The Crazy Writer’s Life for Me!

With the fun of the new Snow White movie coming out, I can barely stand the wait. In the meantime I’m stuck…er…happily penning wildly erotic stories for the enjoyment of those waiting for the next great movie to come out. Oh, hell, you know you love the wildly erotic stories, f*** the movies. Our imaginations can be oh, so much more entertaining. With a storyline to follow, interesting characters come alive on the page to our wonder, delight and desire.

In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m in a crazily happy mood. Why, you might ask? Who knows? Perhaps it’s the fact that I recently contracted for 6 works under my other pen name (Elle James) for Harlequin. Or maybe it’s the unprecedented success (for me) of my latest Samhain cowboy book, BOOTS AND CHAPS or perhaps it’s the first draft of the incredibly hot cover for my next Samhain release BOOTS AND LEATHER coming out in August.

Truthfully, I think it’s an hysterical reaction to over commitment, with a vacation (to St. Thomas!!) coming up and too much to do in too short a time. *she laughs maniacally—bwahahaha*

Whatever the reason, I’ll ride this happy rollercoaster until it spins out of control and plummets to the earth for the few split-seconds this crazy writer slumps into the pits of hell—that dreaded place called self-doubt—only to rise again on the wave of a glorifying review from a loving fan.

Ah, the life of a writer…Who needs drugs?

Prize. Did someone say prize? I’m sure I heard someone say prize, therefore for anyone equally crazy enough to leave a comment in the spirit of insanity, I offer a chance to win a download of one of my fabulously erotic works. So please leave a comment of a purely ridiculous nature and maybe you too will catch the next round of lunacy. Come! Come! Comment!

BOOTS AND CHAPS

Welcome to the Ugly Stick Saloon

She gave up stripping to go legit…until three Kiowa cowboys bring on the down-and-dirty.

Jackson Gray Wolf is turning thirty, and what does he have to show for it? A ranch. No wife, no kids, no dates. He’s had his eye on the pretty owner of the Ugly Stick Saloon, but their one accidental encounter was interrupted before he could get her out of her take-me-now red cowboy boots.

Audrey Anderson isn’t in the market for a man. Been there, done that, has the scars to prove it. She retired her pole-dancing boots after purchasing the Ugly Stick Saloon, and now manages a stable of strippers. When she winds up one stripper short for a private party, she’s forced to slip on a mask and into the role of the mysterious Kiki.

Jackson didn’t want the birthday bash his twin brothers are throwing him, but his vow to ignore the rented stripper goes awry when she shows him exactly how far she’s willing to go—for all three of them.

Audrey can’t forget the sizzling heat between her and one sexy Kiowa in particular. Jackson. Trouble is, she’s not sure if he wants the bold, brassy Kiki, or if he’s ready for the wounded woman underneath.

Remember! The 4x2x4 Contest continues! Check yesterday’s post for details!

Thank you so much to Delilah for having me on the blog today!

Hi, my name is Eliza, I write erotic romance and I’m obsessed with the Undead. Okay, maybe obsessed might be a tad strong but I’ll let you be the judge of that.

I think this may have all started with the midnight premiere some time ago of the movie Zombieland. Instant love. I’m not sure I’ve been the same since. While I was busy quoting the zombie rules every chance I got, along came the television show The Walking Dead. Ooh so much zombie killing and craziness. I was hooked. Next came the apocalypse books so I could read up on how to be ready for the zombies. Somehow Zombies have become a regular source of entertainment for me and most of my family. I say most because every time we get to talking about these undead creatures, my youngest teenager gives me that look. You know that look. The one where clearly she thinks I have lost my mind.

Uhm maybe I have. Nah. It’s all fun.

