Happy Saturday! Enjoy this long excerpt, then follow the links at the bottom to check out more “saturday snippets”! This one’s about a dime novelist who discovers her story is coming true. She’s a little odd, the story’s a little odd—happy reading!

“…Sisters Devlin and Jackson team up with Chase to create sizzling stories of delicious, daring men and even wilder women. Make sure you’ve got time to kill, because once you start you’ll want to read this collection in one sitting.”
4 ½ Stars, RT BOOKreviews

These women like their horses fast and their men hard. And they always know how to get what they want…

When Prudence Vogel finally meets Jake White Eagle, she discovers he really is the tall, handsome hero of her novel. And his dark sensuality and raw masculinity make her eager to explore every intimate inch of his beautiful body…

Serendipity, Montana 1883

Prudence Vogel didn’t want to miss a thing.

She wet the tip of a sharpened pencil on her tongue and steadied a writing tablet on her lap, ready to capture the last moments of her journey. But, as was her nature, her mind wandered, and instead she began to write the adventure playing out in her imagination.

Katarina’s nose wrinkled at the smell of stale beer and dust as she slipped behind the saloon and peered into the darkened room—

The stagecoach jolted as a wheel slipped into another deep rut on the rough trail, sending her pencil scraping off the edge of the pad.

She sighed, resigned she’d have to commit the final moments of her journey to memory and pick up her heroine’s adventure after she arrived at her destination.

She slid her tablet into the pocket of her valise behind her dog-eared copy of The Adventures of Katarina, her latest, well only, publishing credit. She’d kept the novel in clear view in hopes of drawing a comment to give herself an opportunity to sell one of the many copies she’d brought with her.

Not the dog-eared copy—that one contained penciled notes of the details she’d gotten wrong. For that was the purpose of this journey. Prudence Vogel had never traveled outside the city of Chicago, yet her first novelistic experience was an adventure tale set in the wild frontier, featuring a tall, handsome hero she’d only fantasized about. She needed to know whether she’d been wrong.

For all she knew, the real Jake White Eagle was a short, squat man who could suck his whiskey through the space where his front teeth ought to be. She’d braced herself the whole journey for disappointment because she’d built such high hopes he’d be the hero she’d envisioned—the kind of man a real “Katarina” would admire.

Tales of his wild youth, his talent with a gun, his time spent scouting with Wild Bill Cody for the 5th Cavalry had fired her imagination since she’d come across the first mention of his name in the Chicago Tribune.

After that she’d scoured every newspaper she could get her hands on, searching for a description of the man and his exploits.

Physical descriptions had been hard to come by—“burnished skin” and “the deadly stare of the black-eyed Indian” hadn’t told her whether his jaw was square or rounded, or his nose was a sculpted blade or broad and bumpy. And it would have been helpful to know whether Katarina would have to lift her patrician chin to kiss his lips. Since she’d lacked definitive answers to her questions, in her mind she’d created an image of the man she wanted him to be.

However, news of his dangerous exploits had been much easier to find. The man had earned quite a reputation as a gunslinger as he’d roamed the western territories. Then for some reason, last year, he’d settled in Serendipity, Montana. Not Deadwood or any number of more recognizable wild, western towns, but an unknown place with a whimsical name.

In her research, she’d missed the reason for his inexplicable move. Now, she wanted the truth for the sequel to her book, and detailed descriptions to bring her wild, west adventures to life.

Prudence pulled back the curtain to take a look outside, blinking against a cloud of dirt stirred up by the stage’s team of horses.
Read the rest of this entry »

The polls are now closed. You have spoken-spoken–spoken—hear that ominous echo?

For the erotic short story series, you have chosen:
A firefighter series, featuring a single fire station and the firefighters’ off-duty playmates

For the longer, more romantic project, you chose:
Recently dragged from Hell, a powerful godlike dragon seeks to steal his old lover from the vampire king

Some of y’all even recognized that story as the next one in the Dark Realm series. If I’d mentioned that I already had 100 pages written on the disgraced ex-cop story, would that have made a difference? grumble-grumble

A few of you even offered ideas for titles for the firefighter stories. I had some really funny ones from “The Real Max”—funny story there too about how he and I first met…

Anyway, I have my marching orders, now I have to plot the firefighter series. If you have any suggestions for the types of stories you’d like to see, you know I’m always open.

For the next few days, I’m going to be talking about Lone Heart, my next Samhain book, which releases next Tuesday. It’s available for pre-order now if you want to go ahead and start the buzz!

