Thanks for having me, Delilah!

I’m both traditionally published (with Berkley Heat) and self-published. Both methods have their own advantages. With a traditional house, I’ve got a great editor I love working with and they give me fabulous cover art. Check out The Principal’s Office. I love it! The drawback is that it takes longer to get a book out. The exact length of time can vary, but usually a book will appear on the shelf between nine months to a year after I’ve finished it. So as you can see, one of the advantages of self-publishing is being able to put out a book very quickly. And that allows me to be responsive to requests from fans.

I wrote a naughty little foursome story called Kinky Neighbors, which you can find at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004VS2T7O. Readers really seemed to enjoy the story. It was emotional, not just sex, sex, sex (though there’s nothing wrong with that either!). I did it first as a free read on my blog, a chapter a week. And boy, were people discussing it, what was going to happen, the characters they liked and disliked. One of the things that came out of the discussion and also out of emails I’ve received from readers was that they wanted to know what happened to the two couples after the story ended. You know, writers don’t always see the same thing that readers do, and for me, the story had ended. But the more I thought about it, the more I started to wonder, too! And boom, it came to me! So I’ve written it down for readers, Kinky Neighbors Two: Cat and Logan’s Just Desserts!

And that is the beauty of self-publishing. I can write that story and get it out to readers with a minimum of fuss. I’m going to the do the same thing as before, put it up chapter by chapter on my blog, www.jasminehaynes.blogspot.com. Chapter One is already up, so if you’ve read Kinky Neighbors, you can go to the Aug 6^th blog and catch up on Kinky Neighbors Two!  If you haven’t read it, well, the sequel is a hot little story, but you probably won’t get as much out of it. Plus it’ll spoil what happens in the first book! Ah well, I guess that’s the disadvantage of self-publishing, spoilers!

BTW, I’ve signed a new two-book contract with Berkley Heat. The books will be in the same vein as The Principal’s Office, with heroines over 35, and they will feature some elements of bondage. Actually I call it bondage lite, with a little spanking, a little tying up, that kind of thing. You can expect to see those books starting in the latter half of 2013. She’s Gotta Be Mine by Jennifer Skully (me!) is free on http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00688GE7Q, as is Beauty or the Bitch, a contemporary retelling of Beauty and the Beast (with a twist!) http://amzn.to/mTMny0. I’ve done this as a free read on the blog, too, but if you missed it, here’s your chance to get it for free!

London in Pictures

London is one of the world’s great cities, with something for everyone. In honor of the Olympics, I’m sharing some pictures of London sights.

If you’re a foodie, London might not be your first thought. But their food markets are wonderful. Harrods, the department store has beautiful displays of food to eat there or to go. Check out the candy display…

…and this fanciful cake.

The cake is actually for sale for 2,000 British pounds, about $3,000 US. Even the pizzeria is spotless and the big guy there was actually singing opera. Read the rest of this entry »

The Salt of the Earth – An Unusual Travelogue

Thank you to Delilah for hosting Rachel and I today.  I wanted to share a little travelogue with you, though this one didn’t require any travel since it takes place right here in my hometown, Chicago.  Have you ever been to a salt cave?

Many of us use salt in our food every day, but have you ever stopped to consider this humble mineral?  Considered by herbalists to be valuable in healing and stress relief for centuries, we are only now beginning to realize the health benefits of salt in ways our forebears knew implicitly.  For the first time in the United States people are able to try the healing benefits of Crimean salt, a health secret known for decades in Poland.

The Galos salt-iodine caves are located in Chicago.  We arrived at a regular-looking building that houses the Jolly Inn Restaurant.  Parking is available across the street.  It couldn’t be less like an undersea environment if it were directly downtown.  We walked up to the glass door that seemed identical to any you’d find at a neighborhood salon.

Step through the door, though, and enter another world.

The lobby is lit with salt lamps, the lighting lowered.  Comfortable benches line the right wall with cubbies for shoes.  One does not wear one’s shoes inside the cave; one wears clean white socks.  We arrived and stowed our shoes and donned our socks, then the cave door opened.

