Fantasy Unbound with Rachel Haimowitz

Winners!

2012-03-01T15:14:00.000-05:00

I have two winners to announce today: the winner of my Nook contest, and the winner of the free books from the Leap Year Blog Hop.

Blog hop first. Congratulations to menina.iscrazy! You've won three free books.

And the winner of the Nook is . . . Judi Pech!

I'll be emailing you both to work out the details, and to everyone else who entered the contests, thank you so much for participating! If you did enter one of the contests and you'd like a little swag packet as a "thank you for playing," just drop me an email at metarachel (at) gmail (dot) com with your address and I'll put one in the mail to you.

Until next time, folks!

Win Tons of Prizes with the MFRW Leap Year Blog Hop!

2012-02-28T23:59:00.008-05:00

Today is a rare occurrence round these parts for two reasons. For one, it's a leap year, and I'm celebrating with a lovely group of authors by joining in a blog hop and giving away some free books. I've put up all my first-in-series stuff: Counterpoint, Anchored, and Master Class, and you can win just by commenting on this post. There are lots of other great prizes to go around too, so be sure to visit all the other blogs on the hop!

My other rare occurrence is that I finished the first draft of a novel today--Power Play: Awakening, the sequel to Power Play: Resistance and the final novel in the two-book BDSM kinkapalooza that is the Power Play series. That happens more than once every four years, thank God, but not so much that it isn't worth a moment's celebration :-) So to my lovely co-author Cat Grant and to all you lovely readers out there, I say Yay! and Thank you for sticking it out with me. I wish I could celebrate by showing you cover pretties for PPA (to the left are some cover pretties for PPR, so you can see why I'm so anxious to see what our brilliant artist will come up with next!), but how about a brief snippet of sneak-preview smut, instead? :-D

Its, erm, pretty smutty--and also D/s; our poor sub is getting covered in clothespins--so, sneak peek beneath the jump. Before I cut to that, though, just a quick note that I'll be drawing the winner of the Nook from my Valentine's Day Spread the Love contest at the same time I draw the winner of the three free books for the Leap Year Blog Hop contest :-) Now then, smut beneath the jump!

Spread the Love, Save 25% at Riptide, & Win a Nook!

2012-02-14T03:14:00.000-05:00

Happy Valentines Day to you all! I've lots of love to spread today, and every time I look at where I am and what I'm doing and how much fun I'm having all because you amazing, wonderful, generous, enthusiastic readers out there, I just want to spread some more <3

So, three fun things going on today:

1) Today's the last day to enter my drawing for a classic Nook pre-loaded with all my titles. Rules are here :-)

2) If you leave a comment on this blog post sharing why you love to read romance, I will send you something fun. Might be swag, might be a free ebook, might be a shiny new paperback romance in need of a loving home.

3) Riptide Publishing is holding its first-ever sale today! For today only, until 11:59 PM EST, every title on the Riptide website is 25% off. No coupon codes needed, no limits, no restrictions. Even the pre-sale titles are on sale. And guess which title was just this evening made available for pre-sales? You guessed it!

Click to embiggen that bit of lovely, which is hitting the streets on April 9. Unless you pre-order, of course, in which case you'll get to download it on April 7. Nervous Author will be nervous until then ~_~

That's all for now, folks. I'm off to work on the second Power Play novel, but I promise to re-emerge from the writing cave to draw a winner for the Nook contest later this week.

Happy Valentine's Day, my lovelies!

Win a Classic Nook Pre-Loaded with All My Books!

2012-02-02T15:39:00.001-05:00

Greetings all! I'm still in head-down mode, working hard to finish the two Power Play books with Cat Grant and editing lots of fabulous 2012 releases for Riptide, which means it's been kind of quiet on the blogging front. But I'm grateful to you all every day for making it possible for me to do what I love, and since we're coming up on the more-or-less-official holiday of love, I wanted to do a little contest that encourages sharing love.

So first, the prize: I'll be giving away a classic Nook, pre-loaded with all my titles, on Valentine's Day.

How do you enter? Simple! All you have to do is leave a review on any one or more of my books on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or All Romance Ebooks, then email me at metarachel (at) gmail (dot) com with the subject "Nook Review Contest" and the URL of your review or reviews. Each review earns you an entry into the contest, so yes, leaving the same review at all three stores will earn you three entries. (Please remember to be logged in at B&N when you leave your review so I know who to give credit!) If you've already reviewed a title, even if it was months ago, that counts too! Just email me the URL so I know to throw your name in the hat. You can find my Amazon titles here, my B&N titles here, and my ARe titles here.

Now for some fine print. The contest will close at midnight EST on February 14, and I'll do the drawing no later than February 18 (it may take a few days to collate and confirm all the entries). Free titles are excluded from the contest. Please respect the loving spirit of the contest and do not send me links to 1- or 2-star reviews. ARe does not allow you to leave reviews on titles you did not purchase there. Don't forget the subject line in your email or I may not see it. I will ship worldwide, so if your local Amazon shop is not Amazon.com, please feel free to leave a review on .uk or .de or .fr or the like, and those entries will count.

Thank you, and I love you all! :-)

Traveling the World with Stephanie Draven, Laura Kaye, and Leia Rice

2012-01-18T23:17:00.000-05:00

A Sexy World Trip for One:

Travel the World with Three Erotica Authors

While Harlequin is known primarily for romance, they also offer hotter fare. Today, authors Stephanie Draven, Laura Kaye and Leia Rice are here to tell us about the unique settings of their books.

Stephanie Draven: The Fever and the Fury is a contemporary paranormal erotic novella set in Budva, Montenegro, near Greece. I chose this location for a few reasons--not the least of which is that it’s known as sort of a place for sinners. Without an extradition treaty to the United States, it has become a sort of wild resort beach town, complete with bright blue ocean and terracotta rooftops. I would love to be sitting under a beach umbrella listening to the ocean during the day, then climb up into the old fortress of the old city where open air theatre takes place under the starlit sky to enchant visitors. It seemed like a very sexy and very hot place to set an erotic novella and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Laura Kaye: In the Service of the Vampire King is an erotic vampire romance novella set on the cliffs of County Antrim in Northern Ireland. This story is the first in my new Vampire Warrior Kings series, and each will tell the story of one of the seven remaining warrior kings and be set in a new exotic location (the second story, which I’m writing now, is set in Moscow, Russia!). Kael was the first of my heroes to speak to me, though, which is why I started the series in Ireland. One of my goals for this series is to weave in the unique culture, history, and material culture/architecture of each featured location into the series, and Castle Dunluce, a real historical site, and the wealth of Celtic symbols (for tattoos), both offered a rich pool to draw from. I’ve never been to Ireland, but it’s on my bucket list of places to visit, particularly as I can trace some of my ancestral roots back to southern Ireland.

Leia Rice: My novella takes place in Revolutionary France, which I find to be such a daring and passionate time in history. Emotions were already peaked then, and people from all over France pushed for change and found it, albeit violently. You’d think it would be hard to write erotica set during a war, but I love the dynamic of it. Soldiers and patriots, Royalists and Citizens. There are so many facets that you can explore and manipulate into really sexy and dramatic situations.

So how about it? Where do you want your erotic romances to take you? Is there somewhere you wish authors would write about?

