Thank you Delilah Devlin for inviting me and my two main characters, Alex Donovan and Maddie Saunders from my latest contemporary romance, WHAT A GIRL WANTS to be guests on your blog.

I hope your readers enjoy my conversation with my two characters, as they sit and talk to me about their experiences in the book I created for them.

Selena: Thanks for jumping out of the book to join me today. Maddie, let’s start with you. What was your journey like in What A Girl Wants? 

Maddie: The plane trip from toHawaii was uneventful—

Alex: I have to interrupt here. Uneventful? Is that what you call it?

Maddie: Come on, Alex, even you have to admit it was classic. Besides, you laughed at the prank I pulled on you. Anyway, as for your initial question, Selena, I enjoyed the adventures you created for us, especially the humorous moments. Of course, what’s a romance without heartache, physical pain, angst and a ton of conflict?

Selena: Are you complaining about all that? Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks for having me, Delilah!

I’m both traditionally published (with Berkley Heat) and self-published. Both methods have their own advantages. With a traditional house, I’ve got a great editor I love working with and they give me fabulous cover art. Check out The Principal’s Office. I love it! The drawback is that it takes longer to get a book out. The exact length of time can vary, but usually a book will appear on the shelf between nine months to a year after I’ve finished it. So as you can see, one of the advantages of self-publishing is being able to put out a book very quickly. And that allows me to be responsive to requests from fans.

I wrote a naughty little foursome story called Kinky Neighbors, which you can find at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004VS2T7O. Readers really seemed to enjoy the story. It was emotional, not just sex, sex, sex (though there’s nothing wrong with that either!). I did it first as a free read on my blog, a chapter a week. And boy, were people discussing it, what was going to happen, the characters they liked and disliked. One of the things that came out of the discussion and also out of emails I’ve received from readers was that they wanted to know what happened to the two couples after the story ended. You know, writers don’t always see the same thing that readers do, and for me, the story had ended. But the more I thought about it, the more I started to wonder, too! And boom, it came to me! So I’ve written it down for readers, Kinky Neighbors Two: Cat and Logan’s Just Desserts!

And that is the beauty of self-publishing. I can write that story and get it out to readers with a minimum of fuss. I’m going to the do the same thing as before, put it up chapter by chapter on my blog, www.jasminehaynes.blogspot.com. Chapter One is already up, so if you’ve read Kinky Neighbors, you can go to the Aug 6^th blog and catch up on Kinky Neighbors Two!  If you haven’t read it, well, the sequel is a hot little story, but you probably won’t get as much out of it. Plus it’ll spoil what happens in the first book! Ah well, I guess that’s the disadvantage of self-publishing, spoilers!

BTW, I’ve signed a new two-book contract with Berkley Heat. The books will be in the same vein as The Principal’s Office, with heroines over 35, and they will feature some elements of bondage. Actually I call it bondage lite, with a little spanking, a little tying up, that kind of thing. You can expect to see those books starting in the latter half of 2013. She’s Gotta Be Mine by Jennifer Skully (me!) is free on http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00688GE7Q, as is Beauty or the Bitch, a contemporary retelling of Beauty and the Beast (with a twist!) http://amzn.to/mTMny0. I’ve done this as a free read on the blog, too, but if you missed it, here’s your chance to get it for free!

London in Pictures

London is one of the world’s great cities, with something for everyone. In honor of the Olympics, I’m sharing some pictures of London sights.

If you’re a foodie, London might not be your first thought. But their food markets are wonderful. Harrods, the department store has beautiful displays of food to eat there or to go. Check out the candy display…

…and this fanciful cake.

The cake is actually for sale for 2,000 British pounds, about $3,000 US. Even the pizzeria is spotless and the big guy there was actually singing opera. Read the rest of this entry »

The Salt of the Earth – An Unusual Travelogue

Thank you to Delilah for hosting Rachel and I today.  I wanted to share a little travelogue with you, though this one didn’t require any travel since it takes place right here in my hometown, Chicago.  Have you ever been to a salt cave?

