Happy 4th of July!

Wishing you all a great 4th today! Have fun and be safe!

LOVE ME KNOTS by Dee Tenorio

LOVE ME KNOTS by Dee comes out August 4th, through Samhain Publishing.

Shiloh Walker: Inspire me

Bred for destruction but longing for redemption, this second chance is all they have.

Faced with the choice of torment or redemption, Jonah accepts the bargain laid out by his guardian angel as he lies dying in the street alone. Change…or die. Not a hard choice, it seems. But then he meets Lily and has to wonder just what he’s agreed to by accepting this new life.

Even the angels call Lily unique—and she is. Born of a demon, but longing to be more, her one wish is granted—temporarily. But now her time is running out and she has an impossible task set before her. It doesn’t help that she can’t stop thinking of Jonah…or the very real demons that will come hunting her once they realize where she is.

With demons and angels tracking their every move, Jonah and Lily have a life to save before they can save themselves.

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My latest ebook, THE REDEEMING, comes out today. The book’s tagline pretty much sums up the story quite nicely:

Bred for destruction but longing for redemption, this second chance is all they have.

>I love second chance stories-stories about people who are all but broken, and in the case of this story’s hero and heroine, pretty much beyond all hope. The heroine is a demon-a succubus, to be exact. The hero is a witch who lived his life doing whatever it took to survive, and it took some pretty bad things. He’s lying in a gutter, dying, and he’s offered another chance.

I’m not entirely sure where the idea for the book came from. I wrote it a few years ago and it was previously published by another publisher. I’ve done some revising and expanding on it, and a LOT of cleaning up. I remember the direction I’d wanted with the book… but the idea itself? Nope. I think it was one of those ideas that was just there.

Some of my stories are like that-Whipped Cream & Handcuffs, Chains, Under Your Spell

Others, I can remember clear as crystal how the idea evolved. The first Hunters story, Hunters: Declan & Tori, I had been reading a vamp story where the heroine was constantly doing stupid things, knowing it was stupid, things that should have gotten her killed and she just whistled her way through. I wanted a book with a butt-kicking heroine who wasn’t so arrogant, who wasn’t so stubborn. And one morning I woke up and Tori was there, in my head.

Through the Veil was another one. I bruise-easy. Very easy. Bump me and I can bruise. One morning my husband and I were making the bed and he saw this bruise on my hip. He asked where it came from and I gave my normal answer-I dunno. He sighs, shakes his head and said, “People are going to think I beat you.” A few hours later, he comes up and tells me, “You need to write a book about a woman who keeps waking up with bruises and she doesn’t know how. Turns out she’s being sucked into another world in her sleep where she’s fighting a war.” And I go… hmmmmm

The book I just finished for Samhain, Candy Houses, that’s another one I can remember how the idea evolved. It started with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and ended with a book of fairy tales by the Grimm brothers.

Somebody a few days ago asked me where my ideas came from, and the answer that just seems to be life. An idea will literally just come out of nowhere-I’m watching a movie, listening to the news, reading a book and something just catches me. When you’re a writer, everything is fair play.

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Leave a comment to enter a drawing for one of Ms Walker’s backlist titles (electronic books only, winner’s choice of format). Visit her website at www.shilohwalker.com for the full list and excerpts.

BROKEN by Shiloh Walker

The Cover Gods have been awesome with Berkley covers lately. Take a look at the cover of BROKEN by Shiloh Walker. Doesn’t come out until March 2, 2010. (Perfect birthday present to myself since my birthday is March 9. ) Isn’t it yummy? And it’s Quinn’s story! Was hoping he’d get a story when I read Shiloh’s FRAGILE back in February.

Shattered

Quinn Rafferty is working as a bounty hunter and bail bondsman in St. Louis when a new neighbor catches his eye. He’s tempted by her beauty—but he knows from experience that anyone desperate enough to live in his building is damaged goods. Besides, he has his own soul to mend before he can worry about anyone else.

Desperate

Sarah McElya is on the run, but not for the usual reasons a woman goes on the lam. She’s not an abused wife, and she’s not a criminal. But she does have a plan for her future. And as much as she finds herself attracted to her gruff, tough neighbor, she can’t risk telling him the secrets she’s hiding. There’s just too much at stake.

Driven to desire…

But Quinn must get closer to Sarah when she turns out to be the target of his new missing persons case, and he discovers that there is something more complex and dangerous to her than he thought. Now, both Quinn and Sara will have to expose their true feelings—as well as their fragile hearts—if they hope their love will survive…

Beth Williamson: It Was About Who They Could Be

Plum Creek, Colorado 1875

ONCE UPON A TIME, THEY LOVED EACH OTHER

Nothing about the room that Eppie awakens in feels like home—not the furnishings, the ill-fitting clothes, or the Colorado sunlight streaming in through the windows. And certainly not the stranger with long dark hair and silver eyes who claims to have been waiting for her for three long years.

