**Just one day left to enter to win a Dragon and a Cup of Joe**

I have a brand-spanking-new Facebook Fan Page!!!! What’s that, you say? I can’t explain it, except to say that the fan page will allow me to reach more people than my personal page which is nearing capacity. I am switching to the Fan Page and will slowly wean readers from my personal page by offering bribes to make the change. I’ll be running a contest, very shortly, that only the folks who have “Liked” my page are eligible to enter. There will be a Kindle Fire and a slew of smaller prizes up for grabs!

So what do you have to do? 1) Click the Fan Page link. 2) Click the “Like” button. Simple as that.

So what’s up today? I have to start a new story today. Have to,  have to! Or rather finish the one I already have started. You’ve seen the cover:

Help me figure out what the story’s about!

Is it contemporary or medieval, or contemporary with a medieval feel? I started it in the present, where there’s a mysterious man who has reconstructed his European castle here in American. Does that work for you?

It’s a given there will be a ménage, but what flavor of ménage do you want? m/m/f or m/f/m?

My young, aspiring reporter is a virgin. How can that be?

Ready for the challenge?

Please remember, there are three contests ongoing at the moment. Check here for details: 
*Win a Dragon and a Cup of Joe (ends Dec 20th)
*Win a copy of Best Erotic Romance (ends Dec 23rd)
*Win a $25.00 Amazon.com certificate (ends Dec 27th)

The garage sale is over! For now. We made a whole whopping $150.00! Guess right before Christmas isn’t the best time to do one. We froze our butts off for two days and ransacked the closets of this new old house. Every time I went looking for things to put out, I found something I wanted, so it went into my stack. 🙂

My sis, Myla Jackson, kept me and the Red-Headed Hellion company part of the time. And since sis is still here, I better mosey on down to spend some time with her! So while I’m visiting with family, you can answer a question:

What body part are you most attracted to?

I swear my life would make the best reality show. A house full of eccentric elderly people. Pets who act like children. A Red-Headed Hellion with children who would frighten The Children of the Corn. I’m the one in the middle of all the chaos.

I’ve been trying to simplify my life. However, the older of the two little girls has some learning issues. I’m going to be helping with homeschool. I already babysit quite a bit, rush to town to help with emotional bedtimes, etc. For a year, my daughter lived in a trailer she’d bought and put in the pasture beside our house. It was to be a temporary housing solution. We hoped the house across the road would come available and be reasonable priced, but when that didn’t happen fast enough, I found a very nice, cute little house that needed a few renovations in town, five minutes away. Problem solved, or so I thought.

A week after her family moved in, the house across the road was offered to us, along with 8 acres of land. No more driving to get where I’m needed. No more worrying about the hellions escaping the front door and running into the street (the two-year old moves step stools to reach the upper latch of the front door). But the house was built in the early 80’s and was occupied by an old lady who lived alone until her family moved her into a nursing home. We pretty much have to plan to gut the bathrooms and redo them, replace the roof, the carpet, the tile…

So, I’m buying that house, along with everything still inside it, selling the other, and this weekend we are holding a massive garage sale to get rid of all the items the woman horded in her house for thirty years.

We have found some treasures. I scarfed up two lovely old blue carnival glass bowls. My daughter found a Beatle record in mint condition. My mother, aunt and grandmother swarmed the crocheted afghans and a multitude of coats and jackets the woman barely wore.

Yesterday, my grinning son-in-law walked in to present me with a Teen Wolf doll whose eyes glow red and growls when you flip the switch.

The sale starts early tomorrow morning, so be thinking about me, setting up tables to pile with clothing, toys, dishes, crocheted toilet tissue covers, a dozen bibles, statues with Jesus standing at the bottom of the sea beside a conch shell, dressers crammed with linens, picture frames with photos of smiling people who are no longer living and whose relatives didn’t care enough to save.

My daughter has a box for the photos she’s sure some long-lost grandchild might someday return to find. She’ll keep it along with the dead husband’s Mason uniform and her Mason wife’s pin. Maybe when the old woman finally passes, she’ll return and be happy about the fact we saved something she treasured. While we renovate, we’ll respect.

But she’s not getting the Teen Wolf doll back.

Psst! Remember, continue to post in order to increase your chances to win
The Dragon with a Cup of Joe Contest!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

‘Tis the Season

‘Tis the season of giving. And it’s still a season of thanksgiving, as well as a season of reflection.