Until now… What could I possibly do to take this zombie love to the next level you ask? How about a zombie apocalypse 5k obstacle race. Yep, this weekend Run For Your Lives will host such an event in Atlanta, and yours truly will be there and ready to rumble. Not only will I be running this obstacle course while chased by zombies with 8,000 other runners, I’m also signed up for a shift as a zombie. Professional makeup artists will transform my family and I into the undead, and we will stumble, shuffle, and moan our way around the course hopefully scaring the beejesus out of people. *insert evil laugh here* 

If you’d like to follow this insane journey, look for my live tweets from the event (with pictures) @elizagaylebooks this Saturday, March 3rd. As long as I have cell service and no one takes my phone away, there WILL be pictures. 🙂

(Oh and if you were wondering, none of this crazy weird zombie love has a thing to do with any of my books…yet)

Happy Friday Y’all!

Eliza

To learn more about my books and what I am writing, please stop by my website at: http://elizagayle.net or like my facebook fan page for the latest updates and exclusive content at: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorElizaGayle

My latest release is a sexy shifter menage available exclusively at All Romance eBooks as part of their Perfect Stranger series.The eBook is available in all formats including Kindle (mobi) and Nook (epub)!

Resistance may be possible, but who are they kidding?

While on a search and rescue mission in the middle of a snowstorm, Seth and his twin Trent catch the scent of an unfamiliar shifter. Drawn to locate the source they hike deep into the woods to an abandoned cabin where they find an enticing little jaguar in the throes of heat.

Tired of being smothered by her five brothers and the pressure to mate, Daisy wanted nothing more than a week alone in the middle of freaking no where. The last thing she needed was a run in with two sexy as sin—and totally off limits—cougar shifters. Unfortunately, she’s not the kind of woman to leave them out in the cold.

Faced with the misery of unmet sexual desire or hot, no strings attached sex with two men… What’s a girl to do?

Contemporary Werewolves

I’m often asked which genre is my favorite to write and my answer is paranormal. Like many of you, I love werewolves. The shifter genre has come a long way since the 1941 classic film, The Wolfman. My werewolves aren’t cursed figures that transform and stalk innocent villagers while the moon is full. My werewolves are productive citizens like cops, soldiers, reporters and pack leaders. They live in a world ruled by pack law as well as human law.

I love werewolf stories and I write books about werewolves living in contemporary times. I was fascinated by the issues of falling in love and finding the perfect alpha mate while dealing with the structure of pack law, clan life and mating rules. My stories are romances that deal with the complexities of those laws. The pack is ruled by the elders and their decisions have the impact of a supreme court. Any werewolves defying the elders and pack law must suffer the consequences of their actions.

My Claiming Moon heroine, Grace has a decision to make. She can accept the wolf her parents have approved and the elders have sanctioned as her future mate, or she can follow her heart. Grace is in love with another wolf and defies her parents and the elders, but her decision has serious ramifications. She in persona non grata with her pack and she must live in the human world.

My stories also deal with the issues of a romance between a human and a werewolf. These mixed relationships have a special set of issues. Just think about living with a shifter. As a human you can love them, but you’ll never be one of them. If the pack doesn’t approve of you, your significant other must make a difficult choice and be willing to live apart from the pack.

Take that human/wolf issue and add the problem of an inappropriate relationship between a military officer and a werewolf subordinate. In Holiday Moon that’s the dilemma for Calix, the human commander of black-ops unit of werewolves. When Sezri goes MIA, Calix must decide between the she-wolf he loves and his career.

Pack law, clan life and mating rules make for interesting twists to werewolf romances. The plots and the problems are fascinating and writing about the change from human to fur and fangs is a challenge. As a writer I must let my imagination fly and bring the wolf shifter to life.  One day I hope to see a wolf in the wild. I’m sure the sighting will inspire a character and another wolf tale.

If you love werewolves, I write them.  Moonlust will be released on March 22^nd by Changeling Press.

Swamp People, a reality television show is extremely popular in Louisiana.  The Landry family is located in the Atchafalaya Basin in southern Louisiana.  Their claim to fame is hunting alligators, or as the Cajun people say, “Al-a-ma-ga-tor.”

I have my own in-house al-a-ma-gator hunter.  Oh, yes.  Every year it is the thrill of winning the ‘tags’…you must have a license to hunt the beasts, and you must put in your name for the ‘lottery.’  For some reason the dh has been winning tags for several years in a row.  Either he’s lucky or there are fewer and fewer hunters in our central Louisiana location.