===

About the Authors:

Stephanie Draven is a multi-published award-nominated author of myth-inspired paranormal romance. Writing for HQN Nocturne, Stephanie’s Mythica series asks the question: What if the monsters of ancient mythology still walked the earth...and what if you found out that you were one of them? Currently a denizen of Baltimore, that city of ravens and purple night skies, Stephanie lives there with her favorite nocturnal creatures–three scheming cats and a deliciously wicked husband. And when she is not busy with dark domestic rituals, she writes her books.

Buy Stephanie’s Books

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Laura Kaye Voted Breakout Author of the Year in the 2011 GraveTells Readers’ Choice Awards, Laura is the bestselling and award-winning author of a half-dozen books. Hearts in Darkness is a finalist for the EPIC eBook Award for Best Novella, Forever Freed won the NJRW Golden Leaf Award for Best Paranormal of 2011, and North of Need, the first book in the Hearts of the Anemoi series, was named GraveTells’ Best Book of 2011 and won their 5-STAR Gold Heart Award, and won Sizzling Hot Read of the Year at Sizzling Hot Books. Laura lives in Maryland with her husband, two daughters, and cute-but-bad dog, and appreciates her view of the Chesapeake Bay every day.

Buy Laura's Books

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Leia Rice is an avid lover of everything Parisian, Ancient Grecian and Ancient Roman. She wishes that women would still wear the pretty dresses and petticoats that they did back in the 18th century, but she’s well aware how much of a pain they must have been. Leia writes historical fiction, romance and erotica in these areas, because she cannot get enough of each respective time period.

Buy Leia’s Books

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Friday the 13th Blog Hop Stop - Win a Kindle!

2012-01-13T00:01:00.003-05:00

*waves at all the blog hoppers*

Given the theme of today's hop, I almost did something horror-related, but in the end decided to post a preview of mine and Cat Grant's upcoming pair of novels releasing this spring, Power Play: Resistance and Power Play: Awakening. (Which, who knows, might horrify some of you after all ;-p) If you scroll down to the previous entry, you can see the first of our ridiculously amazing cover art, custom-painted courtesy of Riptide Publishing. And if you click beneath the jump, you'll see, well, something distinctly not safe for work. And also, of course, the link to the next blog in the hop, which you'll need to make your way to the entry form for the day's big prize--a shiny new Kindle! (If a little guy-on-guy kink play isn't your thing, scroll down past the excerpt to find the next hop link.)

Clickety clickety!

Read more »

Drop-dead Gorgeous New Cover Art!

2012-01-11T13:01:00.000-05:00

Hello my lovelies! I have been sadly neglecting this little corner of the internets lately, and for that I apologize. But I assure you, it's because Fun Things Are Afoot. In other words, I've been writing. And writing, and writing, and writing. And also editing a lot, because, wow, the Little Publishing House That Could has taken off like a, well, runaway train, and it's full of happy readers and happy authors and just generally keeping all of us kind of insanely busy.

But the other thing that's been eating my time (and my brain) these days is--no, it's not zombies, Kari, shut up--a massive pair of contemporary BDSM novels I've been co-writing with the lovely Cat Grant, she of Once a Marine fame. The first book, Power Play: Resistance, clocks in at 90,000 words of crazy-hot vaguely dubconny nonstop kinkgasm, and is currently in edits for an anticipated Spring 2012 release (Aprilish, hopefully). The second book, Power Play: Awakening, is currently at 32,000 words and rising, just as kinktastic as Resistance, and also happens to feature a chapter-long cameo by Devon and Nicky of Master Class and SUBlime fame. We're aiming for a summer release for this one--the idea being not to keep you waiting more than a couple months between Book 1 and Book 2--so apologies in advance if things remain a little quiet on the blogging front.

Although, I will be back here in two days as part of a Friday the 13th Blog Hop where we'll be giving away a Kindle to one lucky commenter :D

Anyway, you're here for the Power Play: Resistance cover art. And boy is it a doozie. I think it may be my favorite yet. Of kind of anything ever, actually. It's beneath the jump. Don't forget to click to embiggen.

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Happy Holiday Picspam! (This One's for You, Mark Joyella ;D)

2011-12-23T21:59:00.000-05:00

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 ;-)

And now some presents for you to unwrap--or unwrapping themselves?--beneath the jump. Surprisingly more or less SFW, except for some ass shots. As always, click to embiggen.

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Release Day! Break and Enter :D

2011-12-20T16:08:00.001-05:00

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

2011-12-16T11:01:00.001-05:00

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 :-)

* * *

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?

* * *

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

* * *

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!

2011-12-12T09:33:00.002-05:00

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.

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Be Gentle, It's My First Time: Guest Blog by Alex Whitehall

2011-11-22T09:31:00.000-05:00

We have a very special guest at Fantasy Unbound today: a lovely fan and friend of the M/M romance community, Alex Whitehall. (You may recognize Alex from his review blog, Between the Covers, and if you don't, go check it out!)

Last week, Alex went to the GeekyKink event, a kink convention for those who might also be inclined to quote Douglas Adams or Star Wars at you. I'm a bit jealous, as this con was in my backyard (about 40 minutes from where I live), but I ended up being in California and unable to attend. I asked Alex if he'd be so kind as to do a write-up when he got back, and he obliged. So I'll shut up now and turn the floor over to Alex:

From Nov 4-5 I spent my time in a little New Jersey town at The GeekyKink Event.

This was my first time wandering into the world of a kink event, so I have no idea if this was tame compared to others or just about on par. I've also never played before, was going alone, knew no one there, and am painfully shy. I'm not actually sure how I conned myself into going, but its a safe bet it's Rachel's fault. [Editor's note: Of course it was >:-D]

Of course, if I hadn't gone, then I would never have experienced the following, so maybe it was worth it!

There were tons of events, demonstrations, and classes scheduled, plus meet-ups for like-minded folk, an after-care room, and some specialty events that I was too bashful to even glance at. I mostly stuck to the classes (see descriptions after jump).

The classes were educational and the classrooms and hallways were very tame nudity-wise. One class (sensual knife play) had women without tops on and the caning had two women in bra and panties. All very tasteful. I'm sure there were other parts that were kinkier (and involved less clothing), but I didn't venture there and it was built as such that you'd kind of have to go looking for them.

So for the curious, it's definitely a safe place to attend, no one will molest you (um, unless you want them to, I guess!), and it's fun, no matter what your aim is for attending (to get your kink on or to get educated).

While the kink community came across as very tight knit and many people already knew each other, a lot of the staff made it a point to strike up conversation with me (and they actually remembered my name!).

Plus I went shopping ;) Of course there was all sorts of kinky things to be purchased, most of which were out of my price range, and if I had a partner, I may have been more tempted to buy something aside from this adorable amigurimi:

He needs a name, any suggestions?

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Crescendo Release Day & Print Book Giveaway!

2011-11-18T08:25:00.000-05:00

Howdy folks! Today's the big day--Crescendo's official release day! It's now available at Amazon, ARe, and other major retailers, as well as at Storm Moon Press, of course. And can I just say? Nervous and excited author is nervous and excited. A lot of people have been waiting for this book for almost fifteen months. I worked on this series for three years. I'm very anxious to see if readers find it the satisfying conclusion to the story that I did. One reviewer's posted so far, and it was a lovely review (thank you, M/M Good Book Reviews!), but I'll still be holding my breath for at least a couple weeks.

While I'm suffocating myself, I thought I'd also celebrate and say "Thank you" to all you amazing, wonderful, spectacular readers by giving away a print copy of Crescendo. They won't be out until December, but when they arrive, I'll sign one and put it in the mail to one lucky commenter on this post. I'll draw a winner next Friday.

