Not much time left until this is out...

“I can’t give any good reason why I picked this up,”
Ezra said, his voice distracted. “I was staring at the
house, watching it go up in flames, thinking about how proud Grandma always was of that house, how much she loved it. I was so fucking pissed. Still am. I looked down, and there it was.”

About the Friday 56

• Grab the book nearest you. Right now
• Turn to page 56.
• Find the fifth sentence.
• Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog.
• Post a link along with your post back to this blog.
• Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

Preorder...

Amazon | B & N | Booksamillion | Indiebound | Book Depository

And yes, I did redo my blog again. O.o

Are you all watching the blog tour? If not...here ya go.

1/23 - The Book Vixen
1/24 - Urban Girl Reader
1/26 - Under the Covers
1/27 - I Just Wanna Sit Here and Read!

Also... there's going to be a different sort of blog tour coming up next month...see the banner just up top of the blog?  :-)  Wait and see.  No questions yet.

Now, remember the IF YOU contest?  Viola... another prize.  This one is $10 GC to either Amazon, BAMM or BN, winner's choice. And the winner is....

Nat C...

Nat, if you can email me...you can use the contact form on the blog to get in touch and we'll get your prize taken care of!

The next prize, guys, is a nice one.  I was hoarding it.  If you want a chance, just check out the IF YOU contest.

Law.

Okay, so he's not the main character in this book. And yeah, yeah, his hair should be longer.

But if you read his book without reading the other two? You're missing out.

So I can totally use this picture to push my upcoming release. O.o

And BTW...this is how I kinda see Remy.

Excerpt...

“I’ve got a job to do. She was attacked.” It was the truth. It was also almost trite, because job or no job, Remy knew he would have been out there. For Hope. Sooner or later.

And as though he had read Remy’s mind, Law’s mouth curled into a one-sided smirk. “So this is just the conscientious DA doing his job?”

Remy stared at his hands for the longest time, unsure of what in the hell to say to that. What in the hell could he say? He couldn’t get involved with Hope, even assuming she might have once been remotely interested. But there was a hell of a lot more than just a professional concern on his part, and he couldn’t honestly say otherwise.

Feeling raw, exposed, he looked up at Law and as met the other guy’s eyes, he realized he probably didn’t need to say a damn thing.

Law already knew.

Shit.

Coming off the chair, Law shoved a hand through his hair and, and in a perfect echo of Remy’s thoughts, he muttered, “Shit.”

Then he shot Remy a dirty look and muttered, “This would be a hell of a lot easier on me if I could just kick you the hell out of my house, keep you the fuck away from her.”

“Could you do that?”

Law snorted. “With Hope? Yeah.” He sighed and shot a glance at the door. “She’s…damaged. You get that? Damaged in ways I don’t think you really understand right now. You might think you do, but you don’t. And she trusts me. That means if I really wanted to keep you the hell away from her, if I thought you were bad for her—it would be shitty of me to do it, but I could it.”

Then their gazes met. Hazel rested on blue.

Law sighed and said, “I’m not going to do it.”

More...

Amazon | B & N | Booksamillion | Indiebound | Book Depository

So somebody** out there is knocking romance.  Again. Yawn.  This one is almost entertaining because...

1. He starts mentioning how romances won't ever be discussed in colleges, when they actually already are.  Ask Sarah of Dear Author or Jessica at ReadReactReview... a couple of smashingly brilliant women who happen to be scholars.
2. He actually mentions a professor at Harvard?  And gets her sex wrong...and misspells her name.  Yes, this, clearly, is a man we should listen to...
3. He has a donate button in the sidebar of his blog.

Wince.  Sorry.  I'm kind of leery to give a lot of weight to an writer who does that.  Especially if he's not offering anything but a few overblown opinions. Plus, he knocks romance.  Hello... he clearly does not get just how much we read.  Or what we read.

