So, this is day three of the time change and I don’t like it! It’s interfering with my rhythm!

Starting last November—right when I was supposed to be pounding the keyboard for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), I hit the skids so far as writing was concerned. I couldn’t commit a word to the page to save my life. That slump lasted all the way until January. Scared the crap out of me.

Then January hit, and that is always my new hopes/new plans push. I love New Years resolutions. I feel shiny and new and like anything is possible. I looked at my routine and decided to tweak some things to see whether I could pull out of my slump. Here’s what I did.

I still keep an automated year-at-a-glance planning sheet so I know “big-picture” view what has to be done—and I have my monthly calendar with big goals listed. However, I’ve gone to a hand-written daily sheet. Something I can go through the physical motion of checking off items I accomplish each day. Each time I do, I feel like I’m shedding some of the weight sitting on my shoulder.

The second thing I did was to set my alarm to get up earlier every day. I was getting up around 8-ish, eating breakfast, then around 10:00 coming to my desk. Now, I’m up at 6:30—and oh, what a difference that has made. I somehow forgot I’m a morning person. Now, writing tasks are usually done by 2:00 in the afternoon and then I catch up on email and any social media type things I need to handle. Work is usually wrapped by 3:30. The earlier start time has given me more energy. Go figure.

Then comes Spring Forward! Can we start a petition to stop this nonsense? Seriously? What purpose does it serve except to interrupt our natural rhythms? The earliest I could manage to drag my ass out of bed today was 7:00—and it still feels like the middle of the freaking night! It’s hard to be virtuous and stick to a plan when I’m yawning this hard in front of the keyboard. Seriously!

So tell me, are you struggling with the time change too? Did you start any New Years’ tweaks that you’ve managed to maintain all the way to March?

Get out the tiara! Cinderella is in the house! How many of us grew up to the fairytales of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, wishing our handsome prince would ride in and save the day? Yes, it would be nice to be loved by a handsome man, but most of us are women who are strong and able to take care of ourselves. It’s not just the handsome prince and the promise of a kingdom that intrigues us. It’s the dress and the tiara we all want and love! Right? Okay, maybe not, but you have to admit you could look at beautiful ball gowns and shiny tiaras all day long.

I’m a Big Bang Theory mega-fan and one of my favorite episodes was the one where Sheldon got Amy a “make-up” gift for being insensitive. The whole time she was telling him a gift wouldn’t begin to make up for his rude behavior she was reaching into the bag to see what it was. When she pulled out a glitzy tiara, she lost the cool, logical scientist and melted into a girlie, twittery female tickled to death by a tiara. Yeah, I think deep down we’d all like to wear a tiara and a gorgeous dress.

I’m thrilled they’ve made a movie that’s not animated and can’t wait to see it. Here’s a link to the trailers:

http://www.movie-list.com/trailers/cinderella

Do you like tiaras and ball gowns? Have you dreamed of going to a fancy ball and dancing like one of the pros from Dance With The Stars until the clock strikes twelve? Share with me a childhood dream, a description of your perfect dress.

Available for preorder
Amazon: http://amzn.to/17x2rlO
Ibooks: http://bit.ly/1C3YkXF
Kobo: http://bit.ly/1FfutNz

Billionaire Online Dating Service. Let us find your perfect match!

Desperate to find a date to his own charity ball to avoid taking a spoiled debutante, billionaire Gage Tate agrees to give his friend’s online dating system a try. Tired of gold-diggers and society princesses, he wants a woman who isn’t after his money, and won’t become a bridezilla-wanna-be when exposed to his high-society world and the trappings of wealth.

She never expected a computer program to be her fairy godmother…

Fiona McKenzie returns home from college to discover the family ranch threatened by foreclosure. Desperate to find a way to earn enough money to pay off medical and mortgage bills, she’ll do practically anything to save the home she loves. Unbeknownst to Fiona, her stepsisters enter her name in an online dating system, which she flat-out tells them she doesn’t have time for nor the inclination. Her focus is on saving the ranch.

