I’ve never been a country girl. I grew up in a small city. My father covered his back yard in asphalt and made it a half-court basketball court for my five brothers. I listened to WLS radio out of Chicago. My influences were more Saturday Night Fever than Urban Cowboy. My teenage years were spent with The Cure, Duran Duran, and Depeche Mode. So how the heck did I end up with all this country music on my playlists?

I discovered it purely by accident. Earlier this year, I wrote my very first short story featuring a cowboy hero in V Is for Vindicated — my contribution to Love Letters Volume 6: Cowboy’s Command. Where does a certified city slicker trying to write about a rough and tumble rodeo guy turn for inspiration? Music, of course.

And what I found in my own iTunes library shocked me.

I didn’t even notice it was happening. In a true testament to the power of the crossover hit, I found that my playlists were already loaded with country (or country-flavored rock) tunes. Some old and some new, and a few nothing more than a guilty pleasure.  There they were, ready and willing to inspire. Proof that not only could I step out of my comfort zone, but I already had.

Here are just a few of the tunes that fueled V Is for Vindicated. What are some of the surprises lurking in your music library?

Crazy ~ Patsy Cline
Need You Now ~ Lady Antebellum
Look What You’ve Done to Me ~ Boz Scaggs
Grow Old With Me ~ Charles Kelley
Somebody’s Crying ~ Chris Isaak
This Kiss ~ Faith Hill
Witchita Lineman ~ Glen Campbell
Bad Things ~ Jace Everett
Hate To Lose Your Lovin’ ~ Little Feat
Blue Bayou ~ Roy Orbison

Maggie Wells is a deep-down dirty girl with a weakness for hot heroes and happy endings. By day she is buried in spreadsheets, but at night she pens tales of people tangling up the sheets. The product of a charming rogue and a shameless flirt, this mild-mannered married lady has a naughty streak a mile wide.

Fueled by supertankers of Diet Coke, Maggie juggles fictional romance and the real deal by keeping her slow-talking Southern gentleman constantly amused and their two children mildly embarrassed. They are the food purveyors to three dogs, a passel of fish, and one impertinent house rabbit she claims is the love of her life. Shh. Don’t tell her husband.

You can find her online at http://www.maggie-wells.com, on Twitter @maggiewells1, or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AuthorMaggieWells.

It normally takes me about six months to write a novel, but Haunted Knights took me a lot longer.

In my third medieval romance novel, If Love Dares Enough, one of the heroes marries a widow who is the mother of a dwarf.

My readers know that my stories follow successive generations of one family and its offshoot branches. Denis de Sancerre appeared as a minor character in Passion in the Blood, but I knew the time would eventually come when he would want his own story told.

I put it off for a long time and tried to ignore him. How many romance novels have a dwarf as the hero?

In the meanwhile, Game of Thrones became a bestselling novel and TV series, rocketing Peter Dinklage to stardom.

I haven’t read Martin’s books nor seen an episode of the show. However, Peter Dinklage did give me the impetus to start the long postponed book and a basic idea for the plot.

At the 2013 Golden Globe Awards Dinklage spoke of Martin Henderson, a British dwarf facing life in a wheel chair after being “tossed” by a modern day medieval thinker.

His attacker may have been inspired by a “dwarf tossing” incident involving members of the English Rugby squad during a tour of New Zealand.

I wove this idea into my plot, using the prehistoric monoliths to be found in Carnac, a small town in Brittany. The evil lord of the manor there has carried on an archaic Halloween tradition of tossing a virgin off the top of the tallest monolith.

He thinks Paulina, the heroine of Haunted Knights, would be perfect because not only is she a virgin, she’s also a dwarf, and Denis de Sancerre’s betrothed.

In my story, Paulina suffers from Pituitary dwarfism, a condition of growth retardation characterized by people who are very short in stature but have normal body proportions. It is caused by a dysfunction of the pituitary gland, the pea-sized mass of tissue located at the base of the brain.

Denis is an achondroplastic dwarf.

Of course, none of these medical terms existed in medieval times.

Inspired by Dinklage, I embarked on Haunted Knights with the unhandsome, deformed Denis as the hero. He describes himself as looking like “an ancient gargoyle.”

However, lest you think I am very brave, I was too chicken to rely on Denis alone to carry the book. A girl has to make a living you know!