Me? I read:

1. Romance
2. Urban Fantasy
3. Fantasy
4. Thrillers (some)
5. Science Fiction, although pal...I won't touch yours
6. Horror (when I'm in the mood)

Guess what...so do a lot of romance readers...we are voracious readers.  But once somebody knocks my genre of choice?  On that DO NOT BUY...EVER...list.

Anyway, carrying on.

I made a comment.  He deleted it.

So I made another.  Here's the text, since I'm sure he'll delete it again.

Wow, so having it pointed out to you that your blog, does, it fact, have a donate button bothers you, huh? Or is it the fact that the romance novelist who is making the comment doesn't need one on her blog the rub?

Don't worry, I'll screen cap the comment and blog and save the JPEG so I can post it my site for my own follow up post tomorrow.

Anyway, the point of my comment WASN'T the donate button, which you apparently took issue with-but the fact that romances brighten peoples' lives. Because certainly, that can't be the problem, and thus the reason you deleted it.

I mentioned that I've had readers email me about how the fact that a book where a heroine overcomes rape and abuse and goes on to work with abused kids. The book helped some heal. It helped others find a voice. Surely you didn't take issue with that. Why would that bother you?

It couldn't be the fact that I've had readers email me thanking me for helping them through loss, divorce and illnesses, whether it's a cold or cancer. Why would you take issue with that? Unless, of course, it challenges your viewpoint on romance.

I clearly stated that I don't know if my books will ever be discussed in colleges or universities and I'm not bitter over this-because I bring a bright spot to lives. That's enough for me. Why would that comment have bothered you? Not sure.

Yeah, it had to be the donate thing. And I also admitted it was petty. It's truth, but petty. If it bothers you...well, I could apologize, but it would be lying, because I'm not sorry. I don't believe in saying things I don't mean.

Perhaps I'm not a good liar...however, I'm a pretty good story teller.

Before you knock romance, try writing one. And selling one...not on the kindle or the nook, but the hard way. To a traditional publisher. It's not as easy as one might thight.

And damn.  I made a typo.  Oh, well.  As one might think.  What do you expect of a no-class romance writer, anyway?

Oh, by the way...here's the screen cap.

The screen cap, again, is because the first comment got deleted.  Yeah, I was a little flippant, which is my norm. But I was actually well behaved, for me.  Oh, well.

Whatcha gonna do?

He also deletes comments like mad, just FYI.  Sarah from DA made a particularly brilliant one that called him on a few of his errors...

The International Association for the Study of Popular Romance (http://iaspr.org) is an academic organization that is devoted to the study of romance in all popular media. This, of course, includes romance novels.

IASPR (of which I am the President) has an annual international conference (http://iaspr.org/conferences) and a fully peer-reviewed academic journal (http://jprstudies.org), both of which strive to demonstrate how romance narratives operate in our lives. Courses that focus entirely on or include popular romance novels are indeed taught regularly at many prestigious universities around the world, including, yes, Bill Gleason's courses at Princeton University.

While I'm sure none of this academic interest in popular romance fiction will change your mind about its literary merit, worth, or value, I thought your readers might be interested to know it's out there.

In her Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen, the Ur-Mother of Romance, said of "novels" -- the "popular romance fiction" of her day -- that they were, "in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best-chosen language." The same might be said of romance novels today, word for word.

While your personal opinion is valid merely because it's yours, it does not make it fact, nor does it invalidate other peoples' opinions to the contrary. And some of those people DO have Ph.D.s from and teach at incredibly prestigious universities.

(Jung Choi, by the way, is female, and does, in fact, teach romance novels at Harvard, her status there not-withstanding.)

Screen cap of that one...

So she points out that there are, in fact, academic organizations devoted to romance. (Which kinda proves the dude wrong, yeah?) And he deletes them.

Plus, he also gets Jung Choi's (I'm sorry, not familiar this individual) sex wrong. Deletes the comment correcting him.

Wow. Why delete that? Unless of course he can't handle having somebody point out the places where he was...kinda...ya know...wrong?

He's allowed to have his opinion, sure. We're allowed to have ours. We know the power of romance.

