Hi all. I’m really glad to be here today. Thanks, Delilah for having me as a guest. Be sure to leave a comment because at the end of the day I’ll pick a name for a free ebook. ~Desiree
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They live in Texas and they wear cowboy boots, but they aren’t ranchers. Nope, they build ranches. And a lot of other things, from houses to major developments. They are the McMann brothers—Alex with a masters in business administration, Josh with an advanced degree in architecture, and Tyler, the civil and construction engineer. Each one is better looking than his brothers and they cut a wide swath through the eligible women in San Antonio.
In Erector Set, you will meet each of them and learn his story.
First out of the gate is Erected, Josh’s story with Vanessa “Ness” Bowen.
Who can resist a pint-sized female with luscious curves stranded in a parking lot? Not Josh McMann. It’s his pleasure to save Ness Bowen, especially given the instant sensual chemistry that explodes between them. When she wrecks her car on the way to meet him for dinner, he saves her once again. And dinner at home takes on a whole new meaning as the sexual pull becomes too strong for either to ignore. The more they see each other, the more intense and erotic the sex becomes.
But Ness sees Josh as a player, and she’s been dumped by men like him who were always looking for the next conquest. Josh has his own trust issues, having been burned by women interested only in his money and power.
When a breakfast date goes awry and Ness thinks she’s been dumped once again, it takes a lot of fancy maneuvering from Josh to make amends.
“Yeah, hi,” he said when a male voice answered. “This is Josh McCann. Did you guys tow a…” He looked at Ness.
“White BMW,” she told him. “With navy interior. One day old,” she added, anxiety edging her voice.
Josh repeated the information into the phone. “Okay, thanks. Uh huh. Hold on.” He pressed a button on his phone, pulled out a slim stylus and wrote something down. “Got it. We’ll take care of it.”
He disconnected and shoved the phone back in his pocket.
“Well?” Ness looked to be more in control of herself even with anxiety written all over her face.
“They towed it. About an hour ago.” He looked at her curiously. “Were you in the restaurant? Why didn’t you give it to the valet?”
She tucked her hair behind her ear. “Because I’ve already had one car demolished a couple of weeks ago and I was hoping to last another twenty four hours before getting a second one dinged. I thought it would be a lot safer here.”
“Were you in there with friends?” He felt like he was digging the information out of her. “Where did they go? Can one of them take you to get your car?”
She sighed, fiddling with her hair again. “It was a business dinner. I can’t ask a client to take me to pick up my car that got towed. Anyway, he’s gone.”
“Not friends. A client.”
He looked at her cast then back at her face, one eyebrow raised.
She straightened her shoulders, trying to make herself taller. “My broken ankle has nothing to do with my ability to conduct business. I don’t talk with my foot.”
Josh swallowed a smile.
“Well, that kind of leaves you in a predicament, doesn’t it?”
She did that straightening thing with her body again, as if somehow she’d grow another six inches. “I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself, thank you very much.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Really.” She clearly put as much indignation into the words as she could. She needed to get her game face back on.
“Could have fooled me.”
“Besides, I’ve bothered you enough. I’ll just go on into the restaurant and they can call a taxi for me.”
She turned and began to clump her way back down the sidewalk, shoving his handkerchief in her pocket.
“Hold it.” Josh reached out to take her arm. “Hold it a minute, will you? You don’t need a cab. I’ll take you. And it’s really not a bother.”
Flying out the door, so this will be quick! I’m heading to Hot Springs this morning with my daughter. We have some errands to run.
Thanks so much to everyone on FB and Twitter who sent their congratulations for the two awards I received on Valentine’s Day! It means a lot—getting the awards, sure, but also the fact you are always there to support me. Thank you!
So, while I’m away today, here’s a question to ruminate over—it’s an important one (cough):
If snow could fall in any flavor, what flavor would you choose?
Thanks to the marvelous Delilah Devlin for hosting me today!
Let me be the first to admit that I have a hard time sticking to one genre.
Oh, my three books are erotic historical romances, but they are, in order, 1) a Dickensian alternate history of the invention of the vibrator, 2) a straight-up Regency set almost entirely in a brothel, and 3) a story about a dead lord, in Hell, who falls in love with the demoness in charge of his punishment. So we’ve got an erotic steampunk romance, an erotic historical, and an erotic historical fantasy romance (for which I’m currently working on a sequel).
And that doesn’t even begin to count the many half-finished and mostly-plotted ideas I’m working on behind the scenes. The young adult fantasy with yetis, Finnish magic, and the Arabian Nights. The Australian love-potion romance. The psychic noir. The fantasy adventure trilogy that starts in the Roman Empire, jumps to medieval France, and ends in Victorian London. The contemporary karaoke romance, or the time-travel romance epic fantasy, or the steampunk space opera menage with bonus sexy robots and squidshifters.
