Random Rants and Rambles

EPIC Con-Fusion!

2012-01-19T12:54:00.000-05:00

This weekend I'll be in Troy, Michigan, at EPIC Con-Fusion. Why EPIC? I believe it's because this is the 40th anniversary of the con.

So why does a romance author go to an SF/Fantasy con? Lots of reasons. First, I write mostly paranormal and steampunk romance, which has a huge audience overlap with urban fantasy and SF readers. Secondly, I'm also a FAN. Mainly because it's just plain fun. Friday night I'll probably be wearing my elf ears. Saturday night it's full steampunk regalia, including a hoopskirt for the costume ball. I'm on 4 different panels and doing the signing and a reading, so I'll be busy, busy, busy. My dh and younger son are going, along with scads of my friends. A good time will be had by all.

If you live in the Detroit metroplex and are bored this weekend, pop in and say hello! Click here for more information: http://confusion.stilyagi.org/

Welcome Carey Abbott, Cover Artist

2012-01-14T01:28:00.000-05:00

One of the interesting side effects of having so many authors self-publishing new material or their backlist is that there’s a growing demand for covers—especially affordable ones, for those authors who can’t drop big bucks to find the perfect compliment to their perfect story. Today I’m talking to author and cover artist Carey Abbott, about her new business designing custom e-book covers.

CSP: To start with, can you tell us a little about your background, and what got you interested in designing book covers? Do you have an art or marketing education?

CA: To start with first and foremost I’m a paranormal romance writer. This business was started to help fellow authors with a need for a personalized covers. I don’t have a formal education in art or design but I have always been very creative.

I did a cover for a good friend of mine and she loved it. This will be her first self-published novel and she cringed when she realized how much it cost to have a cover made.

That made me stop and think about other self published authors that can’t afford the hefty price that comes with a professional cover. So E-Book Cover Designs By Carey was born.

CSP: Can you give us a little insight into the process? If an author contacts you about designing a cover, where do you go from there?

CA: I start with their vision for their cover. The author has full control over how the cover will look, pictures, colors, etc. Once I know what they want I put together a couple of covers and see what they like. If they don’t like either then I try again. It’s all about making the author happy. No money is exchanged until they approve a cover. If I can’t create the cover they want then they aren’t required to buy the cover but so far I haven’t run into that problem.

CSP: How long does it usually take?

CA: The average is five to fourteen days. It all depends on how busy I am. The last cover I did took me two days. When I get an order, I get right on it.

But I can put a rush on a cover for ten dollars added to the price of the cover.

CSP: Do you have a particular “style?” Are they styles of covers you won’t do?

CA: I don’t have a particular style. I just try to make sure they are all unique in their own way. I am open to doing whatever the author needs.

CSP: What genres are your favorites? Least favorites? Is there any genre you won’t touch with a ten-foot pole?

CA: Of course paranormal romance would be my favorite. LOL! That is my passion and what I write. But I’m open to doing any genre. There isn’t anything off the top of my head that I can think of that I wouldn’t do.

CSP: Do you draw the artwork on your covers, or take the photos yourself? Can clients send in their own photos for you to use?

CA: I use stock photos. I don’t let clients use their own photos because of copyright. I have no way of knowing if they own the photos or not. If it is a stock photo and they can prove they bought it, I might consider it but would prefer to buy the pictures myself.

CSP: On your website, you show some of your previous work. I noticed that some of those use the same photos as their main element. Is that legal?

CA: Yes it is legal. Even if I use a picture more than once, I buy it each time. I keep record of all the covers I do and a receipt for each picture is attached to the order form. This is just to make sure if there was ever a question on the copyright I have proof. As a writer I take copyright very seriously.

CSP: About how much can an author expect to pay for a cover? Why not just make their own?

CA: My covers run thirty to seventy dollars. Making a cover takes time and isn’t always easy. But hey, if you can make your own then I say go for it. But many times the authors either don’t know how, don’t have the time or would rather just have someone else take on the headache of doing it.

CSP: Any cool stories to share? Covers that came out differently than expected, or fascinating people you’ve met along the way?

CA: This is a new business so not a lot of amazing stories yet but working with writers is never boring. LOL! We are some of the most fascinating people on the planet. Writing is a passion of mine and to be able to help other authors is a good feeling.

So far, I have been lucky enough to satisfy my customers on the first try. I know this won’t always be the case but it has really been nice to know I can see their vision right from the start. I really listen and follow what they want. The last cover I did turned out beautifully. I was worried in the beginning because she wanted a very specific look but with some time and effort, I hit it on the first try.

CSP: What else would you like authors to know about you and your new business?

CA: Most of you know me by my pen name Tabitha Blake. As a writer I take what my clients want very seriously. I know we all have a certain vision for our covers and we deserve to see that vision come to life. The right cover is just the icing on the cake. We work way to hard on our stories to have a cover we aren’t satisfied with.

CSP: Where can authors find you on the web? How should they contact you?

CA: You can find my website at: ebookcoverdesignsbycarey.com

Or they can contact me directly: careydoucet@yahoo.com

Be sure and stop by my website and browse my photo gallery. These are just a few examples of what I can do as far as covers. Thanks to everyone that took time to stop by.

CSP: Carey, thanks so much for stopping by today!

CA: Thank you so much for having me, Cindy. It was a joy to be on your blog.

Wrong Side of Town is now in print!

2012-01-12T01:40:00.000-05:00

Hop over to Amazon and check out the shiny new paperback edition of Wrong Side of Town, from Resplendence Publishing. While you're there, feel free to "Like" and "Tag." Thanks a million!

January Flashback

2012-01-09T11:53:00.000-05:00

Check out Stone and Earth, from January 2008, the first in my award-winning Heroes of Stone series for Ellora's Cave. Available on its own as an e-book, or in print as part of the Stone Heroes anthology.

Stone and Earth

Buy link

Gargoyle Damien St. Pierre has to find an ancient artifact needed by his people. When he meets Earth witch Katie Calhoun, he can’t keep his hands off of her. Because of the problems his people are having, Damien is afraid to attempt the conversion necessary to make her his mate. But Katie is determined to help him in his quest and to become the gargoyle of his dreams. Can her faith overcome his fear? Will the magic of love succeed in the mating of Stone and Earth?

Excerpt (R):

“Well, do you think we can make it all the way off the roof this time?” They lay on their sides on the lounge, facing each other and fighting for breath.

“Umm-hmm. Assuming I can manage to stand.” Katie raised a hand to caress the rugged line of Damien’s jaw. “How about you?”

“If there’s any possibility of a snack down there, I think I can convince the muscles to work.” Damien toyed idly with the ends of Katie’s hair. His stomach rumbled loudly, punctuating his response.

“Well if gargoyles don’t mind grilled cheese or tomato soup, I think we can arrange that.”

“Sounds fine to me. And no, we don’t eat gravel or sand, or anything like that.” He stretched then clambered to his feet before reaching out a hand to help Katie off the lounge. They gathered her basket and his clothing then turned off the hot tub and the lights before descending the staircase.

Once they reached the kitchen, Katie drew her loose cotton robe out of her basket and slipped it over her head while Damien pulled on a pair of supple black leather pants. He set the matching heavy boots and bomber jacket aside while she turned to the refrigerator.

“Do you have a motorcycle?” The thought of him riding a big powerful bike was unexpectedly exciting. In the bright light of the kitchen he was even more handsome. He stood easily over six and a half feet tall, with thick-lashed gray eyes and silky straight black hair that fell loose to his shoulders. His face was a sculptor’s masterpiece, all sharp angles and long lines. The smooth planes of his chest and abs were positively mouthwatering and it took a great deal of effort to make herself look away.

“Oui.” Without another word he moved around the counter and almost automatically began to help her assemble the sandwiches. Their motions fell into an instant, easy harmony.

“Will you take me riding?” Katie finished slicing the homemade bread and began to coat the slices with butter.

“As soon as we get you a helmet.” He topped the slices of bread with thick slabs of cheddar and provolone.

His instinctive protectiveness made her smile. “Do gargoyles need helmets?”

Best of 2011

2012-01-02T23:20:00.000-05:00

Well, it's that time of year again when readers and review sites post their lists of their favorite books of 2011. I'm very excited to be on a solid handful this year, including one that was truly unexpected. Raelene Gorlinsky, Publisher of Ellora's Cave, selected Steam & Sorcery (NOT from Ellora's Cave) as one of her favorite reads of the year. Click here for the list. :-)

In other news, I have TWO finalists in the 2012 EPIC Awards: Steam & Sorcery for Science-Fiction Romance and Eagle's Redemption for Novella.

I also have two books on the list of 2011 Gems from Kathy's Review Corner: Motor City Witch and Motor City Wolf. Please check out Kathy's reviews. She's been such a fabulous supporter of that series.

Another two-fer came from Love Romances Cafe. I'm thrilled that Motor City Witch is nominated for Best Fantasy or Paranormal, and Steam & Sorcery is up for Best Historical. I'm sure I'll have voting info for that one coming soon--please vote if you can.

Finally, I want to thank Miz Love and Crew for naming Steam & Sorcery the best steampunk book of 2011. I'm honestly honored, folks. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

Happy 2012

2011-12-31T17:26:00.000-05:00

Wishing everyone a safe and happy New Year! Slainte!

New Year's Flashback Favorite

2011-12-26T18:52:00.001-05:00

Everyone have a wonderful 2012. Before this year ends, stop by the Romance Authors Hotspot (banner on the right) to enter to win a Kindle Fire and other great prizes.

The last of this year's holiday flashbacks is actually a New Year's story. Join me in the wayback machine to a visit to New Year's 2008, Djinni and the Geek, one of my first Ellora's Cave titles and book 2 in my Geek Love series. Comment below, and one random winner will receive a free download.

Djinni and the Geek

Geek Love #2

By Cindy Spencer Pape

Available in ebook and print from Ellora’s Cave:

http://www.jasminejade.com/m-304-cindy-spencer-pape.aspx

Review: “Fans of steamy love scenes will not be disappointed in the least since Anissa and David have great chemistry together. Cindy Spencer Pape has written one appealing genie tale that should leave you with a smile on your face knowing that a geek has finally found a wonderful love with a woman both beautiful inside and out.”~~Katie from Romance Junkies

Blurb: Professor David Garvaglia is nobody’s idea of a hero. Is he? When David opens an antique box and finds a sexy Djinni in his bed, his desire for her is almost as powerful as his determination to set her free. Anissa has spent centuries as a prisoner of the box and has dreamed of the day some handsome master would release her. The scruffy computer geek isn’t what she expected, but everything about him turns her on.

While David and Anissa explore their explosive passion, he helps her adjust to the twenty-first century. Complicating things is an evil wizard who wants Anissa for his own. Between scorching sex in his faculty office and hacking government computers, David does everything he can to keep her safe—and satisfied.

Excerpt 2:

David shook his head. Today had just been too damn long, and he didn’t want to think about anything any more. He snagged a beer from the selection in the fridge and walked toward the stairs, turning lights out on his way. Good beer was his one indulgence, his one way of admitting to himself that he’d made it in the world. He’d never be a wine connoisseur or a gourmet chef, but he could appreciate the difference between an ale and a lambic.

Finally, he shrugged. Whatever was going on, the gods would reveal it in their own sweet time. He set the bottle on the milk crate beside the bed and picked up the box. With a silent prayer to every god of fools and lunatics, he gently brushed his thumb over the carved flowers on the lower left-hand corner of the box’s top. He moved his callused digits over the delicate inlay and paused when he felt a tiny electrical jolt from the ring. He brushed back against a flower in the upper left-hand corner. Yep, there was the tingle. He could almost feel Anissa’s warm sweet breath and hear her sultry voice in his ear cheering him on.

With just the tip of his thumb, he exerted pressure on each petal, one at a time. With an almost inaudible click, the third petal depressed. A heartbeat later, the box gave another, slightly louder click, and a seam appeared, dividing the box into two uneven halves, following the flow of the pattern rather than a straight line. It resembled a rectangular Easter egg cracking open slowly from the inside.

His hands were big; they almost engulfed the box as he palmed each of the halves gently trying to separate them. He tested a couple of different motions, finally discovering that if he rotated the halves counter-clockwise, the tingle returned to his fingertips. That must be it, then. He twisted slowly, not wanting to accidentally break whatever treasure was inside. When he finally felt the mechanism give, he expected the box to come apart in his hands dropping whatever it contained onto the comforter covering his lap.

Instead, he heard a loud whoosh, as if someone had just launched a missile in the room. The box was hot; it singed his fingertips till he dropped it to the floor beside the bed. Then he coughed as he inhaled a cloud of lavender-colored, licorice-scented smoke. He closed his eyes against the sting of the wispy tendrils. A second later, he opened them again. The burning sensation and the lavender cloud were gone, but the licorice scent remained.

And there was a woman kneeling on the comforter at the foot of David’s bed. Her face was down on her knees in a position of full obeisance, but the curly black hair that fell all around her to puddle on the comforter was a dead giveaway. Dave knew who he’d see when she lifted her gaze. He tried to speak, but couldn’t get the words to leave his throat. He stared in rapt fascination as she spoke without lifting her head.

“How may I serve you, oh master?” Her voice was soft and husky—pure distilled sex. Exactly as it had been in his dreams. Dave’s cock throbbed just thinking about the possibilities. Maybe he was still dreaming, because here she was in his bed.

Then she looked up and saw him, and all the color drained from her lovely face. Her tilted violet eyes widened and her hand covered her mouth as she shrieked.

“Who are you and what have you done to my hero?”

A free story for your holiday reading

2011-12-24T12:42:00.001-05:00

This is a little free story I wrote a few years back. Enjoy everyone, and have a wonderful holiday. And don't forget to visit the Romance Authors Hotspot (banner on the right) to enter to win a Kindle Fire and other great prizes.

YULETIDE AT MORT’S

@ 2009 Cindy Spencer Pape

Ever noticed how some places just seem to attract all the weirdness in the world? The bar I own is one of them. Situated in once-blue collar part of Detroit, it’s called Draig Gwyn, or White Dragon in Welsh, and the sign above the door is a hand painted white and silver drake. Most of the regulars just call the place Mort’s, after me. The bar is actually a fairly low key place—a simple cottage-style building with stucco walls, a beamed ceiling, and a stamped concrete floor that looks like stone. There’s an antique oak bar and a big stone fireplace in the main room on the left, and six dartboards and high-top tables in the smaller space on the right.

It was not quite midnight on Christmas Eve, and I was drinking Loch Dhu and throwing darts with Mickey Finn—no, of course it’s not his real name, but the little bastard has a warped sense of humor. Mickey’s a cantankerous wretch of a leprechaun, but he’s a regular customer and he throws a decent game. Just don’t tease him about his height—he’s maybe five foot if he’s wearing biker boots—and you’ll get along with him fine. Whatever you do, though, don’t ask for your pot of gold. Last guy who did that ended up getting busted for possession of eight ounces of high-grade Mexican weed in his car. Yeah, Mickey planted the Tijuana gold, then called the cops. I told you he was a twisted little fuck.

Just a handful of familiar faces littered the place. Most people have someplace better to be than a working-class bar on a night like this—families, friends, you name it. Even though most of my customers weren’t particularly religious, they typically celebrated the Season in one way or another; Yule, Chanukah, Solstice, or something, and were tied up most nights this week. Any of the folks still here didn’t have anywhere else to be, and I was glad to have someplace to offer them that felt at least a little bit like home.

Silas, a one-armed, retired cop and my part-time bartender, was minding the taps and playing checkers at the bar with Trent, a young werewolf musician who’d waited tables for us until recently. I think I’d counted three or four others. All in all, it was a pretty mellow night, so I wasn’t paying much attention to what was going on at the bar.

“I’m gonna kick your fat Irish ass, Mort.”

“He’s Welsh, ye moronic troll,” snarled Mickey, who sat at the high-top four feet behind me. His lilting brogue made even the profanity sound almost sweet. “And don’t be fucking with him until after the game. I’m winning.”

I hadn’t even noticed the big-ass biker stomping up behind me. A quick glance showed someone about six foot eight, with bulging biceps and a shaved head. Oh, ducky.

“Turn around so I can kill you.” The big guy wasn’t exactly the patient type.

“Be with you in three seconds.” I tossed my last dart, landed a triple eighteen, and bared my teeth at Mickey. “Who’s losing now, pipsqueak?” Since I was buying his beer tonight, and we’d been friends for most of the last century, I was sometimes granted an exception to the “no short jokes” rule. Sometimes.

Mickey just rolled his green eyes and chugged the last of his Guinness. “Game’s not over yet, lad. See to your friend here. Then I’ll wipe the floor with your sorry arse.”