After that, there’s nothing on the schedule for release until the Cleis collections begin to roll out this summer. I have to get writing to keep you hungry mamas fed! Next up? Here’s a list of what’s on my plate right now:

1) A dragon wooing his virgin sacrifice with the help of a knight
2) The next book in the lesbian vampire series, Femme Noir, for Ellora’s Cave
3) The next Lone Star Lovers story, Two Wild. That title is evolving. It begs the question, for what?

While I work on these projects, I’ll be working on your menu selections. Y’all have a wonderful weekend! TGIF!

You have spoken. My series of erotic shorts for Kindle will center around the hotties in a firehouse! Looks like I have some research to do! And I’ll be back for help with a series title. How do you like the title “Drinking from a Long Hose” for the first installment? Too crass? Makes me smile!

In the meantime, help me choose my first long project for Kindle. This time, you get just one choice!

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Remember! The Three Signed Books Contest continues. Find the details here! ~DD

The Reading Rush

My Mommy Wine Club friends think I must read very fast. It’s funny for me because to my online circle of avid romance readers a book a week is a crawling pace. It’s all about perspective.

I learned to speed read in high school, and it did make college textbooks easier to plow through. I still like the technique for non-fiction, but I like to enjoy my novels. I like to read them slow, chapter by chapter, a small sip of loveliness before I fall asleep each night.

Which, as any romance reader will tell you, is not always the best idea because there are some stories that you literally cannot put down and the next thing you know, the clock has hit single digits and you’d rather drink a pot of coffee tomorrow than set the story aside tonight.

In my latest book, For Kicks, the heroine learns to speed read at the beginning of an extended business trip and winds up using her time in airports, planes, and hotel rooms to explore interests she never had time for. Astrology, diet, knitting, Tarot, origami, reflexology…if you can find it in an airport bookstore, she’s liable to pick it up. My former expense account and I plead the fifth on where the idea for this little habit came from.

For a chance to win a $5 e-gift card to Amazon or B&N (which you can use to buy own copy of For Kicks)…tell me, what have you always wanted to learn about? Why don’t you do something to learn more about it today?

Catch up with Jenna on her website, blog, Twitter (@jennabb), or Facebook.

If the shoe fits…run with it!

Breeze Cohen senses something is missing from her life, but her career doesn’t leave time for anything but retail business strategy—particularly the upcoming product launch for her cornerstone client, Nitrous.

No way is she going to let live-for-the-moment Logan Chandler tarnish her professional reputation. Even if the ex-athlete poster boy for Nitrous makes her heart pound like she’s run a marathon.

After surviving a near-fatal accident, Logan doesn’t want to waste a minute of life. It’s meant to be lived, ravished, enjoyed—and there’s no one he’d like to ravish more than Breeze. There’s a deep pool of mutual desire beneath her icy façade. He can feel it every time they touch.

When a training snafu at Nitrous launches Breeze into damage control, Logan is ready and waiting to lace up and take her for a run on the wilder side—if he can catch her.

Warning: Side effects may include a desire to melt chocolate with body heat, spontaneous phone sex, and an intense drive to find loopholes in your workplace fraternization policy.

I’m currently busy finishing up stories I’ve already committed to write, but I’m also makin’ plans for what’s next. Yes, more Lone Star Lovers and even a new My Immortal Knight are in the near future, but I’d also love to write a continuing series of short erotic stories—fast lunchbreak reads—that I could put up on Kindle in a hurry when you get hungry for a quickie. I have ideas, but would like for you to tell me what you’d love most. These may or may not be romances and would definitely lean more toward erotica. Don’t worry, I have a romance poll coming in a couple of days too!

Take a look at this list. You can choose up to three. The one with the most votes will be the first I write.

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Kari Thomas Interviews a Dragon!

Since the Dec. 7, 2011 release of my latest book, SURRENDER HER TOUCH, I have had so many Readers write me and ask that I do MORE Dragon Shapeshifter stories.  Writing Slade Stryker’s story was my first foray into the fascinating world of Dragons, and now I have this sneaky suspicion it won’t be the last time.

As I was sitting at my desk contemplating this, in walked my sexy Alpha Hero. Or should I say, he “stalked” into my office. Dragon shifters seem to stalk everywhere, as though anyone or anything in their path is prey. It must be their inherent “primal” souls remembering when they once ruled the world at the top of the food chain. Sexy, but intimidating to say the least!

I tried to hide my surprise as Slade nonchalantly settled into the chair opposite me. “Hey, Slade,” I said oh-so-casually. “Any reason for this visit? I thought I’d settled everything with you when I wrote the words ‘The End’.”

