EVIL IN CARNATIONS by Kate Collins

The dating scene can be a killer…

Determined to help her roommate Nikki out of her singles slump, Abby Knight encourages her to give speed dating a try. Of course, Nikki wants the guy at the very bottom of Abby’s list, Jonas Treat—a.k.a. “Treat the Cheat”—and figures just one date with him couldn’t hurt. But then Jonas is found dead—and evidence points to Nikki as his killer.

To clear Nikki’s name, Abby enlists the help of her hunky ex-Army Ranger boyfriend, Marco. But Marco’s rambunctious extended family turns Abby’s hectic life into a disaster zone. With her patience seriously wilting, and a killer on the loose, Abby is determined to dig herself out of this mess—before someone buries her instead…

Werewolves and Vampires and Romance, Oh My!

Confession time.

I find werewolves a teensy bit, well — hot. Something about a man in love becoming feral and passionate at the same time is kind of, I don’t know, exotic. Sexy. Provoking.

Not that I’d want my husband to go all hairy on me. Or grow long canines. His teeth are quite nice the way they are. So is his back.

I attended a writers’ conference once where a well known author read an excerpt from her book. In the excerpt, an extremely handsome, well-endowed man, trapped in the female protagonist’s attic at night with a full moon overhead, becomes a wolf — a very sexy wolf. And as the writer described the interaction between the two characters, the audience hung on her every word. No one so much as coughed. That’s how spell-binding it was. I think every woman in the conference hall ran out and bought her book the next day. So, clearly, I’m not alone in my thinking.

Vampires, on the other hand – nuh-uh. Doesn’t do it for me. Somehow being punctured in the throat and drained of blood by a pale dead guy who sleeps in a box with a lid on it holds no thrill. Actually, it turns me off. Why are vampire novels so popular?

At least I have some good news to report for all of us mystery lovers. According to an article in USA Today, entitled “Librarians ‘hold’ mystery suspect,” by Jacqueline Blais, librarians have verified, via their own list of the Books Most Borrowed in U.S. Libraries, that the fiction most sought-after by patrons is mysteries. Cool, huh? (The list is posted at 20 times a year.)

Hmm. I wonder if I can work a werewolf into one my Flower Shop Mysteries. What would Abby Knight do if she were confronted by a werewolf? Or…. what if her hunky ex-Army Ranger boyfriend, Marco Salvare, WAS a werewolf!  It’s something to think about.

Okay, I told you my secret. Want to share yours? What do you find exotic, arousing, or provoking in a novel?

Kate Collins

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SECOND CHANCES by Denise Belinda McDonald

Be careful what you ask for. It might come with spurs—and baggage.

The Paintbrush Series

After catching her boyfriend with his pants around his knees while a walking, talking cliché takes “dictation”, Suzanne Walters quits her job, quits her man, quits Texas and moves to Wyoming to find the woman she used to be. Unfortunately, her first five minutes in Paintbrush finds her facing down the town bully in the local diner—and running smack into the one thing she’s not looking for: a wet dream in cowboy boots, Jacob Bowman.

Jacob excels at two things—flying under the radar, and saving his pennies in hopes of running his own ranch someday. He can’t stop thinking about the fantasy in tight Wranglers who nearly mowed him down exiting the diner. The curvy, vivacious spitfire makes his mouth go dry. She’s got her eye on him, as well, but her determination to prove her independence is just as strong as the sexual pull between them.

Life’s knocks have given them both strong hearts, and even stronger wills. As danger looms, that stubborn pride could cost their one chance to discover if there’s something more between them than great sex.

Will they swallow their pride, or will they lose it all?

Warning: Cowboys and horses and bullies OH MY! Sweet, sweet loving and a little rowdy behavior.

Thanks, Fatin, for asking/letting me talk about SECOND CHANCES at Novel Thoughts and Book Talk. I am excited to be here 🙂

Writers are always asked how or why they came up with a plotline. SECOND CHANCES began while I was reading another author’s book. Her book was about Special Forces type people in a foreign country. Mine is cowboys and bullies in Wyoming—you see the connection, right?!?

No, well, not an obvious connection. There was a scene in the other author’s book where the hero had been hurt and the heroine had to care for him. My mind warps to the “what if” game. What if the heroine was hurt and the hero had to take care if her? What if she was shot trying to help him? What if he was a sinfully hot Cowboy?

I envisioned the scene and worked backwards as to how they, tall dark and gorgeous cowboy Jacob Bowman and spunky sexy Texas transplant Zan Walters, got to that point. That was all it took for me to write the book. Oddly enough, too, when the germ of the story came to be, despite having only a bear bones idea, I knew it would be set in Wyoming. I could picture the small fictional town of Paintbrush, Wyoming and the folks who inhabited it. Then Whamo: it all fell into place, even right down to all the colorful secondary characters. They lend such a flavor and back-drop for Jacob and Zan. Paintbrush was an easy place to play up the culture—who doesn’t love cowboys young and old (granted, I am a wee bit biased as I live in Fort Worth, Texas and my grand father bought me my first horse when I was two weeks old.)

And, I get to revisit and delve further into the lives of all the characters of the Paintbrush series as I work on Zan’s nephew, Quint’s story in book two.

All the books I have written are labors of love, but there is something about SECOND CHANCES that always makes me smile when I read through it—maybe because of my love of cowboys or maybe because I have some strange fixation with Wyoming (even though I have never been there). Still, working on book two the adoration hasn’t ceased at all. I hope y’all enjoy Paintbrush, Wyoming and its many inhabitants as much as I do. 🙂

*****Leave a comment for the chance to win a download of SECOND CHANCES. Good Luck! 🙂

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