Someone—I’m sure they meant well—once told me to write the books you’d like to read. I want to read all of these stories. I want more crazy westerns and science fiction romance and more historical fantasy—oh, how lucky we live at a time when historical fantasy is coming into its own! I want to read genres that don’t even have names yet! I want more books like Zoe Archer’s Blades of the Rose, or Isabel Cooper’s No Proper Lady, both of which I cannot recommend highly enough.
This post is proudly a stop on the TEXAS TWO STEP Blog Tour. For a complete listing of all stops on this tour, please visit here. All contests are for U.S. residents only unless otherwise noted. Comments left on this blog will be counted toward the Texas Two Step Faithful Follower Gift Certificate. To see a complete listing of Blog Tour Prizes, click here. Be sure to check out the freebies. Yours for the asking as long as they last.
A mega-thank you to Delilah for hosting this stop on my blog tour. DD has been an unfailing supporter and friend. She listened to me whine, complain, and basically kvetch about everything from a muse who took an ill-timed vacation to judges who just didn’t like my voice. When I sold to Samhain, DD was one of the first authors I turned to for advice, and she’s never led me wrong…well, maybe astray a few times, but there was alcohol involved and we agreed never to mention it again.
The hero of Texas Two Step (Mitch Landry) doesn’t have a sister, but like most men, he knows the rule about messing with a friend’s little sister…which is, Don’t Do It. In college, he was in a fraternity with Travis and Jason Montgomery. During that time, he heard a lot about their little sister, Olivia (the heroine of Texas Two Step) and even met her once. But she had been in high school…just a kid, he’d thought to himself at the time. Now at SMU (Southern Methodist University) law school, he shares classes and a friendship with Jason Montgomery. He remembers Olivia as a teenager until he meets her at The Bourbon Cowboy bar on her twenty-first birthday.
Texas Two Step opens about ten years after this inadvertent meeting at The Bourbon Cowboy. So much of the time when a story opens and the couple has a history, we only get to hear about it in flashbacks or musings during the story. But Olivia and Mitch have such a love affair that I thought it only fair to share snippets of their past in a Texas Two Step Prequel. Today’s installment is The Meeting-Part Two. If you missed part one and want to read it before today’s episode, click here.
I never had an older brother to “watch” out for me or shoo the boys away. I had an older sister, but I’m thinking that’s different.
What I want to talk about today is the older-brother-younger sister dynamics. Did you have an older brother? Was he protective of you like we romance authors like to portray older brothers? Did you ever date one of his friends? What are the rules of dating your brother’s friend?
Today’s TTS Blog Tour Prize
Many guest bloggers can offer a copy of a backlist book to be given away as a potential prize for a blog commenter. As a debut author, I don’t have a backlist. But I do have some awesome author friends who have stepped forward and offered one of their books as a prize.
Today’s TTS Blog Tour Author Sponsor is Turquoise Morning Press author Keri Ford. Keri will send Uninhibited inApple Trail, Arkansas Vol.2 to one lucky person who leaves a comment. To find out more about today’s Blog Tour Sponsor, you can visit her website, Twitter or Facebook.
Oops! I promised on Facebook that I would choose a winner to receive a free download of Arctic Dragon from Saturday’s commenters. That winner is (by random number generator)…Cindy Bartolotta! Cindy, send me an email to arrange delivery of your free book! And remember, if you didn’t win this time, on Thursday, I will name The Believe Fairy Contest winner—so be sure to post a comment!
I had fun last night, tweeting during the Grammy’s. I probably wouldn’t have watched the whole thing, but it was so much fun keeping company with Dakota, Emma and Joy and a host of others who praised and panned the performers, that I stuck through to the end. How wonderful was Adele’s performance? And Jennifer Hudson’s? Bruno Mars has a new fan girl here too. His performance was so much fun!
I’ve been thinking about making the drive to Little Rock this week to watch a movie in the near future. I live in the boonies, so movies require an hour’s drive. I spent some time yesterday checking out trailers to see what looked like fun. I found this one…
Doesn’t this look like fun?! Looks like Julia Roberts’ evil queen will steal the show!
Do you have any upcoming movies you want to see on the big screen?
A note, first. I spent the night at my daughter’s last night. We were playing with our new Razr phones, adding apps, battling Angry Birds, when the first message popped up about Whitney. Both of us were saddened. The Red-Headed Hellion was a huge fan. I remember her dancing in the living room as a very little girl with karoake mike in her hand, singing, “I wanna dance with somebody…”
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Chirping Like a Bird
Music means a lot to me. This morning, I wanted a reason to smile. I dare anyone who watches the video to not be twittering like a bird after watching this video.