When Gage’s date is reluctant to go out with him, he’s challenged to win her over. After a little digging, he discovers she’s in a tight financial situation. He sees this as an angle to pay for a date, help her out, with no strings attached when the charity ball is over. Only he didn’t count on falling for the pretty cowgirl, turned Cinderella. With her family ranch on the line, Fiona has no other choice than to accept Gage’s offer and she’s swept into a world of high-society most girls would consider a dream come true. Fiona isn’t impressed, but finds her prince charming a little to attractive to forget when the spell wears off.

Note: Make a stop at Myla Jackson’s Ugly Stick Saloon in this story and say hello to old friends.

Laila’s Lies, the latest taste of the Members Only Series, is now available for your reading pleasure!!
This is actually the ninth story in this series so if you haven’t read it yet you can have a book hangover as quickly as tomorrow!!! Don’t miss out!!

Buy it now and any of these fine retailers!
Amazon
B&N
Are
Ellora’s Cave
Kobo

Members Only, Book Seven

Laila Harris was a fake, a phony, a fraud.

Being sent to dig up proof The Library was actually a private BDSM club was her ticket to a promotion. Simple. Easy. But it wasn’t.

Not when she would have to betray the three men who captured her heart from the very first heated stare. Not when she would have to turn her back on the women who saw who she’d kept hidden from everyone. A submissive.

Choosing between her past and future will rock the foundation of everything she holds true. Until she understands the power she holds when she’s on her knees.

A Romantica® ménage erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave

Would you like to win a copy of Laila’s Lies to binge read of your very own? Or any one of my Members Only series?!?

Super!! I’d hoped you would!

All you have to do is go sign up for an amazingly awesome blog I’m on with several other authors!

The Decadent Divas!

Just click on the I understand and wish to continue button that says you’re an adult (and your heart can stand epic levels of decadence)! Then on the right under followers click on follow this site and just follow the instructions. Super easy. Then come back here and tell me what you think is Decadent in romance books! Especially in kink, cause I LOVE kink!

Happy posting! And please include your email address in the post so I can contact you with the shiny new copy of something wonderful to read!

Decadently Yours,

Jennifer Kacey

Need a bit more on the kinky and naughty side before you can get your fill of Laila and her 3 (yes I said 3) sexy men? I’ve gotcha covered!!

The books in the Members Only Series can be found here…

Together In Cyn
Haleigh’s Ink
A Very Ménage Christmas
Duke’s Valentine
Orgasm University
Accidental Voyeur
Roman’s To-Do List
Jenna’s Consent
Laila’s Lies

Stand Alone
Buried Permission
Beneath the Pages
Nico’s Curse
Elite Metal

Jennifer Kacey is a writer, mother, and business owner living with her family in Texas. She sings in the shower, plays piano in her dreams, and has to have a different color of nail polish every week. The best advice she’s ever been given? Find the real you and never settle for anything less.

Website – http://www.jenniferkacey.com/
Blog – The Decadent Divas – http://www.thedecadentdivas.blogspot.com/
Newsletter – http://jenniferkacey.us7.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=f09bd32b8c279cebcc930950e&id=2a45c210e8
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Facebook Author Page – https://www.facebook.com/jenniferkaceyauthor
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Amazon Page – http://www.amazon.com/Jennifer-Kacey/e/B00GXHUB30/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d9_al1?_encoding=UTF8&refinementId=618073011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0G8ZPDQJVKJPKXNBRY10&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1688200382&pf_rd_i=507846
Goodreads – http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6941549.Jennifer_Kacey
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UPDATE: The winner of one a free shorty from among those stories spinning in my carousel is…Carey Sabala!

* * * * *

It’s Saturday, but I’m up early today. I’m going to a Gelli class at 9 AM with my dd and my mom. What is Gelli you might ask? It’s a printing plate made of this wiggly gel that you brayer on paint, texturize the paint with stencils or your own scribbles, then you place paper over the painted/scribbled-on plate and “pull off” a colorful printed image that you can use in mixed media art. Whew. Taking a breath after that really long sentence! And for most you, what I said didn’t mean a thing. But that’s okay. We’re going to have fun.