Stalactites hang down from the ceiling, offering an immediate sense of the otherworldly.  The door is heavy, not like a normal interior building door but more like that for a sauna.  You step in and immediately sink several inches into rock salt crystals.  I thought they would hurt my feet but they massaged them instead, scratching pleasantly as I walked.  The cave is about twenty feet in an oval, lined with anti-gravity lounges.  They suggest you spend the first five or ten minutes walking slowly around the cave, massaging your feet and releasing more salt into the air.

Then you sit in the lounge and move it backward, reclining it so that your feet are above your head.  The lights are lowered and soft, relaxing music plays in the background.  The walls are made from bricks of the salt, which sparkles in the lamplight.  As you begin to relax, the music swells and you float away.  This lasts for about 50 minutes.

The next time you visit Chicago, I highly recommend a trip to the Galos Caves.  If you are curious, poke around their website.  There is a gallery of photographs and more information on the health benefits of the salt as well as how they mine it and make the caves.

What unusual travelogue would you write if you could?  Of what unusual things does your hometown boast?

My links:
Blog | Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon | LinkedIn | Pandora
Knoontime Knitting:  Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Ravelry
Noon and Wilder links: Blog | Website | Facebook
Evanston Writers Workshop:
Blog | Website | Meetup | Forum | Facebook | Twitter | Annual Conference | ConTweets
Team Blogs: Nightlight | The Writers Retreat Blog | Beyond the Veil | LGBT Fantasy Fans and Writers
Publishers: Samhain Publishing | Torquere Press

Check out BURNING BRIGHT, available from Samhain Publishing.
Check out EMERALD FIRE, available from Torquere Publishing.

When characters attack

Okay, so he’d spoken two sentences there. “Okay…so what’s with you?”

His hand shot out and I found myself plastered against him two seconds later. “You stayed.”

“Damn it,” I snapped, shoving against his chest. Hard and hot, my hands slid against the smoothness of his flesh without budging him an inch. “What did you think I was going to do? I barely even know where I am.”

“You’re a little fool,” he muttered.

Then he buried his face against my neck and I shuddered.

“I never know when you’re going to show sense or do something that will end up with you dead…or worse.”

I could feel the heated puff of his breath against my skin and damn it, that shouldn’t feel so good. It shouldn’t feel so good at all.

Asshole. Territory. He was asshole. Territory.

I couldn’t…

My breath hitched in my chest as he lifted his head, staring down at me with eyes that burned. Storm clouds shouldn’t burn so hot. But his eyes did.

Couldn’t breathe, couldn’t breathe—

Meet Kit and Damon, from my first full-length urban fantasy project, BLADE SONG…it was just released by my alter ego, J.C. Daniels.  I loved Kit.  She’s mouthy, she bites off my than she could chew and she knows she does it, but she’s driven by demons from her past so she has a hard time saying no in certain situations.

Damon was a different story.

This book sat on my laptop for a long, long time, unfinished.  Actually, it was barely started because the other character wasn’t who I needed him to be.  He was just a…well, a shadow character, basically.  He was like a sketch of the person I needed for the book and the book wouldn’t move forward.

Then back in January, the real Damon, so to speak, stepped up and the shadow character fell by the wayside and the book took off like whoa.  I’d never written anybody like Damon before.  He’s…well.  He’s hard to describe, but between him and Kit, they dominated my brain until I had the book finished.

They let me have a few weeks of peace…then they did it all over it again…if they keep attacking my brain like this, I won’t have a brain left.

If you’re into urban fantasy, BLADE SONG is now available on ebook (Amazon | BN | iBookstore | and other outlets) and print is coming.  You can read more at my website…

Shiloh Walker/J.C. Daniels

The Heat is On

Wow! I live down south, and we’re expecting the temperature today to reach at least 98 degrees, with a heat index of 108-110. And no, this is not “dry heat” like one would find out west or even in Texas. This is sultry, stifling, breath-sucking, Deep South heat. The kind that makes you want to get nekkid, turn up the AC, and drink lemonade. Seriously.