Micah Spalding has spent each day hoping that Eppie would open her eyes and return to him. Yet the Eppie he loved was spirited and outspoken—utterly different to this reserved, aloof woman. Since her injury, Eppie has no memory of Micah or their daughter, or of a passion that was powerful enough to defy every convention. And though his scent and touch trigger something deep within her, Eppie can’t bring herself to believe in him.

Once, when war between his countrymen had almost broken him, Eppie brought Micah back to life. Now he must find a way to reach through the distance between them and remind her of everything they once shared, and prove that he has belief enough for both of them…

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There are many facets to my release, The Redemption of Micah, not the least of which is the characters are emotionally and physically damaged. They each suffered in their own way, and struggled to overcome the mountains thrown in their path. I’ve thrown in quite a few including race, culture, age, an illegitimate child, and oh yes, amnesia.

I know what you’re thinking. Amnesia again? Sheesh! But I’ve taken it a step farther with Eppie – she loses who she is along the way and is caught between her past and her future. In addition, she discovers she’s given birth to a child while she was in a coma. She’s a very strong person though, if you remember her from Madeline’s story, and her challenge is to find out who she is beneath all the layers of confusion.

Micah on the other hand, has perfected the art of emotional self-flagellation. He constantly whips himself over what he has or hasn’t done, yet he loves Eppie desperately. He knows there are so many choices he’s made in his life that there’s no way he could ever make up for it. His obstacles are all self-made and his task is almost bigger than the woman he loves.

I think the theme underlying Micah and Eppie’s story is about who they could be. You see, they’d both lost their way, intentionally or not. Separately, they could not find the road back. Does that make sense? It’s as if they were two parts of the same whole, broken and in need of healing. It was only when they came together that they found who they could be. The best kind of relationship is one in which you find something about yourself you didn’t know existed. Micah found his soul again while Eppie found her heart again.

These aren’t physical things, but rather spiritual. I think in a story that is important for a character to grow, to change, to heal. Micah’s path is bumpy as a backroad on a mountain. While Eppie’s is more like a valley full of pot holes she sank into, figuratively speaking of course.

It’s not about the difference in their skin color, their backgrounds or even their age difference. It’s about the love their shared, about how that love was the balm that healed their wounds and allowed them to be who they could be. I’d like to believe we can all be a better person when we meet the person who makes us whole, our other half. Very romantic of me, I know. LOL. Imagine that, a romance novelist who is a romantic? Who’da thunk it?

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To learn more and read excerpts visit Ms Williamson’s website at www.bethwilliamson.com and remember to leave a comment here to enter the drawing–two lucky winners will get either a signed copy of the upcoming The Redemption of Micah or a signed copy of The Education of Madeline.

Megan Hart: The Reality of Fiction

Some lovers never leave you…

Twenty years ago she had her whole life spread out before her like a mesmerizing map. She was Bess Walsh, a fresh-scrubbed, middle-class student ready to conquer the design world. And she was taken. Absolutely and completely.

But not by Andy, her well-groomed, intellectual boyfriend who hinted more than once about a ring. No. During that hot summer as a waitress and living on the beach, she met Nick, a dark haired, local bad boy. He was, to put it mildly, not someone she could take home to Daddy.

Instead, Nick became her dirty little secret; a fervent sexual accomplice who knew how to ignite an all-consuming obsession she had no idea she carried deep within her.

Bess had always wondered what happened to Nick after that summer, after their promise to meet again. And now, back at the beach house and taking a break from responsibility, from marriage, from life, she discovers his heartbreaking fate–and why he never came back for her. Suddenly Nick’s name is on her lips…his hands on her thighs…dark hair and eyes called back from the swirling gray of purgatory’s depths.

Dead, alive, or something in-between, they can’t stop their hunger.

She wouldn’t dare.

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Write what you know. Every beginning writer’s probably heard that more than once, and most writers have repeated it a few times, too. Yet fiction, by its very nature, is, well… MADE UP.

I’ve never posed as a robotic prostitute or piloted a space ship or owned a beach house, but my characters have. I’ve never done most of the things my characters have done, have lived very little of their lives. So how did I write what I know and managed to write those stories, too?

