Happy Holidays!

To all you fabulous folks out there in the blogosphere--my friends, my colleagues, my editors, my co-authors, my business partners, and most of all my readers--I wish you all the joy in the world. Whatever you may or may not celebrate, whomever you may or may not celebrate it with, I hope you find the season restful and happy.

And if not, hey, hold out hope--at least the days are starting to get longer again ;-)

Release Day! Break and Enter :D

Afternoon, folks! It's been a busy winter round these parts--today is release day for my third new title in two months, Break and Enter. It's a fast-paced, funny, cyberpunk romp starring two rather manly men (an ex-Special Forces penetration tester and a paramedic) getting up to all sorts of mayhem and sexiness. It's also the first title I've co-written in this genre; I had the tremendous pleasure of creating this story with my dear friend, business partner, and Siamese brain twin, Aleks Voinov.

Our blurb and cover, let me show u it:

Ex-Green Beret Victor "Cyke" Kellermann is on the run for a crime he didn't--well, okay, did commit, but he didn’t realize it at the time. He’s a good guy, a “white hat” hacker for hire. He’s also more teched out than the Bionic Man, though his ailing ’ware creates as many problems as it solves.

His latest series of break-ins are proving…difficult. Sentinel Tech’s security is cutting-edge, and the cops are hounding his ass. He sees only one reason why his employer hasn’t called off the dogs: someone inside is stealing data for real and setting him up to take the fall.

Paramedic-cum-tech-phreak Bear keeps scooping an increasingly battered Cyke off the sidewalk, and each time, his fascination for the fugitive and his mysterious ’ware grows. So does the attraction that makes him reluctant to turn Cyke in. Every time they touch, barriers fall. Before long, they're both laid bare.

Cyke can handle losing blood, even losing consciousness. What he can’t afford is to lose his heart. Distractions like that get people killed—and if he succeeds in unlocking Sentinel Tech’s ugly secrets, he won’t be the only one in the line of fire.

Product Warnings

This book contains mechanical eyeballs, multimillion-dollar hand warmers, pushy mind probes, a man too stubborn to quit when he’s bleeding, an underpaid paramedic whose services are needed entirely too often, and circuit-scorching cybersex…without a computer.

It's a little bit of a departure for me--still gritty, but not dark at all, and the boys get their HEA. I hope you'll check it out. And since Samhain discounts all their new releases by 30% in their opening week, you can get this novella directly from them for just $2.45 this week! Click the link to read an excerpt and see if this one's for you :-)

/shameless plug :D

Happy holidays, my dears!

Guest Blog with JK Rose: How Romance Stole My Heart

We have a guest-blogger here today at Fantasy Unbound. Please give a warm welcome to JK Rose, who's here to talk about how romance stole her heart :-)

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Thanks so much for having me on your blog today, Rachel. I thought I'd talk a little bit about how I came to read and write romance and why I love it.

I write and typically read traditional male/female romance, though I haven’t always read romance. I had been one of those believers that romance wasn’t really literature.

Funny how one’s perspective changes dramatically when she sits down to write and accidentally produces a romance novel. Hmm. How does that happen?

Well, first she reads all four Twilight books. (Yes, I know. They are romances.) Then she reads Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, followed by Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Charlaine Harris’ entire Sookie Stackhouse series. This all happens in an eight-week period. After that she thinks, “I can do this. I have a great idea for a vampire story.” And she starts writing.

It would take a year from the start of that first draft for me to realize I write romance. And more importantly, I really, really like romance.

I’ve chalked this delayed reaction up to the fact that we all learn something new everyday and some of us might be slightly denser than others! J

In any case, I’ve now read numerous romances, almost all of which are paranormals with vampire heroes.

I love the happy ending in every story. I even enjoy a happy-for-now-ending. I’m not someone who requires all the loose ends be tied up in one perfect package. I’m okay with a couple unanswered questions. It lets me continue to work the story out in my own way.

I don’t require a hard as nails heroine. That’s not to say I can tolerate one who won’t stop crying or who can’t manage to work her way out of a paper bag, but she doesn’t have to kick the shit out of everyone around her. I want the hero to save her.

I’m very traditional in my perspective on male/female roles. My husband takes care of the outside of the house. I keep the inside clean. He takes out the trash. I grocery shop. Works fine for me.

With that said, I love Super-Alpha heroes. I love Christine Feehan’s Dark Series. I haven’t read the entire series. I pull out one of the books when I’m in the mood for “Caveman Love.” Literally, those men walk up to the heroine, conk her on the head and drag her away. Then, they bend over backward for her and would willingly die to keep her safe. I just love that.

You should know that in real life, my husband doesn’t have it half as easy. There’s no conking and getting his way. In real life, my husband is a gentleman and wouldn’t try to act like a caveman. At least, he wouldn’t expect to get away with pulling Caveman on me. He’s a pretty smart guy.

But in fantasy, I love the over-the-top hero, the one who attempts to control every detail, the one who’s not only respected by other men, but even feared, the one who’s in charge of everything. That is until our heroine arrives on scene.

