I finished Four Sworn this week and submitted it to my editor at Samhain. Just 16k, but packed with naughtiness. I started to revise another proposal that my agent liked but thought the heroine might not seem redeemable. Then I read it again, liked it just the way it was and shipped it to one of my editors to see what she thought. If she shares his opinion, I’ll listen. If you’ve read me, you know I like taking the person who seems like someone you can’t forgive and making him or her someone you want to cheer for by the end. Or at least make their sins understandable. I’ve read too many trite “mistaken” sins that weren’t really sins and I want to read the grittier, truer version of that premise. Maybe a reader or two does too.
This week, the goal is to get the openings of a couple of new stories started and finish the synopsis for the second big book. I’ve pretty much taken care of the large goals I set for myself for April, so I can slack off a bit.
Today, I’ll be covered up with family again so no writing is happening. But pool’s open! Wheeee!
The winner of the Amazon.com GC is listed at the bottom of this posting!
But first, let’s review your choices for the next installment of Bad Moon Rising. The most votes were cast for Mason bringing DiDi dinner, which they will eat at the end of the dock. Then he will invite her to dance. They’ll share a romantic moment. The next scene will be with DiDi at the Stop ‘n’ Go where she will meet a woman who’ll explain what The Prowl is all about. Now, I just have to figure it out for myself. If you have any suggestions, remember, this is your story, I’m not supposed to be thinking too hard about the plot. You are!
I’m not planning on getting any writing done this weekend. It’s family time. I’ll be in Hot Springs with my daughter’s family today. I’m hoping the weather improves. Last night, I ran out into a hail storm with a thin straw hat on my head to protect me from ice missiles while I moved my car into the garage.
So, while I’m gone, here’s a question for your to ponder…
What is something that most people consider a modern convenience that you, quite frankly, consider a pain in the neck?
The winner of the Cat Tails contest (by random number generator) is…Terri! Terri, email me!
You still have time to enter to win an Amazon.com GC!
Cast your vote in yesterday’s poll!
I took the bubble wrap (thermal blanket) off the pool yesterday afternoon and went for it. 74 degrees and everything was nipple-y! But I’ll do it again today. I missed my daily water adventures (diving for live and dead critters).
Did manage to quick-plot the next big book. It’s complicated. Too many main characters. But I’ll go ahead and write the synopsis today and submit it. Once I begin writing, the focus will (hopefully) settle out. Also brainstormed a short novella with my BFF Sasha White. That one will be short and UNcomplicated. Need some of those. Then I spent the rest of the day, setting up files for May projects and getting them on my desktop so I can hop from one to the other when I get bored with work on the big thing.
Restarted my diet on Monday. After I quit smoking all those lovely curves I discovered last winter under the pudding disappeared as I packed on 15 freaking pounds. Why does the weight pack on so fast and disappear so slowly?
The winner will be announced Saturday. So, be sure to cast your vote,
then post a comment so I know who voted!
My horoscope today reads: Start something new — or do something over — this morning, and it should go quite well for you. Keep pushing through the afternoon, as you want to make things bigger, bolder and better then! Which kinda works because today I’m supposed to be revising a proposal. Looks hopeful, huh? Did I mention that I finished Lone Star Lover-3 yesterday? Yeah, and shipped it. Hope LF likes it and that it will be out quickly. Thanks, Masha, for reading it over before it went!
First, thanks to everyone who gave me suggestions about what should happen next in Cat Tails: Bad Moon Rising. If you haven’t had a chance to read the last installment, you need to do it before you vote.
Everyone who votes (and leaves a comment so I know who voted) will be entered to win a $10.00 Amazon.com eGift certificate. So, you get to choose what happens next and you get a chance to win something. There is no down side here! You can make more than one selection.
I’m offering a scavenger hunt at all three places and my site to celebrate the release of my newest erotic romance Lush Velvet Nights. I’ll be posting four questions throughout the day on my blog – answers found on my site – the lucky winner will get her choice of one of the following:
Adored – 4 stars Romantic Times – Second Place Winner NEC RWA contest2 Deep, Dark, Delicious – nominated for Book of the Week Whipped Cream
Reviews Close to Perfect – 4 stars Romantic Times – “A walk on the wild side for romance readers” Bad Boys with Red Roses – an erotic anthology with my novella “Tempt Me, Tease Me,
Thrill Me” Take My Breath Away – 4 ½ stars Romantic Times – an RT Top Pick – Booklist wrote: “Fans of Lori Foster will enjoy Donahue’s light, sexy romp.”
Those who don’t read erotic romances would probably answer by saying the author should create vivid imagery. The passion should be obvious between the hero and heroine. The reader should be able to smell, feel, taste their lust.
While that’s certainly true, it’s not even the beginning of what makes for a satisfying sex scene. Before an author’s characters slip beneath the sheets there needs to be an intense build up of emotions so that the reader is sitting on the edge of her seat murmuring, ‘Now, now, now!! Dammit, now!’
You don’t reach that kind of intensity if your characters barely know each other but succumb to desire because they think their partner is hot. That’s physical attraction. And as we all know, great sex begins in the mind.
In my latest release Lush Velvet Nights, I wanted to draw out the sexual tension of each scene, to build anticipation in the minds of my fans and new readers. Just as importantly, I wanted to give the characters a bit of time to know and like each other, to be playful.
Here’s an excerpt to illustrate what I mean: In this scene, Nathan and Adriana are delaying their return to LA after a three-day erotic weekend at his mountain estate. After some heavy-duty sex scenes, I needed a fresh approach for their next encounter and came upon this. Adriana’s just hurled several snowballs at Nathan, catching him off guard and now he’s after her. . .