Many of us use salt in our food every day, but have you ever stopped to consider this humble mineral?  Considered by herbalists to be valuable in healing and stress relief for centuries, we are only now beginning to realize the health benefits of salt in ways our forebears knew implicitly.  For the first time in the United States people are able to try the healing benefits of Crimean salt, a health secret known for decades in Poland.

The Galos salt-iodine caves are located in Chicago.  We arrived at a regular-looking building that houses the Jolly Inn Restaurant.  Parking is available across the street.  It couldn’t be less like an undersea environment if it were directly downtown.  We walked up to the glass door that seemed identical to any you’d find at a neighborhood salon.

Step through the door, though, and enter another world.

The lobby is lit with salt lamps, the lighting lowered.  Comfortable benches line the right wall with cubbies for shoes.  One does not wear one’s shoes inside the cave; one wears clean white socks.  We arrived and stowed our shoes and donned our socks, then the cave door opened.

Stalactites hang down from the ceiling, offering an immediate sense of the otherworldly.  The door is heavy, not like a normal interior building door but more like that for a sauna.  You step in and immediately sink several inches into rock salt crystals.  I thought they would hurt my feet but they massaged them instead, scratching pleasantly as I walked.  The cave is about twenty feet in an oval, lined with anti-gravity lounges.  They suggest you spend the first five or ten minutes walking slowly around the cave, massaging your feet and releasing more salt into the air.

Then you sit in the lounge and move it backward, reclining it so that your feet are above your head.  The lights are lowered and soft, relaxing music plays in the background.  The walls are made from bricks of the salt, which sparkles in the lamplight.  As you begin to relax, the music swells and you float away.  This lasts for about 50 minutes.

The next time you visit Chicago, I highly recommend a trip to the Galos Caves.  If you are curious, poke around their website.  There is a gallery of photographs and more information on the health benefits of the salt as well as how they mine it and make the caves.

What unusual travelogue would you write if you could?  Of what unusual things does your hometown boast?

My links:
Blog | Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon | LinkedIn | Pandora
Knoontime Knitting:  Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Ravelry
Noon and Wilder links: Blog | Website | Facebook
Evanston Writers Workshop:
Blog | Website | Meetup | Forum | Facebook | Twitter | Annual Conference | ConTweets
Team Blogs: Nightlight | The Writers Retreat Blog | Beyond the Veil | LGBT Fantasy Fans and Writers
Publishers: Samhain Publishing | Torquere Press

Check out BURNING BRIGHT, available from Samhain Publishing.
Check out EMERALD FIRE, available from Torquere Publishing.

With the Olympics blowing up your television, aren’t you glad there’s a quieter way to celebrate female athletes? This is out now! Click on the pick if you’d like to read my contribution to the anthology, “Playing the Field.” Congratulations to my friend, Ily Goyanes, for her debut as a Cleis editor! I’m proud to be a part of this book!

Even though they may not get a lot of action on the field after high school and college, girl jocks always manage to see a lot of action off the field. Because female athletes have an easy confidence about them, a natural nonchalance, and usually a killer bod, that draws all kinds of women to them—straight, lesbian, bisexual, curious, questioning, you name it. Women are competitive by nature, whether they play sports or games. Women play hard and love harder. They don’t just score—they keep track. GIRLS WHO SCORE is filled with story after story of complex, intriguing women engaging in all kinds of, ahem, contact sports. Sinclair Sexsmith contributes “A Good Workout” at the gym with lots of hot action in the steam room and Gina Marie has two women boxers going at it in every way in her ever-so-sexy “Blood Lust.” Delilah Devlin’s soccer champs have a very good time in “Playing the Field,” and Elle’s “Game Over” has a cheerleader who “trains” a freshmen each year to serve her every need. Sporty dykes aren’t always playing ball, so to speak. After all, scuba divers and gym bunnies are in fact athletes and editor Ily Goyanes features lesbian jocks of every stripe in this sweet and sweaty volume.