Some other news as well. As you've probably noticed, it's been a bit quiet round these parts lately. Between Riptide and my own writing, I'm starting to have trouble keeping up with the blog. I still very much want this to be a place where people can come and enjoy themselves, and I'll update at least once a week, but the schedule's going to start getting a little less regular.

Also, did a ton of updates on my website today. Lots of new info for my two new releases (Crescendo and Master Class), and also some new bits on the upcoming works page, mostly about the Kinkapalooza novel I'm co-writing with Cat Grant. We only started putting words to paper less than two weeks ago, but Cat and I have already accidentally won NaNo :-p Almost 60,000 words in already, and no signs of the end yet. This book is gonna be a friggin' doorstop of kink. Very, very excited about it; it feels amazing to be writing again after taking so much time off to focus all my energy on Riptide.

Hmm, I think that's it for now. I'm at a couple different places today: you can read a nice excerpt from Crescendo and maybe win a copy of Counterpoint at Laura Kaye's blog, and I have a guest post at Naughty Boys in the Backseat on the only-half-immortal problem. (Trust me, it's a big problem :-p)

If you've already read Crescendo, do let me know what you think, even if you hated it. If you haven't, say hello anyway to get yourself entered in the giveaway. I'll ship anywhere in the world.

Hugs and love to you all--I'm feeling particularly bouncy today :D

New Book in the Works

2011-11-11T19:44:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday, folks! I'm thrilled to say that after all the time-eating (but wonderful!) craziness of Crescendo edits and launching fifteen books at once for Riptide, I have actually begun to write again.

O. M. G. does that feel great.

Last week I escaped the power outages in Jersey by fleeing to Cat Grant's place in lovely Monterey, CA. (See: this:)

And Cat and I have been hashing out the plot of a Big Kinky Book for a while now--a sort of grudgingly willing total power exchange situation between a rich experienced Dom who no longer believes anyone will ever want him for anything but his money and a struggling construction worker whose submissive side is buried so deeply he may or may not actually be submissive . . . but for the right incentive, he's willing to find out.

Cat and I have banged out almost 25,000 words on this already--close to 100 pages!--and we're just getting getting started on act 2. Looks like this'll turn out to be a nice meaty novel, and I'm so excited by it, our boys won't even let me sleep at night. They just keep whispering in my ear, "Hey, how about trying this with us?" or "Wouldn't [insert deliciously pervy thing here] be naughty and fun?" And of course I can never say no to my boys.

I have to fly home in half a week, but here's hoping that by then, we'll have gotten out another 10K of pure pervy play. At the rate we're going, we might even have this thing finished by the end of the year. Very exciting all around, and oh holy crap does it feel amazing to finally be doing what I should be doing again: putting fingers to keyboard and abusing the fuck out of hot hot men ;-p

Guest Blog: Paradise 21 with Aubrie Dionne

2011-11-07T17:53:00.000-05:00

Evening, folks! Today we've got a guest author, Aubrie Dionne, who's here to share an excerpt from her new sci-fi romance from Entangled Publishing, Paradise 21. As always, let's start with a blurb and cover art.

Aries has lived her entire life aboard mankind’s last hope, the New Dawn, a spaceship traveling toward a planet where humanity can begin anew—a planet that won’t be reached in Aries’ lifetime. As one of the last genetically desirable women in the universe, she must marry her designated genetic match and produce the next generation for this centuries-long voyage.

But Aries has other plans.

When her desperate escape from the New Dawn strands her on a desert planet, Aries discovers the rumors about pirates—humans who escaped Earth before its demise—are true. Handsome, genetically imperfect Striker possesses the freedom Aries envies, and the two connect on a level she never thought possible. But pursued by her match from above and hunted by the planet’s native inhabitants, Aries quickly learns her freedom will come at a hefty price.

The life of the man she loves.

Sound interesting? Check out the excerpt and video trailer, beneath the jump.

Book Review: Counterpunch, by Aleks Voinov. 5 of 5 Stars

2011-11-04T17:43:00.000-04:00

Apologies for the unexpected silence this week. I was in one of those "Snowtober" areas where the kids got an unexpected week off from school because three quarters of the state had no power. My solution to this was to pick up and fly to California to visit dear friend and fellow M/M author Cat Grant. I'll be hanging here for a couple weeks to catch up on sleep post-Riptide launch and get started on a big kinky book we're co-writing.

In the meanwhile, I wanted to post a mini-review on Aleksandr Voinov's new novel, Counterpunch, which released today. Full disclosure: I was a beta, and it's also set in my sandbox (this story is written in the same world as Anchored and Where He Belongs). That said, Aleks wrote such a beautiful novel I'm downright jealous of how well he handled my sandbox; he built a much prettier castle than I ever did!
Here's the blurb:

Fight like a man, or die like a slave.

Brooklyn Marshall used to be a policeman in London, with a wife and a promising future ahead of him. Then he accidentally killed a rioter whose father was a Member of Parliament and had him convicted of murder. To ease the burden on the overcrowded prison system, Brooklyn was sold into slavery rather than incarcerated. Now, he's the "Mean Machine", a boxer on the slave prizefighting circuit, pummelling other slaves for the entertainment of freemen and being rented out for the sexual service of his wealthier fans.

When Nathaniel Bishop purchases Brooklyn's services for a night, it seems like any other assignation. But the pair form an unexpected bond that grows into something more. Brooklyn hesitates to call it "love"—such things do not exist between freemen and slaves—but when Nathaniel reveals that he wants to help get Brooklyn's conviction overturned, he dares to hope. Then, an accident in the ring sends Brooklyn on the run, jeopardizing everything he has worked so hard to achieve and sending him into the most important fight of all—the fight for freedom.

This is classic Voinov at his finest: dark, gritty, morally ambiguous, dangerous, violent, and sexy as hell. All that plus a genuine romance! If you are a fan of any of these things, I cannot recommend this book strongly enough. When you're done with your first read, you'll want to read it again, and again, and again. Pure love.

Release Day AND Launch Day!

2011-10-28T21:45:00.001-04:00

Well, technically release day for my new BDSM novella, Master Class, is this Sunday, but it is available for download now directly at Riptide Publishing, along with seven other of our brand new titles, and I am so excited I could spit. (Or pass out; I haven't really slept much this week.)

I wanted to take this time to offer a quick thanks and congratulations to my partners at Riptide: Aleksandr Voinov, Chris Hawkins, and Tal Valante. This is it, guys--we did it :D

And I most especially want to offer my thanks to all of you readers and fans and blog tour partners out there who've made Riptide's launch such a success. I hope we can entertain you for many years to come.

Now if I may . . . our now-available shiny, let me show u it:

Wednesday Picspam

2011-10-26T06:34:00.000-04:00

Good morning, folks! I'm buried beneath an avalanche of final preparations for Sunday's launch of Riptide Publishing (or Friday for the first eight titles if you pre-ordered), and since my own BDSM novella, Master Class, is a part of that first wave of releases, I thought today I'd share some two-themed picspam: BDSM pics in celebration of my new release, and water-themed pics in celebration of all the oceanic puns that is my new publisher (Ride the Wave! Turn the Tide! Get Wet! You Get The Point! :D).

So, lots of NSFW hotness, beneath the jump.