Simple. For me, writing what I know doesn’t automatically mean writing only what I have personally experienced. It means taking what I know, what I’ve felt and done and lived, and using the bits and pieces of those emotions and experiences to build and develop characters and plots that feel real to me. Because if they feel real to me, it’s more likely they’ll feel real to a reader.

On the other hand, I’ll admit to pinching moments from my own life to use in books. Scraps of dialogue overheard on a bus might fit a scene just right. Descriptions of characters sometimes come from real life celebrity crushes, or random stranger sightings. The most minor details in my books are usually the ones lifted from my daily life – while editing my upcoming Spice release, Naked (summer 2010) I read over a section in which the heroine, Olivia, is serving herself food from a buffet. Crackers, cheese with cranberry mustard, grapes. I’d eaten the exact items at a holiday party just before writing that scene. I can go over books and tell you what I was listening to or watching on TV at the time I wrote them, what movies I’d just seen or what books I’d just read, trips I’d taken, all because all of those things get filtered into whatever I’m writing at the time.

I’d be a liar, too, if real-life situations didn’t sometimes influence plot. I’ve said before that I write about what I’d like to have happen to me, or what I’m scared to have happen to me. Well, sometimes, I do write about what has happened to me. Never exactly, of course. Fiction is obviously more flexible than real life – what’s the point of writing a story if you can’t make it end the way you want it to, even if that’s not how it really happened? But sure, there are chunks of my personal experience that drive the plots of my books.

Deeper is a good example of that. Summer flings are so common I’d bet almost everyone’s had one (or more than one!) And I’d bet I’m not the only woman who looks back with fondness and an occasional nostalgic sigh to summer romance, whether it worked out, or not. Besides, isn’t it usually the ones that didn’t last that we think about when the days get longer and the sun shines hotter, and we don’t have all day to spend at the beach the way we did when we were young…but boy, wouldn’t it be nice if we could?

Deeper is Bess’s story. Twenty years ago she had a summer fling. Hot, sexy and touched with more than just a bit of angst. Life went on, things changed, but now she’s back at the beach and so’s Nick, the bad boy lover she fell for so many years ago. Time moves on for a reason, but some things never change…and some lovers never leave you. This summer’s a second chance for them both. The question is, a second chance for what?

Of all the novels I’ve written, Deeper is the one based most on things that really happened, and even so, nothing in the book is real. I write what I know, but it’s still all fiction.

I hope you all enjoy Deeper as much as I did writing it. Thanks for reading!

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Visit Ms Hart at her website, www.meganhart.com for an excerpt, and leave a comment to enter the drawing for a signed copy of Deeper.

Jessica Inclan: O, Canada!

They are here among us…

Far from home, gifted with special abilities, hunted for their powers. And they are desperate to find their other, the one who completes them… before it’s too late…

SOMETIMES, TIME REALLY DOES STAND STILL

Mila Adams has always known she was different. It’s not just that she’s a Mission District bohemian artist in rarefied San Francisco society. No, it’s that for as long as she can remember, she has had the ability to shift time, and who would believe that? Certainly not the obnoxious blind dates her mother keeps foisting off on her. Mila can’t help feeling there’s someone out there for her, a soul mate who might understand her unique ability. And when she looks into the dark eyes of financial whiz Garrick McClellan, time feels as if it has opened up on its own—and this time, Mila has nothing to do with it.

Any man would lust after a beauty like Mila, but the moment Garrick touches her—feels her shifting time just as he can—he recognizes her as his partner in power. Their connection is immediate, passionate, raw, and beyond anything either has ever experienced. But who are they? What is this gift that joins them so intensely? Are there others like them? And why do they feel that time is running out?

Being With Him is the third title in Ms Inclan’s second romance trilogy, and it will be released in October 2009

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Often when I am bored and without a good, solid lead on my life’s progress, I Google myself. Yes, and worse, sometimes I check to see how things are going with my books on Amazon. These are a couple of my little obsessions, and I’m trying to come clean about them.

So yesterday in ten minutes between nothing and leaving the house for a night out with friends, I thought I’d check out Amazon for the day, and much to my amazement, I found this book that I had written:

Trade Negotiations In Agriculture: A Future Common Agenda For Brazil And Canada

by Jessica Barksdale Inclan
Paperback: University Of Calgary Press (January 1, 2006)
List price: $51.76
ASIN: B001VAZXTG [ detailed view ]
Amazon sales rank: n/a
Availability: This item is currently unavailable (Subject to change)

My god, I’d forgotten that study and intense writing I did on trade negotiations in between writing romance novels and teaching fulltime. But slowly, it all came back to me, as though it were from a past life. How remarkable, that time in those two countries. It seemed, so, well a dream, that time in Brazil and Canada, those days with the vast plains of each country. As I peered at the computer screen and read more about my academic writing history, dribs and drabs of that experience came back to me. There I was as I stood on the hilltops, overlooking the areas either devastated for agriculture or forced into it. Driving my ramshackle cars about both places, I conferred daily with senior politicians and economists. My hair grew long, my face tanned. I bought a lot of sunscreen. My frequent flier miles were all but depleted.

