I got a new contract! hee hee

ok so not that huge, but I'm really excited and here's why...

Through a very good friend, I've discovered a new publishing company, Blade Publishing. I've received what I hope is the first of many contracts from them for a new book entitled Untamable. More about the story in a sec, but first, if you are an established or aspiring author and you are looking for a publisher, I'd love it if you checked out Blade. This is Abby Carmichael's labor of love and she has so many wonderful ideas that will set this publisher apart. I know, new e-pubs are a scary thing, but she's open to answering any questions, she's enthusiastic, she has a heart for charity and she works her ass off! Least of all, there’s the fact that I take my work very seriously and I don’t send it to just anyone…believe me! So check out the site and have a look around.

Now...Untamable!

Rhys Eckhart is haunted by dreams. Dreams of a childhood torn apart by tragedy and dreams of a woman he’d do anything to possess. Trapped by scars no one could possibly understand, he's spent most of his adult life effectively building walls to keep everyone out. Until one small woman rocks his world to its core and suddenly it’s time to face his demons.

Harlee dreams of a life with white picket fences and babies and puppies. She wants nice and orderly and controllable. She has a plan and she’s holding onto it tight, despite the quiet whisperings of her heart, until the night Rhys walks into her life. Now she’s dealing with passion and forbidden temptations and tormented by what ifs. The biggest one, what if she wasn’t already his brother’s fiancée?

I am so excited about this new series. Three books will tell the story of brothers, Rhys and Justin, but also, of their mother Olivia. These three have not had an easy road of things, there is a lot of pain in this family, but as you must know by now, my favorite thing is to take broken people and heal them with love. Keep an eye on the blog and the coming soon page for more info as it becomes available!

And one last thing I can not overlook, what do you think of that cover?! I think it's the best one I've gotten in such a long time and I'm thrilled with it. To be honest, I had the cover before I wrote the story, so it really inspired me. It's the work of the fabulous Shonna Brannon, who I can't say enough about. Her work is sexy and fresh. Check out her site if you aren't familiar because she also does site designs, banners, all manner of things. You won't be sorry you took a look. ;-)

ok, that's it for now, have a great week!

Labels: blade publishing, book contract, erotic romances, shonna brannon, web design

As I'm sure you all are very aware, record floods have hit Iowa leaving most of the state a disaster area and thousands of people homeless. My heart breaks every time I hear of a natural disaster happening anywhere, but this one of course is here at home.

If you are at all like me, you are looking for ways to help, here's a list of things I've been able to come up with so far. If you are able to assist in flood relief efforts, there are many ways to help your neighbors in Iowa. Here are some resources to get involved, please help anyway you can.

• Call 2-1-1:When you call 2-1-1, you can receive information on flood-related assistance, including road closings, evacuation and shelter information. Opportunities to help are available by zip code, so anyone can find out where to help near their home.

• Iowa Concern Hotline:
  Volunteer hotline for people who wish to help in recovery efforts.
  1-800-447-1985

• Iowa City Flood Hotline:
  319-887-6202

• Johnson County Emergency Management:
  319-356-6028

• Salvation Army Emergency Disaster Service Program -- Cedar Rapids: 319-378-0337

• Red Cross is handling the clothing donations, and apparently only drop-offs. If you're in the area and want to donate, call (800) 733-2767 to make sure they're still looking for what you've got. (My guess is, yes, they'll be looking for stuff above a size 16 for women, at least.)

• Please don't forget about the animals. Contacting the Humane Society to see about helping homeless pets. My guess here is that foster homes near the area will be especially helpful, since so many people are moving into temporary housing where pets aren't allowed and so many pets may have gotten lost in the chaos already. They'll be scared and need care until hopefully they can be reunited with their families.

• this link is for info on where volunteer sandbaggers and the like are needed.

• the last time the river flooded, the Mennonites did a ton of rebuilding for people. I have no reason to think they won't be helping this time too. It's just that rebuilding is still a few months out. But their work is especially important for people who did not have insurance and who will not have money to hire contractors to rebuild. The Mennonite Disaster Service website is here.