My solution? Stay inside. My cats agree. Usually by 5:30 a.m., they’re clamoring to go out, and they might for just a little while. Then they return to the door, ready to come back in and sleep for most of the day, and scratch until I get up and bow to their feline pleasure. Cats that actually want to stay inside when they can chase varmint outside? You know it’s got to be hot.

I feel for everyone who has to work out in this heat. My sons both do. One is an electrician and has to go into attics on a frequent basis. I worry about him. The other one works for a freight company on the docks. At least he works mostly in the evening and not in the heat of the day. Still, I hope he drinks enough water.

Last Sunday, I went to a swimming party. The heat nearly melted me even though the pool water was relatively cool. The water in the pool where I take water aerobics in the early a.m. two days a week isn’t that refreshing during a heat wave like this. It’s more like bath water. Hot bath water. Jumping in takes my breath away, and not in a good way. Swimming, even that early, just makes me hotter.

I’m stuck inside writing when the weather’s like this. I usually love to write out on my deck in the late afternoon once shade covers it, but not right now. I’d die, even with my fan blowing right in my face. Staying inside makes for more distractions, but I just put in my headphones and plow on. Then I get to a steamy scene, and the heat builds again… Ack! Heat, heat, and more heat.

What do you do to keep cool when the outside furnace cranks up? Do you go swimming? Wallow in the AC like I do? Make cool drinks? Take off your clothes? Sit on an ice block? Okay, I’m laughing at that visual.

Reading—inside, of course—is always a good outlet. And speaking of reading… I have a new novella out this week! (How do you like that segue? Pretty cool, huh? lol) Hope you’ll check out this stand alone story… and just for the record, you might want to have some tissues handy; not to mop sweat, but to dry your tears. Just sayin’… it’s an emotional story.

EMILY’S NIGHTMARE is now available at Desert Breeze Publishing: http://bit.ly/MLaT31
**And at many other online outlets, including Amazon, B&N, the iTunes store, Sony, etc.

Detective Emily Rawson doesn’t want children; she’s too focused on her career to give a family the time required. That is, until she falls in love with fellow detective John Cutter, forgets to take precautions, and winds up pregnant. She fights the idea tooth and nail before finally deciding that having a baby is exactly what she wants—as long as the child is Cutter’s. Then tragedy strikes. Will it bring them together or tear them apart?

Fear pummeled Emily. She gripped the Glock and ducked into the enclosed stairwell. The faint odors of oil and gasoline rode the stale air. Time stood still. A bead of moisture rolled down her cheek. She wiped it away and peeked out the door.

Her assailant fired.

White-hot pain speared Emily’s shoulder. She screamed, the sound echoing as she lost her footing and tumbled backward down the cold concrete steps. She landed hard on her back, sticky, ruby red blood coating her thighs. Her head pounded. Fear took her breath.

Inky darkness spilled over her like rising water.

Emily bolted up in bed, cold sweat streaming down her back. The same awful dream. So painful and so real. Every night for the past six months. Ever since John Cutter, her former partner, best friend, and lover, had ridiculed her choices and turned his back on her.

That wasn’t the worst of it, however. Their breakup had come first.

I want a houseful of kids, he’d said. A big family.

His hopeful words had gouged a hole in Emily’s heart, because she didn’t want kids—despite the incident tonight with the rescued baby. Her own childhood had been a living hell, thanks to her father’s bitterness and her great-uncle’s roaming hands, and even though her mother had tried, Emily didn’t want to follow in her footsteps. The very idea scared her to death. Better to just forget having a family and focus on catching criminals. She was a damned good cop and well-deserving of her spot in her division.

During their last fight before she’d left burglary, Cutter had mocked her for making the change and had even bashed poor Mike Jamison, the high school history teacher she had dated for a time the year before while she and Cutter were on the outs. His animosity had made absolutely no sense—and neither did this recurring dream.

“What’s wrong with me?” Emily murmured, shuddering at the thought that she might not ever get a handle on her nightmares.