“Good morning, Kari,” he rumbled sexily. (He always talks that way!) “I flew over this morning to talk to you about something that has developed since you wrote ‘Surrender Her Touch’.” (When he says “flew”, he means in dragon form! How kewl is that!)

“Problem?” I shook my head. I couldn’t think of any problems developing once the book is released. Everything pretty much goes smoothly. It’s all that “before” stuff that can drive a writer crazy (the edits, etc).

“Yeah,” he rumbled again.  “You exposed us with that book. I’ve had to keep my Firestorm Team patrolling around-the-clock ever since the book came out. We’ve had nonstop ‘tourists’ climbing all over the woods looking for easy access into the Compound. None of our people can go into town without being accosted by curious humans.” He growled low, a sound indicating his inner dragon was slowly awakening. “Why didn’t you think about all this before you wrote about us?”

Gulp. Actually, I had thought about it. But I was so sure that people would think it only Fiction and not go looking for the real dragons! “Sorry?” I gave him my best “I’m-really-innocent-despite-the-proof” smile. It didn’t work. He glared at me. And when Slade Stryker gives his dragon glare, you know you’re in trouble. “What can I do to help?” Was it even possible? Readers everywhere were now out hunting the Shamara Dragon Clan, and it was all my fault.

“You’re going to write a Retraction,” he announced in a soft demand. “Tell those Readers it’s all Fiction.”

UhOh. “I can’t do that,” I mumbled. “The book is out and more Readers are reading every day.”

Slade stared hard at me for a long minute. Was that steam I saw coming from his nostrils? Never push a shapeshifter to reveal his inner dragon….

“Fine,” he said, his tone brooking no argument. “I’m going to tell you more dragon stories. Some so horrifying, so incredibly unbelievable, you’ll have nightmares for weeks. Then, you’re going to write those stories. THAT should scare off all those Readers.”

Meekly I explained, “But Romance can’t be horrifying, Slade.”

He grinned, the sight so sexy I had to remind myself that he already had a Mate. “Oh, there will be romance. Passionate, hot, romance to curl your toes. You’re going to leave those Readers ….gasping.”

SURRENDER HER TOUCH
http://www.eternalpress.biz/book.php?isbn=9781615725588
Paranormal, Shapeshifters, Contemporary Romance

Kari Thomas
http://www.authorkari.com

Let me get a couple of announcements out of the way, then I’ll get to business! This is one of my New Year’s rezzies, so put up with it already!

Last Day to Get It Free!

It looks like folks are finding the story. As of this morning, there had been 2500 free downloads in the States, and more in England and Germany. The point was to:

1) reward my loyal readers, and
2) perhaps, pick up some new readers—if they liked what they read.

Tonight at midnight, the offer goes away and the price will go back up to $2.99. I’d like for it to finish strong so that when it goes back to the “paid” list on Amazon, it doesn’t fall away into oblivion. So, be sure to get your copy now and send the link to a friend! And if you’ve read it, why now take a minute to leave a review? Just sayin’…

Three Signed Books Contest

Remember that? If not, click on my contest link: Contest

All you have to do to enter is post a comment sometime between now and January 31st! And the more days you drop by and say hello, the more entries you have! Easy, right?

My Report Card

I keep a To Do List, which I update every Sunday. I shoot for the moon, but am truly satisfied if I only accomplish lift off. The point is to keep all my goals fresh and in front of me while I whittle away.

This week, I managed to:
1) Field questions regarding the Wild at Heart call for submissions; (If you’re a writer, you’ll want to click on the link and find out more!)
2) Respond to lessons from the ongoing Plotting Bootcamp;
3) I completed chapter 1 of AT;
4) I wrote the opening of a new short story;
5) My formatter person rushed the job for me so that I had Strokes back in time to upload it on Monday, then I spent time promoing the book everywhere I could think of;
6) I put together the newsletter for the After Midnight Fantasies group;
7) And it wasn’t part of my goals, but I put together a one-page, single-space proposal for a two-novella demon book;
8 ) I wrote a proposal for a Cleis antho and shipped it to my editor;
9) Tuesday, my daughter was ill, so I dropped everything and spent the day and evening at her house taking care of the wee ones;
10) Thursday, I attended an art guild meeting with my mom and aunt;
11) and Saturday, I spoke at the Diamond State Romance Authors‘ monthly meeting about time managements and planning!

Does that sound like enough? It was definitely not enough progress on the main goal, the demon story. I hope to remedy that this week!

I need nags. “You go write, Delilah” “Why are you on Facebook when you should be writing me more stories!” I won’t get mad, and just maybe, I’ll follow orders! Y’all have a good week!