What can you do while I’m off playing with Gellis and paint? How about read a naughty story or two. There’s time if the story’s short! And you know what I’m going to talk about now…

I started at the end of January publishing a short story a week in the Kindle store. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, they are free. For everyone else, they are $0.99. I have all these shorts I’ve written over, and other than grouping them in collections, and publishing them that way, I had no way for you to enjoy them. Until KU made it possible for me to get a little compensation for my effort and a nifty way for readers to “sample my wares.” It’s been fun getting each of these short stories ready for publication. I hope you’ve tried a few. Or if you have a really dead weekend, you could sample them all!

If you’d like to savor the pretty covers, I have a web page devoted to my “shorties.”

Here’s yesterday’s new addition:

The Pleasure in Surrender

After the lady of the keep bars her gates to the barbarian the king commands she wed, the half-Viking knight scales the walls of her heart…

Excerpt:

A draft brushed her face. She’d closed the door and latched the pigskin curtain over her narrow window. A scuff of a foot had her stiffening, but she heard no more above the pounding of her heart. She wasn’t alone. “Who’s there?” she whispered.

“I think you know,” came a deep, rumbling drawl.

She drew a deep breath and came up slowly, scooting to the far side of her bed. Her knife was on her chatelaine’s belt hanging from a peg beside the door. She was weaponless. “My people?”

“Your man Geade surrendered as soon as he realized the keep was overrun. No one was harmed.”

“How?”

“Does it matter? I’ve taken this castle. The only question now is one I want answered: Why did you bar the gates?”

Edwina shivered at his graveled voice. “I was promised time to grieve before I accepted another husband.”

“Alred suspected you would grieve until you were old. Did you really think he would defy the king’s order for you?”

She lifted her chin although she knew the gesture couldn’t be seen—not unless Vikings had eyes like cats. “I expected him to honor his promise. I paid for the privilege.”

“About that—he returned the gold. To me.” His footsteps drew nearer her bed. “But that doesn’t answer the question. Why, Edwina?”

Her mouth grew dry at the rasping texture of his deep voice. She swallowed and set her back against the wall. “I wed once for political expediency. This time, I wanted a choice.”

He remained silent for a long moment. “And yet you have turned away every suitor who approached you.”

“None were worthy.”

“You hold yourself in such high esteem?”

“I worried for my people. Warriors don’t make the best farmers.”

His footsteps scraped closer.

She pressed harder against cold stone.

“I will admit, I’ve little experience with farming. But I understood you were competent. That I could rely on you to teach me.”

He said the words slowly, and she tried to read his intentions in the inflections of his voice. Could he be telling her the truth? Would he allow her to continue as steward of her land? “Are we…negotiating?”

After a long moment, he cleared his throat. “You wed young.”

“I had no choice, but Malcolm was malleable and a drunk. We came to an arrangement that suited us both. I managed the estate. He drank and caroused, spending from a generous budget. We were both satisfied.”

“You managed him and the estate.”

“Yes.”

After a pause, he said, “I’m not malleable. Nor will I be managed.”

She heard the steel in his tone. She forced a derisive note into her own. “I was afraid of that. It’s why I closed the gates and prepared for a siege.”

He strode closer. His large shadow was inky black, ominous. “You do realize this is our wedding night? You are already my wife by the king’s decree. Only consummation awaits.”

Alarm rattled through her. “But there must be a wedding. The banns should be read.”

“No, Edwina. Your resistance ends tonight.”

*~*~*~*~*

The Contest

Hope you enjoyed! Leave an answer to the following question in the comments and you’ll be entered to win a copy of any of the shorties in the Amazon carousel below EXCEPT The Pleasure in Surrender. That one, I hope you’ll purchase on your own!

Are you artistic, or like me, do you wish you were? And like me, do you dabble?

March is Women’s History Month. There are many who made their mark in history and one of my favorites is Elizabeth I of England (1533–1603, reigned from 1558 to death).