This year he won five tags, so off he went with his line and chicken from Wal-Mart.  Hunting for alligators is extremely skillful.  All you need is a pond with an alligator, a line with a chicken hooked to it, and a pistol.  Throw that chicken in the pond, tie the line to an anchor and come back the next day to see if he took the bait.  The dh did that.

The next day, he tugged on the line, and sure enough, there was a hungry alligator attached to it.  Only thing was, the al-a-ma-ga-tor was huge.  So, he called his two sons.  They were at work, but could leave early to give their dad a hand.  So, they showed up in their work clothes.  Since one is a Nursing Home Administrator and the other is an Attorney, we’re not talking sneakers and jeans.  They were in dress clothes.

Fearless as they are, they held onto the line with the alligator and dragged him to the water’s edge.  One of them took the pistol and at his father’s command to “Choot ’em” (a phrase that comes from the reality show) — shot the alligator in the only place you can safely shoot, the top of the head, where there is small hole in the skull located right behind the eyes.

The alligator took offense to that bullet and did what an alligator does.  He started to roll.  Remember the two sons are holding onto the line, and as the alligator rolls, they are being pulled closer and closer into the water.  The dh is yelling to “let go of the line,” as they are being dragged forward, tangled in the line at this point, when the alligator stops and the kid with the pistol gives him two more taps in the head.

Mission accomplished.  Sort of.

They needed to get the alligator out of the water, so they tied a chain to him and drug him out with a truck.  Since he was so huge, they got a front end loader and picked him up and put him in the back of the truck.

Here’s a picture of their catch.

This beauty is approximately forty years old, 11′-9″ and weighs in at approximately 600#.

Honestly, would you want this swimming in your pond?

The property is on what we call our ‘camp’ and small kids are not free to roam the property, as you can see, it can be dangerous.  But the smiles on the hunters face is worth it.

The kid in the picture is six foot three, to give you an idea of how huge that alligator is.  He changed his clothes after he was dragged into the water.

As far as I know, I am the only woman who has to have an alligator skull as part of her living room decor.  It doesn’t look too bad with a bow on it’s head.  At least that’s what I tell myself.

Pepper Phillips
http://pepperphillips.com
“The Devil Has Dimples”
Southern sass with a touch of heart…
Coming soon…”Unconditionally”

Forget Love…Go For Lust

When I was a teenager, I had a bumper sticker that said, “Forget Love…Go For Lust.” I never put it on the car, of course. My mother would have had a cow…and she might have started paying attention to my love life. But that bumper sticker adorned my locker, my college dorm room and it’s still sticking in my head.

Although I learned from a Judith Krantz in “I’ll Take Manhattan,” that T-shirts are “pure aggression,” I have one that says “Plays well with others.” I also bought the “Runs with scissors,” and gave it to a friend. I wear my “What I really need are minions,” shirt when I’m trying to meet a deadline. And that “Be careful or you’ll end up in my novel,” T-shirt always makes me smile, but I don’t own it. Why warn them, lol?!

Words stick with me. I love Nike ads, the J. Peterman catalog, the Zingerman’s catalog and Anne Taintor, Flavia and S.A.R.K. I joy in a greeting card so chock full of meaning, I actually spend $4.99 on it. I love it when someone paints a vivid picture in my head and I’m transported somewhere wild and new. I’m a sucker for provocative irony, too. When I was in high school, this manifested as a thing for buttons. All that angst, all that lust and clueless passion combined with egocentrism, inspired more than one flirty button purchase. I actually wore that “Come near me and I’ll kill you” button out on a date with a guy I knew was going to dump me…any…minute. *Sigh* He just wasn’t that into me, but I’m ever so grateful for our eye-opening interlude. He was wild and weird and a crazy-good kisser. I love that button because it reminds me of me, fifteen, dangerous and full of passion.