When I miscarried, I wanted a romance. I wanted things that brought me pleasure, that made me smile.

When I had the hell year in 2010 and lost not just one friend, but three?  I wanted something that would make me smile.  I wanted a romance.

Somebody mentioned:

AJAJan 18, 2012 06:02 PM

Agree. These books neither challenge nor engage on any meaningful level.

I've lived.  I've lost.  I work in a very stressful, hectic career. Beyond that?

I have a happy, healthy marriage and you want to talk challenges?  That is one.  We're raising three kids.  That is a challenge.  I have challenges. Life brings me challenges.

When I read romances, they make me think...and yes, they do...they make me think, they take me to magic places, they take me back in history, they take me to alternate worlds, they make laugh, they make me cry.

M-W.com:

en·gage (link)

: to provide occupation for : involve <engage him in a new project>

Yes.. these books involve me.  In short... they engage me.  Do they engage others? Yes...millions... Most of us are college educated, involved in a committed relationship, and we read romance because we enjoy them.

On that note...let me introduce myself.

I'm a nurse, although I only work enough to keep my license active. I've been a fulltime writer since 2004. I'm married. Quite happily, to my high school sweetheart.  We've been married more than 15 years now.

We have three kids. The older two are in the honors program and my son, it's suspected, is well beyond 'gifted'.

My oldest daughter is 12 and has written more than five books already-plus, she's also had a book read by an editor and an agent.

My youngest is five, and if she turns to the dark side, the whole word in trouble. She is already 'writing' her own songs, and trying to play the guitar.

So please tell me... how am I 'contributing' to this staggering illiteracy problem, may I ask?  By raising some super-sharp kids who are already reading well above their grade level?  Like many romance readers, I passed my love of reading on to my kids.

My passion is romance...the stories, contrary to what you think, are not the same. Because they are about two people falling in love, and the journey of falling in love is never the same.

Why do I love romance?  Because, plain and simple, I love character driven stories and I love that slow, gentle glide into love, that crazy free-fall.

It's the most amazing thing.  I feel it every time I look at my husband.  When he sits at the table and teases the kids, or me.  I love to experience the milder side of it when I'm sitting down and reading a good romance...it's a milder side, because nothing compares to the real thing.  But the journey is always fun.

No other genre out there offers me that.

Now...before you persists in knocking romance, how formulaic and easy they are to write?  (And therefore publish, I'd assume)...perhaps you should write one.  Sell it. Publish it. And not on a self publishing platform, either, because anybody can do that (although not many can do it well).  But do it the hard way.  The traditional way.  You might be surprised at how hard it is.

I dare you.

**(ETA...by the way, I think I took out the links in the pic, but they were in his blog until he deleted them.  His name is Cale McCaskey.  If you want to read his stupendous...google.  I don't wanna give him more blog hits)

Guess away.  Read the excerpt.  I confirm or deny nothing

It's under a week now.

And I love this line.  Ms. Tuttle is one of my fave characters...

“Look, if you keep calling me in here, you’re going to have to get me some sort of free pass to get me through the dragon keeper’s gate.  That woman out there, I hate to say this, but she almost scares the shit out of me.”

Excerpt

Amazon | B & N | Booksamillion | Indiebound | Book Depository

Okay, this is done. It's up on Smashwords, Amazon, and ARe. I've got it loaded on BN so it's just up to them when it's ready. And it's now on Nook, too! Here...

This one was rather heavily edited and I added more to it...it went from about 12k to a little over 14k, so even if you've read it before, you might not mind reading it again.  It's a smoother, better read, IMO.

Plus, the cover?  AWESOME.

Just a general note about the earlier HUNTER books... they are...ah...hot. Explicit. Very much so. I've had a few people email/comment about the heat level, the sex, even though with the warning, I tried to make it clear, these were very, very kinky books. Again... these are very, very kinky books.

As of yet, it's still not on BN-it's loaded, just waiting for it to show.  But you can get it at

ARe | Amazon  | Smashwords | Nook

And... Smashwords and ARe? International...

excerpt

Just about a week...