Read more »

Free BDSM Drabble

2011-10-24T01:00:00.000-04:00

Master Class releases this Friday for those who've pre-ordered (it's not too late!), and this Sunday for those who haven't. At the same time, of course, comes Riptide Publishing's official opening (OMG!), and I'm nervous and excited and terrified and thrilled all at once about both these things. Anyway, I thought, what better way to celebrate the upcoming release of my BDSM novella and seven other fantastic titles at my publishing house than to give away a little free fic?

So, beneath the jump for (very brief) mention of naughty bits, please find a little drabble featuring Devon and Nicky, the protagonists from both Master Class and SUBlime: Collected Shorts.

Read more »

The Joys of Remodeling

2011-10-21T02:41:00.000-04:00

Over at casa Haimowitz, we're getting a new floor laid in the kitchen and downstairs hallway. The contractors started yesterday, and I've learned a few things since then.

Shiny-- er, splintery sub-floor.

1. Remodeling sucks.

2. The cat and dog also think remodeling sucks. Their whole world looks and smells different, and there are all these strange men in the house making a racket.

3. Remodeling sucks.

4. Did I mention the racket? I'm nocturnal--I tend to work til 5 or 6 in the morning and then sleep til 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Contractors? Don't. Here at 8am sharp, revving their power tools and banging things and making the dog bark. Expect some punch-drunk (and potentially cranky :-p) tweets from me over the next week or so.

5. Remodeling sucks.

6. Gods, what a mess! I have sawdust in places I can't discuss in polite company.

Let's play Identify the Animal Tracks! :-)

7. When's the last time you cleaned out your pantry or your hall closet? For me, I'm pretty sure that was when I moved in here eleven years ago. Ended up with three bags full of shoes and coats and gloves and scarves and such for Goodwill--things I hadn't worn in years. Also magically discovered some dried Indian food about five years past its expiration date. Hmm . . .

Contents of hall closet & pantry.

8. So in conclusion, remodeling sucks. But hey, there'll be a fresh coat of paint and a lovely new tile floor at the end of it all, and considering I'd actually worn holes in the laminate that used to be there by sitting in the same place every day to work for eleven years, I suppose it's worth the trouble in the end.

How about you? Any remodeling stories-slash-bitching you'd like to share? :-)

Fantasy and a Free Book with KC Burn!

2011-10-19T20:08:00.000-04:00

Er, it's still Wednesday, right? :-) I'm shaking off some serious con crud from GayRomLit (I blame Kris 'n' Good Books for licking me in my sleep), so I've slept through most of the last two days, but I'm up in time to bring you some fun and a giveaway with the lovely KC Burn. She's here to talk about her new M/M paranormal release, Trompe L'oeil. Let's begin, as always, with a cover and blurb.

When Maxwell, a Depression-era artist, spurns the attentions of his sponsor, he ends up cursed to live out eternity in a painting. The man who cursed him delighted in playing the exhibitionist for Maxwell, and by the time the old man dies, Maxwell longs for his life and body back but he’s pretty sure he never wants to watch anyone have sex ever again. Until he discovers who his new owner is.

Tyler isn’t sure what to do with a life-sized painting of a nude man, but it was a gift from his sister to ease the pain of a disastrous break up and subsequent coming out. The gorgeous subject of the painting disappeared without a trace decades ago, rumored to have been killed by the painting’s previous owner in a jealous rage.

Becoming more and more fascinated by the man in his painting, Tyler uses his resources as a history professor to solve the mystery of Maxwell’s disappearance. He finds himself spending more time in his bedroom, talking to the painting, researching, and aching to know the man in person. Meanwhile, Maxwell falls under Tyler’s sweet spell, even though the thickness of canvas might be an insurmountable barrier to cross.

Sound interesting? Leave a comment to enter into a drawing for a free copy!

And now I'll turn the floor over to KC, beneath the jump.

GayRomLit Recap

2011-10-17T16:38:00.000-04:00

Damon, me, Brita, Bryl, & Cat.

Happy Monday, all! I've just spent the last eleven hours dead asleep, recovering from the nonstop wackiness that was GayRomLit 2011. I've brought home lots of fabulous memories, a handful of silly photos, and, unfortunately, con crud (a cold), but I'm already looking forward to next year (it will be in Albuquerque, NM, by the way), and I hope you all are too.

Me fangirling on Rowan Speedwell (OMG!).

I'm a bit too wiped to go into too many details, but suffice it to say, the single most amazing part of this whole experience for me was finally putting faces to so many names. People I've been chatting with at Goodreads or Twitter for over a year. People I'm working with and even partnered with at Riptide who I met in person for the first time. Authors whose work I love and respect. Fans who wanted to talk about my work. Bloggers and book reviewers who work hard to improve the signal to noise ratio in our genre every day. It was a bit strange and overwhelming--and flattering like whoa--to have so many people want your autograph or your picture or a minute of your time. It was immensely gratifying to meet my peers and be surrounded by 250 people whose love of the thing I also love brought us all together.

The blogging crew.

The city itself was pretty special, though sadly I got to see very little of it. Hopefully when I go back for AAD in August of 2012, I can stay a few more days and get to see a little more of what's happening outside the hotel. But kudos to the GRL organizers, who did an amazing job; the whole con ran like clockwork, and everything from the author readings to the tours to the hurricane party around the pool were such a joy to be a part of.

I've shared a few photos in this post, but there are many more over at Riptide's facebook page in the GRL album. Other folks will be adding photos there as time permits, so check back on occasion for 7am grumpiness and 2am drunken shenanigans. If you have some of your own to share--photos, stories, experiences, etc.--please point us to them in the comments!

Not-Posting, GayRomLit Style

2011-10-14T11:48:00.000-04:00

Happy Friday, folks! I'm down in New Orleans at GayRomLit, so this'll be a short post. But I promise you stories and pictures when I get home on Monday. (Or maybe Wednesday; who knows how long I'll need to recover from rooming with Cat Grant and E.M. Lynley ;D)

Finally got to meet a ton of folks in person, including Riptide First Wavers Bryl Tyne and Brita Addams and the Riptide art director L.C. Chase. Also finally met Rowan Speedwell (eeeeeee!), Marie Sexton, J.P. Barnaby, Rick Reed, and many more, including some absolutely fabulous readers. Much fun--wish you were all here.

Now off with me to the riverboat cruise/book signing. See you Monday!

Guest Blog: The Adult Bedtime Read with Leslie Sanders

2011-10-12T01:31:00.000-04:00

Today I'm welcoming author Leslie Sanders to Fantasy Unbound to dish on bedtime stories and share an excerpt from her new release, Benefits of Sharing.

As always, let's begin with a blurb and cover.

Cara is unenthusiastic about her upcoming thirtieth birthday. Maybe her husband's eighteen-year-old coworker Isaac could add some excitement.

Cara Matthews is about to turn thirty, and for her, it’s the death of her youth and the beginning of the dull years. Her husband, James, is aware of her sudden grief and surprises her with something that should take her mind off of aging: young Isaac.

Maybe Isaac can help Cara create her very own wild and crazy experience to share—in more ways than one—and help her transition smoothly from her twenties to her thirties.

Cara is all too eager to finally experience the excitement she's been desperately craving, but she's also a little skeptical. Exactly who is Isaac, and why is he so eager to please?

And now I'll turn the floor over to Leslie for her guest blog and excerpt of Benefits of Sharing, beneath the jump.

