First, I have to tell you about this dream I had last night. I dreamed I was a superhero. I still haven’t figured out what my superpower was, but I got a call on the bat phone to hightail it to a sleepy little Texas border town to take out The Black Widow. My sidekick went with me. He was tall, balding and had a pot belly. Yeah, we made quite a team, but for some reason that was part of our power. Everyone underestimated us.

The Black Widow and I were old archrivals and we recognized each other immediately when our glances met across a smoky cantina. (There was a little homoerotic tinge to this whole dream.) She looked like Natalie Whatshername from Sugarland. A tall, blonde, natural beauty, with whom I’m sure I would have wanted to be friends if she didn’t have a nasty habit of romancing a victim in a bar then sucking off his head. Not a sexual euphemism.

Anyway, we got into a huge battle where we threw tables and chairs at each other from across the room, then took the battle out into the street and demolished half the buildings there. Neither of us won an advantage, and when we got tired of beating on each other, we headed back to the cantina for a beer, my trusty sidekick complaining about his aching back all the while. When she rose to leave, she handed me her lighter and said, “Keep it. I’m quittin’ anyway.”

I smiled and thanked her, but as soon as she was out the door, I gingerly held up the lighter, walked out the back of the cantina, tossed it into the garbage bin and ducked to avoid the explosion. End of dream.

My report is very anticlimactic. And it looks very different from what I had planned last week, but unexpected things crept up all week. Not that I can talk about all of it just yet.

* I wrote class material for FFnP’s Logline, Premise, Query and Synopsis class which starts tomorrow.
* I spoke with my Berkley editor about edits she wants on the first Viking book, then received the file and started work on that.
* I received word that Four Sworn was accepted and is tentatively scheduled for release by Samhain in September.
* I wrote a synopsis for a Merry Kinkmas short story for Ellora’s Cave and shipped it to my editor, after conducting some rather thorough fetish research.
* I received some exciting news about a project for an epublisher, but can’t mention it yet.
* And I quick-plotted a short story for Cleis.

This week:
* I will plow through edits of Viking-1.
* I will complete planning for Viking-2 and start writing the sucker!
* I will begin work on my Cleis short story.
* And lastly, I hope to begin work on my next western for Samhain.

Have a Happy 4th! I’ll think about you while I’m here on the lake!

Here’s me, bleary-eyed. The red-headed hellion was here until midnight looking for help with her math homework. She’ll be back for more help today. Guess who won’t be writing much?

My friend, Vivi Anna, has a new book and you should check it out! Hey, it’s 5:53 AM in the morning (the dogs got me up so they could go bark at the geese). No one’s meant to be eloquent at this time of the morning. It’s a good thing Vivi is.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Olena Petrovich had seen more than enough death and destruction in her three hundred years. Now the vampiress fought as a CSI agent. But nothing about this crime scene seemed right—including the arrogant outsider from Interpol who challenged her authority. Sexy and cocky, the human was downright irresistible…even to a vampiress who should know better.

Though Cale Braxton was out of his league facing the vampires, lycans and witches of Nouveau Monde, he matched Olena in the one way that mattered—passion. Olena had sworn she’d never love—and lose—again, especially a human with his own demons. She and Cale lived in two different worlds, but after only one kiss, Olena wondered how she could ever spend eternity without him….

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Olena Petrovich had had close to three hundred years to perfect sin to an art form. In the past, she’d used her vampiric charms to get whatever she wanted in life—money, sex, power. It helped, she supposed, that she was curvy and possessed a mouth some men had said was made for sin. But it had always proven to be too easy.
She didn’t want easy any longer. She liked working for the things she received. Like this case.

This was Olena’s first time as lead investigator and she was excited about it. She didn’t want to make one mistake. It wasn’t often that Inspector Gabriel Bellmonte let go of the reins. But he had for her. Or it could’ve been because she had begged him for the past three months.

The crime scene at the National Bank of Nouveau Monde wasn’t typical for a bank robbery. Usually the robbers took the money, but instead these guys—four armed, masked men—had herded everyone in the bank into the vault, then blasted apart the safety-deposit boxes.