So I gave Denis a half-brother, Adam, as a co-hero. However, I didn’t want him to be perfect—that would simply make Denis look worse. I wanted Adam to have flaws. After all, Haunted Knights is part of a series called Wounded Warriors.

I have a grandson who is profoundly deaf, so I decided to afflict Adam with deafness. For good measure, I also made him impotent!

Now you’re thinking, “Is the woman mad? How can a man who is impotent be the hero of a love story?” Especially when readers know my tales are juicy and sensuous!

Sorry, this post is about Denis! You’ll have to read the book if you want to know the answer!

But, good news! Haunted Knights for kindle is on sale for .99c until Halloween. Plus it’s enrolled in Amazon’s Matchbook Program. If you purchase the paperback for $9.99, you get the digital edition free. (This program begins sometime in October according to Amazon)

If I may, I’d like to end with a review from a reader that made the exercise very worthwhile.

I wanted to give you a 5 star rating for going into uncharted territory. Most romance heroes are tortured by some trauma but are paragons of masculine beauty and perfection in physical form. How very refreshing to see Denis (with all his limitations) achieve his happiness with a woman who started out small but ended with a spit fire spirit.(Karen Wilkinson)

Bondage Boot Camp Part 2 & Contest

Oh
MY
GAWD!!!!!!!

Bondage Boot Camp Part 1 was NOTHING compared to Part 2!

My next adventure in Kink Land (I’m picturing #CandyLand for the naughty here) was in Dallas at a convention called Beyond Vanilla. This one was more the leather crowd – boot blacks, knife play, predicaments, blood, puppy play and rope. Mmm…rope. My favorite!!

It was very diverse and there were so many classes I had to pick and choose which ones I wanted to attend. So I spent 3 days learning all about different kinks. Some I’d never been able to see in person, and the experience of it happening live and in color was amazing!

What was the first class I chose to attend you ask? Masterful Mindfucks. Yep, and I tell you this, it kicked off the conference with a bang and a half. By the end of the hour and a half I’d seen leeches, fake blood, had a tarantula flung at me (which I thought was real mind you and I do still scream like a girl), learned what a lifetime gangbang might look like, and was reminded what burnt hair smelled like. Talk about jumping into the deep end. I LOVED IT!!

My favorite two classes were Predicament Bondage and Blood Play, which the latter totally shocked me, but I’ll get to that in a minute. Predicament bondage I’ve seen before, and experienced a tiny bit of, but the class I went to was incredible and unbelievably entertaining. It was put on by a Sir and his three “boys”. Three full grown, beautifully naked men!! And all three of them were gorgeous so it was no hardship watching them be put in “interesting” positions.

The first predicament was intense. The Master had his husband, yes I said husband, strip and do 25 pushups. Not too tough right? WRONG! We’re all counting for him, and he’s butt naked in a room of 40 of us or so watching his every move. At the end of the last one his Sir made him hold the push up position. He taped his legs together, very effectively gagged him with a chili pepper duct taped in his mouth and then to give him incentive to hold the position he pulled a sheet of mouse traps out from under one of the conference tables and laid it beneath his stomach on the floor. It was intense! He did great and was able to hold it until the traps were removed. His Sir set off the traps at the end just to prove they were live. Then he showed predicaments with two people and three people. What one does affects the rest, normally is some deliciously depraved way that made my jaw hit the floor. Crazy naughty! Seriously had to hit the reset button on my brain after that class!

Okay, blood play. I had some idea what to expect on this one, cause…HELLO…it’s blood, but I’d never been in the same room with it and I didn’t know how I’d react. I’m not squeamish of blood by any means, but would it be sexy or gross or just ho hum whatever, I could take it or leave it.

I REALLY liked it and that surprised me. The class was put on by a guy and he had two women and one guy bottom for him during the class. He did a cutting with blood cupping **FASCINATING**, needles on this gorgeous girl who really REALLY likes needles, and a venous pull on a guy from the audience for reasons that are too convoluted to go into here. It was beautiful and organic. The chemistry and tension between the Dom and his subs truly touched me. He kept having to remind himself not to get lost in the moment since he was teaching a class. That spoke to me more than anything else, the connection in their play.

That seemed to be the common theme throughout the weekend. The presenters and participants sharing what they love and their enthusiasm was contagious.