I have done a few things this year outside my comfort zone. I’ve learned a lot, changed a lot, and I’ve met some wonderful people this year. One of them being Delilah. She is down to Earth, open, kind, patient.

I’d started reading her cowboy stories before the Lori Foster Readers and Authors get together in June and when I had the chance to meet her, I zoomed across the room and accosted her. I told her I loved her books and that I’d love to pick her brain some time. She was gracious and offered to sit down with me at breakfast the next morning.

That kind of willing and open kindness is something I find missing a lot in this business and in life in general. I don’t understand it. Delilah let me ask questions and never made me feel like a lesser author just because I didn’t have the right publishing credentials or didn’t know the right people. There was nothing I could do for her in return for her sitting and talking with me.

She’s professional and she’s quick with a smile. Her sister, Myla Jackson, is the same way. Both of these women are incredibly successful yet don’t treat others any different for not being quite so… They gave of their time and their lessons learned. They gave of themselves and in the spirit of giving, that’s something most reserve for the holidays, but they gave it in the middle of the year. They touched me and I know they touched others. We should all strive to be less full of ourselves and willing to talk with, spend time with, and help each other. We should all strive to talk less about ourselves and our successes, and listen more.

These two authors are not the only ones like this. I’ve met others this year who are just as quick to take a moment to talk, to offer their time, to do something that may not benefit them in any way at all but to make someone else smile or feel better.

I do a lot of reflective thinking at this time of year. What could I do better, how could I be a better friend, a better author, a better mother, daughter, wife, a better all around person? I think I know and it starts with saying thank you to Delilah and Myla for showing me the kind of author/person I want to be toward others in this business.

Throughout the holiday season this year, I’ve been emailing people I’ve met in this business to thank them for their friendship, to thank them for any help they’ve given me, to tell them I miss them, that I love their books, and in some of my guest posts I am doing it, too. Just like in this one.

What about you? Have you told those that mean something to you or that have come into your life and changed you in some way, thank you?

Of course, now, I get to plug in a bit about my upcoming Samhain Publishing release, Twisted Up. It’ll be available on December 20th for purchase, however it is available for pre-order now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Samhain Publishing.

One rope. Three days. And two hearts on the line.

Justin has had enough. Ella, the woman who healed his broken heart, has been cancelling on him for two months straight. Sure, she’s busy with her job, which has her traveling far and wide. But that never stopped her from sharing nights of trivia, long conversations and blazing hot sex—until now. Truth to tell, he misses their easy friendship, the way her sighs fill his ear as he fills her body.

What he can’t figure out is, what’s changed?

At work, Ella finds it easy to talk to rooms full of strangers. Once back at her lonely apartment, though, she’s back to her painfully shy self—until Justin. Their chance meeting grew over the months into a year-long affair, but she can’t shake the feeling that rejection and pain are just around the corner. Best thing to do? End it now, before their intimacy digs too deep.

Suddenly he’s at her door with a length of neon-green rope and a naughty proposition, daring her to say no. Just how good could it be? There’s only one way to find out.

Product Warnings: The sheets are tangled, the hat is crumpled, and the jeans are worn low on the hips. The cowboy is hot, determined, and helpless in the face of bunny slippers. Readers may need extra batteries to get this one out of their system.

For more information, please visit my website or blog, and sign up for my newsletter. You can also find me on Twitter and Facebook.

I want to thank Delilah for having me! I wish you all a very happy holiday season.

I love posting questions because the answers y’all give me are always so much fun! And if you need a bribe, remember that next Tuesday I’ll choose the name of the winner of that pretty dragon mug from all commenters!

I was making my Christmas list yesterday. It’s Christmas in this house, although some of us are atheists/agnostics, some Christians, some Catholics…some still exploring our options. Off topic, but do you know some Protestants don’t recognize that Catholics are Christians? I get, “What church do you belong to?” “Not any at the moment, although I’m baptized in the Catholic church.” “Oh, so yer not Christ-y-in?” When I get that from someone that ignorant, I want to say, “To Catholics you’re all a bunch of cultists!” But I refrain—especially given my ambiguous relationship with any higher being.

Anyway, I’ve bought a few gifts, but not in any organized way. In fact, my daughter had to remind me I had some things tucked away I’d bought during the summer. So, now I know what I have and who I still need to buy for. I’ve made notes for most of the people on my list, except for one.