“Why the hell is everyone so fixated on my hindquarters tonight?” My speech patterns, as Mickey mentioned are indeed Welsh, though they’re occasionally mistaken for Irish here in Detroit. Turning to the biker, who seethed quietly in the archway between the main pub and the darts room, I lifted my Scotch off the high-top and toasted him. “I’m Mordecai Gwynn, owner of this fine establishment. What can I do for you?”

“You stole my girl.”

I raised my eyebrow at that. “Girl? What girl? Last I heard, I was a single man.” Hadn’t had a date in months, as a matter of fact. Come to think of it, that might be part of the reason for my uncharacteristic restlessness. I normally saved the whisky for after closing time. “Don’t think I’ve made off with any women lately.”

The big guy just glared, and I watched for the swing. Mind you I’m a solid six foot two, but he looked like he honestly could wipe the floor with someone my size, all things being equal. They weren’t, though. There’s a reason my bar attracts the strange and unusual—I have a few secrets of my own. I checked his aura. The bruiser was a human, as mundane as they come. There was no trace of magic at all. The bad news was there’s a downside to every fight, even one I knew I could win. It’s hard as hell on the furniture, and I wasn’t in the mood to spend the rest of Christmas week doing drywall repairs.

“I want her back.” He tightened his meaty fist. “Don’t make me hurt you.”

As if. I smiled, letting my teeth show. They’re a bit pointier than a human’s, which has a tendency to scare the piss out of most blowhards if I let my glamour drop, which I did. “Look around you pal. There’s not a woman in the place, and if I had one at home, I wouldn’t be here throwing darts. Go home, sleep it off, and call whoever she is in the morning. If you apologize nicely, maybe she’ll take you back.”

Rather than being frightened, he just grinned, though he didn’t show his teeth. Then he swung. I ducked. The grapefruit-sized paw whistled over my head with the approximate force of a wrecking ball. My counterpunch slammed into the big guy’s solar plexus, and for a moment, I thought I’d broken my hand.

“Son of a bitch!” I dodged to the side as another blow tried to remove my head from my shoulders. The right hook I swung at his jaw connected, but all the big bastard did was smirk some more. My arm vibrated all the way up to my shoulder from the shock of the impact. New conclusion. No way in hell was this guy a normal human. His fucking aura lied.

“Watch the beer there, laddies.” Mickey swooped his Guinness, which had somehow gotten refilled, off the table, just as Meathead knocked me back into it. A quick glance around showed me there was no one on this side of the bar who didn’t know what I was, so I let my glamour drop completely, revealing the scale pattern that underlies my fair skin, and the vertical pupil slits in my ice-blue eyes.

I also muttered a spell under my breath. It looked like I could use a little extra protection against this guy. I didn’t have time to wonder if he knew what I was doing. He charged at me like a freight train, hitting me right as my shield spell went off. I might as well have been chanting “Happy Birthday.” Nothing. He slammed into me and we both went barreling into the back wall, sending two stools flying in the meanwhile. Good thing the furniture in here is solid oak. I shook my head, trying to ignore the little birdies that chirped around me after he head-butted my skull into one of the timbers on the wall.

Okay, this wasn’t working. Time to fight dirty. I jammed the heel of my hand up into his nose as hard as I could, grunting in satisfaction as I heard bone crack. About fucking time.

Blood dripped onto my own cheek as he loomed over me, straddling my legs. Blood that didn’t smell quite right. Definitely not human. His bulging green-brown eyes crinkled as he laughed. While I watched in horror, the nose realigned itself.

“I told ye he was a troll, laddie,” Mickey cackled.

Shit, that also explained why magic wouldn’t work, and how he’d gotten past the wards on the doors in the first place. Trolls are nulls. They create a little anti-magic field around them wherever they go.

I heard a whoosh then a smack as Mickey swung the vintage Louisville Slugger I keep behind the bar into the bastard’s skull.

The troll swayed a little on impact, then casually backhanded Mickey, sending the leprechaun crashing into a table.

“Get back, Mick.” I saw Silas rounding the archway with a sawed-off shotgun, but I didn’t want to have to explain bullet holes to the cops, not if we could avoid it. Trent the werewolf stood next to him, looking like he was thinking about getting furry, and a couple other regulars had picked up bottles or stools. “You too, Silas, Trent. Everybody back off.” What I was about to do required a little more space. I’d quit caring about the furniture, but I didn’t want to hurt any of my friends. Shocking a couple of them—well, that couldn’t be avoided.

Looking straight into the troll’s eyes, I let the power flow through my body and felt myself change. Fortunately, that’s not magic; it’s a part of who I am. The troll’s nullification effect couldn’t prevent me from shifting.

Chairs and tables scattered, and suddenly the positions were reversed. Instead of the troll sitting on me, pummeling me into oblivion, the big lug was lying on his back, looking up into a long, scaly, pissed-off face.

“Fuck. You’re a gods-damned dragon.”

Ah, a master of the obvious. Well, no one had ever accused trolls of being bright. Sitting on my haunches, I’m about seven feet high, and from snout to tail I’m nearly twenty feet long, with a fifteen-foot wingspan. My scales are an iridescent opal, while my wings are leathery, with just a touch of a silver shadow over the white. My longish white-blond hair morphs into a row of spikes on the back of my head. And my teeth? Let’s just say I could pop off his head and swallow it like a grape, but I really didn’t want to do that. Cleaning up bodies is messy. Cleaning up non-human bodies can be a real pain in the ass. At the very least, it’s expensive.

“Are you ready to leave now?” I rumbled. My voice in this form puts the contrabass from Sha-Na-Na to shame. “Or do I have to…hurt you?”

“I need the woman,” he growled. “I need her magic.” Then he actually licked his lips.

I hissed out a little puff of icy mist. “There. Is. No. Woman. Here.”

“I found this address hidden in her room,” he said. “And I can smell her. She’s here.”

The troll was stubborn, I’d give him that. Too bad I didn’t care. “As I see it, you have two choices. Either I let you go, you stand up, and you walk out of this bar, never to return, or, I rip your fucking head off and we see if you can regenerate that.”

He actually had to stop and think about it. Damn. Finally he nodded. “I’ll go.”

“Good answer.” I shifted a little to let him up, just in time to hear Silas bark out my name. I ducked, barely missing the knife—closer to machete—that the damn troll had pulled out of nowhere and swung at my throat.

My roar shook the rafters of the bar as I swiveled my head and caught his between my teeth. Grabbing onto his torso with the claws of both forelegs, I bit down hard, then tugged.

His head popped free of his neck, spilling a spray of acid down my throat and all over the room. It was by far the most disgusting slime I’d ever tasted. I spit the head back out and saw it bounce on the floor, the bulging eyes still wide with shock.

“Call Walker,” I said to Trent. “Tell him we’ve got an emergency clean up. Silas, lock the doors and close the blinds.” Angus Walker, a regular of mine, is a brownie, who runs a paranormal—disposal service. He’d also have a good idea how to get troll blood out of the walls, floors and furniture, I hoped, though I knew it would cost me most of this month’s profit. Meanwhile, I hoped like hell I could get the stuff off my skin. While it wasn’t doing serious damage, the burn was a whole lot less than comfortable. If I was lucky, it wouldn’t etch the concrete floor, but I’d definitely have to touch up the stucco and drywall.

“Already done, boss” Silas reported. To his credit, his voice only shook a little. While Silas knew I was a shapeshifter, this was the first time he’d actually seen it. Not many humans ever had. He was holding up remarkably well. “I told these boys their tab is covered for the night.” He nodded at Trent and the two others who had stuck around, wielding makeshift weapons. One was a shifter of some sort, I thought. The other maybe a novice mage.

Both met my eyes as I smiled at them. “Thanks. You guys want to start checking the furniture, that would be useful.”

I looked around the dart room. About half the tables and chairs were overturned or shoved aside. There was one crack in the stucco, thanks to my skull, and one dartboard busted. Good thing I kept a few spares in the back. Trent and Silas started righting stools and tables, setting the damaged ones aside. There weren’t many. I’d learned pretty quickly to invest in the heavy-duty stuff, once the paranormal crowd had started hanging out here. Mickey just watched the whole thing, quaffed stout, and laughed. I’d have kicked the little shit out, but he paid his bill at the end of each month in gold. Hard to argue with that.

Since there were only guys in the place, I went ahead and shifted back, even though my clothing was pretty much a pile of rags on the floor. The waistband of my boxers was still around my waist, though both legs had ripped out. I twisted it a bit, leaving myself with a black and white striped loincloth.

“Nice butt flap,” observed Trent. “And the one-sock look is really you.” For being barely thirty, the kid has no problem holding his own.

I looked down at my feet. Sure enough, one sock was still there, though it was now a leg warmer, wrapped around my ankle. My Green Day concert T-shirt was toast, however, along with my black Converse high-tops and a pair of jeans almost old enough to drink. Damn it, I was pissed about the shirt. I’d bought that in London, back when Green Day was an obscure band the mainstream world had never heard of.

“There’s a reason I keep a change in the office,” I said. There are also reasons for having a shower in the employee restroom. I headed into the kitchen which was between the dart room and the office. Halfway through the kitchen, which wasn’t very big—we don’t serve much more than soup and sandwiches—I heard a noise.

“Don’t move,” I said, spinning toward the walk-in pantry. “I am really not in the mood for this right now.” I stalked over to the pantry entrance, arms crossed over my chest.

“Sorry.” A small figure stepped out from behind a shelf. “It seemed like a good idea to hide until Kord left the building.”

“Kord? That would be the troll who just tried to take my head off out there?”

She nodded, her wide dark eyes looking down at the floor. She was tiny, probably just a shade over five feet, though she had a woman’s curves instead of a little girl’s angles. Her black hair was cut in choppy layers, ranging from chin length to the middle of her back. The bottom two inches of each layer were dyed purple, matching the eye shadow smudged on her lids—and the dark circles under them.

“I recognize you.” The realization sunk in. “You’ve been sitting in the back corner of the bar for the last two days, reading Tarot cards.” Of course I’d checked her out, but she’d seemed pretty harmless, and wasn’t bothering any of my customers, so I’d left her alone.

The woman nodded again. “Never for money—I only had them buy me drinks or food.”

There was an Eastern European flair to her speech, and a sadness in her expression I’d seen on many faces in war zones. She wore a pair of black leggings under a pink and black sweater that had seen better days. The sweater fell to mid-thigh, showing some unraveling at the hem and a few holes on the sleeves. Close to her chest, she clutched a big black crocheted purse like it was her only friend.

“What’s your name?”

“Dita Piric.”

I started to ask her where she was from then I noticed she was shaking. Time for a quick check of her aura. Ah. Hunger and fatigue overlain by fear. There was magic, too—strong and pure, but somehow weakened. “Dita, have you eaten today?”

She smiled wanly. “I ate lunch. Then I hid back here between lunch and dinner, and fell asleep.”

Had she been living in my bar? How could no one have noticed? How could I not have noticed? Again, I started to question, but stopped myself when I saw her eyes stray downward to my shredded boxers. Her cheeks turned as pink as the chipped polish on her ragged fingernails.

“Oh hell. Here.” I stepped out of the pantry, motioning her to one of the stools drawn up to the worktable in the kitchen. “Sit.” When she did, still nervous as hell and leaning away from me, I called Silas into the kitchen. “She doesn’t move from this spot. Feed her anything she wants to eat, but no liquor, and don’t let her leave.”

Silas nodded. “You got it, boss.” Turning around with as much dignity as I could muster while the family jewels swung in the breeze, I stalked off to my office for a change of clothes.

***

When I returned, with my wounds taped up and wearing a fresh pair of jeans and a clean denim shirt, Dita was sitting out at the bar, instead of in the kitchen, surrounded by the others, and daintily polishing off a roast beef sandwich that judging by the thickness had probably started out as big as her head. I waved off Silas, but he shook his silvery mane. He pointed to the stool next to our visitor. So much for loyalty. Silas had a weakness for damsels in distress. I looked at the young woman, sat down, and sighed. So do I, unfortunately.

Dita swallowed the last bite of her sandwich, then crunched up a pickle before licking her fingers and polishing off a glass of orange juice. When she was done, she looked at me, squared her shoulders, and met my eyes. “Thank you.”

“For the food?”

“Yes, for the food. Also for Kord. I am sorry about the damages. I will pay for them—if I can.” Her thin shoulders sagged.

“I’d rather have an explanation at this point.” I poured a shot of the Scotch Silas handed me and sipped. “Why was Kord looking for you?”

“Kord cannot—could not—do magic.” She fidgeted with her napkin.

“On account of his being a troll,” I said. “I’d figured that much.”

“But he wanted power. So he found a way to…absorb the powers of others. For a very short time after doing so, he would be able to benefit from spells.”

“So he kept you prisoner? Is that it?” I wasn’t really sorry I’d killed the bastard, but now I was even less so.

“Yes.” She nodded. “He would…feed off my magic, then force me to cast spells. I was losing power at a rapid pace.”

“What kind of spells could a troll need cast?” I wondered out loud. I knew my tone was skeptical, but I still wasn’t one hundred percent sure she hadn’t just set me up to do her dirty work for her. I also didn’t want to think about just how a troll might psychically feed off a witch’s power.

“Mostly ones to make him stronger or faster.” Her fingers were never quite still, either pleating the napkin, tapping her leg, or twirling her hair.

I barely saw Silas move, but somehow a plate of Christmas cookies appeared on the bar between us. Silas is in his late sixties, and not very quick. Obviously I was too focused on the girl to have all my wits about me.

“Why did he need to be stronger or faster?” The thought of a super-powered troll was a kind of scary one, even to me.

“He robs businesses. Jewelry stores, electronics.” She repeated it glumly and mechanically, as if she’d said it before, but not been listened to.

“There has been a rash of burglaries lately,” Silas mentioned. He was still in touch with a handful of his old cop buddies. “Ones where whole safes or cabinets have been lifted and removed. A troll would account for that.”

I growled. “So he was holding you captive and forcing you to cast spells for him?”

Silas can be gentle when he wants to be. He pushed the plate of cookies toward her as she nodded. “Do you have any family or friends we can call?”

“Not in this country.” She shook her head, her hand stopping with a cookie halfway to her mouth as her big brown eyes filled up with tears. “I came here to be with my sister, but she was gone when I arrived. Kord met me at the airport and told me she had died.”

“Your sister was also a witch?” I forced back my instinctive urge to get up and hold her. It was still possible this was all just an elaborate act. If it wasn’t though, that meant Kord had probably used up and discarded the sister. There wasn’t really any hope that she was alive.

Another nod.

“And where are you from?” That was Silas again, still speaking in the soft tones I assume he’d have used for his grandkids, if he’d had any.

“Bosnia.”

Yeah, that explained the haunted look I’d seen in her eyes. Shit. I squeezed my eyes shut, but when I opened them she was still there.

“And what made you come here, to my bar?”

“Kord mentioned this place—that other…not-humans came here sometimes.”

“How long?” I asked. “How long have you been living here? And where did you sleep?”

“Since yesterday only,” she said. “I slept in your office, on the couch, then hid in the ladies’ room until you were open again today.”

“Do you need medical attention?” In the back of my head I heard the cleaning crew arrive and start dealing with the corpse of the troll in the other room.

“No. The bruises will heal. And I went to the doctor before I left home for a shot. Kord did not...” she shuddered, swallowed hard. “He could not make me pregnant when he fed.”

Okay that answered the question I hadn’t wanted to ask. Any regret I’d had for ripping the bastard’s head off vanished. I was only pissed that I couldn’t do it again. Judging by the way Silas’s knuckles went white on the bar, he felt the same.

“Well, the first thing we need to do is find you a place to sleep, young lady.” Silas got himself together before I did, and he gave me a sharp look. “We can figure out the rest in the morning.”

“One more thing,” I said. Are you okay legally to be in this country?”

“For a little longer,” she said with a sigh. “I was supposed to find a job—but I haven’t had a chance. I also have no place to stay.”

“There’s that empty room above the bar,” Trent mentioned. He’d know, having used it a time or two himself before he’d found a job.

I nodded my agreement.

“Thank you,” Dita said. “Now I just have to find a job.”

“What do you do?” I asked.

“I was a waitress,” she replied. “I should be able to find work, and a place to stay, and then I can repay you.”

I looked at Silas, who’d quirked one bushy eyebrow in my direction. I tipped my chin a fraction of an inch, but he caught the move. Taking a black apron out from under the bar, he tossed it to Dita.

She looked up at us both, head cocked to the side, her big brown eyes wide. I felt a stirring of interest, just the merest hint of what might someday be, and I saw that spark answered, albeit warily, in her dark gaze. The new year was looking a whole lot more interesting.

I shrugged. “Been needing a new waitress,” I said. “Welcome to Mort’s.”

The clock over the bar chimed midnight, and I looked around at the friends—family really—who were gathered here. I raised my glass. “Happy Christmas,” I toasted, making sure to clink glasses with each and every one.