Elizabeth’s greatness lies in two parts.  The first that she survives to become Queen, and second that she guided England from the disastrous state she inherited to a wealthy and stable country.

As the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth was born a princess, but as Henry progressed through his six wives, she was declared illegitimate, shifted from pillar to post and eventually reinstated third in the succession after her younger half-brother Edward, her older half-sister Mary (who also went through the legitimate/illegitimate back and forth).

Nine year old Edward VI succeed at Henry’s death and he pushed the English church further into Protestantism.  To maintain the change in religion started under Henry, Edward and his advisers changed the order of succession leaving out both Mary and Elizabeth.  He left the throne to Lady Jane Grey, a great-grand daughter of Henry VII and Edward’s cousin.  However on Edward’s death, the country, however, supported Mary Tudor.

Unfortunately, Mary tried to bring England back into the Catholic fold. While Mary was queen there were several rebellions as protest against the reinstatement of Catholicism or against the marriage to Philip of Spain.  As the Protestant heir to the throne, Elizabeth was the focus of any attempt to end Mary’s reign.  Mary had Elizabeth in and out of the tower or under house arrest with these rebellions.

Her early childhood and her confinements taught Elizabeth to keep her innermost thoughts and feelings to herself, and she continued to do so throughout her queen ship.  She managed to survive a stint of house arrest as she was a focus point for those against Mary’s policies.  Then with Mary’s death, Elizabeth came to the throne.

The second part of the Elizabeth’s greatness was her forty-four year reign that brought stability to England.

At the time of her ascension Scottish preacher John Knox published “The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Reign of Women”, predicting disaster in France with the regency of Catherine de ’Medici, in Scotland with Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I in England.

France was racked by religious wars under Catherine and her sons, Mary was forced from Scotland and lived as a prisoner in England.  Only Elizabeth and England prospered.  She became the Supreme Governor of the English Protestant church, saying she did not want to make windows into men’s souls, only requiring their outward conformity.  This evolved into today’s Church of England.

Early in her reign she refused to marry, for to do so would tie England to another country.  Her predecessor Mary had married Philip of Spain which tied England to the Spanish war with the Low Countries.  This resulted in the loss of Calais, the last English possession on the continent. Elizabeth was pressed by her advisers to marry and produce an heir.  Although she was often ‘engaged’ to various European royalty, these were more in the area of an alliances that helped the country.  She often spoke of England as her child.

Other major events under her reign included the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, which let England rule the seas and develop her colonies in the Americas.  This was the time of the Elizabethan Renaissance as under her reign prosperity and stability bought forth a burst of literary figures such as William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlow and Edmund Spenser.

Not too bad for a women born, grew up and came to reign in a man’s world.

I’ll be giving a workshop at the California Dreamin’ Conference http://caldreaminwritersconf.org/ titled STEP BACK IN TIME: Creating Realistic Historical Heroines which brought Elizabeth I to mind. 

Terry Irene Blain was lucky enough to grow up in a large Midwestern family with a rich oral tradition. As a child she heard stories of ancestor’s adventures with Indians, wild life, weather and frontier life in general. So she naturally gravitated to the study of history completing a BA and MA in History and taught History at the college level. Married to a US Navy sailor, now retired, she’s had the chance to live in various parts of the United States as well as travel to foreign places such as Hong Kong, Australia, England and Scotland.  She currently writes contemporary as well as historical romance based in the American west.

https://www.facebook.com/TerryBlainAuthor?ref=hl
https://twitter.com/TerryIreneBlain
http://www.terryireneblain.com/

For months, my youngest has been preparing to move to Florida. My hubby and I have joked about her leaving and how happy we’d be to have the house all to ourselves. I went along with him until now.

Now it’s a reality. She will be moving at the end of March. Her job transfer came through and she’s finishing packing. Not sure how I feel about this. Unhappy. Apprehensive. After all, she is my baby. When they said don’t blink, they’ll be grown in an instant.

It’s true.