• And of course, don't forget The American Red Cross

If anyone knows of any other ways to help and want to add to this post, please leave the information in comments. And please don't forget prayer, it helps more then most people think.

Labels: Iowa Flood

I finished Untamable last week and sent it to the publisher...fingers crossed, this is my new favorite book! I hope you'll all be able to meet Rhys and Harlee soon.

So what's next?

Anything She Wants, the story of Nick Chilton and Keely Nelson. This will be the final story in the "Anything" series for Liquid Silver Books. I get a lot of mail for this series and I apologize wholeheartedly for taking so long with it. I didn't like the first version enough, so I went back to the drawing board. Then my personal life went nuts, moving, getting engaged, you know, little things. But I am back on track and ready to make this story everything it should be.

I think in the end, you all will agree it was worth the wait.

I also owe fans of Body, Heart and Soul, two more books, and I do intend to have those finished by the end of summer.

I'm very excited where my writing is headed, I'm putting the erotic romances on the back burner for a bit (with the above exceptions) and will be focusing on more mainstream romance. Oh don't worry, they'll still be super sexy, but the focus will be more on the story rather than the sex.

I want to tell stories of families and small towns, rich playboys and shy virgins, and damsels in distress and their sexy rescuers. I want to write in all the layers you get in a full length mainstream romance and play out the slow dance of arousal between a man and a woman, bringing it to a thoroughly satisfying end for all concerned.

I was getting a little burned out the end of last year, and this new direction has brought me back to life. I so appreciate everyone who's written to me to say how much you love my stories and the characters I create. I plan to be doing a lot more of it!

Labels: anything series, erotic romances, romance authors, series, wips

Here's a quick--rough and unedited--look at the story I'm working on right now. It's the story of Rhys Eckhart and Harlee Cristen. Rhys is a very rough hero, there are moments where he's really not very likable, but his past is rough and I think when it comes out why he is the way he is, people will understand why Harlee can't shake her attraction or need to be with him...despite her engagement to Rhy's brother Justin.

Untamable is a full length story, just under 70k and I'm pretty much through the rough draft now and am polishing my little heart out. I love this story, it's very similar in feel for me to Anything After Sunday? and The Day They Met and I can't wait to share the whole thing with you! In the mean time, enjoy this little sneak peak. ;-)

**Excerpt contains explicit language

Chapter One

“Another.”

Rhys lifted his head high enough off the old wood bar to look Izzy in the eye so he’d know how serious he was. Izzy brought the bottle of aged whiskey down to Rhys and filled his shot glass for the eighth time. He leaned back against the sideboard, his arms folded across his chest as he looked down on Rhys.

“You slowin’ down anytime soon?”

“Not in this lifetime, buddy.”

Rhys toasted his friend, then knocked back the liquor in one gulp. Nothing other than complete obliteration was going to help him tonight. He slammed the empty shot glass on the bar.

“Another.”

“Rhys.”

“Another, goddamnit!” His palm slammed down next to the glass and Izzy hesitantly complied with his wishes. Rhys smiled up devilishly before knocking back the next shot. He knew doubles would have gotten him where he was wanting to go quicker, but there was something pleasurable for him in this slow torture.

So much for sober.

The scent of sour booze and sweaty bodies mixed with too much cologne and tobacco smoke making a scent indistinguishable as anything other than that of a pool hall. The sound of cue balls clacking against solids and stripes caused a throbbing sensation behind his eyes and someone had put money in the old jukebox, which hadn’t seen new music in ten years. Right now it was playing something even older, something from the sixties, Rhys thought. He could hear laughter too. He was glad at least someone was having a good night.

Izzy’s place wasn’t the classiest, but it was where Rhys felt at home. Probably because he’d rented a room upstairs for the better part of nine years. Technically it was home.