Dita’s eyes watered as she clinked glasses with me and grinned. “Funny,” she said, choked. “You don’t look a thing like I imagined Father Christmas.”

For your Holiday Reading...(week 3)

2011-12-16T10:08:00.001-05:00

Here's another of my Christmas favorites: Book 1 in my Holiday Hearts series. Just like before, comment below to be entered to win a free download.

Yuletide Enchantment

Cindy Spencer Pape
Available now from Ellora's Cave

The company Christmas party goes awry in an erotic way when quiet accountant Shelby Carter is magically whisked into a miniature Victorian village with the boss’s gorgeous son Noel Holiday. Noel has always honored the policy against fraternization, but when he’s trapped for several days with sweet, sexy Shelby, he knows it’s time to start breaking the rules.

While exploring the enchanted surroundings, they delve into their deepest fantasies, even acting out scenes from a collection of erotic Victorian postcards. After all, what’s Christmas without a little magic and a whole lot of sexy fun?

Though Shelby’s crazy about Noel, she’s sure he’ll forget all about her once their interlude is over. But Noel has fallen head over snow boots in love with Shelby. Now he just has to convince her that holiday wishes can come true, and his devotion will last beyond their Yuletide Enchantment.

Excerpt:

“Who the hell put me in a freaking corset?” she demanded.

“Probably the same sick bastard who gave me this starched collar.” Noel stopped his pacing and turned to face her. “Does this room look familiar to you?”

“No, I’ve never been in here before in my life.” Cautiously, she eased herself around until she was sitting on the green velvet chaise instead of lounging with her feet up. The tight jacket made it hard to move even her arms. “Do you know where we are?”

“I have a suspicion,” he answered. “But it sounds ridiculous. Look around you and tell me what this room reminds you of.”

Once she mastered the shallow breathing required, she stood. Things were still a little fuzzy, but on the table next to her chaise rested a pair of gold-rimmed wire glasses. Maybe those would help. Just for the heck of it, she picked them up and tried them on.

The prescription was perfect. She blinked and studied the room again. “Are those candles on the Christmas tree? Who’d be crazy enough to do that?”

“It was common practice in the late 1800s,” Noel said. “Still is in a few places around the world. Now look. What else do you see?”

“Victorian furniture, gaslights and really gaudy wallpaper.” After holding her hands out and assuring herself that actual heat came from the cracking flames, she crossed to the big bay window that fronted the room and peeked out the curtains. Her breath frosted the glass, which was icy to the touch. “It’s snowing. Snowing!”

“Exactly. I don’t think we’re in Savannah anymore, do you?”

“What? Where?” She whirled around too fast and tripped over her petticoats. Petticoats? What the hell was going on here?

Then she spotted the sampler on the wall across from the window. A cross-stitched sampler. Why had she just been thinking of that? Without planning to, she crossed to it and read it. “Enjoy the Holiday magic and don’t fret. You’ll be home for Christmas Eve.”

The room spun again as she realized that the whole damn place did look awfully familiar.

Noel crossed the room and caught her by the arm to hold her steady. “Figured it out, didn’t you?”

Shelby nodded, looking up into his piercing blue eyes. “Holy cow. We’re in the house, aren’t we? We’ve been shrunk down and stuck in the Christmas village.”

A Peek into 2012

2011-12-14T12:20:00.000-05:00

Here's a first look at the delicious cover for Motor City Mage, coming March 12, 2012 from Carina Press.

And the blurb:

As a cop who keeps paranormals in line, Des has a hard time trusting them. So why does he want the beautiful werewolf Lana more than his next breath? She's mouthy, flamboyant and distractingly sexy—not the type of woman for a reserved mage like him. Lana admires Des, but she can't be with someone who won't take her seriously, no matter how much she'd love to rip off his dress shirt.

When a dangerous new drug shows up in Detroit, Des must locate the source, and Lana is determined to help. But their plan goes awry, trapping them in a demon dimension. To return home, Lana and Des must flee through a series of unpredictable alternate realities, fighting enemies while trying to shut down the drug trade. But if they're going to survive, they'll have to rely on each other, even though getting closer will add fuel to a fire that's already burning out of control...

Stay tuned Friday, when I'll post another Flashback Holiday Favorite.

For your Holiday Reading...(week 2)

2011-12-09T09:39:00.000-05:00

A few years back, I wrote an erotic holiday trilogy with Desiree Holt and Regina Carlysle. We had a few matchmaking Christmas elves in the plotline, and in the end, a fourth story arose, co-written by all 3 of us. So check out Mistletoe Magic, the print anthology, or just my story, Whispers of Magic, available as a stand-alone e-book from Ellora's Cave. again, comment below to be entered to win. And congrats to Jacki C, the winner of last week's book. Jacki, contact me to collect your prize!

Whispers of Magic

By Cindy Spencer Pape

Book 3 of Mistletoe Magic

http://www.jasminejade.com/p-6778-whispers-of-magic.aspx

Blurb: Hoping to get back in Santa’s good graces, Sparkle the elf takes on a difficult assignment—arrange a merry Christmas for photo-journalist Jenna Woodward. Jenna has just lost her parents, her job, and her cheating “fiancé”. Rancher Mitch Sterling doesn’t want his face on a book, but he does want Jenna back in his life. He offers a deal—he’ll sign off, if she agrees to be at his mercy for one day. Jenna left him once because she was afraid of his Dominant lifestyle. Now, with help from a magical snowstorm, Mitch has twenty-four hours of tempestuous passion to convince her that she’ll love being his sub.

Excerpt (ADULT):

Mitch steepled his fingers in front of him and held her gaze with his. “I’ll make you a deal.”

“Deal?” She swallowed hard and her eyes widened even further.

“A deal,” he repeated firmly. “I’ll sign any damn thing you hand me. In return, you have to do something for me.”

She licked her lips. Jenna was no dim blonde. She had to have a good idea of what was coming. She leaned forward and her jacket hung open enough that he could see the rapid rise and fall of her chest, see that her nipples had hardened into points that pressed against the fabric of her shirt.

Oh, God, she wasn’t wearing a bra. His erection throbbed against the fly of his jeans.

“What,” she whispered huskily. “What do I have to do?”

He had to swallow hard to get his own voice to work. “You have to do anything I want. For one day. Give me twenty-four hours to show you what it can be like between us. No holds barred. Then I’ll sign your release and you can walk away—if you still want to.”

He hated the fact that fear crept into those sky-blue eyes, hated knowing he’d put it there. But she had to get past it. He was sure she could. She’d love the things he could do to her in bed. But she had to believe it. He held up both hands, palm out.

“I’ll give you a safe word. Anytime you’re truly uncomfortable, you can call a halt. And if I think you’ve really given it an honest chance, I’ll sign the damn paper anyway. But you still owe me twenty-four hours. That part’s not negotiable. And Jesus, Jenna! Do you really think I’d hurt you?”

She shook her head. “No. But being a sub—it’s scary for me, Mitch. I honestly don’t know if I can do it.”

He cupped her cheek in his palm. “If you can’t—then we won’t. That simple. But you stay with me for the full day. You don’t run away this time. And you damned sure don’t run to another man.”

She squared her shoulders and gave a brave little nod. “Twenty-four hours. I can do that. As long as I can call my sisters and let them know I’m okay.”

“Fair enough.” He checked the clock. “I’ve got to wrap things up out here, so let’s say a half hour. Two o’clock today to two o’clock tomorrow. Do we have a deal?”

She smiled and held out her hand to shake. This time he didn’t ignore her gesture but clasped her trembling fingers in his own. He knew his whole future might be riding on this handshake and he had to swallow the lump in his throat. All his hopes were pinned on the outcome of this gambit.

“Never let it be said that a Woodward girl welshed on a bet,” Jenna said with a twisty grin. “Well, cowboy, you’ve got twenty-four hours to show me your stuff.”

For your Holiday Reading...(week 1)

2011-11-30T12:07:00.001-05:00

I don’t have a new book out for the holidays this year, so between now and the new year, I’m going to feature one of my older holiday stories here each week. This week, you can check out my very first published book, The Cowboy’s Christmas Bride, still on sale from The Wild Rose Press. Comment below to be entered to win a free download.

The Cowboy’s Christmas Bride

Love at the Crazy H, book 1

Available for download and in print from The Wild Rose Press

Buy Link:

Blurb: Running from a wedding gone wrong, Allison finds herself snowbound with a sexy rancher. CJ has been left at the altar once, so he’s leery of getting involved with a runaway bride, while Allison is afraid to love at all. Can the magic of the holidays, and CJ’s big crazy family, help them overcome the past, and make this the best Christmas ever?

Excerpt PG:

If something was genuinely wrong with the woman in his bathroom, he was the only person available to help. Responsibility was a pain in the butt. He tapped politely on the door. “What’s wrong, Ms. Ken—Allison?”

There was a shuffling noise, and the door opened to reveal her standing there, still wearing her bedraggled wedding gown, though it looked somehow deflated. Politeness required him to stifle a chuckle. With her stringy hair and smeared mascara, she bore a striking resemblance to a young Alice Cooper in full makeup. Figuring she wouldn’t appreciate the comparison, he kept his mouth shut.

“I c-can’t get the stupid thing undone!” Two fat tears rolled down her cheeks, and he noticed she was shivering again. When he raised an eyebrow, she turned to reveal a long line of tiny pearl buttons running from the gown’s high neckline to the curve of her butt. A few buttons at the top and a couple more at her waistline were loose, but the rest remained secure. The thing had clearly been designed for a bridegroom to take off slowly, rather than being removed by the wearer.

Gritting his teeth, CJ reached out a hand and rested it steadily on her shoulder. Allison jumped like a skittish colt, but then quieted almost immediately.

“Thank you,” she murmured in a tiny voice as he began to unfasten the damned dinky buttons. There had to be at least thirty of the little suckers, he griped silently, his thick callused fingers slipping off of the damp plastic pearls. He finally got the chance to peel a woman out of her wedding gown, and not only did he not get to sleep with her, but even his hands wouldn’t cooperate. He hoped the fates were laughing their heads off at their great cosmic joke on CJ Hall.

Puzzled

2011-11-28T21:40:00.000-05:00

The blog has been languishing a bit lately, and I'm not quite sure what to do about it. After several years of steady blogging, I find myself with not much of anything to say. In fact, I'm also not sure anyone is listening...that is reading this thing. Are blogs yesterday's news, unless you're reviewing or providing an information service? Anyone who has an opinion, I'd be more than happy to hear what you have to say!

Another blog, another contest

2011-11-23T10:45:00.000-05:00

Today I'm at Authors By Moonlight, and giving away a free download of Wrong Side of Town. Stop by and leave a comment if you get the chance.

Gearing Up for Turkey Day!

2011-11-21T09:03:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year again--amazing how quickly this one has flown by. I'm in a couple of different places this week, and giving a few gifts, so stop by if you get the chance! Today I'm part of the Thanksgiving Buffet of Writers on Shawna Thomas's blog, so please stop by and say hello!

At RBRU today

2011-11-13T12:26:00.000-05:00

Today's the 13th, so I'm over at the RBRU blog, again talking about veterans, but this time the fictional variety. Hope you'll stop by and say hello!

Honoring Those Who Served

2011-11-11T00:12:00.004-05:00

Today is Veteran's Day, or Remembrance Day, or Armistice Day, or AnZac Day or something similar in much of the English-speaking world. I have a few veterans in my own family, and I keep looking for a red poppy to wear, as I was taught as a child. You can't find them any more, but I've made sure to explain to my kids why I tried. There's a haunting song called "The Green Fields of France," covered beautifully by the punk rock group Dropkick Murphy's which pretty much did the trick. If you're of a mind, you can find it here.

My family's service history is a rather strange one. In my grandfather's generation, he and several brothers served in World War I--as did so many men of their age. But how they came to it... well, therein hangs a tale. You see all of the brothers had gone to sea with their father. (My family is from a small fishing village in Newfoundland.) The ship actually sank, but all hands were rescued and returned home, including my great grandfather, my grandfather, and all my great uncles, except for the youngest who'd still been at home. My great grandmother declared that never again would so many of her sons be in danger at once. So of course they all left the sea and joined the army. Right before World War I. And remember, this was when Newfoundland wasn't part of Canada, but a Crown Colony of Great Britain. And Britain had a great history of using its colonial regiments for front line...errrrr...cannon fodder. And yet, they all came home. Every single one of them lived into his eighties.

My grandfather, Mark Spencer, never even saw Europe. He DID see death and destruction. He was stationed on the guns guarding the harbor at Halifax, Nova Scotia. The war came to Halifax Dec. 6. 1917, when a ship in the town's harbor exploded with drums of fuel and a hold full of munitions. It took a good bit of the town, business, homes, and families with it. My grandfather was a few miles away at the look out post, but he saw the explosion. And he had to help clean up afterwards. Yes, he saw a lot of death that week. It was the biggest man-made explosion ever, prior to Hiroshima. (more on that, here) My great-uncle Billy was a battlefield medic in France and Belgium. The horrors he saw there stayed with him the rest of his life.

As a young adult in the 1920s with a couple of kids and a wife, Mark moved to Detroit and got a job at Henry Ford's revolutionary factory. Their third, fourth, fifth, and sixth children were born in the United States, but in 1932, when the Depression caused massive layoffs, they moved home to Newfoundland, (where kids 7 and 8 were born.) So my father, Phil, number four, was legally a US citizen, born in Royal Oak Michigan in 1924, but raised mostly in Fortune, the town his ancestors had lived in for over a century. In 1942, he turned 18 and enlisted in the second World War. His older brothers, Bill and Jack had gone a year earlier, Bill into the Canadian Air Force (or what became the air force) and Jack into the Royal Navy. Jack was sent to the Mediterranean on a mine sweeper. I'm not sure where Bill went. I need to ask my dad about that.

But my dad ran into a cousin in town who told him that the American Army, which maintained a base in St. Johns, as Newfoundland is the nearest point of North America to Europe, paid a whole $5.00 a week more than anyone else. My father is a thrifty soul. Having been born in Michigan, he was able to claim American citizenship, and that extra $5.00 per week. They trained him some there, then shipped him to Virginia for the rest of his training. As it turned out, the laws then said that once a soldier had done an overseas tour, they couldn't be sent again, without an act of Congress. So Phil Spencer served out the entire war in Virginia. But he did risk his life for the Allies. They had him testing munitions. Nothing like a 5'4" (in his boots) elf with a boatload of dynamite. So my grandmother had 3 sons in the war. One in the Canadian Air Force. One in the British Navy, and one in the American Army. Not something many mothers could say. And again, they all came home. My uncle Bill died in his mid-eighties. Dad and Jack are still going strong at 87 & 88.

During the Viet Nam years, both of my brothers received their draft notices. Mark was married and had a baby on the way, so he was excused. Wayne enlisted in the Naval Reserves. He became an airplane mechanic but was never called up. He died years later as the result of a drunk driver, but again, not in combat. My husband was fresh out of the Army when I met him. His reserve stint ended about a month before the first Gulf War. (whew!) So you see, I have definitely been raised to honor and respect those who serve. My eldest is 4F, to his eternal disappointment. (Mine, maybe not so much--I am a mother, after all.) My youngest is still pondering the possibility. I'll support him in whatever he decides, no matter how much it kills me to do so.

So here's my poppy for the day--for my grandfather, father, brother, husband, perhaps one day my son--and all the others. Thank you.

Top Pick of the Month at Miz Love and Crew Love Books!

2011-11-10T08:05:00.000-05:00

YAY! I'm so excited about this. Thanks so very much to everyone who voted!

Steampunk: Because it's cool, that's why!

2011-11-07T06:20:00.028-05:00

Please welcome a very special guest today, wonderful author and a close friend of mine, Steven Harper. He's talking about his great new steampunk series, The Clockwork Empire.

Today I was teaching a grammar lesson to my sixth hour. I wrote a number of examples with a stylus on my SmartBoard, which is connected to a computer. I also wore a wireless headset that recorded everything I said while I taught. The computer synched what I wrote with what I said, converted it into a digital movie file, and automatically uploaded it to a public web site so that students who were absent could see and hear the lesson at their leisure from their home computers.

I've come a long way from the colored chalk I used my first year of teaching.

We live in a science fiction novel. So why do we hearken back to the nineteenth century, with its smoke and steam and brass?

Because it's cool, that's why.

Steampunk gets to do big, flashy stuff. Huge dirigibles coast through the sky like whales and get attacked by cutlass-wielding pirates. Mad scientists create inventions that snap and crackle and make you want to shout, "Igor, I need more power!" Women in big dresses pull hidden weapons from their hoops and knock the bad guys flat. Mechanical elephants stomp and brass spiders skitter. The smell of gunpowder! The clash of swords! Thrills! Chills!