Powerful men are sexy. There’s no denying that. Women and men are drawn to power. You never read about the hero being some nerdy guy with greasy hair cowering under his desk.

Instead, heroes always know what’s about to happen, what might happen, what should happen, and how it will all be handled when it does happen. Until the heroine shows up. She pops into his life and upturns his world. It’s awesome.

His attempts to keep control are thwarted, sometimes intentionally and sometimes not. His suave, macho persona is reduced to chaos or confusion or just total frustration, and he’s forced to work around her until he learns to work with her.

We get to watch as his tough outer shell cracks, and she weasels her way into his heart. We get to see him become a better man by loving her. We learn about his weaknesses in a way that makes him seem stronger, and that just makes him all the sexier.

It’s the intimacy of romance that makes it so wonderful, and not just the sexual intimacy. Emotional intimacy makes reading romance fulfilling, exciting. We relate to it. We get lost in it. 

Dark Prince is by far one of my favorite romances. Mikhail is very powerful, very, very alpha. Yet Raven holds her own with him, completely intrigues him. He sees how fragile she is as she struggles with her abilities, needing to be independent and accepted, and he wants to protect her, to care for her, to love her. Raven’s power over Mikhail’s heart makes him a better man and ultimately a better leader.  His love makes her stronger.

For all the hokey, super-alpha, caveman love of Dark Prince at the core are a heroine and the hero, longing to be accepted and loved, each of whom makes the other better. And this is exactly why I love romance.

Tell me about your favorite heroes and heroines. What about them has won your heart?

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After trying her hand at many, many things- from crafting and art classes to cooking and sewing classes to running her own handbag business, Jordan finally figured out how to channel her creativity. With an active imagination and a little encouragement from her husband she sat down and began to write, each night clicking away at the keys with her black Labrador, Dino curled up under the desk.

A few short years later she’s entered the publishing arena with no plans to ever turn back.

Jordan’s a member of Rhode Island Romance Writers, as well as RWA National, and the New England (NEC), Connecticut, and Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal (FFnP) Chapters.

Her first book, Perpetual Light, releases in Winter of 2012 from Crescent Moon Press.

Find Jordan on her website at www.jordankrose.com. 

Follow her tweets on https://twitter.com/#!/jordankrose 

Friend her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/jordankrose

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Fate is cruel. Especially when the one you’ve sworn to love for all eternity, the very soul who changed your destiny is the last person you should trust.

After more than three hundred years of running, Lucia Dicomano must make a choice.

Forced to take her place as a Pharo of Redemption, the divine slayer needs to master her forgotten powers. Lucia turns to Vittorio, the one vampire she’s failed to deliver from eternal damnation. But overcoming smoldering remnants of love, lust and anger aren’t their only obstacles.

Samuel, who may know Lucia better than she knows herself, hunts her with a fervor stoked by a thousand years of vengeful hatred. His plan—capture and enslave the weakened Pharo then take control of her elusive power. 

Can Lucia trust Vittorio long enough to reclaim her powers? Or will she have no choice but to kill him and battle Samuel alone?

Back from Vacay with a New Book!

Greetings all! I'm home from a much-needed (but sadly working) vacation, and I even brought back with me a special souvenir head-cold. Knew I shouldn't have licked those poker chips . . .

On the plus side, the food was great, the weather was warm, the seas were . . . well, stormy, quite frankly, pretty much nonstop, but I do so love a very rocking boat when it isn't making me nauseous (which is about half the time), and the company was wonderful (I was traveling with my brand-spanking-new stepmother, who is as awesome as they come). And even though I had a big pile of edits to do for Riptide while I was away, doing them on a deck chair overlooking a tropical island is way better than my kitchen table.

So, I came home and I realized that I have a new book coming out in eight days--Break and Enter, co-written with Aleksandr Voinov and releasing from Samhain Publishing--and I haven't even begun to think about doing anything fun with it yet. I've been so busy with Riptide that I actually forgot. So, that underwear model on the cover? He's Major Victor "Cyke" Kellermann, and I have no idea what happened to his pants. I think Aleks and I will do a Find Cyke's Pants scavenger hunt and maybe give out a classic Nook I've had hanging around the house since the summer. Sound like fun?

Oh, and just a quick housekeeping note, as well: since Riptide Publishing has acquired Guiltless Pleasure Publishing, Counterpoint is now available for sale on the Riptide site, yay! Which means you can earn bonus bucks if you purchase it there (they'll be working soon, I promise :-p), and while none of the story's content has changed, it does have a shiny gorgeous new Riptide layout. Right now it's only available in PDF, but in about a week, it'll be available in Epub, Mobi, and HTML too, and all the copies on third-party sites like Amazon will switch over from the GPP layout to the RP layout.

And now, apropos of nothing, some eye candy of the kind you've all come to expect from me, beneath the jump. It involves cats and actor crushes and I think it's my new favorite thing ever.