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Nathan grabbed her right foot. Shrieking, Adriana kicked at him. Her boot came off in his hand thanks to Hayley having wider feet than she did. She plowed through the snow with no real direction in mind. It wasn’t as if the neighbors were going to help her. Hell, they probably stood at their windows watching, waiting for Nathan to strip her bare and fuck her out here until she turned blue from the cold.
“No!” she cried. He’d grabbed the edge of the ski pants that came above her ankles, thanks to Hayley being several inches shorter than her. Adriana kicked as hard as she could and finally hit something solid.
Nathan bellowed like a gored bull.
Oh shit. Had she hit him in the balls? Rolling onto her back, Adriana gaped at his broad grin. He’d been pretending pain? Jerk. She gave him the finger and seesawed her legs so he couldn’t grab them.
Nathan rolled his eyes and sat back on his heels, away from her flailing feet, waiting until she wore herself out. Didn’t take long. Adriana lay panting in the snow, sweating from her exertions, too weary to swear. Read the rest of this entry »
Between Facebook, After Midnight Fantasies and this blog, there were 46 entries in this contest. But you will have to scroll to the bottom here to see who won!
Maybe I mentioned it on Twitter, but on Sunday, I took the 5-year-old to see How to Train Your Dragon. I know it’s not just the kid in me, because the other adults in the audience (lots of guys!) were cheering and laughing too, but I LOVED it.
The whole experience was fun. My daughter and I made a date of it with little girl. We took her to a late lunch at Olive Garden where she flirted with the waiter as she ordered spaghetti for herself. We took her to the bookstore where she perused every kid’s story book in the store until she settled on a coloring book instead. Then we headed to the movie. She chose our seats. At the very front in the middle. Our seats leaned back, thank goodness, and the armrests went up so it was like sitting on the sofa together at home. We had a huge bucket of popcorn that we shared. Cokes. And those funny 3D glasses perched on our noses. I’m not sure who had more fun, but we have to do that again.
I’ve already been obsessed with collecting the dragon movie action figures. I have the black one (Toothless), the big gray monster who spits fire from his mouth, and the green one that’s sitting on its haunches. Daughter says she has the red one and the blue one Astrid rode, which she’s been saving for me. Love that name Astrid. I used it for one of my Viking characters in Beloved Captor.
Anyway, if you have a chance to see it, do! It starts off with a bang, has tons of humor and adventure. It’s now my favorite movie I’ve seen all year, but then, I haven’t seen Avatar yet… Am I the only person on the planet who hasn’t?
I am obsessed with dragons. I’ll admit it. I bought a deskset (letter opener, stapler, and cupholder) fashioned with dragons. I bought a huge satchel purse with dragons embroidered on the sides. I’m collecting those little action figures. And I sent sis money for her trip to Guam to buy me jade dragons. Maybe it’s because I had so much fun writing about sea dragons in my book. I bought that picture book, Dragonology, a couple of years ago, which sparked my imagination and now they are my favorite mythical beasts. I keep thinking I have to get back to my Desire series to write about the dragons the hero discovered in Garden of Desire. Like I don’t already have a ton of books planned for the year. Ah well.
Tomorrow, Ellora’s Cave author, Tina Donahue, visits with a scrumptious excerpt, so be sure to drop by to enjoy!
Now for that winner. The winner (by random number generator) is…Estella! Estella, send me an email with your choice of a MIK book from my backlist. Congratulations!
Post a comment here today for a chance to win any of the My Immortal Knight books currently available on my website. Then head to After Midnight Fantasies for a second chance to win and a second excerpt!
I’m blogging in two places today, but thought it might be a great time to start talking about my new book coming out April 28th, First Knight. FK was originally published as a short story in 2005, but I decided I really needed to get back inside it and tell the rest of the tale! So FK is now novella length and tons more satisfying with a very tasty ménage. I hope you’ll be looking for it because I’d like to know if you want more of these medieval tales of knights and their ladies with a little side of blood.
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While hiding her true identity, Maddie must seduce the mysterious Lord Garon to cement their marriage contract to ensure she won’t be returned into her lecherous stepfather’s care.
Fresh from Crusade in Palestine, Lord Garon has a secret he must hide, a hunger that must be fed, and a dark and uncertain future. Having shed himself of a fiancée he never met, he’s home to lick his wounds. The only thing he wants is a warm-blooded meal—but the new housekeeper is strangely insistent on giving him much more.
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“Do you undress to bathe all our guests?” he rumbled.
“I, um, didn’t want to get my clothing wet,” Maddie said, not answering his question because he was the first, and she didn’t want him knowing it. Feeling self-conscious beneath his stare, she wrapped her arms around her belly before she realized the movement pushed up her scant bosom. She quickly lowered her arms and bent to pick up the clothing she had tossed to the floor.
His indrawn breath halted her, pulling her gaze, although she’d been fighting herself not to stare at him. Short of turning her back fully, she couldn’t not look. He filled the room with his broad shoulders, deep chest, ridged belly and thighs that were roped with well-honed muscles. His powerful form was forever etched on her mind.
Never mind that hidden beneath the rim of the tub were his most disturbing attributes. Lord, the part that proclaimed him male was most impressive of all. Darker than his burnished skin, the long shaft shone like silky fabric with ridged blue veins mapping the surface. The rounded head, protruding from the cowl of his foreskin, was berry red.
That was the part he would insert into her woman’s furrow to till his crop of children—or so the cook had described the act. The woman had stumbled for a proper way to describe it, but Maddie had heard the coarse terms before. Swive. Fuck. Both made her cringe inside, so “tilling” it was.
Although how exactly he would till her field was never firmed in her mind. Every woman submitted to the tilling at one time or another. She’d survive. No matter that his “hoe” was quite large. Anne and Kate, the brazen hussies, had both seemed eager to fornicate with him.
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