My daughter joined Girls Scouts this year and she loves it! The projects, the discussions, the games, the friends. Most of all, I think she understands this is something special. This long-standing organization focusses intently upon honoring every girl for her unique interests, capabilities and talents. Whether it is a love for animals, nature and the outdoors, music and dance, or reading, the girls are encouraged and supported in whatever direction they choose to go. Everyone is free to be exactly who she is, and is celebrated for it.

It may seem odd that I intend to compare this to romance novels…or maybe not. There appear to be some obvious parallels. Today’s romance novels all contain a similar theme—that of the heroine being honored and loved for who she is as an individual. She may be a vampire/shape-shifting demon hunter, a bookish miss of the Regency, a clumsy ingénue trying to find her place in a multi-million dollar corporation, or a seductive movie star…but whatever her passion or her chosen path, she is never afraid to be exactly who she is. The heroines of romance refuse to fit anyone’s mold. They live life on their own terms. By honoring themselves, they expect no less from those they love.

As readers, we connect with these women, who are rarely ever perfect. We root for them when they discover someone who sees them for their true selves and not some iconic depiction of what womanhood should be. This is why I love romance novels. They not only bring us into a world of passion, emotion and adventure, they also remind us how special every woman is in her own way.

This is also what made writing REBEL MARQUESS so fun and rewarding. The story’s heroine, Eliza Terribury, is determined to follow her dreams, despite the fact that they are not appropriate for a young lady of her time. She forges ahead in the face of opposition from her family, knowing she must remain true to that which makes her unique. Below is an excerpt from when Eliza reveals her intention to become a published novelist to our hero, Lord Rutherford. Though he eventually comes to adore in all that makes Eliza who she is, his initial reaction is not so enlightened.

She paused, eyeing him intently for a moment before she clarified. “I write gothic romance. Novels of high adventure and dark suspense.”

He snorted in surprise. “That drivel?” It was rare he spoke without thinking, and he saw right away he had insulted her, though it had not been his intention. Her blunt way of offering up her thoughts on a platter must be contagious.

She stiffened immediately in response to his thoughtless comment. Her squared-off shoulders and stiff spine indicated pure defiance, but she kept strict control of her features, even to the point of offering him a tight little smile. He was impressed.

“Have you ever read a gothic novel, Lord Rutherford?”

“Of course not.”

“How then did you come by your assessment of the genre?”

“Well, everyone knows—”

“Who is everyone?” she interrupted tartly. “Stodgy gentlemen who only read literature deemed to be of the highest cultural, political or moral significance? And what exactly would they know about novels filled with adventure, mystery and romance?”

He decided it best not to answer such a question.

*~*~*~*

REBEL MARQUESS is a follow up to ROGUE COUNTESS and RECKLESS VISCOUNT and is available for pre-order now!

http://store.samhainpublishing.com/rebel-marquess-p-73389.html
http://www.amazon.com/Rebel-Marquess-Amy-Sandas-ebook/dp/B00HOFEHDU
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rebel-marquess-amy-sandas/1118069784?ean=9781619218390

Author Bio – Amy Sandas

Amy’s love of romance began one summer when she was thirteen and complained of boredom.  She ended up with one of her mother’s Barbara Cartland books and an obsessive interest that expanded from there.  Her affinity for writing began with sappy pre-teen poems and led to a Bachelor’s degree with an emphasis on Creative Writing from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities.

She writes in the early mornings while her young kids are still asleep and dreams of a future when she can write all day instead of going to her “other” job.  In the evenings, Amy is a full-time wife and mother who enjoys pizza, wine and dark brooding heroes … namely, her husband.

You can find Amy on her blog at http://amysandas.wordpress.com
On Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AmySandas?ref=hl
Or Tweet her at https://twitter.com/#!/AmySandas

I’ll ask the question first for those of you who don’t have a lot of time to peruse blogs. If you’re so inclined, you can read on for a glimpse of It Takes a SEAL, which releases in less than a week!

So, the question…

I adore Sci-Fi B Movies. Have since I was a kid. I must have watched The Blob with Steve McQueen a hundred times. My faves include: Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Dracula 3000, Sharknado, and Mega Python and Gataroid (OMG—Debbie Gibson and Tiffany, together on screen?!). I added Bermuda Tentacles to the list of instant B-movie classics this weekend—Linda (The Terminator) Hamilton was in it!

Does anyone else out there love, love, love Science Fiction and Paranormal B-movies?
Give me some recommendations for my list of movies To Be Watched!

