I haven’t done a report card in a while because I haven’t done a lot of writing over the past couple of months. This week I got back on track.

But first, what’s that list to the left?

Yeah, that’s Samhain’s Best Sellers list! What a lovely gift! Thank you, all!

I signed a total of four contracts this week!

Three of them were stories for Samhain.
* The next Lone Star Lovers story, A Four-Gone Conclusion, which will release in September!
* The next Red Hot Winter story, Lone Heart, which will release in January 2012.
* The start of a new series, a five-some that I will tell you about after I start writing it! It’s tentatively scheduled for release in November!

The fourth contract is for another short story collection for Cleis Press, cowboy-themed—and this time heterosexual! I put the call for submission out on this blog a couple of days ago. So, any writers out there who are interested… I can’t wait to read your stories!

This week, I finally made progress on the lesbian vampire story that’s been on my plate for a couple of months. Why have I had so much trouble getting down to business? I haven’t talked about it much here. I mean, who wants to hear about real life stuff, right? But since it affects readers, I thought I might let you know that my lack of productivity hasn’t been because I suddenly got lazy.

About a month ago, my grandfather became gravely ill. My mother headed to Washington state to be with grandma. My brother and his wife relocated her from Colorado, and they’ve moved in until they can build a house on the property. My grandfther died, and now, as of late last night, my grandmother and aunt are living with us too. Add to the fact that it’s summer and the red-headed hellion’s children are constantly underfoot—and the pool is finally a comfortable tempture—and you can see why I’ve been a little distracted.

This next week, the RHH, the six-year-old and I are taking a road trip to Iowa. Not a sexy destination? Maybe not the way most people travel, but I’ll blog all about it when I get back. We’re escaping the madhouse for a week, then I’ll be back to the grindstone. Promise. I have all those shiny new contracts to fulfill!

The Promo Ho and Cabbage Rose Fairy contests continue! Comment today and add another entry for the drawing for that lovely journal. Post an honest review and send me the link, and you’re entered in the other. Thanks to everyone who’s playing!

Recurring themes

My books seem to have several recurring themes: China, vacations, water, and gardens.

“Changing Cherry”, “Chinese Love Triad”, and “Terracotta Warriors” (releasing 30 March) are all set in China. I have spent some time in China on business and love their centuries of tradition, the polite, helpful people, their beautiful country. Also, I write a lot of two men/one woman ménages, and in a country with many millions more young men than women, because of their one-child policy, such ménages make excellent sense.

Everyone loves a vacation and vacations leave time for people to discover more about each other, spend long hours having fun together (in and out of bed) and are a great way to move the story forward. “Summer Sizzle”, “Vivienne’s Vacation”, “Huldah’s Two Hikers”, “Three for the Road”, and “Double Satisfaction” are all set during vacations. “Combustion”, and “Flash Flood”, include mini-vacations.

As for water and gardens, my characters love the beach, lakes, the countryside. The “Sex Odyssey” series is set in Resort City, a beachside town. “Dance for Three” has a hot beach scene, “Summer Sizzle” is set at the beach, and the heroine in “Flash Flood” gets caught in a tidal wave. “Tempting Tenealle” involves a courtyard garden, the gardens in “Double Satisfaction” are purely awesome, and “Huldah’s Two Hikers” is set on a hike through a national park.

My newest release, is “Strung Tight” the final book in the “Sex Odyssey” series. Jeff lives in the trailer Park at Resort City and Pete arrives there as a tour guide with a group of very demanding clients.

After a scorching night of sex and sin, two men need to make a decision in their lives.

Jeff works nights playing guitar at a strip club. Pete works days as a tour guide. Neither man is happy and both search for fulfillment. Can they find it in each other’s arms?

While the sex is great, and the orgasms body shaking, how can their relationship survive if they’re separated by time? Surrendering to wild emotions is easy. Real life is messy but the fight for love is worth it.

The two men gazed into each other’s eyes. Lust exploded like a visible force, and Jeff took two hurried paces to close the gap between them. Pete stepped into Jeff’s embrace and wrapped his arms around the taller man’s waist, lifting his face for a kiss.

Jeff gently pressed his lips to Pete’s, then swiped his tongue along the seam of the blond’s mouth. He opened and Jeff slid his tongue inside, enjoying Pete’s taste of coffee and mints and something spicy.