Table of Contents

Chairs by Sommer Marsden
Blood Lust by Gina Marie
A Good Workout by Sinclair Sexsmith
Lucky Number Three by Beth Wylde
Give and Go by Anna Watson
Playing the Field by Delilah Devlin
No, Tell Me How You Really Feel by Ily Goyanes
Run, Jo, Run by Cheyenne Blue
Boot Camp by JT Langdon
Facing the Music by Kiki DeLovely
Out and a Bout by Allison Wonderland
The Outside Edge by Sacchi Green
Hail Mary by Shanna Germain
Goddess in a Red and Blue Speedo by D.L. King
Cymone’s Dominatrix by Paisley Smith
Game Over by Elle

When characters attack

Okay, so he’d spoken two sentences there. “Okay…so what’s with you?”

His hand shot out and I found myself plastered against him two seconds later. “You stayed.”

“Damn it,” I snapped, shoving against his chest. Hard and hot, my hands slid against the smoothness of his flesh without budging him an inch. “What did you think I was going to do? I barely even know where I am.”

“You’re a little fool,” he muttered.

Then he buried his face against my neck and I shuddered.

“I never know when you’re going to show sense or do something that will end up with you dead…or worse.”

I could feel the heated puff of his breath against my skin and damn it, that shouldn’t feel so good. It shouldn’t feel so good at all.

Asshole. Territory. He was asshole. Territory.

I couldn’t…

My breath hitched in my chest as he lifted his head, staring down at me with eyes that burned. Storm clouds shouldn’t burn so hot. But his eyes did.

Couldn’t breathe, couldn’t breathe—

Meet Kit and Damon, from my first full-length urban fantasy project, BLADE SONG…it was just released by my alter ego, J.C. Daniels.  I loved Kit.  She’s mouthy, she bites off my than she could chew and she knows she does it, but she’s driven by demons from her past so she has a hard time saying no in certain situations.

Damon was a different story.

This book sat on my laptop for a long, long time, unfinished.  Actually, it was barely started because the other character wasn’t who I needed him to be.  He was just a…well, a shadow character, basically.  He was like a sketch of the person I needed for the book and the book wouldn’t move forward.

Then back in January, the real Damon, so to speak, stepped up and the shadow character fell by the wayside and the book took off like whoa.  I’d never written anybody like Damon before.  He’s…well.  He’s hard to describe, but between him and Kit, they dominated my brain until I had the book finished.

They let me have a few weeks of peace…then they did it all over it again…if they keep attacking my brain like this, I won’t have a brain left.

If you’re into urban fantasy, BLADE SONG is now available on ebook (Amazon | BN | iBookstore | and other outlets) and print is coming.  You can read more at my website…

Shiloh Walker/J.C. Daniels

Quick note! Two Wild for Teacher is up for July’s Book of the Month at Long and Short Reviews! I’d really appreciate your votes!
The contest ends tonight!

Today, I’m headin’ due south—before the rooster crows! The Red-Headed Hellion (daughter), my sister Myla Jackson and I are driving to south Louisiana, following Highway 1 ’til we reach the end on Grand Isle. We’ll only spend a night in a dive, er, modest motel then start making our way northeast toward New Orleans. We have to be there by Wednesday for the start of the Authors After Dark conference.

Have good thoughts for our journey. I hope to soak up atmosphere, listen to the cadence of the language, and take tons of pics—all in the name of research. Let’s just hope my journey isn’t like one I’d write. Good thoughts, remember—nice and easy. No stress.

I have guests lined up for the week. Be sure to drop in and say hello.

I’ll leave you with a question…

If, for the rest of your life, you had to wake up every morning to one song
playing in your head, which song would you choose?

Question courtesy of The Question Guys