Read more »

Movie Reviews for Pervs: Shame

2011-10-10T13:58:00.005-04:00

So this Friday, I went to see the new Steve McQueen / Michael Fassbender Movie, Shame, at the 2011 New York Film Festival. I was in excellent company: Cat Grant bought the tickets and treated myself, Liz Silver, and Damon Suede to the showing. And not that they're not awesome people, because they totally are, but did I mention Michael Fassbender and Steve McQueen were there? Because they were :D

I shall limit my fangirl squeeing, primarily because once Michael went through the photo call (which we were able to watch from about twenty feet away, but had to peek between the row of photographers), his handlers hustled him past the rope pretty quickly. He did try to sign autographs, but they told him he needed to introduce the movie. Ah well.

Speaking of introducing the movie, here's the blurb from IMDB:

In New York City, Brandon's carefully cultivated private life--which allows him to indulge his sexual addiction--is disrupted when his sister Cisssy arrives unannounced for an indefinite stay.

Basically, it's about an OCDish sex-addict who holds down a highly successful job in (I think?) an ad firm and suffers so deeply from his addiction that he jacks off in the bathroom at work, keeps porn on his work computer, brings prostitutes to his house, and randomly picks up women wherever he can find them. He's a miserable SOB, either in agony or numb pretty much all the time. The impression you get is that orgasm is the one moment in life when he is not in agony, and he chases it with the relentless desperation of someone who knows it's killing him but doesn't know how else to feel. His sister shows up and throws a serious wrench into his orderly life. Worse, she seems to make him think about all kinds of things he'd rather not think about every time he looks at her. She makes him face his present, too; when he starts having to hide around her, he seems to realize how fucked up he is, and starts trying to change.

So, on to the review. I want to (and will) treat this as a real review because the movie was pretty incredible in a lot of ways, but I'll be doing it within the framework of the Perv Score. For those new to Movie Reviews for Pervs, here's the four criteria by which films are judged:

Hotness of the star(s)
How often and how thoroughly the star(s) get nekkid
Severity of ass-kickings to which the star(s) are subjected
And, as something of an afterthought, whether or not the movie was actually any good

So, combined real and perv reviews, beneath the jump.

ISO: Gay Deadwood, Pls!

2011-10-05T00:52:00.001-04:00

So, yeah, I just had this stunning realization of a sudden that I can actually seek out--and buy--exactly the kind of stories I want to read. I know this sort of seems like a given when you become Managing Editor of a publishing house, but Riptide only just posted open submission calls a few days ago, so it's still sort of sinking in.

I was sitting here cleaning out my inbox tonight (if I don't return, avenge my death!), and I came across an update from Goodreads that mentioned one of my GR friends was reading a nonfiction book on prostitutes of the old west. And then I got to thinking about Deadwood, and how much I loved loved loved that show, and then I got to thinking, Man, I'd really love to read a Gay Deadwood, and then I realized, OMG, I can totes just ask for one, and maybe if I'm really lucky, I'll find one worth signing!

I realize how strikingly obvious that seems in retrospect, but I gotta say, I'm excited.

So, if you or anyone you know has a well-researched, novel-length gay historical romance set in an American frontier town--no cowboys, please, unless they're not out on the range, as I really am looking for the complex interactions of an ensemble cast here--then please pitch me at rachel (at) riptidepublishing (dot) com! No invite required.

A Milestone Week!

2011-10-03T10:54:00.001-04:00

Happy Monday, all! Two pretty awesome things happened to me since last we spoke:

1. I just wrapped up edits on Crescendo about ten minutes ago. (Click to embiggen the pretty.) It's all over now but for the copyedit pass. I feel, oh, about fifty pounds lighter than I did last night :D

2. OMGOMGOMGOMG RIPTIDE! :O :O :O Hang on, I'll try to stop squeeing long enough to de-cat-macro . . . *deep breath* Okay, yeah, so, on October 1, Riptide Publishing unveiled its new web store and opened for pre-orders. (Every book you pre-order gets you entered into a contest for free books for a year, yay!) We also began our official Grand Opening Celebration, also known as "the 300-stop, multi-author blog tour with thousands and thousands of dollars in prizes."

It's been quite the wild ride already. We're hearing lots of great feedback about our site, and particularly about our innovative warning and tagging system for every book. It'd take a while to explain, so let me just point you at my shiny Master Class book page and tell you to check out all those fancy tabs and toggles at the bottom, especially the "additional details" one. Go on, I'll wait.

Welcome back! (Did you buy stuff? ;-p) Seriously, how neat is that site feature? Isn't that awesome? I'd love to see that everywhere I shop.

So, couple quick tour links for you:

On Saturday, I was at Amara's Place with partners Aleks and Chris for the official ribbon cutting, and there's a loooooooooooooong interview there that I think will be interesting to anyone who's ever wondered what's involved in launching a business.

Also on Saturday, Brief Encounters did a lovely review of Master Class (4.5 stars, yay!), and on Sunday I did a guest blog about the psychological aspects of BDSM there. There are some interesting conversations going on in the comments; I hope you'll come join us!

In the not-all-about-me tour news, Storm Grant had an interview at Literary Nymphs on Saturday, where she was her usual hilarious self. And on Sunday, Peter Hansen was at Loves Books and More discussing the conceits of youth and how WWF chair-bashing fits into your standard writing workshop curriculum :D Today, Brita Addams kicks off an entire week at Amara's Place with a great interview; and Aleks Voinov is over at Erotica For All, dishing on his latest crush, among other things.

Tomorrow I'll be at Erotica For All, too, but I can't for the life of me remember what Lucy interviewed me about. Whatever it was? It was probably awesome. And hey, even if it wasn't, remember that every comment you leave on the tour enters you for a chance to win about a bazillion prizes, so even if I bore you to death, you should still stop on by and throw your hat in for that iPad ;-)

OMGOMGOMG!

2011-09-30T12:53:00.001-04:00

So, yeah, tomorrow, Riptide Publishing's brand new web store opens and pre-sales for all fifteen of our 2011 titles begins. I am so excited I could puke. And nervous, too. And excited. And kind of a little nauseous. And excited. Did I mention excited?

Jessewave did a little post on us today, and we're wrapping up the pre-party at Amara's today too. (Go check it out--there's still time to comment and get entered in ten separate prize drawings tomorrow!) Which, as it happens, is where we're also kicking off the official Grand Opening Party tomorrow. I hope you'll join us all along the way--there'll be author and editor interviews, guest blogs, excerpts, reviews, and of course prizes prizes prizes! (Did I mention an iPad? Cos, yeah, we're giving one away and I haven't even fondled it first ;-p)

Oh, and you know what else comes out tomorrow? Open submission calls! Four of them, in fact, so be sure to visit our website tomorrow to check those out. No invitation needed :-)

Well, I'm twirling off now to take care of business, and I hope to see you all tomorrow at the ribbon-cutting at Amara's Place!

Guest Blog and Contest: A Bit of Advice, Just-Gotta-Say Style, with Laura Kaye

2011-09-28T09:12:00.001-04:00

Greetings all!

Today's my birthday, and I'm celebrating by taking the day off from blogging. Fortunately, I've got a fun guest-blogger in to take my place, so let's all give a warm welcome to Laura Kaye!

Also, since it's my birthday, this definitely calls for presents. And by presents I mean the twelve free paperback books I got at Authors After Dark. Click the pic to embiggen and read all the titles.

Laura Kaye's sweetening the pot with a free ebook copy of her new story, Just Gotta Say. (Want to learn more? Check out this review.) Want to win? Just leave a comment. The ebook will go to one winner anywhere in the world, and the print books will go to another winner in the USA only (apologies, but shipping is hugely expensive outside the US). I'll draw for the paperbacks on Monday. Laura will draw for the ebook.