He trailed his tongue behind Pete’s teeth, and along the insides of his cheeks, then tangled it with the blond’s in an erotic dance, before sucking his tongue into his mouth.

They didn’t break the kiss until both of them were breathless. Even then Jeff nibbled on Pete’s lower lip and ran his hands up and down the man’s spine, wanting to get closer, needing to be inside him, right now, but not wanting to seem to be rushing or coercing the blond.
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The Promo Ho and Cabbage Rose Fairy contests continue! See details here! ~DD

Thanks to Delilah for having me on her blog again! I always love visiting here. And I went all fangirl when I met her at RT. (Hope I didn’t make a fool of myself!)

Yesterday my latest book came out. Restraining the Receptionist is a follow-up to Training the Receptionist. A lot of people tell me this series reminds them of the movie Secretary. (Not to be confused with Secretariat, which would be truly disturbing.) Secretary, which I loved, is about a lawyer who hires a troubled young woman. Their relationship turns intimate in a BDSM kind of way – it’s never spelled out in those terms, but they’re playing with the power dynamics of the boss/secretary relationship, and falling in love in the process.

I can see the resemblance, given the office setting and the BDSM element. But there are many differences. First of all, tone. Dana, my heroine, is sassy and quick with a comeback, whereas Maggie Gyllenhall’s character was on the depressed side. Maggie had only one boss, James Spader. He was more than enough, by the way. The two of them smoked up the screen.

But Dana has two bosses. In Restraining the Receptionist, she already has a strong, loving, trusting relationship with Simon, who trained her in the first book. But Ethan is the senior partner and not accustomed to taking second place. He’s going to pull out all the stops to win a place for himself in Dana’s heart. And when he sets his mind to something, watch out. But he’s taking a chance … what will happen to their blissful triangle when Dana and Ethan get in deeper than they intended?

Despite the major differences between my Receptionist books and Secretary, I’m honored by the association. And I can’t help thinking, what if they made a Receptionist movie? Who could do as good a job as Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader?

So, here are my picks. For the strong but tender, green-eyed Simon: sexy Clive Owen.

For the blond, blue-eyed, force of nature Ethan: the one and only Daniel Craig.

And for lucky Dana, I’m leaning toward Emma Stone. Someone with a lot of spunk, who can handle two dominant men like Simon and Ethan.

Of course, the only way they’d make a Receptionist movie would be as a training manual for how not to behave at work. But hey, I can dream, right?

Restraining the Receptionist is available now from Samhain Publishing. (Click on the cover to purchase!)

And if you leave me a comment – I love comments! –
I’ll put you in the drawing for a $5 Amazon gift certificate.

The Promo Ho and Red Ribbon Fairy contests END TOMORROW! See details here!

That picture just about sums up my week. I did complete copy edits on Girls Who Bite and get them shipped. I unpacked from my trip. I swam. A lot.

The question for me this week is whether I can remember how to be a writer. It’s not hosting contests (although that’s fun). It’s not tweeting or FBing. It’s not being “me” on line.

It’s sitting my butt in the chair. It’s fingers poised over the keyboard. It’s isolation. Because only when I find that happy subspace (submissives aren’t the only ones!) can I create. So what I need now is a writer’s Dom to whip me until I feel good and ready to do my muse’s will. Okay, so maybe I should be saving the words for a new book. Later!

Some things I took with me to Lori Foster’s convention were trading cards. Not for baseball heroes or X-men, but romance covers! I took more of them with me than bookmarks.

Have you seen them? Are you collecting them? There’s even a site where readers can go to peruse through romance trading cards and make requests for copies (Romance Trading Cards), but don’t click away yet!

I had these made just before I left. Kind of a rush job, and I want the next to be a little more distinctive, but I think they’re pretty just the same. I’ll be putting them on my EXTRAS page so readers can request them. If you’d like a set, let me know. Just send me an email with your snail mail address and I’ll hook you up! Are there any other of my older books that you’d like to see in trading cards?

