one would you like to read?
Me (getting cranky and trying to enunciate): What are MALE PIGS called?
Siri: I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean.
Me: Siri, you suck donkey balls.
Siri: Now, now.
Me (making WTF face): Well if you could understand any of the words coming out of my mouth...
Siri: I don't understand.
Me: Siri, you're a dumbass.
Siri: I am?
Me: Pretty sure.
Siri: I don't know what you mean. Would you like me to search the web for "pretty sure?"
Me: And thank you for proving my point.
Siri: It is I who should be thanking you.

At this point, the kids and I were laughing so hard, I couldn't talk anymore. It was a good night. Hope you had one of those too :)