That is what I took away from my bondage weekend. Oh, well, and quite a bit of rope burn from three suspensions back to back to back Saturday night. (**GRINS**)

It was a great weekend and one I would recommend for anyone new to kink or curious about kink, or just freaky deaky and you want to get your kink on.

GO FOR IT!! Find the you you’ve always wanted to be, and let her out to play!

CONTEST – Bad Girls of Romance Trading Cards plus Swag and Trading cards from yours truly. Plus, maybe a little bit of something extra from Romanticon since I just got back!

Tell me a kink you’d love to try, but haven’t gotten to…YET!!!

Members Only, Book One

She knows it’s wrong. Cyn shouldn’t have feelings for fraternal twins Jared and Chris, her best friends. She shouldn’t want them to tie her up or strap her down, to take her one at a time—or together. The only way to control her taboo desires is to write them down and lock them away in her diary. Guys like Jared and Chris could never be interested in someone like her, or in the kind of sex she craves.

But Jared and Chris have read her diary, and sweet little Cyn is in for the shock of her life. The brothers not only own a members-only BDSM club, they want her. Need her. And now, with their unlimited funds and an entire establishment devoted to fulfilling her darkest pleasures, they’re going to claim Cyn for their own.

Inside Scoop: If you have a kink, this book probably has it too. If you like your ménage romances extra hot with a side of male-male romance, spanking, voyeurism and girl-on-girl action, come and get it.

A Romantica® BDSM erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave

Buy Links below and others on the TIC webpage along with an Excerpt and Video

Amazon | Ellora’s Cave | Barnes and Noble

Website – http://www.jenniferkacey.com/
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/jennifer.kacey.7
Twitter – https://twitter.com/JenniferKacey
Goodreads – http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6941549.Jennifer_Kacey
Pinterest – http://pinterest.com/jenniferkacey/

A Very Menage Christmas is available for Pre-Order Here!!!

Jennifer Kacey is a wife, 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.

Day 1 of the studio art tour just about killed me. I think 4 carloads of people came through yesterday in the 9 hours we were open. Today, I’m hoping more folks will be off work and we’ll get better traffic. Boredom saps my energy worse than anything. My dd and I sat making earrings at the table rather than sitting idly. Do you like the skull earrings? I think I’ll be scarfing up a pair of the aqua-flowered ones for myself. So cute! Of course, all that trapped inactivity did give us a chance to gossip—never a waste of time. You can  barely see the rock crystal teardrop earrings on the bottom tier, third over. Sooooo pretty. And we made lava bead bracelets for men and two cute little kid’s bracelets. It turned out to be a productive day, so I guess I shouldn’t bitch. Here’s hoping for busloads today!

Hope y’all have a wonderful weekend! What are your plans?

What Scares You in a Fun Way?

I think about this question a lot around this time of year, because I seem to find myself writing my characters into scary situations a lot. For me, fun scary isn’t bloody gutsy. I think slasher movies/books are too unsettling to enjoy. I guess I’m more into psychologically and environmentally scary stuff.

Give me a deep, dark wood, or a creepy old haunted house any day.

So what is it about these places that’s fun scary to me? I guess it’s the anticipation of something horrible in a setting that, under a bright sun, would seem normal and harmless. Terror slides into place under a fat moon or a storm-drenched sky. It pulses to life as the sun dies and is a living, breathing force until the sun rises again.

Fun scary is the monster in the closet or the ghoul skulking behind a tombstone. It’s a child’s nightmare…a madman’s dream. It doesn’t slash or eviscerate, but the possibility is always there for violence, like a rancid hope.

I particularly love atmospheric scary. It pulses with a thunderous heartbeat of its own, dragging you into a terrifying abyss of fear and helplessness. A stormy Cliffside at night, with the ocean pounding violently far below. A dark, chilled cave filled with the stench of death and other…much worse…things.

Sometimes horror masks itself in play, like in the following scene from my upcoming romantic suspense, Hell Hath No Honeybun, where my hero and heroine find themselves looking for a killer in the black-light-drenched rooms of a Halloween fun house!

Enjoy!

What happens to a songbird when she sings the wrong tune? She quickly finds herself in a flight for her life!

Garrick Honeybun was only at the Halloween fundraiser as a favor to his cousins and his Uncle Brick. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy the singer, who stirred his senses like nothing he’d ever experienced, and had a voice like molten honey. In fact, he fully intended to tell her how much he enjoyed her singing.