Olena and her team wouldn’t be able to get a clear view of the situation until they’d pieced together all the boxes that had been destroyed. And by the looks of the mess, that was going to take considerable time.

The odor of smoke still hung oppressively in the air as Olena eyed the wall of boxes, taking in the destruction. Charred residue marred an array of the shiny metal squares in a circular pattern. The explosion had caused a lot of damage.

“I wonder what they were looking for.” She glanced over her shoulder at her investigative partner, Sophie St. Clair, who was busy taking pictures of the metal and plastic shrapnel scattered all over the black-and-white-tiled floor.

“I guess someone must’ve lost his key.” After snapping her last photo, Sophie stood beside Olena and surveyed the destroyed wall. “Kellen called. He said he’d be on scene in about fifteen minutes,” Sophie informed her.

Olena nodded. “Good. He can figure out this blast pattern on the remaining safety-deposit boxes.”

Kellen, a recent addition to their crime-scene team, was a damn good ballistics expert. He had come from America to France for treatment for a rare blood disease and had ended up completely cured, with a new job on the team and an engagement to Sophie.

Fate had a grand sense of humor.
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I’m at the lake. My friends leave later this morning, and last night we took their pontoon boat and crossed the lake to hit a popular burger and pizza joint. I took pics, but frankly, I’m too lazy this morning to load ’em up. 😀

I’m up earlier than usual because I have to take my car in for repair. I got a check engine light yesterday when I drove here. Nothing wrong with the oil, so I’m guessing it’s just a sensor. I made sure the dealership has a place for me to plug in when I go so I don’t lose any of my retreat time.

Tomorrow, I promise I’ll be more interesting. Yawn.

In the meantime, have you taken a look around my website lately? I do refresh the content often. There are new books listed on the Coming Soon page with excerpts meant to tempt you into walking your fingers over the to the pre-order button.

For all of you traveling this weekend, stay safe and have fun!

I’ll be housesitting for a friend over the long weekend. Fireworks over water—yeah, that will be rough duty. I’m babysitting two dogs and a parrot on Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs. I’m using the weekend as a personal writing retreat. I want to get several projects started for July, and I figure without the telephone or anyone else around me I have no excuses. E-mail will be sporadic, only because I want it that way.

I hope you all have fun plans for the weekend. I’d love to hear about them.

In the meantime, I do have a new release to tell you about. If you’re in the mood for a collection of short stories, something you can enjoy while you wait in the doctor’s office, or something short for just before you go to sleep…here it is! Click on the cover for the buy link.

Award-winning novelist and top erotica writer Kristina Wright goes over the river and through the woods to find the sexiest fairy tales ever written. Playfully seductive, supernaturally sensual, and darkly erotic, Fairy Tale Lust showcases clever twists to classic tales and introduces new stories inspired by the ever-popular genre. Here, a walk in the forest is likely to lead to an erotic encounter with a mysterious stranger and the silver light of a full moon might illuminate an orgy of sensual delights! Highly imaginative and downright stimulating, these stories take fairy tale erotica to the next level. Top erotica contributors deliver sizzling work, including Janine Ashbless, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Delilah Devlin, Shanna Germaine, and Saskia Walker.

Award-winning novelist and top erotica writer Kristina Wright goes over the river and through the woods to find the sexiest fairy tales ever written. Playfully seductive, supernaturally sensual, and darkly erotic, Fairy Tale Lust showcases clever twists to classic tales and introduces new stories inspired by the ever-popular genre. Here, a walk in the forest is likely to lead to an erotic encounter with a mysterious stranger and the silver light of a full moon might illuminate an orgy of sensual delights! Highly imaginative and downright stimulating, these stories take fairy tale erotica to the next level. Top erotica contributors deliver sizzling work, including Janine Ashbless, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Delilah Devlin, Shanna Germaine, and Saskia Walker.

Read an excerpt from Delilah’s story, The Obedient Wife, here: Excerpt