My father’s gift is ALWAYS the hardest one to purchase. He loves tools, but he has every tool known to man. He loves John Wayne, but he owns every John Wayne movie ever made and has a collection of John Wayne clocks, lunch boxes, coffee mugs, toilet paper—yeah, rough and rugged stuff for the rough and rugged man. I’m still stumped about what to get him, but I’ll figure it out.

So my question to you is who is that person in your life for whom you can never find the right gift? What have you gotten him/her in the past
that he/she loved or hated?

My friend and sometimes travel buddy, Sasha White, has a brand new story out this week! It’s the next in the Alluring Tales: Night Moves series! Enjoy!

A Highlander who was trapped for centuries discovers carnal freedom when he finds the reincarnation of his soul-mate…and her husband.

When Dougal MacNeil refused to do an evil Druid’s bidding he saved his honor, but lost the chance of a life with his soul-mate. Now, almost three hundred years later he has a chance to finally have what he’s always wanted, a life with the woman he’s always loved, or the re-incarnation of her anyway. In this life, she’s already married to man he calls friend.

Dougal is shocked when the couple asks him to join them in their bed, but unable to walk away. Will sharing her love with another man shatter his heart forever, or can this traditional Scotsman find his happy ending with a new beginning?

Now Available at:

All Romance eBooks * Amazon * Smashwords

He heard them before he saw them.

The soft moans and rhythmic slapping of flesh on flesh penetrated seconds before Dougal turned and saw the couple on the landing above. He halted with one foot on the next step, closed his eyes, and sucked in a deep breath. His neighbors were at it again.

For a moment Dougal simply stood there, listening to Katherine’s sighs and John’s grunts echo through the otherwise empty space as his fought to control his own emotions. He should’ve taken the elevator, but why bother to get in a lift he didna trust when he could use the emergency stairwell to walk up to his fourth floor apartment? He never used the lift, and his friends knew that. They’d laughed at his ‘quirk’ before, and now they were using it to torment him.

He opened his eyes, intending to turn and go back down the stairs, but instead, he moved forward, up the steps until he had a clear view of where John had pinned his wife to the wall, and was thoroughly fucking her…right next to the door Dougal needed to go through.
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Reunited Lovers

Don’t Forget Me is my first reunited lovers book. The hero, Nando Avrogado, and the heroine, Kit Maldonado, were together in a previous Konigsburg book, Long Time Gone. But I always wanted to do more with them—they were a couple of those secondary characters whose stories seem to be worth telling. But if they’re still together, there’s not much story to tell, so sorry guys, had to break you up!

I’m not alone in this, of course. A lot of authors have played with the reunited lovers theme. Jennifer Crusie does it in Maybe This Time, where the hero and heroine have actually been divorced and come together again through trying to foil some particularly nasty ghosts. Susan Elizabeth Phillips does it in Fancy Pants where the first half of the book shows the hero and heroine meeting and parting and the second half shows them reuniting. And of course there are all those historicals where hero and heroine are actually married and parted and reunited, like Eloisa James’s charming This Duchess of Mine.

The tricky thing about reuniting the hero and heroine is finding a credible reason for them to have been apart in the first place. If either has been too dastardly, it becomes hard for you to reunite them (unless, of course, the dastardly one has now reformed and wants desperately to be forgiven). On the other hand, if the event that drove them apart seems too trivial, you doubt their ability to commit. There’s got to be a legitimate reason for them to have broken up, but not something so awful that you just can’t see them ever getting together again.

In the case of Kit and Nando, the precipitating event was cheating, which is a sort of standard way to break things up. But I didn’t want Nando to be one of those guys who just can’t seem to settle down. In their case, the breakup came after a series of increasingly bitter fights as they came closer to the date when Kit was due to return to school from her time in Konigsburg. I’ve seen that happen—I think most of us have. As couples approach a turning point, the stress makes them break apart. A casual affair with somebody else is a way to escape making the real decision.

So now having broken them apart (bad author, bad, bad author), how do you bring them together again? Again, a lot depends on the couple themselves. You don’t want to create a situation where either of them has just too much to forgive. Otherwise, you wonder just why your hero or heroine is such a wimp. In Don’t Forget Me, both Nando and Kit struggle against getting together again largely because they’re both afraid of being hurt after they managed to heal (more or less). Both have told themselves they’ve moved on, but neither one really has. In their case, they’re brought together by a song, “You Don’t Know Me,” and a dance. And, of course, by the torches they’re carrying for each other that are bright enough to light Carlsbad Caverns.

So, of course, they do reunite—this is romance, after all, not Annie Hall or 500 Days of Summer. Here’s the blurb:

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