Seriously, where can you find better?

I wrote my first steampunk piece for an anthology called THE SHADOW CONSPIRACY (which you can find at http://www.bookviewcafe.com) "The Soul Jar" concerns a mad scientist with a mind-transfer device set in a steampunk circus. And the assistant ringmaster has a very strange relationship with one of the performers. It was so much fun that I couldn't bear to stop, so I wrote THE DOOMSDAY VAULT.

I felt like I'd come home.

Steampunk is big and it's mythological and it's earth-shaking even when it's down-to-earth and gritty. And above all, it's cool.

I put Gavin Ennock on an airship because it was cool. I had Alice Michaels encounter zombies on the way to a ball because it was cool. I gave my air pirates glass cutlasses and my mad scientist a death ray because . . .

Well, you get the idea.

The story is there, too. You can't hang a book on a bunch of cool images. But it's all fun to write, and it's fun to read.

It's the genre where the cool kids hang out.

* * * * *

Steven Harper usually lives at http://www.theclockworkempire.com and http://spiziks.livejournal.com . His steampunk novel THE DOOMSDAY VAULT, first in the Clockwork Empire series, hits the stores in print and electronic format November 1.

Guest: Natalie Acres!

2011-11-05T21:46:00.002-04:00

Please welcome my special guest today, author Natalie Acres. There's a great excerpt and a contest below, so keep reading!

The Interview:

CSP: Natalie, your new book, Cowboy Boots and Unsettled Debts comes out Monday from Siren Bookstrand. Can you tell us a little about this series and where we can find more of your work?

NA: Cowboy Boots and Untamed Hearts kicked off the Cowboy Boots series in April of 2009. Inspired by the beautiful Abingdon, Virginia area, the book gained support from local readers which was a pleasant surprise since Cowboy Boots and Untamed Hearts was one of the first ménage books with more than three heroes.

The novel captured the #1 spot at Siren-Bookstrand and became the #1 bestselling erotica and western title at Amazon. My books are found at Siren-Bookstrand, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other third party retail sites.

CSP: Wow, that’s a gutsy move! Congratulations on the success. Are there more sequels coming in the Cowboy Boots series?

NA: Cowboy Boots and Undesirable Characters is nearly completed and will be submitted for consideration soon. Heroes from other books typically make an appearance in the sequels.

CSP: Tell us how you came up with the idea for Cowboy Boots and Unsettled Debts:

NA: Right before I started writing Cowboy Boots and Untamed Hearts, I watched a special on the bunker at The Greenbrier. Later, the bunkers triggered the concept for the Underground Unit, which is a team of special agents, operating from private farms and homesteads around the country. These large parcels of land have tunnels and bunkers which are great props for racy scenes!

CSP: What sets Cowboy Boots and Unsettled Debts apart from others? Is it the mix of genres?

NA: I’m an avid reader of romantic suspense and enjoy fast-paced novels. When I started the series, I decided to write something I’d like to read. The Cowboy Boots books have a lot of action and steamy romance scenes to boot! Additionally, there are seven heroes. Bridled and Bucked, book three in the Bridled series, included numerous heroes as well. However, the Cowboy Boots series stands out, I believe, because of the action and suspense.

CSP: Tell us about yourself. Do you have a day job? Kids?

NA: I’m a full-time writer from East Tennessee writing under numerous pen names. My son is serving in the United States Navy. He’s currently based in Connecticut. My daughter is a senior in high school and hopes to play volleyball in college next year. We have several additional family members as well, teenagers who came to live with us when they didn’t have anywhere else to go. We’ve more or less kept that open-door policy since we’re in an area where drugs are rampant. Kids are losing their parents to meth and other drugs, not the other way around. When they have nowhere else to go, they end up here. Writing allowed me the opportunity to stay home and remain available. It’s the best career in the world.

CSP: When you’re not writing, what do you like to read?

NA: Right now, my favorite genre is suspense and western romance. However, I read a little bit of everything.

CSP:Where can readers find you on the web?

NA: Here are some of my links:

http://www.bookstrand.com/natalie-acres

http://www.facebook.com/NatalieAcresAuthor

email: natalieacres@yahoo.com

CSP: What else would you like your reader to know about you and your books?

NA: It’s difficult to choose which book to start as soon as one ends so I listen to my readers. If there’s a book they want to read, a series they want to see continue, I encourage them to write and tell me what they want. Majority rules…most of the time. *Smiles*

CSP: (Smiles back. I love talking to Natalie!) Are you running a contest you’d like our readers to know about?

NA: I am. Leave a comment below and you’ll be registered to win a free download for Cowboy Boots and Untamed Hearts, Book One in the Cowboy Boots series.

CSP: Cool! Thanks so much for coming by today Natalie! It was great talking to you!

NA: Thank you for the interview and for sharing your blog today, Cindy. I’m a fan of your work and honored to be here with you today.

*Cindy blushes.* Come on, let's talk about the book!

About the Book:

Cowboy Boots and Unsettled Debts

Western Romantic Suspense (MFMMMMMMM)

by Natalie Acres

Coming Monday, November 7, 2011

From Siren Bookstrand

Blurb:
Seduction turns deadly when Abby Rose, an agent with the Underground Unit, decides to put a provocative spin on revenge. Her plan to sleep with a cartel leader backfires when fellow operatives refuse Abby the opportunity to face her enemy alone.

Abby’s fellow agents begin the fight of their lives. After discovering Abby will use her body to lure the man who killed her father and their command leader, seven highly trained operatives cope with high tensions.
This team isn’t fighting for another cause or plotting the best way to take out their mark. The stakes are much higher. These men will take up arms and meet their greatest challenge as they work together to protect the woman they admire and love.

Excerpt: Rated R for content and language

Ace snarled. “I will spank her when this is over.”

“Sure you will,” Casey said. “About like Porter plans to put a dildo in her pussy and paddle her twat.”

“I never said that,” Porter said, keeping a keen eye on Abby.

“Talk about that kiss and I’ll deck you,” Ace said.

“Damn, those lips were sweet,” Porter teased.

Ace faced him. “I wasn’t kidding.”

Porter took a deep breath. Sometimes Ace’s attitude was a real obstacle. He was a smart-ass SOB when he wanted to be. Standing about six foot four, Ace was nothing more than layers of muscle. The only soft spot the man possessed was the one Porter held in high regard, too—Abby Rose.

“I say we take him out right here,” Casey said, always ready to jump the gun.

Casey looked like a kid, and very often Porter reminded himself Casey wasn’t a child, hard to do since the guy looked like a surfer boy of about eighteen. Only a year separated them. Porter was twenty-nine. Casey followed only a year behind.

Still, Casey was a trained killer just like the lot of them. Under normal daily circumstances, he was such a klutz and a clown, but when he aimed his gun and pulled the trigger, no one had a more accurate shot.

Fowler folded his hands atop the table. “I’m ready for this to be over.”

“What’s wrong, Fowler,” Ace taunted him. “Afraid Juraz is gonna tap that?”

“He won’t be a-tappin’ that. I’ll promise ya.”

Porter and Ace exchanged a knowing stare. Porter shook his head in warning. It wasn’t worth the argument. They all recognized the possible scenarios. The best they could hope for was the most favorable. If Abby went to bed with Juraz, they wanted her to kill him before she was forced to fuck him.

Unfortunately, they needed information from Juraz before she pulled the trigger. And he probably wouldn’t open his mouth unless she first opened those long, shapely legs.

http://www.bookstrand.com/cowboy-boots-and-unsettled-debts

The Delightful Liz Crowe!

2011-11-03T21:57:00.000-04:00

Please welcome my fabulous guest author Liz Crowe!

Microbrewery owner, beer blogger and journalist, mom of three teenagers, and soccer fan, Liz lives in the great middle west, in a Major College Town. Years of experience in sales and fund raising, plus an eight-year stint as an ex-pat trailing spouse plus making her way in a world of men (i.e. the beer industry) has prepped her for life as erotic romance author. When she isn't sweating beer inventory, sales figures or promotional efforts for her latest publication, doing pounds of laundry for her sweaty athletic children, watching La Liga on the Fox Soccer Channel, or trying to figure out what to order in for dinner, she can be found walking her standard poodles or doing Bikram Yoga. Liz loves her Foo Fighters Pandora station, and watching reruns of Deadwood, when there isn't any decent European football on the telly. If you want a beer education follow her: www.a2beerwench.com. For writing related stuff, including her backlist, go to: www.brewingpassion.com.

Liz’s Links

www.lizcrowe.com

www.brewingpassion.com (blog)

www.a2beerwench.com (beer blog)

www.facebook.com/lizcroweauthor

twitter: beerwencha2

Google+: Liz Crowe

Linked IN: E.T. Crowe

The Interview

1) Tell us more about the Turkish Delights series. Which other character will be getting his/her own story?

Turkish Delights is the first of a trilogy, focusing on a Turkish family. Emre (the hero of the first story) is a smart, eager young man who has fallen in love with an older American woman. His twin brother, Tarkan’s story follows in Blue Cruise—be prepared to use up a few tissues on that one. Their sister Lale (Pronounced “Lah-lay” which means “beautiful tulip” in Turkish) has the last story.

I have submitted a prequel, telling the story of their parents: a boot strapped millionaire Turk who falls in love with an American diplomat’s daughter.

The characters reappear a lot in each story and I am already anticipating some future stories….

2) Tell us how you came up with the idea for this series:

I lived in Istanbul for 2 years and absolutely fell madly in love with it. It was easily the most beautiful, frustrating, exhilarating, maddening, exciting and aggravating places on the planet. When I began thinking of a 1NightStand concept (wherein the magical Madam Evangeline sets up mystery dream dates for her clients—one of Decadent’s Most popular series) I just had to set it there.

3) What was your favorite part about writing Turkish Delights?

Thinking of ways to bring the magic of Istanbul and the beauty of the Turkish people who live there to life. That, and the relationships between the siblings and the people they love. Oh, yeah, and writing my FIRST m/m love story! Fun!

4) Tell us about yourself. Do you have a day job? Kids? When & where do you like to write and how do you fit your writing in?

Day job? Ha! When does it all end? I own a craft microbrewery and have 2 teenaged daughters at home (a son in college).

I write whenever I can sneak it in and I’m not distracted by the pretty shiny things like facebook and twitter!

About the Books:

Turkish Delights Trilogy

by: Liz Crowe

Turkish Delights (11/4)

Blue Cruise (11/8)

Tulip Princess (11/18)

Contemporary Erotic Romances from Decadent Publishing

TURKISH DELIGHTS

Blurb:

The fifteen year age difference between Elle Kensington, ex-patriat American executive and Emre Demir, son of Istanbul's most successful businessmen, has not kept them from becoming fast friends as they tour Istanbul together. But the time has come for him to return to the U.S. to finish his master's degree and she has just been named CEO of the pharmaceutical company that brought her to Turkey in the first place. Elle adores her adopted country, and is alarmed to find herself falling in love with the young man who's been her impromptu guide for the last few months.

But she knows they can never be. She will return home to California within a month, leaving behind all she loves about the ancient city. In a rare fit of spontaneity, Elle has contracted with Madame Eve's OneNightStand dating service to hopefully find a way to forget the dark, handsome young man who has captured her heart. Little does she know what awaits her in the ancient recesses of the Ottoman palace turned luxury hotel under the hands of her one night stand masseur.

Rated PG Excerpt:

“I miss you already,” Emre said, with his usual candor. “I can’t believe I just met you and now we must part.” He finished his tea and signaled the waiter for another. Before she could lean back, he reached over the tiny table and captured her hand, putting it to his mouth. Elle’s entire body zinged. His lips were gentle, soft but with a firmness that spoke of his potential talents with them. Exactly as she thought they would be, even if only pressed to her hand. She bit her lip, no longer caring what the gawkers around them thought, as she pressed her thighs together to ease the ache building between them.

“I know.” Her voice was a whisper. “It’s been…nice getting to know you.” Lame, her brain screamed. Just kiss him, for crying out loud. You are the newly-named CEO of a major pharmaceutical company. You eat fear for breakfast. What the hell is your problem?

She stood, pulling up her bag. Emre remained seated, staring at her.

“I’m not what you think,” he said, as he stretched long legs out in front of him.

Her face flushed with anger. Good. Now I’m on familiar ground. Mad at a man for assuming things about what I think.

“Just what do I think, if you don’t mind sharing.” She used her coolest-cucumber voice, and it pleased her to see the young man frown. Anger she could cope with. Besotted was beyond her, especially since she felt the same damn way about this boy nearly fifteen years her junior.

“Never mind.” He stood, towering over her even as she stood in her highest heels. “Let’s not fight. It’s our last day together, no?”

The urge to run a finger down his strong, stubbled jaw was intense. She clenched her hands together so hard they hurt. He put a familiar arm around her shoulder, nearly bringing her to her knees with lust. The smell of his subtle cologne, mixed with the exotic manliness she’d come to associate with him in his element at his grandfather’s spice booth nearly sent her over the edge. She shut her eyes, leaning into his strong torso ever so slightly. Was it her imagination, or did he flinch? She drew away, ashamed at herself.

“I should get back,” Gesturing in the general vicinity of where her car and driver waited, she gasped when Emre held her close then dropped to one knee right onto the cobblestones. Embarrassment and excitement fought for her brain. He took her hand, kissed it, held it to his heart.

“You are the most amazing woman in the universe. It has been my honor to know you. I wish….” He blinked, and she used the opportunity to pull her hand away. “I just wish we’d known each other sooner.”

It was Elle’s turn to blink. Realization rushed through her, heating her face. He knows damn good and well I’m a dried up specimen, too focused on my career to find and keep a man or sustain any relationship beyond the office. Fists clenched at her sides, she tried to calm her breathing.

You are a fool, Ellery Kensington. He knows you’re a horny old lady. And he might oblige you between the sheets, but get the foolish romantic bullshit about spiriting him back to the States with you out of your head. That’s patent nonsense and you should know better.

Finished with her self-lecture, she squared her shoulders and leaned in to press her lips to his jaw. Closing her eyes against the chemical reaction she had to him, she stepped away quickly.

BLUE CRUISE

Blurb:

Caleb and Tarkan were an odd couple, men from two different cultures, but so in love they were determined to overcome any obstacles. Fate had different plans. Two years after tragedy strikes, Caleb is still a hollow shell of himself, alone and miserable.

Adem Broussard is happy enough, as owner and chef of his restaurant on the Turkish southern coast. But a tall, American Adonis he saw once, years ago on a Turkish Blue Cruise haunts his most erotic dreams and he hopes contracting with Madame Eve's 1NightStand service for an unconventional date will help him forget.

When Caleb caves in to his friend Elle's insistence that he return to Turkey and exorcise some of the demons that haunt him, he reluctantly climbs on board a private yacht for a special 1NightStand Blue Cruise. There he comes face to face with the man who remembers him well, and wants to help him heal.

EXCERPT:

Caleb finished his two hour workout by nine PM. and was sitting at the coffee bar, nursing an espresso when he locked eyes with one of the most attractive creatures on the planet. He’d seen the guy before. They worked out at about the same time most days, exchanging polite nods and “excuse me’s” as they completed a long weight circuit. He’d started looking forward to what he considered Extreme Turkish Eye Candy, of the straight variety it seemed, as the man was never without some equally gorgeous female hanging on his every word.

He sighed and sipped, relishing the ache in his muscles from the workout. After two and a half years in Istanbul and intense language lessons paid for by the company he had a good grip on the conversations swirling around him. He caught his fair share of “beautiful yellow hair American” and “sexy boy” from the ladies and smiled at them, for shits and giggles aware of his affect, while completely unaffected by them. But he was there now--the man Caleb had been admiring for weeks. And he was sitting near enough that Caleb could feel the heat of his skin and smell the shampoo in his damp hair. His skin prickled and he looked away.

“Merhaba”

Caleb swallowed and answered back, in Turkish. They shared introductions and a few pleasantries until the conversation got more complex than he could handle. The beautiful man’s accent when they switched to English rang in Caleb’s ears like a symphony. He gave himself a shake. Don’t be a sap. He’s straight, remember?

“You are here every night, like me.”

“Yes, my office is around the corner and it’s an easy stop before going home.”

Caleb was mesmerized by the other man’s full lips and the extreme white of his teeth as he struck up conversations with every female who stopped by. They kept touching him, his hair, shoulders, arms. Caleb resisted a sigh of regret. “So,” Tarkan finally returned his focus to him. “I have a boat. Do you like boats?”

“Uh...sure.” Caleb looked around, suddenly nervous. He’d been warned to keep his sexuality under wraps in this conservative country. He’d found some pretty high end gay bars, and discovered the same men there every time he went. But he’d remained celibate for going on three years, unwilling to engage with anyone there, in spite of several extremely tempting occasions. His cock punched hard against the zipper of his jeans. It hurt like a bitch, but he shifted and smiled at his new friend. “I, um, love boats.”