Do you have an inspiring phrase? Some compelling collection of words that reminds you of someone…or someone you used to be? Please share them in the comments. One lucky commenter will win a bar of Lush brand Lust soap and Romance Trading Cards for my erotic romance novellas SoloPlay and Bottoms Up. The Lust soap smells like jasmine, long believed to be an aromatic aphrodisiac. Unlike my teenage self, I don’t think you should forget love…but lust never goes out of style! Thanks for having me, Delilah!

About Miranda Baker

It makes me chuckle to think about all the romantic short stories I wrote in my rather too literary creative writing classes in college. If only one of my professors had steered me toward popular fiction! On the other hand, if I had discovered my calling back then, I wouldn’t have gone to culinary school, I wouldn’t have met my husband, we wouldn’t have had three children and I wouldn’t have turned to erotic romance to get my mojo back during all this hair-raising kid raising.

My website: http://www.mirandabaker.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/Miranda_Baker
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MirandaBakerfans

Click on cover to purchase Solo Play!

It is so lovely to be here visiting with Delilah. We met through one of her fabulous online courses many moons ago. Since then, I have written six books and two novellas, all published – I am pretty sure Delilah had a part to play in that! So when she asked me if I’d like to guest blog, I knew exactly what I wanted to talk about. Friendship and support in the writing world.

Knowing there are people out there to support you in your dreams means everything for a feeling of inner strength and belief. It is human nature to doubt what you are thinking or doing, and worrying people will laugh or put you down. When you meet people who cheer you on, love and admire your work and most of all, share your struggles, it gives an incredible sense of excitement and optimism.

Writers are often introverts and happy in their own company. This means that voice in your head telling you to give up or you’re not good enough will take over if you don’t fill your mind with other thoughts. My advice? Mix up your social circle, reach out through social mediums such as Twitter and Facebook and surround yourself with optimistic, supportive and fun people. You will be amazed how quickly you realize those thoughts are echoed and conquered throughout your writing peers every day.

Which means?

That you can stand tall and know you are no better or worse than the successful writers out there. Stand back and watch yourself grow and shine until you feel as though your star is in reach – because it is!

Rachel’s current historical release is The Arrival of Lily Curtis and one of her recent contemporaries is Getting It Right This Time.

Here are the blurbs and buy links:

 Getting It Right This Time

Two years after her husband’s death, Kate Marshall returns home a widow, seeking security and stability for her three-year-old daughter. But when her path crosses with ‘the one who got away’…her husband’s best friend, she has to fight the desire to be with him for the sake of further heartbreak for her…and her daughter.

A tough, straight talking theatrical agent, Mark Johnston is dangerously handsome, exceedingly rich, irresistibly charming – and branded by the tabloids as one of the UK’s most eligible bachelors.  So even though he lost the girl of his dreams five years before to his best friend, Mark finds no hardship is being single. Or so he thought…but now Kate is back.

Determined not to lose her a second time, Mark has to find a way to convince her they can work. But can Kate cope with the media interest and ruthless, money-hungry clients surrounding him being anywhere near her daughter?  Or accept that Mark Johnston is really the family man he claims to be?

Buy at Lyrical Press

The Arrival of Lily Curtis

At the mention of an arranged marriage, Elizabeth Caughley feels her life is over at the age of three and twenty….so she hatches an escape plan.  She will reinvent herself as a housemaid.  Overnight, Elizabeth becomes Lily…

Viscount Westrop wants nothing more than his legacy to be passed to his own son one day.  Even though he feels insurmountable pity for the unborn child already, he knows how much pain a broken promise can cause and will do what is right.  But with the arrival of his new housemaid, his plans are thrown into disarray.  Lily is funny, feisty and the most beautiful creature on earth – Andrew is thunderstruck.  But if anyone suspects how much he wants to ravish her and endlessly love her, Andrew’s lineage will be in peril.  And he cannot let that happen…

Buy at The Wild Rose Press

Rachel can be found here:

http://www.rachelbrimble.com/
http://rachelbrimble.blogspot.com/
https://twitter.com/#!/RachelBrimble
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rachel-Brimble/181873201887441

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

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.”

How many times had he said that in his life?

Find me at www.desireeholttellsall.com, Twitter @desireeholt and Facebook /desireeholt.