We’re hoping to snag tickets today for Tom Petty’s concert at the Verizon, April 12th. Regina’s opening for him!
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Sunday Report Card
This was a more productive week than last week. TG!
1) I have something in the works for Ellora’s Cave. Another My Immortal Knight. I have new covers for books 2-4 that I hope will attract new readers to the series, because I want to continue visiting that world. The first thing is a repurposing of a quickie I self-published. My freaky little succubus story. Following that will be the completion of Viper and Mariah’s story. Yay! Viper’s been waiting for an HEA forever!
2) I submitted a paranormal story that’s half-written to a publisher. Witches, demons, a bit of police drama in the mix. Cross your fingers!
3) Lastly, I am nearing the end of Dragon’s Desire. I hope to finish it up in the next couple of days. Since it’s a straight-to-Kindle project, it won’t be long before you can read it.
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Remember, The Believe Fairy Contest continues! Be sure to click the link for the rules! And post a comment to enter! Ciao, for now!
Ladies, I will be rich and sell many books and win tons of money and have love. Bethea and other physics said so. Really. Cool, huh?
Bethea emailed me one evening and said she awoke from a sound sleep thinking about me. She was dreaming about me, yeah, me. I thought for a minute she knew something I didn’t, maybe that I was naked and… Nope, she saw me deliriously happy with all the money I could want, even better. She saw me in love, too, with the perfect man. Now I don’t know about you, but that sounded wonderful to me!
Hmmm, I wonder, why would she dreamed about me, when we’ve never met. She promised me what most of us want, security and love. These seductive promises have been luring folks to fortunetellers and psychics forever.
This woman is good! She has offered me a FREE session and other beautiful totems, some even ancient relics. Well, actually, I can pay for them and she will refund my money if I am not thrilled. She said there were angels watching over me, druid priestesses wanting to help me, and she herself has cast spells for me. BUT there are evil forces keeping me from having the riches I deserve. Well, damn!
BUT, if I send her money to cast a bigger, more powerful spell, she will send me a pendant, or a bracelet, or a statue, or a rearview mirror charm for my car for only $19.99, or $29.99 or $39.99. Hmm, that doesn’t sound free.
Marie the Magnificent, my own personal fortuneteller, said that if I do this, Bethea will have my money and my credit card info, and I won’t EVER see a penny of it, even if I complain. MM suggested that if she had mentioned selling books, we might be inclined to believe her.
Why do I even read these emails? Because I enjoy seeing the predictions that I will have money for all the things I need (maybe a boy toy or three?), that all will be well in the future.
Now, I have a prediction for you. I see you reading Haunting Refrain, a book about a love story in the past and one in the present. Yes, I see you reading the love scenes and sighing or grabbing someone on whom you can try the sexy stuff. I see you straddling a handsome man in the front seat of a Mustang, with the driver’s seat reclined as far back as it will go. I see you riding that man and moaning with….. You can write the rest.
Tell me what you think about psychics and fortunetellers or a story about an experience with one, and you can will a free download of Haunting Refrain. I’ll give away 2 downloads.
In Erector Set, you will meet each of them and learn his story.
This post is proudly a stop on the TEXAS TWO STEP Blog Tour. For a complete listing of all stops on this tour, please visit 
The hero of Texas Two Step (Mitch Landry) doesn’t have a sister, but like most men, he knows the rule about messing with a friend’s little sister…which is, Don’t Do It. In college, he was in a fraternity with Travis and Jason Montgomery. During that time, he heard a lot about their little sister, Olivia (the heroine of Texas Two Step) and even met her once. But she had been in high school…just a kid, he’d thought to himself at the time. Now at SMU (Southern Methodist University) law school, he shares classes and a friendship with Jason Montgomery. He remembers Olivia as a teenager until he meets her at The Bourbon Cowboy bar on her twenty-first birthday.
Many guest bloggers can offer a copy of a backlist book to be given away as a potential prize for a blog commenter. As a debut author, I don’t have a backlist. But I do have some awesome author friends who have stepped forward and offered one of their books as a prize.
To learn more about me check out these links:
Bethea emailed me one evening and said she awoke from a sound sleep thinking about me. She was dreaming about me, yeah, me. I thought for a minute she knew something I didn’t, maybe that I was naked and… Nope, she saw me deliriously happy with all the money I could want, even better. She saw me in love, too, with the perfect man. Now I don’t know about you, but that sounded wonderful to me!