“Okay, Caleb, I’m having a party this weekend on mine. Leaving from the Asian side, this dock.” He flipped a business card onto the bar between them.

Tarkan Deniz

Broker, Chase Manhattan Bank, Istanbul.

On the back he’d written a phone number and address. Caleb frowned into Tarkan’s dark chocolate gaze. Nothing in it spoke of intimacy closer than a couple of buddies on a boat likely full of women and booze. He sighed and stuck out his hand. The electric spark that passed between the two men made them both blink. “Pleased to meet you Tarkan. I’ll let you know about this weekend. I have to check my schedule.” Caleb’s schedule was full of work, exercise, work, exercise with an occasional injection of more work. He knew he’d be going, if for no other reason than to watch Tarkan do whatever one did when one “had a boat.”

The next night he dashed into the exclusive twentieth floor gym, gutted out seven miles on the treadmill and tried not to stare too obviously around for the other man’s dark face and body. After he’d toweled off and made his way toward the elaborate weight machines, he’d given up. The guy must not be coming tonight. It was Friday. He probably actually had a social life. After about an hour of arm work, Caleb prepared to call it quits. His boss had dumped a huge project on him and he knew he could get a head start tonight, if he went home now. A familiar laugh made him stop dead in his tracks. He whipped his head around, catching the spectacular rear view of the tall, broad shouldered, dark skinned Turk that was the star of his recent lonely fantasies. He took a deep breath and walked toward him.

The man was flirting with some women, as usual, as they lay draped around the weight benches, mouths open with eagerness. He didn’t blame them. The guy was a vision. He could be a model. He touched Tarkan’s shoulder. The mega watt smile and deep mocha eyes caught Caleb off guard. He grinned.

“I’ll go,” he said simply, running a hand through his damp hair. The other man raised an eyebrow, as if questioning him. “I mean, I’ll join you. You know, on the boat. Sunday? Like we, ah, discussed?” He started to doubt his sanity. The guy looked positively confused. Then he nodded.

“Ah, yes, you must be Caleb.”

“Uh, yeah. We met, remember?” The other man’s musical laughter pealed out into the room, drawing attention to their conversation. He slapped a large hand on Caleb’s shoulder.

“You are looking for my brother. Tarkan?”

It was Caleb’s turn to be open mouthed. There were two of them?

Another Votey Thing

2011-11-02T22:46:00.002-04:00

Steam and Sorcery is up for book of the month at Miz and Crew Love Books against some impossibly awesome competition. If you can spare a moment to vote (for me, or one of the others, believe me, I’ll understand—though it would be nice to end up with some votes.) that would be great. The link is http://www.mizlovelovesbooks.com/

Big Day!

2011-11-02T10:39:00.001-04:00

Today’s a big day for me: my son Tristan’s 19^th birthday. I just found out Carina Press has accepted Kilts and Kraken, a novella in my Gaslight Chronicles series for a June 2012 anthology. And Wrong Side of Town debuts at Resplendence Publishing. I’m also at Destiny Blaine’s blog giving away a free download, so stop by and comment!

Wrong Side of Town

By Cindy Spencer Pape

From Resplendence Publishing

http://bit.ly/tZEjV5

Blurb:

Zach Shannon is back in town, and tiny Hawthorne , Texas will never be the same. When the local military hero comes home and starts working for his father, the sheriff, one of his first cases is a string of minor fires that everyone seems to blame on a handful of teens from the wrong side of town. Even worse, Zach is rapidly falling for Laney Burroughs, a quiet librarian whose Goth nephew is the suspected ringleader. Their attraction deepens but both have too many responsibilities and too much baggage to make it easy, especially with Zach’s wealthy family, Laney’s nephew, and the entire town looking on.

Excerpt: PG-13

Laney had no idea how long she’d been sitting there on her rocking chair when she heard a car in her driveway. It wasn’t dark yet—that was something, she supposed. She’d waited with Josie until Zach had called and told them the boys were well and truly alibied for the time of the fire. Josie had made some calls and determined it was Lester Greene’s garage that had been scorched. Of course, that jerk had fingered Parker and Jacob. Hell, Laney wouldn’t put it past him to have set the fire himself, just to frame the boys.

Booted footsteps marched up to her front door, and someone knocked on the screen—she hadn’t bothered to shut the regular door, since the night was cool and the breeze felt nice. “Laney, you okay in there?”

Zach. Ohmigod, it’s Zach. Was he here on business or pleasure this time? She jumped up from the chair and hurried to the door. Zach stood there, lines of concern on his handsome face and a bunch of half-wilted yellow tulips in his hand. He wore the same shirt and jeans as before but had shed his blazer and cowboy hat.

“I’m sorry I’m late,” he began as she opened the door. “I wanted to make sure I filed all the reports, so Dawkins couldn’t sneak something into them.”

“Thank you.” Tears filled her eyes at his thoughtfulness. “You believe, then, that Parker didn’t have anything to do with this?”

“There are plenty of witnesses to the fact that he and his friend Jacob were in a booth at the Dine-n-Dash, wolfing down burgers at the time the fire was started. There’s no way even a bully like Dawkins can pin this one on him.” He handed her the flowers with a wry smile. “Leo’s was closed when I was done; these are from the grocery store.” Leo’s was the town’s one and only florist-slash-gift shop.

“Thank you.” She sniffed back a tear. “They’re beautiful. And I really appreciate you coming to let me know.”

“Why don’t we get those in some water?” Seeming to understand that she was too stunned to know what she was doing, he steered her through the archway to her kitchen. “Then we can go get something to eat. I don’t know about you, but I’m starved.”

“D-dinner?” She reached into a cabinet for a vase—the green glass piece had been one of her mother’s favorites. Carefully, she filled it with water while Zach unwrapped the bundle of flowers. “I didn’t think you’d want… That is everyone will see you with me… I don’t want you to get in trouble.”

“I’m a big boy, Laney. I’m allowed to date anyone I want. Even if a couple idiots seem to have a grudge against her nephew.” He handed over the flowers and watched while she trimmed the stems in the sink. “I’d like to get to know you better. We’re both single and over twenty-one. There’s nothing wrong with us sharing a meal.”

How was she supposed to respond to that? She arranged the stems in the vase then set them in the center of the small, maple table.

“You might need some shoes, though those pink toenails are awfully cute.”

He thought her toes were cute? She felt her face heat. Reluctantly, though, she shook her head. “I’m sorry, Zach. I’m just not up to facing the stares tonight, or the pitying looks, or the whispering. I’d really love to go out with you sometime, but not…not tonight.”

He shrugged and gave her an easy smile. “Okay. So we’ll eat in. You want me to run back to the grocery store for some steaks or something?”

Suddenly staying in with Zach seemed more dangerous than going out—though that thought sent a thrill along her spine and made her core tingle in anticipation. She squeezed her eyes shut for a minute, got her breathing under control then smiled up at him. “Is the offer still good for going out of town? I know it’s late, but we could get to Midland in an hour or so.”

“Sounds good to me.” He reached up a hand and cupped her cheek. “Whatever you’re most comfortable with.”

Oh, lord, just that slight touch, and her bones wanted to melt. They had to get out of here, and fast, before he had her flat on her back. “Let me get my shoes and purse.”

It's November Already!

2011-11-01T09:07:00.000-04:00

And yikes, where did the year go? I've got lots of writing to get done before the holiday rush, so back to work! have a great month!

Have a wonderful day!

2011-10-30T16:31:00.000-04:00

Halloween or Samhain, Hope it's Great!

d12 cuteness attack

2011-10-28T11:04:00.001-04:00

Okay, those of you who play geeky role-playing games will know what I mean. Others will simply have to witness the cuteness and get the context.

If you've ever read this blog, you've met Tyr, the 2 year-old St.Bernard/Rottweiler mix. This is his new friend Loki, (10 weeks) who followed Tristan home. We know Loki's mom was golden retriever--no guesses on dad. Somehow I think even if we could convince Tristan to give up the puppy, Tyr would NOT be pleased!

Another Chance to Win

2011-10-24T12:15:00.000-04:00

I'm visiting author JD Revezza's blog today with another chance to win a copy of All Hallow's Evie. Stop by and comment if you get a chance!

All Hallow's Evie Out--and another chance to win

2011-10-21T11:13:00.000-04:00

It's time to start gearing up for Halloween! Out today from Ellora's Cave: All Hallow's Evie. For another chance to win, stop by the Here be Magic blog and say hello.

All Hallow's Evie

By: Cindy Spencer Pape
(Read Excerpt)

(For More Info, Click here.)

Holiday Hearts, Book Five

When Sam Holiday moves into his Victorian home the week before his thirty-fifth birthday, the last thing he expects is to find a ghost in residence. Especially a horny one.

Evie Bonnell has been hanging around since her death in 1916 because she has unfinished business. She died before experiencing sex. She’s learned a lot over the years and has decided single, handsome Sam is the right man to do the job.

Every year she manifests for several days before Halloween, and when she asks, Sam agrees to help. Each night, he teaches her a little more about sensual pleasure. Sam’s delighted that his demure ghost has turned into an eager hedonist, but not so happy that she’ll be gone after Halloween. Not only is she the hottest woman he’s ever had, but he’s afraid he’s fallen in love.

Now it’s up to fate and the Holiday family magic to find a way for the lovers to stay together.

The Blog Tour Begins

2011-10-20T09:48:00.000-04:00

Today I start a mini blog tour in honor of tomorrow's release of All Hallow's Evie from Ellora's Cave. Join me today at Katie Reus's Monster Mash-up Party! Of course there are prizes!

Happy Birthday, Chandler!

2011-10-19T07:45:00.000-04:00

Hard to believe I'm old enough to have a 20 year old kid, but there you are. Happy birthday, Chandler. Though you might be surprised to know it, your parents are actually proud of you!

Massive Multi-Author Halloween Contest!

2011-10-17T07:25:00.001-04:00

Go Trick or Treating with your Favorite Authors!

Want to have lots of fun and play for a chance at an iPad and tons of goodies? Join me and a dozen other talented paranormal authors (lucky 13!) at Sam Cheever’s fifth annual Trick or Treating Bash on a street near you! Some of your favorite paranormal authors live on Sam’s street, and they will be waiting by the door with tricks and treats for you. The lucky winner gets a Halloween Bag with an iPad in it, books, t-shirts, candy, and other wonderful prizes from the authors who live on Sam’s street. There will also be a bonus prize for one lucky winner from AuthorIsland.com!

To play, visit Sam’s Halloween Contest page at http://www.samcheever.com/Halloween_Contest_2011.html from October 15^th through October 31^st for instructions and to get started. If you have trouble with the above link, you can access the contest through Sam’s Contest page on her website: www.samcheever.com or through my website.

Only one trip down the street per contestant and you must be at least 18 to play!

Come and join the fun and play for a chance to win an iPad and a bag of goodies. You might be surprised to learn who lives on Sam’s street!

Big Sale at Carina Press!

2011-10-14T11:01:00.000-04:00

In honor of the New York Comicon this weekend, ALL Carina Press titles (including mine, of course!) are 40% off, with the coupon code NYCOMICON. Don't miss out. Hop over to Carina Press now and shop!

Blogging Away from Home

2011-10-13T20:52:00.002-04:00

I'm at RBRU today, talking about pets. Stop by if you get the chance.

And another shiny new cover!

2011-10-08T23:29:00.000-04:00

"Wrong Side of Town," coming Nov. 2, from Resplendence Publishing.

Isn't it Pretty?

2011-10-06T10:07:00.000-04:00

So here's the cover for All Hallow's Evie, coming Oct. 21 from Ellora's Cave. Book 5 in the Holiday Hearts series.

Welcome to Fall

2011-10-02T21:26:00.001-04:00

Yes, I know the official beginning of autumn was a while ago, but we had our first real autumn weather this weekend. October has arrived! Lots of goodness coming this month: a new release from Ellora's Cave on Oct. 21 (All Hallow's Evie, the 5th and final Holiday Hearts story), Sam Cheever's annual Halloween Scavenger Hunt, and a month long party on Katie Reus's blog. Hard squash, tart apples and more oven-cooked goodness, yum. We also have birthdays in my family this month, my older son and my older brother. So much fun will be had, topped, of course, by Halloween.

So happy October to all! More details coming later.

Pouting a Little

2011-09-30T07:09:00.000-04:00

and missing everyone who's having a blast at Romanticon this weekend, while I'm home with a miserable cold. Hug each other for me! (I'm still hoping to make it down to the hotel bar for lunch tomorrow, so if you're there and you get a chance, pop in and say "hello."

Time to Let Go

2011-09-27T14:38:00.000-04:00

The hardest part about having pets is that most of them don't live as long as we do. I was lucky to have Grendel, a St. Bernard, German shepherd, and probably coyote mix, for 16 years. We bought her when my boys were little, a big, sturdy pet they would be able to roughhouse with. Though she loved to play with them, she was always mostly my dog, never more than a few yards away from my feet, and was with my all through my journey as a writer.

Until today.

She'd been having trouble for a while, and then this weekend she took a sharp downward turn, so today was that final, awful visit to the vet. Goodbye, my friend. You will be missed.

Whoot! Epic Finalists Announced

2011-09-25T17:22:00.002-04:00

I am so thrilled to have TWO finalists in this year's EPIC e-book Awards: Steam & Sorcery (Carina) in Science Fiction Romance and Eagle’s Redemption (Ellora’s Cave) in novella. I'm up against some very stiff competition so it's going to be a long, nervous six months until they announce the winners in March. For the complete list, see http://www.epicorg.com/index.php.

Still at It

2011-09-20T08:12:00.000-04:00

Editing. Necessary, but not my favorite thing. Anyway, I'm still here plugging away, if you don't hear from me for a couple days.

A couple great reviews

2011-09-16T13:27:00.000-04:00

I received a couple of great reviews this week for books new and quite old. Both are very nice to get!

Night Owl Reviews gave Motor City Wolf 5/5 and a Top Pick. The reviewer said, "I absolutely loved this book and this series. The characters just come alive and wrap you up in their problems, their dilemmas and their loves.". You can read the rest here.

And taking a trip through the Way-Back Machine, Vampire Books gave 5/5 Bats to Curses, one of my very first published books. The reviewer called it,"A fantastic read with a wonderful plot and enjoyable characters. This book will most defiantly be added to my re-read book list." Click here to see this new review for an older book.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

2011-09-15T11:49:00.000-04:00

Today is my father, Phil Spencer's 87th birthday. This was taken a couple weeks ago in Frankenmuth, Michigan. The lady with him is his dear friend Jeanie, and I can't express how glad I am to have him in my life. He's my biggest supporter and an all around great guy. Love you, Dad!

Spotlight on Destiny Blaine!

2011-09-14T02:42:00.001-04:00

I have to start this with an apology. I was supposed to post it a while back, but I was so caught up in finishing MCM that I plain forgot. So here it is today: Destiny, take it away!

* * * * *

Blountville, Tennessee: Bestselling erotic romance author, Destiny Blaine, has a new book release from Resplendence Publishing. The long awaited Mary Had a Little Problem promises ménage romance readers a page-turning romance filled with hot love scenes and an unforgettable love story. Order your copy of Destiny’s romance of the year—Mary Had a Little Problem is out now: http://www.resplendencepublishing.com/353.html

Follow Destiny on Facebook or Twitter:

http://twitter.com/#!/DestinyBLaine

http://facebook.com/destinyblaine

Blurb:

Mary Worthington is a widow, or at least, she should’ve been. A former Navy Seals wife, her husband is killed in combat and Mary has a difficult time accepting the fact her husband isn’t coming home. Without a body to bury or witnesses to tell her what happened, there’s no way Mary can put the past to sleep until someone provides her with the truth about her husband’s final hours.

Trying to step out and socialize once again while pursuing facts about her husband’s death, Mary is introduced to Brock Taylor, a hard-core ladies man dedicated to the Marines and sharing himself with any woman who wants a piece of one. That is, until he meets Mary, a woman he’s known about through a past acquaintance.

Mary and Brock fall in love, plan a wedding in the Great Smoky Mountains, and well, things could’ve been headed toward a happy ending. However, six months after Brock finally wins Mary’s hand, Mary’s deceased husband reappears. And Mary wonders if she’ll be forced to give up one man in exchange for the other.

The following excerpt is rated PG17

“The next time you try and set me up with some hardcore, sexy-as-all-fucking-hell military prick, I swear to God, I’m gonna—”

“Anna told me how to get here,” Brock interrupted her rant as soon as the door was pushed all the way back.

“Fuck my life,” Mary muttered, thinking she’d never seen a hotter man than the one in front of her. Even Luke would have a difficult time measuring up to Brock, and that was saying a lot.