Izzy dried highball glasses, eyeing Rhys skeptically, but Rhys new he’d never be able to explain this, not even to his best friend.

“You know there are quicker ways to kill yourself. My uncle drank himself to death. It took sixty-seven years, a kidney transplant, a cancer scare and finally a bad liver. It wasn’t pretty.”

“Well, gee thanks, Izzy. If I want AA, they’re just down the street. All I want from you is another shot.”

He held up his glass and watched Izzy openly wonder whether he should comply or not.

“I’ll help you get upstairs. You can sleep it off and tomorrow will be a new day.”

He’d made an obvious attempt to inject some saccharine into his tone and had finished his plea with a perky smile. Since as a general rule, Izzy didn’t do perky, Rhys knew he was going way out, but his efforts would be unappreciated tonight.

“When I’m ready to sleep it off, I’ll let you know.”

The snarly tone he used made his words sound more like a growl than anything else and as he dropped his head back on the bar, he mumbled his repeated demand for his next drink.

“Besides—” He felt a hint of amusement as he looked up at Izzy. “—I’m really doing you a favor, old pal. No self-respecting pool hall is worth its salt without a token drunk.” With concerted effort he placed a big smile on his face and stretched his arms wide. “That’s me, Izzy. Your token drunk.”

He wobbled slightly and thought for a second he might fall off his bar stool. After he corrected himself, his tone grew dark and fierce as he pushed back long strands of dark hair and moved his head close to Izzy’s then spat his words out slowly, “Now give me my god damned drink.”

Izzy stared at him for a few minutes, Rhys’ head was already spinning too much to care what his friend or anyone else thought of him tonight.

“Fine. But I’m giving you the watered-down stuff for the rest of the night.”

Rhys cursed under his breath as Izzy turned and reached under the counter for a bottle. He didn’t want watered-down alcohol. It took far too much of even the most potent liquor these days to give him a simple buzz and he wanted far more than just a buzz tonight. He took the glass Izzy held out to him and rocked it back and forward between both hands.

“You ever meet the woman of your dreams, Iz?”

Izzy chortled. “The woman in my dreams comes with a willing twin, a cousin and a curious ability to drive a man into ecstasy using only her tongue and a feather boa.”

Rhys took a long sip of whatever it was Izzy poured him, he barely tasted it anyway. “Ah, so I’ll take that as a ‘No’.”

Izzy leaned on the bar again, his arms folded beneath him. “Last time I checked, your idea of a dream woman was someone with long legs and short morals, with a wet pussy who was willing to experiment. So what’s up?”

Rhys finished his drink and handed his glass over for another but Izzy refused.

“What’s going on, Rhys?”

Rhys sat straight on the bar stool. “Hell if I know. I’m a drunk, remember?”

Izzy held Rhys’ stare for a good long while.

“I don’t buy it. You were practically on the wagon before tonight. Something happened and I find it very hard to believe it has anything to do with a woman, when I happen to know your idea of the perfect woman is one who can take it rough, doesn’t talk and doesn’t expect seconds.”

Rhys leaned forward again, playing with the empty glass just to have something to occupy his hands, his stare remaining on the wooden bar.

“I’m serious, Iz.” His eyes locked with Izzy’s. Deep blue meeting suspicious brown. “She’s been in my dreams.”

Rhys shook his head, knowing he sounded crazy. Izzy attempted to take his glass away but Rhys pulled it back.

“I’m not crazy, and it isn’t the liquor. She showed up tonight at my mother’s house—” Rhys laughed. A wicked laugh that mocked him more then it showed any real humor. “—as my brother’s fiancée.”

He reached behind the counter faster then Izzy could keep up and grabbed a bottle of clear liquid, he filled his glass and threw it back, choking as it burned his throat all the way down.

“But, I’ve seen her before.”

“In your dreams?” Izzy’s tone clearly showed his lack of faith in Rhys’ statement.

“Yeah, in my dreams.” Rhys leaned closer, all signs of humor evaporated. “For the last twenty years.”