She raked the ends of her short hair off her neck to dry the perspiration coating her fevered skin. Tonight—she glanced at the clock and groaned; five in the morning, so make that last night—she’d gone to Bullets and spotted Cutter sitting at the bar, and she’d ducked out without him seeing her. No need to stir the hornet’s next. The last time she’d bumped into him there, he’d been way too abrasive. Not mean, exactly. Just belligerent.

She drew the covers up to her chin. She and Cutter had been partners in the burglary division for three long years. She’d thought he was her best buddy and more. And now—

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Little Ideas

Writers find ideas everywhere. At the supermarket, while watching commercials, even when we’re doing laundry. It can be the littlest thing to spark off a plot for a book. Or even people in our life that we decide would make great characters in a book.

This time, I got an idea for a series while listening to my daughter tell me about some kids she knew at school. Katilyn, my oldest, came home one day talking about a couple of guys in her math class. As she started to explain about these five brothers that were all adopted, I couldn’t help but become intrigued. I had to wonder what sort of person or persons would take on five boys to raise. I mean, one boy is a lot to handle, much less five! I just knew that anyone with that much love to give would be someone very special. I needed to write about that, you know? That wonderful couple who would take five boys into their home and give them something they never knew before, unconditional love.

That was how the Blackwater series came about. The idea took root and I realized I had a rather emotional start to a series here. Thus, the Jennings brothers were created.

You have Sam, the oldest. He carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. He feels responsible for his brothers and an overwhelming protectiveness for Wanda, the woman who gave him his first taste of what it’s like to be a family.

Next up is Vance. He’s been burned by a woman once and swears to never get that close to anyone again. He’s tough on the outside, but all warm and gooey on the inside.

Brodix is the brainy one. He likes order and numbers. In his mind, every problem has a solution—you just need to crunch the right figures.

Reilly and River are the youngest, and twins. These two have had a bit more than their fair share of hard knocks and they have the emotional scars to prove it too.

Anyway, in Blackwater, Ohio, when the Jennings brothers come home for Thanksgiving to find the family business heading toward bankruptcy, they all step in to make things right. Along the way, their slightly meddlesome mom Wanda starts playing matchmaker. She wants to see her boys happy, and Wanda can be pretty fierce when she wants something! 🙂

As you can imagine with a family like the Jennings nothing is simple and things are definitely not perfect. They argue and fight, but that’s all part of the fun, right? I grew up with three brothers and we had our ups and downs, but I wouldn’t change a single second of it!

What about you? Do you have brothers and sisters? 

For a look at the first book in the series, Sam’s Promise, check out this page. And you can read more about Vance’s Rules, book two, here.

Now, onto the newest release in the series, Breaking Brodix. In this scene you get a taste of Wanda as she attempts to play matchmaker.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’d just finished visiting the quaint town of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, a town steeped in tradition yet bustling with a mix of industry, shops and services, when I started thinking about how much I’d like to live there.  Lunenburg is not only known for its hard working fishing vessels, it’s a place where many Stephen King movies were shot, including Deloris Claiborne, and where the television series Haven is filmed.

Later that day upon returning home I was chatting on line with the talented and very sweet Nikki Duncan. Before we knew it we were talking about doing an anthology together. We knew we wanted a third author, and both instantly agreed that we’d love to have our very good friend, Mackenzie McKade – another Samhain writer, and one of the wicked writers from our chat loop – on board.

Much to our delight Mac agreed and we set a time for brainstorming. We all agreed to do a reunion story with overlapping characters. This was fun, but challenging to keep time lines and characters consistent. Next came location and since we wanted a small town I couldn’t think of a better one than a coastal fishing village I’d just finished visiting. (Hey, I might not be able to pack up and move there but it doesn’t mean I can’t live there through my characters!) I shared my Lunenburg pictures and we all agreed to model our fictitious Maine town after this quaint little fishing village in Nova Scotia. Here are some pictures to give you a feel for our town and characters.

I hope you enjoy Lunenburg, or as we like to call it, Whispering Cove as much as we do!

Enjoy the stories we created: Wild, Wet and Wicked in Whispering Cove AND Burned, Bold and Brazen in Whispering Cove!

This is the house where one of Stephen King’s movies was shot.

Read the rest of this entry »