Stop it right now, she thought. She didn’t have the right to gawk at this stranger like he was a packaged adult delivery for an overnight stay. “This is not happening to me.”

Brock winked, a devilish grin marking a permanent place on his face. “Prick? Really? Is that the best you can do?”

She released a troubled sigh. Apparently, he missed the compliment laced through that warm greeting.

“Why are you here?”

She saw the attitude coming from a mile away. “I was afraid someone might try to set you up with some hardcore, sexy-as-all-fucking-hell military prick. I’m here to save you.”

“From myself?” she asked, meaning she needed all the help she could get since she had the open-mouth-insert-foot concept down to a perfected science.

“Should I take that to mean you’re interested?”

“What do you want?” she asked, ignoring his underlying insinuations.

“An invitation inside would be a nice start.”

“Why?”

“Maybe because it’s the polite thing to do, especially after you spoke so passionately about me.”

“The last time a soldier stood in my doorway, he brought bad news with him. Would you invite that into your home, Mr. Taylor?”

“Depends on what you consider bad news, Mary. And please, call me Brock. We’ll do better in the end if we start out with first names.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You think you could stand my answer?”

Mary propped her hands on her hips. “Depends. Think you can handle rejection?”

At RBRU today

2011-09-13T03:38:00.000-04:00

I'm over at Romance Books R Us today, with an open thank you letter you won't want to miss. And if you haven't already scrolled down to yesterday's post, please do!

Special Guest Lynda K. Scott

2011-09-12T02:39:00.001-04:00

I want to welcome the fabulous author Lynda K. Scott to my blog today, and give her a little bit of an introduction. I've "known" Lynda for a long time. Though we both live near Detroit, I'm not sure we ever managed to connect face-to-face, which is kind of sad, really. We were both brand new authors together at The-Publisher-Which-Shall-Not-Be-Mentioned, and one of the first e-books I ever read was Lynda's absolutely fantastic Heartstone. Read it. Just do it. It's everything you could want in a futuristic romance. After collapse of said publisher, it was a long time before Heartstone became available again, but it is, and you should read it. And today, Lynda is here with me, talking about Heartstone and her NEW book, Altered Destiny. It can't be anything but excellent, with Lynda as the author. Lynda is also running a contest to give away a free copy, so please leave a comment!

If you're really missing me today, I'm over at the Here be Magic blog. Please pop by and say hello!

About the Author:

The Bio:

In her family of Kentucky 'ridge runners', oral tales were a tradition that even the children participated in. She spent many nights with her brother, cousins and friends telling tall tales to excite the imagination. Now she creates award winning science fantasy romance filled with despair, hope, love and courage. She lives in Michigan with her dear husband, a big sweetheart of a doofus dog, Zuzu, and alien kitten, Wookie, aka muse, writing partner, contest judge and evil overlord.

The Interview:

1) Welcome, Lynda! You're talking today about Heartstone and Altered Destiny. Can you tell us a little bit about how you came up with the idea for this book: For Heartstone, I'd seen this picture of a tall, dark and very studly man standing in a barn, looking down at the straw near his feet. Something about him just screamed Nature and I knew he was a shapeshifter – not through magical powers but because he was a member of a race of shapeshifters...and Eric d'Ebrur sprang into life. But a studly shapeshifter still needs a family and a personal history and, above all, a quest. Eric's quest was to find a weapon to destroy a galactic villain but, even more, to find the one person who could control it – The Stonebearer, a beautiful woman who had been foretold as his intended mate.

2) What was your favorite part about writing this book? I loved writing the whole book but I adored writing the flirtatious scenes between Eric and Keriam. Eric was alternately charming, sweet, awkward and annoying, lol. I was never sure if Keriam was going to kiss him or hit him with a stick.

3) Tell us a little about your hero and/or heroine. How about both? Eric, in Heartstone, is a driven man. Driven by his instinct to protect and defend, by his ingrained honor and by his devotion to his clan. At one point in his early career, he and his squad of warriors are about to be over run by the enemy which meant a living death. His father sent rescue but the rescue could only transport one person – Eric. He refused to leave his men to die without him. That would be an act of betrayal he couldn't live with. But they knocked him out and put his unconscious body aboard the transport. When he awoke, his men were dead, and a terrible rift rises between him and his father. Eric's intended mate, Keriam the new Stonebearer, has her own problems. After her mother's death, Keriam can't touch anyone without being flooded with their emotions. She's afraid to see a psychiatrist, because her mother had a history of mental problems that were treated by an array of pills that left her mother semi-comatose. Keriam fears that she's inherited her mother's mental disease. She no idea that she's not quite the human woman she appears to be or that what she's inherited is her mother's legacy as the Stonebearer.

4) What sets your book apart from others in the genre? I write what I call Science Fantasy Romance. My novels follow the Arthur C. Clarke quotation: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Heartstone has shapeshifters who wield laser swords, fly space ships, and have interplanetary transport locations. They heal/diagnose with 'magical' stones or by touch. Altered Destiny has alien 'Elves', dragons, space flight, altered time lines and other cool stuff ;-) My goal is to make the 'magic' plausible and the science understandable without sacrificing the story or the characters.

5) Tell us about yourself. I have one beautiful daughter who inspires me to create strong, independent women and one alien kitten, Wookie aka Wookie Baby who inspires me to write out-of-this-world fiction...though she would prefer I had a few more alien kittens as characters. I also have a darling husband and a darling doofus rottweiler mix, Zuzu, who stares at him as if she's trying to control his mind...or perhaps steal his soul ;-)

6) When you’re not writing, what do you like to read? It's perhaps easier to ask what I don't read, LOL. I read all sorts of things from biographies to history to science but I love, love, love to read paranormal romance. And if there's a Scottish, kilt-wearing hero, that's heaven. That's why I wrote Altered Destiny, which has a Scottish, kilt-wearing hero ;-) Altered Destiny is set on an alternate Earth so its world is very similar to ours but different in strange and unusual ways. It has some interesting elements like elves — evil overlords but not related to Wookie -- and dragons and space ships.

7) What else would you like your reader to know about you and your book? Mundania Press is offering a 10% discount on orders using the code MP10 so now is a great time to get Heartstone (either in print or ebook) I also have a short story available at Amazon and at Barnes & Noble. Heart of a Dragon: He's lost everything he holds dear, his clan, his heritage, his mother. When a human man steals the last vestige of his mother, he has to find it. But he finds a whole lot more when he leaves his lonely cave. Heart of a Dragon is a 'sweet' story and is available for .99 Excerpts of both Heartstone and Altered Destiny are available on my website http://www.lyndakscott.com.

Where to find Lynda on the Web:

Website http://www.lyndakscott.com.

To join my newsletter, send a blank email to: LyndaKScott-Newsgroup-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/lyndakscott

Twitter: http://twitter.com/LyndaKScott

Facebook Author Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lynda-K-Scott/201599553208653

About the Books:

Heartstone

By LyndaK. Scott

out now, from Mundania Press

Science Fantasy Romance

available in print and ebook format

Buy Links: Mundania Press ; Amazon

Eric d'Ebrur is out of time. He must fine the legendary Heartstone and fulfill the ancient Gar'Ja bond he shares with the Stonebearer. But when he finds her, he discovers that love can be more dangerous than the Gawan threat. Eric can defeat the mind-controlling Gawan but will it cost him the woman he loves?

After terrifying episodes of hypersensitivity, Keriam Norton thinks she's losing her mind. When handsome shapeshifter Eric d'Ebrur saves her from the monstrous Gaway, she's sure of it. But insane or not, she'll find the Heartstone and, if she's lucky, a love to last a lifetime.

Altered Destiny

by Lynda K Scott

Science Fantasy Romance

out now for Kindle

Buy Link: Amazon

Stranded on an alternate Earth, architect and Jill-of-all-trades, Liane Gautier-MacGregor must find her way back to her homeworld before she's enslaved...or falls in love with a man who is the exact duplicate of her ex-husband.

Devyn MacGregor's alter ego as the Reiver Lord is the only way he can fight the Qui'arel and their nefarious Bride Bounty, a tax paid with human females...until he meets the oddly familiar woman who claims he is her husband. And who sets in motion the rebellion that will either free his countrymen or destroy them.

10 years

2011-09-11T13:07:00.002-04:00

For a very rare instant, I'm going to wax political. I am proud of my country and of my status as an American, though I do, with some frequency, disagree with stances or actions my government takes. That's the beauty of it. One of the basic tenets of this country is the freedom to disagree.

Like everyone else old enough, I remember that day, September 11, 2001, when it seemed for a while, we all stopped breathing. When we knew, without being told, that something fundamental had shifted in the world. We knew without being told that we were at war. Though living in nowheres-ville, I was fairly certain I was personally safe, I worried for others, and for our nation as a whole. And my country did me proud. As one, setting aside racial, ethnic (for the most part--side rant about this later) gender, and economic differences, we mourned the lives lost--not just in New York, but also at the Pentagon and on United Flight 93. I think too often in remembering, we focus only on New York and forget the others, so here's a nod to them as well. It was and will remain a true national tragedy, and one none of us will ever forget, which is as it should be.

Now-ahem--let the ranting begin. First, to all those who blame every individual of Middle Eastern descent--shame on you! Having brown skin does NOT a terrorist make. Neither does following the religion of Islam. Did our county not learn anything from our self-recriminations after the Japanese internment camps during WWII? BAD pundits. No biscuit.

Next. To the raving-fricking-geniuses who are trying to save a few pennies by denying health-care benefits to the rescue workers who went in to falling buildings and saved lives, and to veterans of our subsequent series of wars: STOP IT! Cut your own bloody exorbitant salaries and pay for their damned health care, you hypocritical parasites. Okay, so I really believe we should have universal health care like ever other so-called-civilized nation on the face of the planet. But even if that never happens, we should take care of those who have suffered for our benefit, even if it isn't 100% proven that their cancers, etc. are a direct result of 9/11, or of their combat duties. Pony up.

Rant over. Memories remain.

The weekend already?

2011-09-09T10:31:00.000-04:00

It's been one of those weeks where time completely got away from me. Fortunately in a good way, as I've been writing. Everyone have a great weekend.

Happy Labor Day

2011-09-04T20:20:00.002-04:00

This is the weekend when we say an informal goodbye to summer and everyone is already or about to head back to school. In my family, it was also the weekend for a wedding! Mega-congrats to Chad and Ramona, married on Friday! This is me and the dh. (Can't get picture of bride and groom to load. $%^*) My cousins' kids are doing their best to make me feel old. Of course having two grown sons (below, with the hubby in the middle) helps! And today I did it to myself, saying, "I need to go get a new ribbon for my printer." Ribbon? I've had an inkjet for over a decade? Where the heck did that come from? Anyway, hope everyone has a safe and fun Labor Day Weekend.

2 blogs, 2 contests, and one plea for votes

2011-08-31T15:27:00.000-04:00

Today I'm guesting in two places to promote Motor City Wolf, and in each, I'm giving away a free copy. So you might want to stop by the Carina Press blog and Redz World and comment to enter.

Also, Motor City Wolf is up for Best Book of August at Miz and Crew Love Books, so if you could see your way to voting, that would be GREATLY appreciated.

Motor City Wolf Out Today!

2011-08-29T11:09:00.000-04:00

Happy Dance Time! Motor City Wolf hits the virtual shelves today at Carina Press: http://bit.ly/nv0Tlm and on audiobook at Audible.com.

Romantic Times called it "charming and original," LASR said it "delights and astounds," and Miz and Crew Love Books called it "another fabulous book in the Urban Arcana series."

Less than a year ago, Fianna Meadows was a pampered noble in the Faerie court. Then she was exiled, turned mortal and forced to work for a living—in a werewolf bar in Detroit, no less! Still, Fianna has to admit her new life isn't so bad...particularly when it comes to Greg Novak, the bar's sexy owner.

For Greg, keeping his hands off Fianna has been a challenge. But his sense of honor won't let him get involved with a woman put in his care, even if Fianna is eager to explore her new feelings of lust. Resisting the temptation to claim her gets even harder when Greg's grandfather, the region's Alpha, orders him to marry and Fianna agrees to pretend to be his chosen mate.

Fighting his attraction to Fianna isn't Greg's only problem. Someone is killing werewolves and attacking other paranormal beings in Detroit. He vows to do whatever it takes protect both his pack and Fianna—even if that means giving her up...

Excerpt: PG-13

Greg finished the second set and put down his drumsticks. They’d been rocking out, and he was sweating like crazy, his T-shirt sticking to his chest. It was good though. The whole band was grinning. The audience had eaten them up with a spoon. Lana set her electric bass into its stand and high-fived Ric, while George bumped fists with Vince, who played keyboard.

To his surprise, Fianna was waiting at the base of the steps with a tray of beers and a shy smile on her lovely, elven face. Greg took a pint glass of Atwater Dunkel, his favorite local brew, and stepped aside so the others could exit the stage, as well. Each of them grabbed a beer, thanking Fianna as they passed. Lana headed for the ladies’ room, while George and Ric made beelines for the bar. Vince wandered off to a table full of sorority girls.

Greg stayed and soaked in the sight of Fianna. His fingers brushed hers as she lowered the now-empty tray and his whole body instantly responded.

Keeping his hands off her for the last three months had been damn near impossible. The only time he’d cracked had been the night of Meagan and Ric’s wedding, when he’d come back to the bar, lonely and horny. That night, he’d given in to the urge to kiss her as he’d walked her upstairs after closing time. The kiss had gotten out of hand, fast. If a call hadn’t come in about Aidan’s daughter being kidnapped, Greg didn’t think he’d have been able to stop.

“Is that Meagan working behind the bar?” He knew it was, but it was something to say. Mostly, he wanted to stay here against the wall and watch Fianna. Simply standing next to her was easily as much fun as kissing anybody else.

“It is, and she shouldn’t be, but she insists.” Fee grimaced toward the bar. “She was a big help though. It’s a good crowd tonight.”

“She’ll be okay. Meagan’s a smart cookie. She’ll stop if she starts feeling rocky.” Without thinking, he reached out and slid his arm around Fianna’s waist. “It’s nice of you to worry about her though. I’m sure she appreciates it.”

Fee sighed and leaned her head into his shoulder. “She is a lucky woman. The way Ric looks at her—it’s like something from one of his ballads. Until I came here, I never knew that it was real, love like theirs, or Aidan and Elise’s, or Jase and your brother’s.”

One thing he’d liked about her from the start was her easy acceptance of George and Jase, even when she’d been snooty about werewolves in general. “It doesn’t happen for everybody.” He leaned closer, inhaling the scent of her hair, vanilla and peach, which made him want to eat her up like an ice-cream sundae. “I know more people who are divorced than I do happy couples. But when it does happen... Yeah, it’s a pretty amazing thing.” He looked over at the bar. Ric was behind it now, helping his wife pull drafts. George had gone to work beside Jase, after a quick but scorching kiss.

“Have you ever been married?” Fee’s next question caught him by surprise.

“Nope. Came close once, but it didn’t work out.” Even after fourteen years, guilt mingled with relief when he thought about that.

“Hello, waitress. Can we get some help?”

Fee sighed and moved away from Greg, much to his body’s disappointment. “I swear, if that customer pinches me one more time, I’m going to dump a beer in his lap. Then you’ll have to fire me.”

Greg took the tray from her hands and bared his teeth. “We’ll see if he tries to pinch me.”

Good News!

2011-08-25T12:16:00.003-04:00

I’ve just been offered a contract from Resplendence Publishing for my western contemporary romance, Wrong Side of Town. It’s scheduled for Nov. 2, (hopefully in print next spring) and here’s a little blurb to warm you up:

Zach Shannon is back in town, and tiny Hawthorne, Texas will never be the same. When the local military hero comes home and starts working for his father, the sheriff, one of his first cases is a string of minor fires, that everyone seems to blame on a handful of Goth teens from the wrong side of town. Even worse, Zach is rapidly falling for Laney Burroughs, a quiet librarian whose nephew is the suspected ringleader. Their attraction deepens but both have too many responsibilities and too much baggage to make it easy, especially with Zach’s wealthy family, Laney’s nephew, and the entire town looking on.

Out and About Today

2011-08-24T09:41:00.000-04:00

Today I'm in a couple different places promoting Monday's release of Motor City Wolf.
At Savvy Authors, I'm talking about keeping true to your voice as well as the characters' so that each book in a series stands out but is still distinctly your own. And at Authors by Moonlight, I'm discussing Detroit, and why anyone would want to set a book there. And there may be prizes...