Unfortunately, somebody got to her before he could. And when the guy who shoved her around behind stage showed up dead in the cloak room, Garrick’s beautiful songbird took a runner. Now Garrick had to find her, and when he did, he fully intended to find out why she killed the guy—and figure out how he could help her get away with it.

Book page

* * *

As they got closer, the sounds of mechanized screaming filled the night. The sound, even muffled as it was, made Ena’s stomach hurt, because she knew it was a thin veneer over the true horror waiting inside that house.

A warm hand lay against her back, a soft breath bathed her face as they started up the wide, wooden staircase. Garrick’s breathing was regular, his touch gentle. His unflustered presence took the edge off Ena’s terror.

The bulb over the front door flickered ominously. Movement on the roofline made Ena look up just as a huge, black bat dropped toward them, its eyes glowing red in the dark. She screamed and flung up a hand to swat the beast, before she heard Garrick’s chuckle and realized it was just a prop.

Ena swore softly as the bat lurched upward on a noisy cable. “I’m not going to survive this,” she muttered.

Garrick moved past her, reaching for the doorknob. He lifted a finger to his lips and pulled the door open a few inches, peering inside before slipping through in front of her. He grabbed her hand as he went through the door and pulled her in behind him.

When the door closed they stood in total darkness.

Garrick stilled, the fingers holding her hand tightening as they listened, trying to get their bearings.

Something clanked in the distance. A speaker belched a horror-movie scream and Ena jumped, wrapping her fingers around Garrick’s arm.

A stale breeze wafted past.

She thought she heard the soft exhalation of breath and spun around, icy fingers of terror slipping up her spine. A sense of movement on the floor made her jump and give a little yelp. The terrifying sound of tiny, pattering feet suddenly surrounded them. As if someone had opened a cage full of critters and dumped them into the room. Something squeaked down by her feet and she gave a little scream. “Rats! Garrick!” Ena rammed him with her body, not sure what she expected him to do about it but certain they’d be better off as a single unit, rather than two, easily separated potential victims.

He lifted a hand and light flared. Garrick pointed the phone toward the ground.

Nothing.

“It’s just a sound track,” he told her with a smile in his voice.

Ena shuddered. “I’m seriously not going to survive this.”

A flashing light snapped on overhead. The flashing made things in the room seem to move and lunge toward them and Ena was relieved when Garrick tugged her hand and they used the disconcerting display to move through the space. As they neared the door on the other end of the room, someone screamed, the sound filled with agony. Ena’s immediate thought was that it was Jackson.

She started to run.

A blood-covered figure pitched toward her, the chainsaw in its gore-coated hand roaring to life. Ena kicked out, her foot smacking hard against the metal frame of the simulated attacker. “Ouch!” She hopped away as the “monster” retreated noisily.

“Are you okay?” Garrick supported her arm as she hobbled around for a minute.

“Yes, I’m…” The room went black again. Something shifted behind her and hard hands grabbed her arm, yanking her backward. Ena screamed as the wall opened and the ruthless hands ripped her away from Garrick. Her scream was quickly cut off by a brutal punch to the temple and the darkness in front of her eyes found its way inside her brain.

Book page

Author Bio:

Sam writes as Sam Cheever for mainstream romantic suspense and fantasy, all heat levels; and Declan Sands for m/m romantic suspense and fantasy. Sam’s published work includes 40+ works of romantic suspense, and fantasy/paranormal. Her books have won the Dream Realm Award for fantasy, been nominated for and/or won several CAPAs, were nominated for Best of 2010 with LRC and The Romance Reviews, and won eCataromance’s Reviewer’s Choice award.

Sam is published with Changeling Press; Ellora’s Cave, both Romantica and Blush; Musa Publishing; and Electric Prose Publications (her own imprint).

Visit her websites to find out more about her work and activities: www.SamCheever.com or www.DeclanSands.com.

You do know I have a life outside of writing, right? I have a large family that occupies two sides of the highway in my neck of the woods. And no, we aren’t Duck Dynasty. We’re just a multi-generational (five generations!) family, trying to be there for each other. I’m “sandwich girl”–stuck between the elders and the young’uns (my daughter’s family), and doing my best to carve out time to write.