And now for Laura's guest post, beneath the jump.

Congratulations 2012 EPIC Finalists!

2011-09-26T10:15:00.000-04:00

Every year, EPIC (the Electronic Publishing Industry Coalition) holds a major ebook award competition for the best of electronic publishing across a wide variety of genres. Their list of finalists just released, and I was absolutely delighted to see some familiar names on that shortlist.

So today, I'd like to offer a heartfelt congratulations to:

My dear friend and Riptide First Wave author Cat Grant, who made the finals not once but twice in the Erotica category.
Perennial laugh factory and Riptide First Wave author L.A. Witt, who also made the finals twice: once writing as L.A. Witt in the Contemporary Romance category, and once writing as Lauren Gallagher in the Erotica category.
And the brilliantly talented artist Reese Dante (she of Riptide's Once a Marine cover) for eight (!!!) nominations for cover art across a number of categories.

Congratulations to all of you on your well-deserved recognition, and best of luck in the finals. We'll be rooting for you!

It Begins! (With Free Books!)

2011-09-23T05:04:00.000-04:00

The Riptide pre-party at Amara's Place, I mean :-) The kickoff post is up, and it features yours truly discussing Andrea Speed's Pretty Monsters. Both Andrea and I will be popping in throughout the day, so come on over, say hi, and win a free backlist book from Andrea!

Be sure to stop in at the Place tomorrow, too, for a discussion of the brilliant up-and-comer Peter Hansen, and his book, First Watch. Then on Sunday, Aleksandr Voinov will be at the Place to discuss Master Class. There's a new prize every day, and two big prize packs at the end of the week, so don't miss out on all the fun and free stuff!

Tour Craziness Countdown!

2011-09-21T01:21:00.001-04:00

In two days' time, I get to kick off the Riptide Publishing Grand Opening Celebration (well, technically this is a pre-celebration) at Amara's Place, where Aleks Voinov and I will be spending just over a week dishing out the skinny on our First Wave authors and why we bought their books. I hope you'll join us! There will of course be prizes--a Riptide author author sampler (read: heap of free ebooks) and a big box o' swag--and every post you comment on will earn you an entry into the end-of-year grand prize drawings for one of three awesome prizes: a Nook, a Kindle, and an iPad.

On October 1, the tour kicks off in earnest; our twelve First Wave authors will be making over 70 stops in October alone (and then just as many in November and December), and every single stop will feature unique content! Each stop will also feature a prize giveaway, and the same opportunity to enter into the grand prize drawings.

To that end, I updated my own personal schedule tonight. You can click that link to see everywhere I'll be, both for the Riptide blog tour (where I'll be talking about Riptide in general, my new BDSM novella Master Class, and writing at large) and the Crescendo blog tour. Lots of fun and prizes to be had, so I hope to see you all there!

Edited to add: Michael Fassbender kinda crying, after the jump, since people yelled at me for daring to make a post without him :-p

Read more »

Monday Picspam & a Deal on Counterpoint

2011-09-19T00:43:00.000-04:00

Yep, still crazy deadlines, which means more picspam for you :-) I'm doing a final sanity check on Aleks Voinov's absolutely FAN-FRIGGIN-TASTIC Belonging-verse novel Counterpunch tonight, and I'd forgotten between the spring and now just how much I loved it when he was writing it. Now that he's given it a good hard polish, it's even more amazing. (See for yourself--you can read an excerpt [and win a Kindle!] at the publisher's website.)

So, in celebration of that, I'm posting some hot hot boxers today, beneath the jump.

Two quick notes before the picspam begins.

First, with the Crescendo release date looming close, my publishers have gotten together to offer both Counterpoint (the first book in the Song of the Fallen series) and Crescendo at 20% off when purchased directly through the publishers' websites. This is the cheapest it's ever been, so if you've been waiting to get it, now's a good time.

Second, OMG, the Riptide Publishing Grand Opening Celebration is just around the corner! See that shiny banner in my left sidebar? Click it! There's lots of exciting new stuff on the Riptide website and more to come, and our first stop on the party tour begins September 23 at Amara's Place with lots of fun and prizes and behind-the-scenes peeks at our first eight titles.

Okay, now picspam. And yep, I still managed to work in Fassavoy, and a bonus Til Schweiger! As always, click to embiggen.

Read more »

Friday Picspam - Warriors

2011-09-16T00:47:00.002-04:00

Given the edits I've been doing lately, let's make today's picspam theme Warriors. (You might think I couldn't work Fassavoy into that, but you'd be wrong ;-p). Lots of hotties, all safe for work (well, there's one bare bum), beneath the jump. As always, click to embiggen.

(Quick side note: it's not too late to scroll down one post and enter to win an I Omega swag pack and some yummy Godiva chocolates from Kari Gregg!)

The Writing Process (& Swag!) with Kari Gregg

2011-09-14T00:05:00.001-04:00

Morning folks! Today I'm joined by the hilarious and brilliantly talented Kari Gregg, who's here to discuss her creative process with you all in typical Kari fashion. She's also got a brand new book out that's so damn hot it'll fog up your computer screen, so before I turn the floor over to her, let's have a peek, shall we?

After one mind-shattering night with a stranger at a local leather bar leaves him forever changed, Gabriel lives on the streets as a vagrant to elude the master who hunts him, but the were-shifter is a fierce, stubborn predator who reclaims him soon enough. Gabriel is carried away to the pack’s home territory where his instruction on what it means to be the pet of an alpha begins. Gabriel isn’t just any pet, though. He is the rarest among their kind: a human omega.

Treasured? Or cursed?

As Gabriel’s father, the Distinguished Gentleman from Pennsylvania and stalwart of the conservative party, pushes the considerable resources at his disposal to locate his missing son, Gabriel explores who and what he is under his master’s careful protection. Gabriel falls for the shifter who is lover and destroyer, owner and…friend?

Publisher’s Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: BDSM theme and elements, and dubious consent.

Hot, right? Go buy it! Go on, I'll wait :-) And then come back and leave a comment for Kari, because she'll be sending one lucky commenter an I Omega notebook, note pad, and magnet, plus a little box of Godiva chocolate. I can't decide which is more drool-worthy--the chocolate, or a spiral notebook with that hot hot cover on it?

And now here's Kari, beneath the jump.

Monday Picspam - Rope (NSFW)

2011-09-12T12:44:00.002-04:00

Happy Monday, folks! (I know, I know, I shouldn't be this chipper on a Monday.) Everything's going along swimmingly; edits for Crescendo are on pace, and all the Riptide releases are making progress. Did you see all the new blurbs and cover art we've posted lately? There's some really lovely stuff there. Our web designer rolled out a test version of the web store this weekend too, which was mad exciting. Can't wait to share it with you all!

In the meanwhile, this busy bee has little time to blog, so I shall shower you with hoteness instead, nice and NSFW, beneath the jump. Today's theme is rope. (And somehow I've managed not to post a picture of Michael Fassbender; apologies in advance to fellow obsessives.) As always, click to embiggen.

Read more »

Win a Kindle & More at the NOR Web Hunt

2011-09-09T10:21:00.000-04:00

Hi guys! I'm participating this month in the Night Owl Reviews Full Moon Web Hunt, which runs until Halloween and is chock full of one of the biggest prize lists I've ever seen.