Happy Week

2011-08-22T10:46:00.000-04:00

Six things that make me smile today:

1) Motor City Mage is almost done! I can stop freaking out about the deadline and just get it finished!
2) Motor City Fae is sitting at the very top of Carina's most popular list. (This changes every day, but I've had at least one book on the list almost all last week.)
3) My critique group is coming here tonight, so I don't have to drive to Ann Arbor or bribe the dh to drive me.
4) Great reviews from Reading the Paranormal for both Motor City Fae and Motor City Wolf. (She says in the second one that she somehow missed Motor City Witch. Her Tweet on this began, "Why did no one make me read this series before?" Yeah, that's what we like to see!
5) A new review for Photographs and Phantoms from Miz and Crew Love Books. 5/5, whoot!
6) Motor City Wolf comes out in just one week!

Everyone have a fabulous week!

Cool Stuff

2011-08-15T15:22:00.000-04:00

5 Cool things for Monday:
1) The shiny new banner at the top of my blog & website. Can you find the dragon?
2) Last week's 4-Heart review for Phantoms and Photographs from Loves Romance And More
3) Last week's Just Erotic Romance review for Midsummer Dreams--FIVE stars! Whoot!
4) I'm still on track to get Motor City Mage in on time!
and 5) It's actually dropped below 80 in southern Michigan. YAY!

Everyone have a wonderful week. If you don't see me, it's because of the looming deadlines...

hey there!

2011-08-12T16:23:00.001-04:00

Just popping my head up from deadline hell to wish everyone a wonderful weekend!

BTW: Would love to know what anyone thinks about the new look. Better? Worse? Is the background too busy? Dragons back in the banner? Gears? Pink or purple? So many choices...

Happy News

2011-08-09T10:14:00.000-04:00

I just received a contract today from Ellora’s Cave for All Hallow’s Evie, which should hopefully come out around Halloween. This will be the fifth (and likely final, as I’ve run out of siblings) installment in my Holiday Hearts series. YAY!

Happy Monday!

2011-08-08T13:07:00.000-04:00

Everyone have a great week!

Banner Day

2011-08-03T11:20:00.001-04:00

Received THREE four star (or heart) reviews yesterday, which is special enough to make me smile. Loves Romances and More gave four hearts to Steam & Sorcery and said, " I must urge you, no, insist you pick it up, settle down on a comfortable chair, get your favorite beverage and sit back and enjoy an adventure that will have you on the edge of your seat! This is a fantastic story that I could not stop reading until the last page." You can read the rest here.

Now's where it gets even more exciting. Review #2 was from Romantic Times Book Reviews, though it was a web-exclusive review. Anytime I can catch the notice of RT without paying for an ad, you'd better believe I'm over the moon--especially when the review is this good! It involves the phrase, "extremely hot, adventurous love play," and it's only complaint is the brevity of the story. You can click here to see it in all its glory.

And, finally, there's an in-the-magazine, FOUR STAR review of Motor City Wolf. That's right, an actual advance review and everything. Talk about happy-dancing. I couldn't stop grinning all day. The reviewer said,

“This story is imbued with fun. It’s charming and original and Pape has used just enough touches of Detroit to share with readers the finer points of this often maligned city.” Unfortunately, it's not online, so you'd have to go to the magazine to read more, but, WHOO-HOO!

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming, by which I mean writing. Oh--and if you can find time to vote for me over at Miz Loves Books, scroll down a post or two for the links.

Moving Right Along

2011-08-01T22:15:00.002-04:00

Turned All Hallows Evie in to my Ellora's Cave editor ON deadline yesterday. Whoot! Now it's back to work on Motor City Mage. Cheers!

Votes Needed

2011-08-01T10:33:00.000-04:00

Motor City Fae is up for Top Pick of the month at Miz & Crew Love Books. If you happen to get a chance to vote, here’s the link: http://www.mizlovelovesbooks.com/

And Another Party!

2011-07-30T11:58:00.000-04:00

Today kicks off the anniversary party for the Long and Short Review and Whipped Cream Reviews. I'm happy to be participating on both sites, so today you can find me at LASR's guest blog, talking about Motor City Wolf. Here's the first post: http://bit.ly/nENAtE I'll be announcing the others on FB (http://on.fb.me/gjbLLC) where I could use more Likes on my page, and Twitter (http://twitter.com/#!/CindySPape), if you don't already follow me.

Have a great weekend!

Last Minute Reminders

2011-07-28T22:37:00.000-04:00

It's down to the wire and if you don't act now, you're going to lose out on TWO fantastic contests.

1) Christmas in July at Romance Books R Us. Go there now. Enter to win. :-)

2) The Summer Bash at The Romance Hotspot. LOTS of great prizes. Visit me here and the main list here.

So go get entered, then have a great weekend!

Interview and Contest with JK Coi!

2011-07-26T23:28:00.000-04:00

Happy Wednesday everyone. Please welcome my guest today, JK Coi, author of Falling Hard, a paranormal romance out now from Carina Press. Meanwhile, you can find me at Authors by Moonlight as well as at the Romance Hotspot's Summer Bash.

The Blurb:

After a life filled with tragedy, rocker Gabriel Gunn thinks he's finally getting the better of his personal demons. Then he's attacked after a concert—and rescued by a warrior goddess brandishing a sword and white wings. As hard as it is to believe in an angelic bodyguard, Gabriel must face an even more impossible truth: he carries the devil's soul within him.

Amelia has been watching over Gabriel for years, using her angelic powers to prevent Lucifer's return. Now she must also protect him from warring angel factions with their own agendas. Amelia would do anything to avert another angelic war, even sacrifice her own emotions to avoid temptation. Yet with Gabriel she feels things she no longer wants to deny, and pleasure she never imagined.

But the closer Gabriel and Amelia get, the stronger Lucifer becomes. Will Amelia be forced to kill the man she's come to love to stop the war she's always feared?

The Buy Link

The Author:

J.K. Coi is a multi-published, award winning author of contemporary and paranormal romance and urban fantasy. She makes her home in Ontario, Canada, with her husband and son and a feisty black cat who is the uncontested head of the household. While she spends her days immersed in the litigious world of insurance law, she is very happy to spend her nights writing dark and sexy characters who leap off the page and into readers’ hearts.

The Links:

WEBSITE: www.jkcoi.com

BLOG: www.jkcoi.blogspot.com

TWITTER: www.twitter.com/jkcoi

FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/JKCoiAuthor

The Interview:

1) Is this your first published book? If not, tell us where we can find more of your work, and especially if this is part of a series, tell us about the others.

This isn’t my first book, but it is an exciting one for me! I’ve lived with these characters for over a year now and they’ve become my second family (does that make me sound crazy?) I’m hoping to continue their story for sure, which means I’m currently hard at work on book 2 which.

I also recently had a short story released from Ellora’s Cave, called Iron Seduction. It takes place in an historical China and it has everything—a journey up the Great Wall, ancient clay warriors brought to life by an evil dispossessed empress, and a female British Ambassador who falls for a Chinese mercenary…

You can find information about all of my books from my website at www.jkcoi.com

2) What was your favorite part about writing Falling Hard?

My favorite part about writing Falling Hard was the music. I’ve always wanted to write about musicians, and this book gave me the opportunity to do that (not to mention a little research by chatting up some of my local talent and attending a couple of concerts for “the real life experience” J )

I really wanted to make sure that I captured the feel of the music, and music became an integral part of the entire story.

3) Tell us a little about your hero & heroine.

Gabriel is a rock star. In fact, he’s more of a rock God. The kind of musician the paparazzi are always following around. He’s also been through a LOT in his life—including the two big D’s: Death and Drugs—but he has really tried to turn his life around in the last year. Of course, that becomes much more difficult when he learns that the devil’s soul lives inside him—and it’s just been woken up and wants to “take control”. The only one on his side is Amelia, an angel—and you think you’d be able to trust an angel, wouldn’t you? … but Gabriel soon realizes that there may be no one he can trust, even himself.

He will have to fight really hard and make some really tough decisions, and although I’d love to tell you what happens, I think you’ll have to read the book.

4) Tell us about yourself. Do you have a day job? Kids? When & where do you like to write and how do you fit your writing in?

Yes, I have a day job. I work 9-5 in an office and come home to my husband and son. After a long day of work I usually try to spend a few hours with my family, but once kiddo goes to bed I’ll take out the laptop and climb into my favorite chair to write. I don’t usually do a lot of writing on weekends because of family obligations, so that means I’m a VERY SLOW writer L

5) When you’re not writing, what do you like to read?

I like to read EVERYTHING! From historical, contemporary, science fiction, paranormal…but it’s usually got romance!

6) Anything else you’d like to add?

Thank you for having me as your guest, Cindy!

You’re more than welcome. Thanks so much for stopping by!

The Contest:

JK is holding a contest for a set of her romance trading cards. (Aren’t they gorgeous?) All you have to do to enter is leave her a comment!

Summer Bash at The Romance Hot Spot

2011-07-24T12:21:00.000-04:00

The Romance Author’s Hotspot is having a HUGE summer party all week, with various authors, editors, and even publishers answering questions. They’re also giving away a Kindle and more. All you have to do is make a comment or ask a question. Here’s the main list and here’s my post. I’d love it if you’d stop by!

More review love

2011-07-23T08:51:00.001-04:00

Continuing this week's trend for fab reviews, Motor City Witch picked up two top picks! One from Miz and Crew Love Books, and one from Night Owl Reviews. Miz Natalie said, "Motor City Witch was a jolly good read that I couldn’t put down." and Melinda from Night Owl said, "I can’t wait for the other book in the series."

Steam and Sorcery also picked up some loving with a 4.5 Star review from Cafe Pearl, who said, "Steam & Sorcery is a nice blend of fantasy, myth, a sprinkle of dark fantasy elements, and gadgets and should please both lovers of Steampunk, Gaslamp fantasy, and of course, steamy romance."

Signing and Happy News

2011-07-22T00:14:00.000-04:00

Today, I'll be signing at the Ann Arbor Art Fairs:

Festibooks @ Art Fair: Romance and Rockets.
Friday July 22, 2012: 12 to 4 pm
at the Workantile Exchange,
118 S. Main St. Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Click here for more information.

In other great news, Motor City Wolf is now available for Pre-Order at Carina Press, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

Blurb:
Less than a year ago, Fianna Meadows was a pampered noble in the Faerie court. Then she was exiled, turned mortal and forced to work for a living—in a werewolf bar in Detroit, no less! Still, Fianna has to admit her new life isn't so bad...particularly when it comes to Greg Novak, the bar's sexy owner.

For Greg, keeping his hands off Fianna has been a challenge. But his sense of honor won't let him get involved with a woman put in his care, even if Fianna is eager to explore her new feelings of lust. Resisting the temptation to claim her gets even harder when Greg's grandfather, the region's Alpha, orders him to marry and Fianna agrees to pretend to be his chosen mate.

Fighting his attraction to Fianna isn't Greg's only problem. Someone is killing werewolves and attacking other paranormal beings in Detroit. He vows to do whatever it takes protect both his pack and Fianna—even if that means giving her up...

Check out the first two books, Motor City Fae and Motor City Witch at Carina Press. Watch for Urban Arcana Book 4: Motor City Mage, coming March 2012

Great Review for Midsummer Dreams

2011-07-21T07:22:00.000-04:00

This seems to be a week for happy reviews. This morning I found out that Siren Book Reviews has given Midsummer Dreams 5/5 Siren Stones, and called it, "a tale of magical romance that will have you glued to the pages." You can click here for the full review. Thanks so much!

Great new review for an older book:

2011-07-19T11:43:00.001-04:00

It's been a rough couple weeks career-wise, so I'm thrilled to have some good news for a change. Motor City Fae, my first Carina book which came out over a year ago now, just received a great review today at a blog called Miz Loves Books. She gave it her top rating and here's a sample of what she had to say. “A delightful read that holds your attention, because there’s something interesting and important going on in every chapter. No “filler” from this author!” I’m really tickled about it. Read the full review here:

Christmas in July: Don't Miss Out

2011-07-17T23:20:00.001-04:00

Entries are VERY low on the Romance Books R Us
Christmas in July contest.

Win a B&N or Amazon gift card big enough to buy a Nook or a Kindle.

Don't miss out.

Click here to find out how to enter, and get started ASAP.

And have a great week. :-) I'm slaving away on Motor City Mage, and All Hallows Evie, but I hope to see you 'round and about the web!

Have a Great Weekend!

2011-07-07T22:14:00.000-04:00

Big Dragonny Sigh

2011-07-06T07:53:00.001-04:00

Yesterday was one of THOSE days. We all have them, so you know what I mean. Various stuff going on, job related, family related, financially depressing... Yeah, we all know the drill. The culmination was when I dropped my laptop on my toe, breaking it. The laptop, I mean. Screen is toast. Toe is only bruised. So is the thumb that tried to catch said laptop when my other hand decided to let go. (Have a pinched nerve that gave out at just the wrong time.)

The sad part is, I was using the laptop so I could escape to the bedroom and avoid teen angst, which is sometimes difficult since my desk is in the family room. Guess I won't be able to do that anymore.

Fortunately, I had moved most of my work stuff over to the new desktop machine, and since it's just the screen, we can recover the rest by plugging the old one into an external monitor. But alas, my pretty pink laptop is no more. And there is NO money in the budget to replace it. Sigh. RIP, old friend!

Back to Work!

2011-07-05T11:50:00.000-04:00

Hope everyone had a great weekend. Now it's back to work time, and I'm over at the Here Be Magic blog, talking about writer's block and how to beat it. Stop by if you get the chance, and have a great week.

Happy Independence Day

2011-07-01T10:19:00.000-04:00

For those in the US, have a safe and wonderful holiday weekend. Happy Canada Day to our Canadian neighbors, and to the rest of you, just have a great weekend.

Happy Anniversary to Me!

2011-06-29T00:34:00.001-04:00

Yep, today is my 26th anniversary. Still happy about it, every day. Now who the heck are these young kids in the photo?They look kinda sorta familiar.

Step into the Wayback Machine:

It was June of 1985. I'd just graduated from Central Michigan University. Reagan had just begun his second term. Amadeus won the Best Picture Oscar, and the following month would see the launch of Back to the Future and the ground-breaking Live Aid concert. The Unabomber was sending exploding packages. AIDS was new and barely understood, though the first blood test had just been approved. Also that year, New Coke was a colossal flop. The Discovery Channel was launched. Tetris was released, DNA was first used in a criminal prosecution, and Bryan Adams's "Heaven" topped the Billboard Charts.

Where'd the time go?

2011-06-27T12:11:00.000-04:00

Can you believe 2011 is already half over? Where did it go? I know I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped. On the other hand it hasn't been a horrid, awful year either. Lots of waiting, warring teenagers, and car repairs. All things that are pretty easy to deal with in the long run, even if they don't seem to be at the time.

Looking a the calendar can be a wake-up call, and I know I'm behind on my writing, so I'm using it as a kick in the backside. Time to knuckle down and get to work!

Good news

2011-06-23T10:36:00.002-04:00

Carina Press has picked up the final book in the Urban Arcana quartet, Motor City Mage, to be released early next spring. Also, they're hopefully going to be releasing another Gaslight Chronicles novella a month or so later.

Happy Midsummer!

2011-06-22T11:05:00.000-04:00

I'm visiting Tina Donahue's blog today: Stop by and leave a comment if you can!

And don't forget to check out today's free book at Carina Press!

Free Books!

2011-06-20T10:35:00.000-04:00

It's FREE BOOK WEEK at Carina Press!!!
Starting on June 20th, every weekday, all week, Carina is offering a spectacular title for free download. And when they say free, they mean ACTUALLY free. Not "sorta free", or "free with a $50 purchase" free, but actually, totally, no strings attached FREE! So, get thee to Carina press to download a free book every day! Here are the books being offered, and the links and promo codes for your free download:

Monday's FREE BOOK is:
The Debutante's Dilemma by Elyse Mady
Just type in the promo code DEBUTANTEFREE at checkout
http://ebooks.carinapress.com/ContentDetails.htm?ID=50C0978A-DAC7-44E7-B627-C26A520471C0

Tuesday's FREE BOOK is:
Demon's Fall by Karalynn Lee
Just type in the promo code DEMONFREE at checkout
http://ebooks.carinapress.com/ContentDetails.htm?ID=1E5A3A07-9BC7-4449-9B8F-377C21E2F664

Wednesday's FREE BOOK is:
The Twisted Tale of Stormy Gale by Christine Bell
Just type in the promo code TWISTEDFREE at checkout
http://ebooks.carinapress.com/ContentDetails.htm?ID=D79D7CD6-1BAA-4D2E-AE65-FF0E42F79BE7

Thursday's FREE BOOK is:
Blue Galaxy by Diane Dooley
Just type in the promo code GALAXYFREE at checkout
http://ebooks.carinapress.com/ContentDetails.htm?ID=827CC21D-6F33-437A-977B-B0F291B70367

Friday's FREE BOOK is:
Friendly Fire by Megan Hart
Just type in the promo code FRIENDLYFREE at checkout
http://ebooks.carinapress.com/ContentDetails.htm?ID=E1466469-DB0C-404F-A0AA-3491BB9E9B14

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-18T22:38:00.000-04:00

To all the dads out there, and the grandpas, and stepdads, and foster dads and would be dads, and to all the moms who pull double duty, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Happy Monday!