*~*~*~*~*

As promised, here’s a snippet from It Takes a Seal… And if you need a picture in your mind of my hero, he is a cross between Marty Deeks from NCIS: Los Angeles (definitely his sense of humor!) and Ragnar from Vikings…

A travel agent visiting friends in the Bahamas is stranded on a desert island with a sexy ex-SEAL after their private pleasure cruise is interrupted by armed men who have mistaken her lover for a reclusive billionaire.

Susan Evers steeled herself against the sudden rush of lust that hit her the moment the blond god in the Hawaiian-themed swimming trunks turned toward her. Her cheeks felt hard, her smile stiff. Keeping her gaze on his face and not tracking wildly down his very nicely proportioned torso proved even more difficult. But she managed a small smile. Too bad she forgot to breathe. A salty, sea breeze ruffled her hair while she continued to stare. Read the rest of this entry »

The month of April means spring for most people around the country, waiting for snow to melt and flowers to bloom.  Here in the desert of Phoenix, where we only have two seasons—hot and not very cold—we’ve had a very mild winter and am already hitting the mid-ninties.  Yeah, I’m sure you can feel my excitement.

For writers, April also means it’s Camo Nano!  It’s our chance for redemption if we weren’t able to complete the original NaNoWriMo back in November.  For those of you who don’t know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month where authors of all genres attempt to write a complete novel, typically around 50,000 words.  Some people are able to meet that goal and go on to publish those works, others like myself, use it as a excuse to socialize.  I know, very lame but hey, who doesn’t like to make friends?

Last last November my critique partner and I set goals for ourselves and of course made a wager to see who could beat the other.  Because we’re not competitive at all. Nope, not us.  Of course I got my butt handed to me but it was fun to try.  The point was we made each other accountable for the goals we set.

Goals are extremely important when you want to achieve something.  Whether it be writing, or losing weight ( raises hand ), a home project ( raises other hand ) or something as simple as laundry ( raises a foot, wobbles and falls over ), a goal can help you focus on one step at a time and not getting overwhelmed.  That’s my biggest problem, getting overwhelmed when I look at everything all at once.  For instance, I have edits for my upcoming release sitting in my inbox, I’ve got a recently completed short story that needs editing and polishing, I’ve got half of a book written and another short story to write all in the next couple of months.  When I think of those projects and the messy house and 18 craft projects in my garage, all I want to do is sit down and read.

Of course, I can’t do that.  So I decided to use CampNaNo as a way set small goals.  So far I have met one of the three goals set, and as a reward I am watching Once Upon a Time. I may have had some Thin Mints we do don’t talk about those.

What about you guys?  Do you think goals are important? Do you use a reward system also?  Let me know, I’d love to hear from you.

My next release, Moon Over the Bay, the second book in the Moonlit Nights series, has a cover and blurb reveal May 3rd with a release date at the end of May.

In the meantime you can pick up the first book in the series, Talk to the Moon on Amazon and then available at all online retailers May 22nd!

When Kyle Chase was eighteen, he had his life all mapped out: a business degree and a long, happy life with his childhood sweetheart. Seven years later, Kyle is still haunted by the girl who declared her undying love to him before disappearing without a word as soon as he left for college. With the realization that the memories are stopping him from living his life, Kyle posts an ad in hopes of making contact with the woman who broke his heart.

Sadie Long has finally found her niche in the world as an artist, years after leaving the South and her trailer-trash parents. Every month, her muse drives Sadie to create another artwork featuring a vivid full moon and the boy she left behind, and it’s driving her crazy. When she comes across an ad in Craigslist’s “Missed Connections,” she knows it’s from him, and even though she’s terrified of how he might feel about what she did when they were teenagers, she has no choice but to respond to the ad.

When the truth comes out, will Kyle be able to forgive Sadie and move forward, or will they always be stuck in the past?

Talk to the Moon on Amazon

Contact:
Website- http://www.morgan-emerson.com/
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Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/authormorganemerson
Twitter- https://twitter.com/morgan_emerson
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Goodreads-  https://www.goodreads.com/MorganEmerson

Morgan
“Don’t force success. People can’t tell you how to do it. You’ve got to do it by yourself and if they judge you and the process you’ve chosen… let it be.”

The one thing I love about life is it’s never stagnant. There are changes that range from minor to huge. No matter the change, it causes a ripple effect of some kind, which leads to good or bad things. Right now, I’m thinking of changes because of a book I’m writing.

My characters are at a crossroads. In the book, they went through the change of letting someone close to them. It caused for both a major ripple in their lives as they adapted to each other. Once they did accept the change and letting someone into their lives they rode the wave of that ripple and are enjoying the journey. But any life’s journey as I mentioned doesn’t stay stagnant. My characters have already been through the change of realizing they actually care beyond the sexual for the other.  But now it’s time for them to be shaken up. Time for another change that will either make them stronger as a couple or break them apart. *grin* I love exploring the complexities of relationships.  It’s going to be fun to see where their adventure will lead as I take them through changing.