I’m back from Ohio. Lori Foster’s was a great event. One I’d recommend to an author or a reader. It’s very laid back. I was bummed that I managed to forget to submit a list of books for the booksigning, but it worked out. I made it around the signing tables begging for swag. I have a ton of books, t-shirts, and signed bookmarks, trading cards, excerpt booklets, etc., to give away. The authors were very generous. Let me get unpacked and I’ll get started on that. For sure I don’t want it hanging around my office! 🙂

I’d love to send kisses—muah, muah, muah—to the ladies who chased me down at the booksigning with books they’d brought from home for me to sign. I was very thrilled to see so many!

I will post pictures as soon as my sister, Elle James, sends them to me. Yeah, I took a camera, but did I remember to take it out of my suitcase?!

This week, it’s nose to the grindstone. Sis and I managed a lot of brainstorming this weekend. I feel like the well (from whence all inspiration cometh) is refreshed. And I mapped out the external plot of the next Viking story! That one had been nagging me because I didn’t know how I could equal Enslaved by a Viking.

This week, Juniper Bell aand Berengaria Brown will be guesting with me. And I think that’s about it. Thanks to the ladies who have posted reviews for the books they’ve read. It’s greatly appreciated!

The Promo Ho and Red Ribbon Fairy contests continue! See details here! ~DD

CONQUERING FEAR

I am a true April Taurus—earthbound, practical, stubborn and temperamental. My life is ruled by fear. In true “bull” fashion, I tend to meet it head-on. It’s what drives me, not a weakness but a motivator.

I’ve always been a tomboy, preferring horses to boys growing up. I belonged to the Wilderness Challenge Club in high school (Wisconsin Academy in Columbus, WI). Whitewater rafting, caving, rappelling, canoeing, if it meant sunburn, mosquitoes and getting dirty—that was where you’d find me. Very glamorous stuff. Now, I’ve always been afraid of heights. Like—freeze atop a 6-ft ladder scared of heights. We won’t even mention airplanes. Sedatives. LOTS of sedatives…

So, the first time I went rappelling was at Devil’s Lake, from atop Devil’s Rock. Guarded by all manner of…rattlesnakes. Saw two, sunning on the rocks. So there I was on a snake-infested rock atop the world. Beautiful view. Wasted on a sixteen-year-old in a cold sweat. See, the secret to rappelling is to WALK down the rock face. Anyone who’s walked across a floor knows the easiest way to do that is to be perpendicular to the floor surface. So if the floor surface is almost entirely vertical, that means the walker gets to be the one who’s…horizontal. And that translates into standing backwards at the edge of a cliff, the true ground several hundred feet below, and LEANING back against a rope-and-nylon-harness-affair into thin air until you’re lying down on NOTHING—and then walk down the wall.

Sure. Uh huh. (Never said I was a BRIGHT kid. Well, okay, I was. Straight A nerd.) And Mr. Snyder was right there like some hairy bearded cheerleader from Buffy saying stupid things like, “It’s easy. You can do this. Nothing stops you. Just leeeeeean back and walk down.”

But it was my best friend stating “Don’t be such a chicken shit” that got me going. Okay, it took me 20 minutes of whimpering like a toy poodle in a thunderstorm before I leaned back enough to start walking. Reaching the bottom to more Buffy reject cheering felt like conquering Mount Everest.

That’s how I tackle life. I let fear motivate me into moving, defeating, conquering. It can either stop you or get you going. Being a Taurus, stubbornness gets me a long way through life. As a writer I try to let the quality bleed off into my characters. Set them up against a bad situation some would consider impossible, but the character just takes a deep breath, says “Who if not me?” and forges on to start, to try. And so the stories go.

Renee
http://reneewildes1.wordpress.com

About Renee:

Fantasy Romance Author Renee Wildes writes the “Guardians of Light” series for Samhain Publishing. She lives in central WI with hubby, 2 kids, a calico cat, a black Chow, and 2 half-Arab mares. She still considers herself a tomboy, although she hasn’t hoofed it down Devil’s Rock in years. Nowadays, writing, reading and scrapbooking occupy her time—when she’s not prying her kids out of a tree or off the roof… Her latest book, Dust of Dreams, comes out in paperback on June 8, 2011. Riever’s Heart will be out in ebook on Sept. 27, 2011.

The Promo Ho and Red Ribbon Fairy contests continue! See details here! ~DD