If you've never done a web hunt, basically what you do is go from sponsor site to sponsor site looking for a hunt graphic. You record the URL where you found the graphic, and when you've found enough of them, you submit your list of URLs to NOR, who enters you in the drawings for the many, many awesome prizes (including pretty much my whole backlist to five separate winners!).

It's a great way to find new authors and revisit old favorites, and five lucky winners will be taking home a heap of prizes so big it'll take them a year to get through it all. So check it out, have fun, and good luck!

And, just a quick plug for Riptide Publishing here :-) We'll be doing some scavenger hunts of our own in October, November, and December, and winners will pick up free Riptide books for a year, among other cool prizes. Be sure to check those out when our Grand Opening Celebration launches on October 1!

Film Festival Fun

2011-09-07T00:01:00.000-04:00

This one's a quickie, folks. I'm still neck deep in Crescendo edits and the Riptide Publishing launch, but I found out today that thanks to the lovely Cat Grant, I'll actually be getting a teeny little mini-vacation in a little over a month: the two of us are taking a day trip into Manhattan to see Shame at the NY Film Festival!

I am dying of excitement about this, not so much for going to Manhattan (it's sort of right around the corner from me, and I lived there for a while so the sheen's worn off), but for getting to see the new Steve McQueen movie starring every last full-frontal inch of my favorite obsession. Despite the Oscar buzz already coming out of the Venice Film Festival for Shame, the contents of the movie (and the director's admirable unwillingness to sacrifice artistic vision for commercialism) make it unlikely it'll ever see US distribution outside the festival circuit.

Fortunately, we have tickets, so I get to spend one glorious day off from editing and writing and launching a business (which, admittedly, I am loving just about every second of) to stare at 90 minutes of this, a large portion of which I'm told involve no pants. (Click to embiggen. Trust me.)

Aw heck, one more because he's just so absurdly adorable. (And is it just me or does that totally look like a ligature mark on his wrist? Okay, yeah, it's probably just me, but a girl can dream, right?) The photo call at Venice, beneath the jump:

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Crescendo Sneak Peek #6

2011-09-02T03:13:00.003-04:00

It seems like all I've talked about the last week or so is the weather, so it's time for something fun, yeah? How about a little Crescendo excerpt? The entire first chapter is available on my website and at Storm Moon Press (where you can still pre-order at 20% off, yay!), so I thought I'd give you a peek of what comes immediately after.

First, a quick (*sigh*) weather-related update for those who've been asking: Floodwaters have mostly receded. Repairs are going well, though I think a new species of hyper-intelligent mold in my basement has just discovered fire and the wheel. Irritatingly, utilities decided to shut off a bit over two days ago and have barely done much in the way of coming back on. Even the phone's been out. I'm sneaking on now in a rare moment of up-time and praying that everything stays on for good this time.

Now then, back to a nice fat 1500-word excerpt from Crescendo. Please note this may not match the version you see in the final text (in other words, this is still mid-edit, though it's certainly clean enough for public consumption.) All the, er, fun? Beneath the jump.

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Crescendo Release Date Moved

2011-08-31T05:10:00.000-04:00

Hi all. As I'd suspected on Monday, the Crescendo release date has been moved due to hurricane Irene. The next available slot in my publisher's schedule is November 18, so that's when Crescendo will be releasing. Folks who pre-order will still be able to download it two days early.

This mess? Is what it looked like yesterday just four miles from me.

Yeah, that's the National Guard not having any more luck than anyone else.

I don't usually get up on my soapbox, but if you live anywhere near any of the hard-hit areas and can donate blood to the Red Cross, it's desperately needed. If you're not (or are) in the area and want to help, you can donate funds to the R ed Cross. Or text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10.

My home is far enough from any of the nearby rivers to have missed the serious flooding, but I did and do have a mess to clean up. The job is compounded by the fact that towns are completely isolated here--few to no roads open in and out, supermarkets closed, sketchy or no power (mine just went out for an hour while I was trying to make this blog post), bridges (and highways, oddly enough) washed away, etc. While I'm in the middle of all this, please don't worry if it takes me a few days to answer an email or if I drop off the radar completely. Like I said, power outages are still an issue, and I don't have a smartphone, so when it goes I lose my internet and can't get out to go find it somewhere else.

In the meanwhile, I hope you'll consider donating blood or money or both (er, but not blood money, kay?) to help the thousands of people who've lost everything this week and are still stuck in Red Cross shelters, waiting to go home. Also please consider shopping with Candlemark & Gleam, a lovely independent speculative fiction press who is donating 100% of the sale price of their ebooks to Vermont victims of Irene.

Irene Update, Crescendo News

2011-08-29T00:01:00.012-04:00

Good morning, all! Those of you who frequent Fantasy Unbound know this to be a pretty relentlessly happy place, but I'm afraid I have some potentially bad news for fans of Crescendo today, and it's going to involve a little bit of explanation that veers toward the sort of thing I usually would rather not discuss, but since it affects anyone waiting for Crescendo, I think you deserve to know. (If you're short on time, scroll down to the bottom for the tl;dr version.)

Good news first about Irene, though. Actually, it's all pretty related, so . . .

Irene veered east at the last second, and the eye of the storm--and the most damaging winds--missed us. Miraculously, we kept power (excepting a long series of brownouts during landfall), despite hundreds of thousands of people all around us losing theirs. We have water damage, my whole house smells like a swamp, the local river flooding is catastrophic and only getting worse (people in town have water up to the second floor of their homes, and the rivers won't even crest until tomorrow), and my dad still hasn't been allowed back to his house to inspect the damage (he lives about 100 feet from the beach), but we're all safe. (Give it a week; I suppose the mold might kill me? :-p) I hope everyone else was at least as fortunate.

Now, to explain what this has to do with Crescendo, I need to back up a few months.

Very late into the process of getting Crescendo ready, I learned my dear publisher, Guiltless Pleasure, was closing down due to a serious illness with the owner (she is well on the mend now, thank goodness). Storm Moon Press stepped in and offered to publish Crescendo on a ridiculously tight timeline, since the release date had been set a year back from Guiltless Pleasure and I very much wanted to stick to it if I could.

This meant that everything was crazy compressed, and there was much less time to focus on things like edits and production than anyone was entirely comfortable with. Neither myself nor my new publisher were willing to deliver anything less than the very best we were capable of, so we all started putting in long, intense hours to make it happen.

That meant every hour of every day was both precious and critical to hitting the release date. Fast-forward to Irene. I lost half a week preparing for the storm and the inevitable flooding, since this isn't the sort of thing we're generally ready for up in these parts. Stupid things like buying batteries for my flashlights could take hours and trips to several sold-out stores. All the furniture (and junk stored) in the basement needed to be moved. Good thing we did, as I was up all night helping my sump pump bail the basement out. The flooding's slowed but hasn't stopped, even though the rain has, because of the situation with the rivers. Now there's a big pile of cleanup to come, and more lost hours and days from my edits.

So, I'll be late turning these in to my publisher. Which in turn throws off my publisher's schedule, since mine is by no means the only book they're publishing this fall. This means they now have to scramble to work proofreading, layout, conversion, and galley proofing into an already packed schedule. This means there is a very good chance that Crescendo will miss its release date. I want to stress that this has nothing at all to do with Storm Moon Press, who has bent over backward at every point in the process to deliver the best book possible.