****

Taige Crenshaw is a multi-published author with books available at Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Liquid Silver Books, Loose Id, and Totally Bound. Taige has been enthralled with the written word from time she picked up her first book. It wasn’t long before she started to make up her own tales of romance. With novels set in today, in alternate dimensions, or in the future she writes with adventure, fun sassy heroine’s, and sexy hero’s. Always hard at work creating new and exciting places Taige can be found curled up with a hot novel with exciting characters when she is not creating her own. Join her in the fun, frolic, interesting people and far reaches of the world in her novels. You can find out more about Taige at her website: http://www.taigecrenshaw.com, or blog: http://www.taigecrenshaw.com/blog.

Immortal Bloodlines —  A stubborn woman is hard to capture, but once you have, what do you do with her?

Buy here at Totally Bound.

Waltz with a Lawman, set in 1882 in the Arizona territory is more that just another release for Brit Blaise. It’s something much more than that. It was a labor of love and the character’s show the truth of this bold statement.

Marsh Flynn is a hard man, a man with steel in muscles and justice in his veins. When his life is reduced to one gunfight after another, it eats into the core of his integrity. The world believes a man’s desire for another man is a matter for the law with all its righteous indignation. How can he uphold a law he would break?

Lee Flynn was raised in high society secure in the love of his family. His father’s death does more than break him, it awakens the warrior growing inside him. When he’s thrown into a life rife with murder, thieves, and liars, can he be the man he needs to be to survive?

Both men’s lives are entwined in ways they’d never imagined…or dreamed.

A little about Brit Blaise:

I’ve been published since 2005, with 7 publishers and over 40 novels and novellas. The last three years have brought changes to the publishing world, and to my life. In 2011 I was diagnosed with the rarest and deadliest of breast cancers. Because of this, every book I publish now is gift unlike any before. I’m still fighting the cancer, but writing almost every day and feeling blessed! I’ve had two cowboy anthologies on the Amazon bestsellers list for six weeks now. And a good friend, New York Times Bestselling Author, Jennifer Ashley recently told her readers that: “Brit know cowboys!” Indeed, I do. I was raised among them from the time of my birth.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Brit_Blaise
Website: http://www.britblaise.com/
Books: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=Brit%20Blaise&search-alias=digital-text&sort=relevancerank

Eden Bradley is Dangerously Bound!

As a writer we always hear ‘write what you know’. For me, writing kink has always been my go-to genre because I’ve been involved in BDSM for many years. I do think my real life experience gives me a unique perspective. Having been a psychology major also helps. For me, incorporating BDSM elements in a story make it all more exciting, from creating deep, complex characters to writing smoking hot sex scenes!

I really love to explore how the human mind works—especially the kinky mind! The kink intensifies everything, including the connection between characters, and in fiction, as in real life, kink relationships are very deeply connected, very intense. This also makes for some pretty irresistibly sexy heroes! It’s that intensity, from the way he looks at you as if he can see right through you to the way he lowers his voice, sending shivers through every part of your body. It’s that natural air of command that tells you in no uncertain terms that while he may let you sass him a bit, ultimately, he is the one in control. And it’s that air of absolute authority that allows you to let go, to turn yourself over to him. To trust. What could possibly be sexier? Because no matter how modern a woman we might be, we are still female, and we appreciate a man who can help us move beyond our everyday roles as worker, parent, caretaker, and let us be taken care of completely. Who allows us to revel in our femininity. This is what a true Dominant is to me. These are the kinds of Doms I write. And this is what Mick Reid, the hero in my latest book DANGEROUSLY BOUND, is all about.

She wasn’t as innocent as he remembered. He’s twice as wicked as she ever imagined.

“For those who are born to New Orleans, it’s in your blood. It lingers there no matter where you go. BDSM is the same sort of thing. If you’re born to it—the way you were, the way I was, whether or not you want to accept that—you can never shake it. It shapes the way you think, the way you respond to…everything. And those who were a part of unleashing those desires…you never forget them, either. That’s what you did for me, Mick. For me, not to me.”

~Alessandra ‘Allie’ LeClair

~~~~~~~~~~

She can whip up something sweet…
Allie LeClair has finally returned to the sultry city of New Orleans. After ten years of studying and working as a pastry chef in San Francisco and all over Europe—and feeding her submissive side at BDSM clubs—Allie is home, and she has something to prove to the man who once fueled her desires. She’s not a child anymore.

But with two in the kitchen…
When security specialist Mick Reid hears that Allie is back in town, he knows he won’t be able to stay away for long. Ever since he discovered his darker side, Mick has tried to protect Allie from the aggressive beast within him—but that power and wildness is exactly what she wants.

Can they take the heat?
Allie has made the first move, but now it’s up to Mick. The game has begun, and playing has never been so rough.