Yesterday, we were bringing her home from the hospital all cute, tiny and cuddly, in need of our help to make her strong and teach her right from wrong.  We patched her skinned knees. Kissed her boo-boos. Watched every game of every sport she decided she wanted to play. Brushed the knots from her hair.

I’m not ready for her to leave. Where’s the handbook on how to let them go? Unfortunately, I know I have no choice. It’s a fact of life. Kids grow, mature and fly away. All I can do is hope she realizes the door is always open if she ever needs to come home. Any suggestions on how to make this easier? Besides wine. It’s not working. LOL.

Sincerely,

Tara Nina

*~*~*~*~*

Dual Release

Book five in the Cursed MacKinnons series.

A lead on a demonic cult lands Cait and Jenny in the arms of a pair of scrumptious twin Scottish lairds. Hot sex fueled by danger tightens their bonds with these men. But sunlight plays against them. Dour and Donnell MacKinnon are cursed. Just the girls’ luck—they finally find the perfect men and they’re gargoyles.

The cult wants the MacKinnons dead. Cait and Jenny want them in their beds. Men by night. Gargoyles by day. It’s a battle against evil these women are determined to win.

http://taranina.com
http://facebook.com/tara.nina1

Buy Link: http://www.ellorascave.com/dual-release.html

My new paranormal romance release, Phoenix Inheritance has three things I’d never thought I’d write in a romance:

A cat, dogs, and a kid.

I suspect I’ve gone sentimental in my old age though, I promise, there is a moment when stuff blows up.  What it also has, and not for the first time, is a  main character who happens to be a person of color.

Daz Montoya, who is of mixed Filipino and African-American heritage, is the third non-white hero in my novels, joining African-American Aloysius James of Luminous and Ghosts of Christmas Past, and Gregor Sherringford, the Indian-British consulting detective in The Curse of the Brimstone Contract. One could argue Philip Drake of Phoenix Legacy is also a person of color, as he’s a quarter Native American, but if someone can pass for white, they don’t experience our society’s prejudice in the same way as one who’s recognizably the other.  Therefore, I don’t count Philip.

Daz has been around since I included him in the supporting cast for the first Phoenix Institute book, Phoenix Rising. By the time I started writing Phoenix Inheritance, I never thought “hey, I’m writing a POC as a hero.” I thought “I’m finally able to give Daz his own story. Awesome.”

However, Daz was originally part of a deliberate choice to include people of color to my Phoenix Institute universe after I’d talked to several friends who felt they weren’t being properly represented in romance. One friend, Rita-nominated author Karen Harbaugh, herself Japanese-American, is the reason the heroine of Phoenix Rising, Beth Nakamora, is Japanese-American. Why? Because Karen and the others were right: why was the fictional world so white if the real world is so diverse?

I grew up reading comics books and science fiction and fantasy novels and I know what it’s like to be missing from your favorite genre. Finding three-dimensional female characters at the heart of SF/F and superhero stories was like finding a diamond amidst mounds of coal dust.  I held close to my hear those few female characters who, even if they weren’t main characters, at least had powerful moments, like Eowyn in Lord of the Rings.  I nearly cried at 13 when I realized that Lessa in The DragonRiders of Pern was a main character. And I bought every single issue of Batman Family Comics that featured Batgirl.

So how could I write stories excluding whole swaths of people? Answer: I can’t.

But you shouldn’t buy Phoenix Inheritance because it’s a blow for diversity. You should buy the book because Daz is an awesome hero that anyone can love.

That he breaks the mold is just a bonus. Below, I hope you’ll see why I adore Daz. And you can enter to win a copy of Phoenix Inheritance by commenting here or liking my Facebook page.

EXCERPT: CHAPTER ONE, Phoenix Inheritance.

Daz Montoya’s lungs burned with the need for air. The fifty pounds of dead weight in his backpack pushed down on his shoulders and his belly scraped the bottom of the pool. He kicked several times, short, sharp strokes designed to close the distance to his goal: the far wall. Read the rest of this entry »