2011-06-13T10:06:00.000-04:00

It's a beautiful, sunny, Monday morning, so I blogged at Romance Books R Us about summer, and I'm giving away a copy of Midsummer Dreams! (Or a download of reader's choice.) SO stop by and leave a comment about your summer plans.

In other good news, over the weekend the first two reviews came in for Midsummer Dreams, and they're both great ones. Whipped Cream gave it 4.5 Cherries and said, "This was a romance that was much more than either of the two ever expected, and there are lots of fun surprises in store for both Summer and Matt." You can read the rest here. Night Owl Romances gave it 4/75 Stars, a Reviewer Top Pick, and said, "There is a real story between the sex and isn’t falling in love suppose to be magical? This story may be fairly short, just over 70 pages, but it packs a big punch in entertainment value." You can click here for that one.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week.

Interview and Excerpt from Hunter Raines!

2011-06-10T12:18:00.000-04:00

Please welcome my special guest today, author Hunter Raines from Carina Press!

THE INTERVIEW:

CSP: Tell us how you came up with the idea for this book:
HR: My husband and I head down to Mexico for our anniversary every year. And every year, I come back with a handful of story ideas. I love tropical settings. I could set every book I write on a beach somewhere and be a happy author. This particular story came to me when I thought about three men having a wild encounter at a tropical resort, and then meeting again a year later. I couldn’t stop thinking about these guys and wondering how their lives would have changed after that fateful night. And so, PARADISE FOUND was born.

CSP: What was your favorite part about writing this book?
HR: I set out to write a satisfying ménage, and I spent a lot of time making sure that all three characters got equal time on the page, and that all their journeys-internal and external-were complete and satisfying. I wanted to make sure that the ménage element wasn’t just tacked on for a more tantalizing story, but that it actually made sense for the three main characters to stay together in the end. I had a lot of fun writing the scenes that advanced the romance between all three of them.

CSP: Tell us a little about your heroes.
HR: PARADISE FOUND features three heroes. All three are wonderful men, but they’re all hiding something about themselves. Cameron used to be a professional Dominant at a fetish club, but he hides that part of his past because he fears how his lover, Mark, will handle knowing the truth about him. Philip’s family wants him to marry a woman and have 2.5 children, so he plays along and hides his true identity. And Mark… well, Mark is still struggling to figure out where he fits in the world, and what he wants from life – and from his lovers. All three men must deal with their individual issues before they can have their happily-ever-after ending.

CSP: What sets your book apart from others in the genre?
HR: It’s very emotional, and yet over-the-tip hot. That mixture of raw emotion, angst, and scorching sex has become a signature style for me, and I think it works particularly well in PARADISE FOUND.

CSP: When you’re not writing, what do you like to read?
HR: I'm a very eclectic reader. If you were to look at my colossal To Be Read mountain, you'd find a wide variety of books. I'm all over the board. One day I'll be reading a huge fantasy tome, and the next I'll find myself in the mood for a scorching BDSM threesome, or a psychology textbook. You just never know with me. Neither does my husband, who continually marvels at the stuff I read. He's a big science fiction and fantasy fan, with the occasional foray into men's action adventure, but he stays pretty close within his comfort zone. I don’t even think I have a comfort zone when it comes to the books I read.

FIND HUNTER ON THE WEB:

Website: http://www.hunterraines.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002027648828
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/hrainesauthor
Yahoo: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TotalExposure/

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Paradise Found

By: Hunter Raines

Gay Erotic Romance

New this week at Carina Press

THE BLURB

Paradise is just an illusion…

Or so Philip thinks as he vacations on exotic Anguilla. He should be celebrating the end of law school and the start of his successful career, but he’s tired of living a lie for his family’s sake. For just one night, he lets down his guard with two men he thinks he’ll never see again.

He isn’t the only one with secrets. For years, Cameron Drake has suppressed his need for dominance, afraid of hurting his lover, Mark Wilder. But when Cameron’s hand meets Philip’s ass, there’s no more pretending. Mark can’t face his conflicting feelings about the ménage; does Cameron want more than Mark can give?

The three of them may have been perfect together but consequences follow them back to their real lives. Will their desire for another encounter shatter the illusions they’ve built to protect themselves or clear the obstacles to paradise?

THE EXCERPT (ADULT!)

Cameron tilted his head toward the beach side bar. “What about him?”

Mark followed the direction of his lover’s gaze. The man Cameron had indicated faced away from them. He sat on a barstool, his white T-shirt shimmering in the glow of the bright blue Paradise Found neon sign overhead. From where they stood at the edge of the surf, Mark had a clear view of broad shoulders and a solid back, but little else. The man could have been George Clooney or that funny-looking guy who played Mr. Bean.

But he wasn’t either one. And what little of him Mark could see had his heart rocketing into overdrive.

He knew this man. Not by name, but by sight. For the past three days his pulse had ratcheted up a few notches every time the sexy stranger came within twenty feet of him. Mark recognized the soft brown waves that brushed his nape, the taut muscles of his pecs and the tantalizing curve of his ass.

“Him?” He tried to feign nonchalance. “I’m not sure. Maybe we should get a good look at his face first.”

That was completely unnecessary, of course. He knew the shape of the man’s full mouth, the slant of his jaw, even the color of his eyes. An electrifying mix of blue and green, like the ocean at midday.

“Good idea.” Cameron wound an arm around Mark’s waist and pulled him close. “Tonight’s the night. I can feel it.”

Mark’s breath caught in his throat. “You’re sure you want to do this?”

Cameron drew back a fraction and fixed Mark with a piercing gaze. “Why? Are you having second thoughts?”

“Not really, no.” He swallowed past the lump in his throat. They’d already agreed their sex life needed a heaping dose of spice with a side of variety. Hooking up with a stranger for a one night had seemed like a great way to add some heat to a bedroom that had cooled to arctic temperatures long ago.

So, no, he wasn’t getting cold feet. But how could he tell Cameron he couldn’t approach the guy without also revealing that he’d been watching him, lusting over him, picturing him naked and spread-eagled on their bed. And that the more he watched him, the more he craved and hungered and yearned, the more his heart pounded and his breath hitched, the more infatuated he became.

He knew this feeling intimately from his college days, when he’d realized he was gay and his entire existence went from a narrow, intense focus on his studies to wild abandon at the hands and mouth of every boy with a lopsided smile and a big cock. He’d learned a lot about himself during that time. And it hadn’t taken him long to figure out that while one-night stands were fun, they didn’t fix a damn thing that mattered. Wild sex was an easy, temporary solution, like sticking a wad of chewing gum to the hole in the bottom of your canoe. It might help for a while, but you’d still end up drowning.

No, a threesome wouldn’t bring back what was missing in their relationship, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t enjoy it anyway. When they got home, they’d just have to figure out how to rekindle the flame on their own.

“Come on.” Cameron grabbed Mark’s hand and tugged him in the direction of the bar. His touch was warm, electric and full of sinful promise. “Maybe he’s not gay.”

Mark released a deep breath and fell into step beside his lover. Part of him hoped they should be so lucky.

And the other part of him, the one that ruled his rock-hard cock, prayed his sexy stranger was gayer than a Christmas fruitcake.

Happy Birthday Carina Press!

2011-06-07T08:58:00.002-04:00

I have been so happy to be part of the launch of Carina Press, and it doesn't feel like a whole year since Motor City Fae hit the virtual shelves as one of the launch authors of this great new venture. The following introduction is from Angela James, Carina Press Executive Editor, and the post is by staff member Jayne Hoogenberk. Please give Angela and Jayne a warm welcome, and don't forget the contest at the end of the post!
~Cindy

In celebration of our one year anniversary, I asked as many of our Harlequin team members and Carina Press freelance editors as possible to write a short blog post, talking about what the past year or so has been like for them, working on Carina Press. I deliberately didn't provide any direction other than that, because I wanted to see what people came up with, in the spirit of Carina's 1st anniversary. I was so pleased when I saw what they'd all come up with, and had to say (and some of these posts made me just a little teary)! I hope you enjoy the post, and look for your opportunity to win a Carina Press book at the bottom of this post. ~Angela James

Jayne Hoogenberk is the Manager, Community and Social Content for Harlequin.com, Harlequin Enterprise’s online home for readers, writers and romance fiction. You can follow her on Twitter.

Confessions of an adventurous reader

by Jayne Hoogenberk

I honestly had no idea how adventurous a reader I was until I joined the Carina Press team. Harlequin’s editorial offerings are satisfying and rewarding, but unbeknownst to me I was in a reading rut. The crux of the problem is that here at Harlequin I’m never short of reading material and the creativity and innovation of our series authors delivers a wide and wonderful variety of plot and storyline. I have my favorite genres and authors and I’m very much within my happy place reading the series and single title books from our publishing program. My tastes run towards romantic suspense, historical and the occasional paranormal but as they, say ignorance is bliss. When I started overhearing conversations from the Carina Press acquisition team about Space Opera, Dystopian, Male/Male and Steampunk Fiction, I started thinking….what on earth? And then I started thinking…how can I get to read some of this?

I asked for some recommendations and started with a few titles, loved them and eventually was asked to join the acquisition team. And although for the most part I still read to my taste, the manuscripts I read these days are often set in alternate universes, featuring hot heroes and heroines battling demons or steam powered automatons in a world threatened by extinction. My three favorite genres in one….Winning!

Some of my more adventurous reads this year include:

Blood of the Maple by Dana Marie Bell

Photographs and Phantoms by Cindy Spencer Pape

Tempting the Enemy by Dee Tenorio

Tangled Past by Leah Braemel

The First Victim by JB Lynn

Have you been adventurous in your reading lately?

To celebrate Carina's one year anniversary of publishing books, we're giving away some prizes. Today, on each of the nineteen blogs our team members are featured on, we're giving away a download of a Carina Press book to one random winner (that's nineteen total winners!) All you need to do to be entered to win is comment on this post. You can enter to win on all nineteen posts. In addition, on the Carina Press blog, we're giving away a grand prize of a Kobo ereader and 12 Carina Press books of the winner's choice. Visit the Carina Press blog to enter to win, and to see links to all 19 of today's blog posts.

And a sincere thank you from all of us, to our readers and authors, for making Carina Press's first year a success!

First Photo from the Lori Foster event

2011-06-05T21:29:00.000-04:00

Can you tell we're having a good time? Left to right, Marissa Day, (Berkeley Heat), Jade Lee, and me. Kate Douglas, (Aphrodesia) is in the background laughing at the lunatics.

Now it's unpack and laundry time. And write. Got some great brainstorming done on the way home!

Crazy Week

2011-05-31T08:06:00.000-04:00

Well now that the holiday is over, it's crazy week at my house. The dh is gone until Thursday night and I leave Friday morning for the Lori Foster event in Ohio. Since his car isn't working, he took mine, so the boys and I are all sharing theirs. Fun. Of course since my oldest has a full-time summer job, if I want a car, I have to drive him to work and pick him up.

Today I start running errands like a haircut and getting my nails done, and picking up a few last things for a gift basket. I'm going with two women from my critique group, and think we'll all have a great time.

Meanwhile, I suppose I should think about getting some writing done. Everyone have a great week!

Thoughts for Memorial Day

2011-05-29T23:01:00.000-04:00

Hug your favorite veteran today, and think kindly on those who are no longer here to be hugged.

IN FLANDERS FIELDS

by John McRae (1872-1918)

published 1919

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

Book of the Week Poll, Interview, and a Contest

2011-05-28T11:59:00.000-04:00

I have an interview up today at Once Upon a Chapter, with a contest if you want to stop by. http://bit.ly/kLUT4m. There should also be a poll up soon at LASR for book of the week, with Steam & Sorcery as one of the nominees. All votes appreciated, even if you don't vote for me. :) http://www.longandshortreviews.com/LASR/index.htm

Squeal-Worthy Review

2011-05-27T13:09:00.000-04:00

Steam & Sorcery was given a rating of “Best Book” by Long and Short Reviews: http://bit.ly/kyAvqO “Definitely a book I would recommend. Truth be told, I couldn’t put this one down.”

There’ll be a votey thing tomorrow. I’ll post the link if anyone wants to vote, but I’ll be up against two of MY all-time favorite authors AND some other great books. So I’m not going to stress about it. I’m just basking in the fabulous review.

Blog Interview and Contest

2011-05-26T21:27:00.000-04:00

Candace, of Candace’s Book Blog, interviewed me today about Steam & Sorcery, as part of a steampunk event. Carina Press has donated free books to be given away, so stop by and check it out: http://www.candacesbookblog.com/2011/05/mft-guest-interview-with-cindy-spencer.html

ACK!

2011-05-24T23:27:00.000-04:00

I'm also blogging today at Authors by Moonlight, and running a contest. You'll want to check it out here!

Okay, I know it's been a week since my last post, but that's not entirely my fault. My internet browser has been acting up, and I haven't been able to access Blogger. Not until tonight it finally occurred to me to go back to Internet Explorer.

Voila! Here I am.

It was a busy weekend for me. My in-laws are moving out of state, away from the house they've lived in for over 40 years. Their new place has much less storage, so our house is now the repository for all the family heirlooms. Over the weekend we moved tons of furniture, moved out a bunch of our old stuff to make room, and packed away things like the bassinet my dh's great-grandmother wove by hand. We moved a total of eight dressers (4 in, 4 out), 4 nightstands, 2 chairs, 4 huge mirrors, 2 desks, and a ginormous TV. Plus photos, paintings, pocket watches, and more. We're all sore as heck, and there's more coming this weekend. Anyway, here are a few pics of the new and improved household. A lot of the furniture pieces are from my dh's grandparents, which makes them even more exciting. (The rose-colored chairs are thrift-shop fillers, and will go away when we get a couple of our antique ones recovered.)

Another Shiny New Cover

2011-05-18T17:26:00.000-04:00

Coming August 29 from Carina Press!

I'm being interviewed

2011-05-17T13:54:00.000-04:00

At Molly Daniels's blog. Please stop by and say hello if you get the chance!

Happy Friday the Thirteenth!

2011-05-13T13:09:00.000-04:00

I'm blogging over at Romance Books R Us today about superstitions AND giving away a copy of Midsummer Dreams. Please stop by if you get the chance at: http://bit.ly/kyWrIz

An Off Week

2011-05-11T20:14:00.000-04:00

Sorry I haven't blogged much this week. Been under the weather. Hope to be back soon! Catch me Friday at Romance Books R Us for sure.

Worlds of Possibilities

2011-05-08T23:00:00.000-04:00

I got two submissions sent off this weekend, so the waiting game begins on those. Two others are still out with publishers, sent by my agent. And I'm actually at a point where I don't have any book I have to write, like immediately. It's kind of a weird feeling. I've been up to my neck in deadlines, and suddenly, for a little while, they're all taken care of.

So, what to work on? I do have one WIP going, which is the final book for the Holiday series, but there's lots of time on that since it's a Halloween story. My agent has two partials to work with as well as the two fulls she's trying to place. So for the first time in quite a while, I actually have time to sit and play with ideas and fiddle around with possible new projects. A new historical? A steampunk world that's all tech and no fantasy? A series based on a new shifter mythos I've been toying with? Erotic, or mainstream? Paranormal or not? Maybe even--gasp--something other than romance? The possibilities are literally endless.

Some days, I just love being a writer!

Mother's Day and Memories

2011-05-06T06:54:00.001-04:00

Saturday Update: Since everyone at my house has a vicious cold, we'll be spending NEXT weekend packing, and Mother's Day lazing around commiserating. Isn't that the way things go?

This year we'll spend Mother's Day helping my in-laws pack up to move out of state. As their new home will be much smaller, there's a lot of stuff to go through and keep, sell, donate or throw away. Sometimes it's a rough decision. All the photographs? Even if they're of people no one living can identify? My husband's grandmother's wedding dress that's so small it would take a rare descendant to ever wear it? As we're the only children left in the state, often the question comes down to, "is there a place to put it in our house?" My boys aren't quite ready to move out, so we can't pass furniture on to them yet. We can't afford to keep a storage locker indefinitely, and we already have a full basement from when my parents downsized years ago, and from when my mother and then my older brother passed away. Going through things with my mother-in-law and hearing the stories attached? Well, that's a gift in itself.

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there, and to those who are gone, well, we're thinking of you, too. I don't have a lot of photos scanned in to my computer, but here's one, just for fun, just for Mother's Day. This is probably about 8 years old and maybe the last picture of my mother and I, a couple years before she died. Not a great photo, but at least we're both smiling.