But writing isn’t all I want to do. I need hobbies. And one I’ve found I really enjoy is making jewelry. I sell a few pieces on line and in an Etsy store, but I haven’t put the effort into selling. Mainly, I just love sitting down at the work table, clearing my mind, and putting together little baubles or painting a pendant—things that, for me, don’t require much of my brain.

This weekend, Friday through Sunday, I’m taking part in an artist’s studio tour—an annual event the local art guild sponsors, so I’ve been busily putting together more baubles to display, and hopefully sell. Sales equals validation, here. And maybe I can earn enough to pay for more beads and paint! Here are some things I put together this week. I will be flooding my Etsy site with items after the tour!

amethyst and rutilated quartz bracelet, inked and painted pendant

howlite crosses bracelet

coral, ruby, copper and leather bracelet

dragon’s eye bracelet, with jasper, jade, citrine, and Victorian era button,
plus painted/inked pendant

What are your favorite “take me away” hobbies?

Thanks so much to the fabulous Delilah Devlin for having me!!!  Have you read all of her books? Seriously, you should!

As writers, we always hear the words “write what scares you.” and given that it’s nearly Halloween and ghoulies are gearing up for the big night while the level of candy corn in my vat on the coffee table sinks suspiciously lower, I thought I’d talk about fear today.

Ignoring the big “I’m a human and instinctively scared of death, pain, natural disaster, and reality show contestants,” like love and taste in music, fear is individual – I am terrified of bugs and things jumping out at me, but blood doesn’t bother me at all.  I love being scared at the movies, but you couldn’t get me on a roller coaster, and I despise things jumping out at me (Haunted Houses, **shudder**).  If I see a copy of Stephen King’s “It” on the bookcase, I have to stop and read a few chapters, no matter that the experience will leave me scarred for the rest of the day.

I’ve been writing Halloween shorts for my BEWITCH ME collection, and while they’re not frightening in the classic sense of the word, I did try to think about the old order to “write what scares you,” if not in terms of oozing monsters with chainsaws, then in terms of what happens when you fall for someone completely different from yourself.  If you’ve been hurt, can you be brave enough to open up to someone?  If you happen to be powerful and strong, can you relate to someone who’s not?  Can you face the consequences of your actions and take your medicine, admitting you were wrong?  All of these emotional fears are very, very human, and it’s been interesting to write characters grappling with these questions and finding points of connection and compassion as they figure out the answers.  Of course, ALL writing is therapy, and characters love to force us to face our own fears and examine our insecurities under a microscope.

And don’t forget, being scared of something gives us the best excuse in the world to huddle together – there is safety in numbers!  This October, curl up with a horror movie, grab your sweetie, and be happy for this magical, ghoulish season that brings us all together for some scary Halloween fun.

Email: LilyCRede@gmail.com
Twitter: @RedeLily
Author Page: http://amzn.com/e/B008OC9048

Bewitch Me Buy Link

Five steamy short stories to fill your nights with sexy, spooky delight. Even good witches get to be a little bad on Halloween, and sparks will fly when love, lust and magic get all tangled up in these hot paranormal shorts.  Collection includes PASSION & PUMPKINS, MY FAIR HEX, ENSORCELLED, THAT MAGIC TOUCH, and BEWITCH ME.

From THAT MAGIC TOUCH:

“Had I known I was going to spend all night in a fridge, I would have dressed for the occasion.”

Wes’ eyes slid over her neat white blouse and black mini-skirt, lingering on the hint of lace at the tops of her thigh highs before following them down to her sensible shoes. Jane felt a curl of heat that had absolutely nothing to do with the temperature in the room. Wes rubbed his hands.

“I can warm you up, if you don’t mind a little magic…”

“No! I’d rather be cold.”

Wes frowned.

“It’s not that big a deal.”

“Not to you, it’s not!”

Jane tugged her skirt down and curled up as best she could as Wes made a sound of pure male frustration. He shrugged off his jacket and tucked it around her shoulders, his raised eyebrow daring her to protest. With a sniff of gratitude, Jane snuggled into the fabric, trying to ignore how it smelled of Wes and clean soap and linen.

Wes sat down across from her, leaning against another shelving unit.

“I would conjure up a deck of cards, but I’m afraid that might offend your delicate sensibilities.”

Jane scowled at him.

“You make fun, but is it so bad to just want my life to be somewhat normal?”

When normal is the one thing you can’t give me.

The thought was depressing. Life without Wes and Esme would be…bland.

“Normal gets old pretty fast.”