I supposed that’s why my teaching went a little downhill in 2006. And I did have a hard time keeping to schedule with the novels. It wasn’t the divorce, no. It wasn’t my new relationship. It wasn’t the fact that my youngest had flown the coop. No, it was all the cows in Brazil and the soy bean fields in Canada. It was all about goats. Or sheep. Or maybe it was about the rainforest.

All that work, and for no Amazon sales rank. All that work, and this item is currently unavailable. If I only knew what that work was, really.

It’s my dream, though, and I hold onto it. Trade. Negotiations. Agriculture. O! Canada!

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Visit Ms Inclan’s website at www.jessicabarksdaleinclan.com for excerpts–and leave a comment to this thread for a chance to win a signed copy of Intimate Beings, the second title in her second romance trilogy.

Hitting Close To Home –

Just saw on Twitter that Book Binge is looking to help a reader, Scooper, who lost all her books in a home fire. This hits way too close to home for me.

Several years ago my family lived in a townhouse that was connected to others. In all, our building had seven families in it. One of the neighbor’s started a grease fire. She had left chicken frying on the stove while she went upstairs to change her baby’s diaper. When she came back and saw the flames, she threw water at it. Oil + water = raging inferno that went out of control and wiped out the whole building in less than twenty minutes. It was a weekday and when it happened, most of the residents weren’t home. The only residents home that day were my family and this neighbor and her son. Thankfully no one was hurt and we were able to get everyone out before the fire department arrived. I can still remember standing away from the building and watching how fast the fire spread throughout the building. It was horrible. I remember thinking that as long as no one was hurt, things could be replaced. Lives couldn’t. So even though we lost everything, we were OK because I still had my husband and my girls. The neighbors all had their lives, despite thinking the neighbor who started the fire was an idiot , (who throws water on a grease fire?) I was still glad that she and her son survived that fire. What did it matter that everything else was gone? We were alive and that was the most important thing.

It wasn’t until a few days later that I thought enough to let some online friends know what had happened. I’ll never forget what happened next. Boxes and boxes of stuff starting arriving at the post office. Boxes filled with house stuff. And the books. Lord, boxes and boxes filled with books for me. Books for my girls. So many boxes. All filled with books. From friends. From authors. From people I didn’t even know but because the word had gone out online about what happened to us, they found it in their hearts to send someone they’ve never met books to help start a new collection to make up for all the books lost in the fire. This has been something that I’ve never forgotten because without the generosity and love of so many online people, people I probably will never have the chance to meet face to face to thank them, I was able to rebuild my TBR. Yes, it’s kind of out of control *now* but then, it was one thing I didn‘t have to worry about in between getting a new place to stay, making sure the girls stayed in the same school they were in even though we lived out of the district, bills that needed to be paid, etc.

So I’m asking you (OK, begging works too, if needed *g*) to look through Scooper’s list here, here and here and see if you have an extra copy of a book she’s read or a book you think she’d be interested in, and email Holly at Book Binge (holly @ thebookbinge.com without the spaces) for details on where to send the book and/or books.  Let’s help Scooper rebuild her collection, please!

Marie Force: When Friendship Turns to Love

What if the guy in the airplane seat next to you turned out to be the love of your life?

Juliana, happy in her career as a hair stylist, is on her way to visit her boyfriend of ten years who’s working out of state. She’s wondering why they’re not engaged yet. Michael is going to his fiance’s parents’ home for an engagement party he doesn’t want. A states’ prosecutor, he’s about to try the biggest case of his career, he hates the distraction, and he’s having doubts about the relationship.

They sit together on the plane, and discover they’re on the same flight coming back. When the weekend is a disaster for each of them, they bond on the plane ride home. But life is full of complications, including their exes, who don’t want to let go, and when Michael’s trial turns dangerous, the two must confront what they value most in life…

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Thanks for having me today! As a reader of romance, I love turning points. Don’t you just live for that moment when these two individuals leave their separate selves behind and become one? Sometimes, one of them realizes the significance of this new relationship before the other. That’s what happens in my new book, Love at First Flight, in stores this week.