One of my fave scenes from this book.

Leaning forward, she sucked in a breath of air.  But it lodged in her lungs when she saw Remy.

Doing the exact same thing.

He was leaning over the hood of his car, a sleek, silver sports car…a Jaguar, if she wasn’t mistaken, his shoulders bowed, head low.

As though he felt her stare, he lifted his head.

A good forty feet separated them, but she still felt the impact of his gaze and it shook her clear down to her very core.  Heat…wrapped in fear, and nerves, and need, and…surprise.

Because he looked every bit as shaken, as worried, as confused as she felt.

Those blue eyes bored into hers.

Her heart raced and for the first time in her life, Hope understood the concept of what it might be like to actually have the world fall away.  In those few seconds, it seemed like nothing, and no one, existed, except for him, and her.

Then, he looked away and the moment shattered.

Read more...

Amazon | B & N | Booksamillion | Indiebound | Book Depository

Snippet time... From IF YOU SEE HER and it's all about friends...

She was still standing there, dazed, when Law came into the kitchen about two minutes after the front door closed.

Still standing there, with her hand touching her lips, and her heart racing.

Remy had just kissed her.

And right before he had lifted his head, he’d whispered, “I’ve wanted to do that from the first second I laid eyes on you.”

“Hey.”

Shaken, she looked up and saw Law standing by the island, staring at her, his face drawn tight in a worried scowl.  “You okay there?”

“Um…I…I’m not sure.”

He leaned back against the counter, assuming almost the same pose Remy had stood in just minutes earlier.  Hope closed her eyes and then immediately wished she hadn’t, because she could see that image in her mind, the way his shirt had stretched across his shoulders, the way the light glinted off his hair.

Then she found herself thinking about how he’d stared into her eyes as he’d lowered his head and kissed her…

“Hope?”

Gulping, she opened her eyes and stared at Law.

“Remy kissed me.”

If she’d expected Law to be shocked, well…she was expecting too much.  All he did was lift a brow and fold his arms over his chest.  “Okay.  So is that a problem for you?”

“A problem?”  She shoved a hand through her hair and shook her head.  “Damn it, Law.  He kissed me!  A week ago he was out here grilling you about me and today he thinks it’s okay to kiss me?”

“Actually, a week ago, he wasn’t grilling me about anything.”  Law’s mouth softened in a smile.  “He just wanted to…”

She grimaced.  “Find out things he had no right finding out.”

Law sighed.  “Hope, he already had most of it figured it.  He just wanted to make…hell.  Look, cut him some slack.  The guy was in one shitty place—I get the feeling he was…” He scowled, a dull red flush climbing up his cheeks.  “Damn it, this is like giving a kid sister dating advice or something.  Look, I think he’s been attracted to you like from the get-go, but can you figure out where that put him?  Whether we like it or not, somebody did a damn good job trying to set you up and I hate it like hell, but what kind of man would be if he turned a blind eye to his job just because he thought the girl involved was cute?”

Hope blushed and looked away.  “I’m not…” then she stopped herself.  The hell she wasn’t mad about it.  But she understood what Law was getting at.  “I understand he had a job to do—I do. I don’t have to like it, but I understand it.  Still, this is giving me whiplash.”  Looking down, she stared at the healing scars on her wrists.

Gingerly, she touched one, winced at the lingering pain.  She’d carry those scars for life, forever carry that reminder that somebody hadn’t just tried to kill her, but they’d tried to do it in a way that had made the past two years of her life a lie.  So what if she’d spent them running—she’d left her husband, that bastard who’d tried so hard to destroy her?

She was trying to be strong…and these marks were done to make her look like a coward.

“Law, I don’t know if I’m up for this.  I’m just…I’m so confused,” she murmured.

Heaving out a sigh, he lifted a hand.  She placed hers in it and he tugged her close, tucking her up against his chest.

Read More

Amazon | B & N | Booksamillion | Indiebound | Book Depository

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