~~~~~~~~~~

EXCERPT:

She waited while he walked around the truck to open her door. He lifted her down, his big hands around her waist, and his touch burned into her, making her need all the more acute. She could barely stand to wait as he led her up the walkway, up the steps, took her keys and opened her front door.

He grabbed her wrist, encircling it with his strong fingers.

“Bedroom,” he demanded. “Or it’s going to be right here on the hall floor.”

She nodded and led him down the narrow hall.

He was on her almost the moment they passed through the doorway, stripping her down until she was naked and barefoot once more. Her pulse was a hot, thready beat in her veins, her chest, between her thighs. Desire was something solid, palpable, nearly unbearable.

She put her hands on his chest, tried to unbutton his shirt.

“Mick . . .”

He took her wrists in his hands and pulled them down to her sides, held them there as he looked into her eyes, and she understood, her mind shifting gears. If they were going to be together right now they would be in role, submissive and Dominant. She understood his need to leash his desires. Understood how dangerous he felt he was to her.

She would show him tonight she could take it. That the full darkness inside him was exactly what she wanted, yearned for.

He moved around her, one hand on her body, sliding over her stomach, her side, her back. He stood behind her, and she waited for whatever would come next, her heart hammering, her body aching for more.

When he wrapped his arm around her neck and tightened just enough to restrict her breathing, she felt his command with an enormous sense of relief.

Oh, yes.

~~~~~~~~~~

CONTEST!

Today I’ll give away a copy of my Dangerous Romance Series spin-off, DANGEROUSLY INKED, and a $10.00 Amazon Gift Card! To enter the giveaway, just follow me!

Twitter: https://twitter.com/EdenBradley
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorEdenBradley.EveBerlin
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/edenandeve/

~or sign up for my group blog The Smutketeers newsletter (with authors RG Alexander & Robin L Rotham): http://eepurl.com/OBKSD

~Post here letting me know where you followed-1 entry for each source followed. I’ll be back tomorrow night to announce the winner here in the comments section, so be sure to check back!

~~~~~~~~~~

New York Times & USA Today Bestselling and award-winning author Eden Bradley aka Eve Berlin has published a number of novels and novellas, both print and e-books, with Berkley Heat, Bantam/Delta, Harlequin Spice & HQN, Black Lace Books and Samhain Publishing, as well as venturing into self-publishing. Her books have been translated into German, French, Romanian, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Czech, Polish and Japanese. Eden has appeared regularly on Playboy Radio and conducts workshops on writing craft and writing about sex.

She loves art, shoes, tattoos, reading smutty books, chocolate and sex, of course, not necessarily in that order.

Find Eden online!

www.EdenBradley.com
http://www.Smutketeers.com/

Romance readers are AMAZING!  And . . . so is Habitat For Humanity, a charity that I love supporting and volunteering for.  So, I thought, why not pair the two and help a deserving family receive a home?  And, the Diana Cosby’s Romance Reader’s Build A Habitat For Humanity Home Challenge was born.

I contacted the Habitat For Humanity office in Grayson County, Texas, where I’ve had the honor of helping with several builds and spoke with Laurie Mealy, Executive Director.  She embraced the project, and was thrilled at the thought of pairing romance readers, who love stories where heroes and heroines overcome challenges to make their dreams come true, with making the dream of a home for a deserving family a reality.

How it works:

As readers and/or readers groups send contributions to Habitat for Humanity of Grayson County, the bookshelf posted on the upper left side of their website will fill in with every donation in $100 increments. The goal is to fund an entire home – $55,000.  Donations can be sent via PayPal using the Donate link in the menu bar on Grayson County’s Habitat For Humanity’s website, or donate funds by mailing a check or money order to:

Habitat for Humanity of Grayson County
901 N. Grand Avenue
P.O. Box 2725
Sherman, TX 75091

I kicked off the challenge by donating $200.  As I write this, we’ve raised $3755.  I challenge romance readers and readers groups to challenge each other with donations.  I have total faith that romance readers together are an unstoppable force, and as the stories they love, they will leave a deserving family with a happy ending.

My sincere thanks to everyone for making an incredible difference in a family’s life.  For when they walk into a Habitat For Humanity house, it’s more thank mortar and wood, but a place where  dreams exist, and a place where finally, they can call home.

God bless,

Diana Cosby, International Best-Selling Author
www.dianacosby.com