My characters, Michael Maguire and Juliana Gregorio, meet at the Baltimore airport on a Friday evening when they are on their way to visit their significant others in Florida. After they each endure a disastrous weekend, they meet up again on the flight home, striking up an unlikely friendship that leads to love. One of the things I love best about this book is the way Michael and Juliana are friends first and lovers second. Their love blossoms slowly and sweetly as they support each other through difficult breakups and challenging work and family situations.

I thought I’d share an excerpt from one of Michael and Juliana’s turning points, when he puts his heart on the line to tell her how he’s feeling . . .

Michael kept an arm around her as they went outside. Once they were in the car, he turned to her. “I’m not looking for a rebound, Juliana. That’s not what this is.”

“Then what is it?” she asked softly.

He ran a finger over her cheek to brush away a lone tear. “It’s not a rebound.”

“I don’t want it, Michael. Whatever it is. I love Jeremy.”

“I know you do, but you see, the thing is, I’m falling for you, Juliana.”

“What?” she asked, flabbergasted. She pushed his hand away from her face. “You can’t mean that!”

He kept his eyes locked on hers. “In the five days I’ve known you, you’ve given me more, been there for me more, done more for me than Paige did in four years. I knew I would care for you from almost the first moment I saw you. When I found you crying in the airport on Sunday, all I wanted to do was scoop you up and take you home with me.”

New tears wet Juliana’s cheeks. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”

He took her hand. “On Friday night I tried to get Paige to marry me right away. Do you know why?”

Juliana shook her head.

“Because I was terrified after I met you. I already knew everything was about to change, and I guess a part of me thought I should try to stop it. But I was powerless to stop it. In those first moments with you, I knew I wouldn’t marry her.”

“Michael,” she sobbed. “Stop. Stop saying these things.”

“Juliana, any man who would let you think, for even one minute, that you aren’t enough for him doesn’t deserve you.”

“Please,” she whimpered. “Please stop.”

With a hand to her chin, he turned her to him. “I knew I was falling for you when you jumped right in with Rachelle on Sunday night and did her hair. I knew it when I found you dancing in the kitchen when you were making me dinner. I knew it because my heart almost stopped when you told me someone hassled you on the street. I knew it when I heard you talking to Rachelle about what she saw, and you said all the right things—all the things she needed to hear.” He ran his thumb along her jaw. “And when I felt your fingers in my hair I knew I wanted them there always. Don’t tell me I don’t know what I’m saying.”

He leaned over to kiss her gently, without demand, and for one breathless moment, she let him. Then she pulled away. “Michael. My head is spinning. Please don’t.”

“I’m sorry. I know this isn’t a good time for you to be hearing this, but I couldn’t let you think this was about rebounds. I’m not going to pressure you or push you, so you don’t have to worry about that. I’m going to be so wrapped up in this trial for the next month or two I won’t have time for anything else. I just wanted you to know.”

“I can’t stay with you anymore. Not now.”

“Why? I just said I’m not going to do anything about it.”

“Because everything’s going to be weird between us.”

He took her hand again. “It won’t be weird because you’ll hardly see me. I don’t want you to go.”

“I don’t know… I’ll only stay if you promise not to mention any of this again. I can’t deal with it on top of everything else.”

“I promise I won’t say another word about it until you do.”

She pulled her hand out of his grasp. “That’s not going to happen.”

“We’ll see,” he said, starting the car to drive them home. “We’ll just see about that.”

© Marie Force, Sourcebooks Casablanca, 2009

What are some of your favorite turning points in romance novels or movies? What do you think of friendship that turns to love? I’ll give away a copy of each of my books—Line of Scrimmage and Love at First Flight—to commenters. If you’ve already read Line of Scrimmage, just let me know.

If you wish to discuss all the rules I broke in Love at First Flight, join me Monday, July 20, at 7 p.m. EDT on my blog (http://mariesullivanforce.blogspot.com) for a book club discussion. Warning, there will be spoilers, so make sure you read the book before the party! I’ll be giving away some great prizes to participants.

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Thank you, Ms Force!

Leave a comment to enter the drawing . (Limited to US and Canada residents, sorry!) Visit Ms Force at her website, www.mariesullivanforce.com

:super sad sigh: Yet another unclaimed prize… Dakota Cassidy’s new winner!

Amy never came back so after much typing and a quick randomizing,  we have a new winner!

Qwill!

Check out Ms Cassidy’s website to choose one title from her backlist–then email me at azteclady1 at yahoo dot com within 48hrs with your mailing address so we can get your prize out to you.

Please post a comment to this thread if I don’t acknowledge your email; otherwise, you forfeit your prize.