I'm trying to do the same, but it's looking like it's time to beg your understanding and patience in the event the book misses its scheduled release by a couple or few weeks. A lot hinges on how capable I am of making up for lost time in an already very full schedule, and of how much lost time I'll actually need to make up for--I won't really know the extent of the flood damage (or the consequent cleanup, which is already monstrous) until the waters crest and recede, and I may yet still lose power to said floodwaters at any point (and those who already have lost power have been told not to expect it back for over a week, nor can many evacuate to somewhere that does have power because the town has turned into an island). Just as much hinges on how how quickly the manuscript can be worked into my publisher's production schedule if/when I miss my due date. (I must stress again that this is entirely beyond their control.)

So, the tl;dr version? Weather sucks. Crescendo might be a few weeks late. Please don't kill me :-p

And since that was all kinds of depressing, here, have a pretty picture of James kinda looking like I feel (and no, "shit hot" is not what I meant ;-p). As always, click to embiggen.

The Weirdness Continues

2011-08-26T17:24:00.001-04:00

Happy Friday, all! Alas, it's looking like a bit of a mess round these parts, as the eye of Hurricane Irene is forecast to, well, glare really hard right over my head. (Is anyone else surprised that, between the very rare northeast hurricane and the even rarer northeast earthquake, that nobody's yet found a way to blame God's wrath on teh gays or portend End Times? Doesn't that usually happen right about now?)

Anyway, long story short, the disaster folks are telling us to expect power outages for days and possibly even weeks. Since I don't have time to front-load my blog, I'm afraid it will go without updates for as long as I'm stuck without power/internet. An even more unfortunate side effect may be the delay of the Crescendo release by a couple weeks, since I'm supposed to be wrapping up edits in the next couple weeks and can't do that if my battery's dead. If it looks like the power situation is truly ominous, I'll try to get out of town, but where I live literally becomes an island when there's flooding and odds are good the roads will be closed for a while.

So, to make all this up to you, I've some lovely (and SFW, though there is one happy trail) picspam beneath the jump. Don't worry about me--I'll be perfectly safe in my (sadly flood-prone) basement, reading my Kindle by candlelight as the storm blows by. Until . . . well, whenever! :-)

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Sex So Good the Earth Shoo-- Oh, Wait.

2011-08-24T00:10:00.002-04:00

Yeah, so, that was a thing that happened, eh? My first earthquake ever. If you live in the affected area, was it your first as well? Did you know what it was when it happened? I . . . did not. I've had attacks of vertigo on rare occasion, so that was my first thought. My second, since I live about 10 minutes by air from Newark Airport, was that we were being buzzed by a plane. My third was that a plane had crashed. My fourth was a bomb. Friggin' earthquake in Central Jersey? Yeah, that was a distant fifth. And thank goodness it was nothing serious, because even after I figured it out, I was still just sitting at my computer, watching stuff on the walls rattle, totally baffled. Here, let me illustrate:

O_o

Then all my neighbors went outside to O_o at each other. After a few minutes, we decided that, yes, that did actually just happen.

And then . . . then pictures of the devastation started coming in from Washington:

via famousdc.com

So, er, yeah, everyone's fine round these parts, except perhaps for a little too much group excitement :-)

Conference Swag Giveaway

2011-08-22T03:01:00.000-04:00

Morning, all. Let's start the week off with a giveaway, eh?

I have a giant pile of AAD conference swag. My giant pile of AAD conference swag, let me show you it. (Click to make gianter.)

Comment if you want it, and I'll select one winner at random on Friday. Also, yeah, that's my conference badge in the back there, and yeah, it is indeed powered by tiger blood. I'll send that along too if the winner wants it.

A Good Editor . . .

2011-08-19T11:14:00.001-04:00

. . . is worth her weight not just in gold, but also in coffee, chocolate, and kittens. While I'm neck deep in some very, very good (and difficult, sigh) edits on Crescendo that will make the book about a thousand times better than it was in draft form, I wanted to take this Friday to celebrate good editors all around the world, and mine in particular, Tal Valante.

(Actually, I'm pretty sure the cat's hers too.)

So thank you, Tal, for kicking my ass with such gleeful vigor and skill.

Have a lovely weekend, folks. I'll be huddled indoors, nursing my sore ass and the slowly emerging wheat from the chaff of my first draft :-)

Crescendo Deleted Scene

2011-08-17T05:31:00.002-04:00

Good morning, folks! Edits on Crescendo continue (have you pre-ordered your copy yet? /shameless plug), and a recent edit had me cutting an entire three-page scene. It was a wise, wise cut (I mean, nothing happens in this scene but a whole lotta navel gazing), but still, seemed a shame to waste it. So, my deleted scene, let me show you it.

Beneath the jump, for first-draft sloppiness and potential spoilers. (I mean, I don't terribly think so? We all already know it was Colonel Mustard in the conservatory with the candlestick, after all. But better safe than sorry, I suppose.)
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Authors After Dark Photo Recap

2011-08-15T15:08:00.000-04:00

Afternoon, all! I'm finally recovered from the wild time that was Authors After Dark 2011 (or #AADPhilly for my tweeps out there), and now I come bearing photos. I also came home with fifteen(!!!) free books and two giant tote bags stuffed with swag. It was pretty insane.

I also have karaoke video, but Blogger is giving me fits, so I'll be putting that up on my facebook page instead.

Met lots of wonderful new-to-me authors and readers, and also finally met a great many of my GR, Twitter, and blog buddies who I'd never seen face to face before. All the fun, beneath the jump--click to embiggen.
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Picspam Friday

2011-08-11T23:29:00.000-04:00

I'm off having a ball at Authors After Dark, so you get hot men today. On Monday you'll get photos and video from AAD. Heck, you might even see me singing karaoke; several people were recording, so I'm sure it's out there somewhere.

Anyway, since all my friends are drunk right now, let's get some wild pics, below the jump.

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New Cover Art, and AAD Bound

2011-08-10T00:07:00.000-04:00

Morning folks! I promised you on Monday that I'd tell you a little about Master Class, my new BDSM novella releasing with my new business venture, Riptide Publishing, this fall. I'm still waiting on the official blurb, but here's a rough rundown:

Nicky Avery is starring in the Broadway revival of Godspell, but he lacks the confidence and self-respect to look beyond a string of heartless one-night stands to fill his needs. A quick flogging, a rough fuck, he blows off steam and seeks a new whip-hand to manipulate next. He finds challenge but no satisfaction in such pseudo-domination and pain. Nobody's managed to master him, and he thinks that's just fine. But he simply doesn't know what he's missing.

Devon Turner is a self-possessed film star and expert Dom who knows what he wants the moment he sees it, and what he wants is Nicky Avery. Nicky's clearly a broken boy, but Devon knows exactly how to put his new sub back together again.

Yes, those are the boys from Sublime: Collected Shorts, finally getting their full-length story. Well, novella length :-)

Also, my gorgeous cover art by L.C. Chase, let me show you it. (Click to embiggen.)

The book is complete, so expect a blurb and some excerpts soon!

In the meanwhile, I'm heading off to Authors After Dark tomorrow morning, and I'll be there through Sunday. If you're hunting for an invitation to submit to Riptide, I'm amenable to being pitched. I'll be hosting a hospitality suite at 9am on Friday with the lovely Cat Grant, so that's a good time to find me.

Friday will be hot men picspam, and I'll be back on Monday with tales (and blackmail photos) from the con.

The Seekrit Project Unveiled!

2011-08-08T07:54:00.003-04:00

Good morning, all! You've been putting up with me talking about my Seekrit Project for some time now, and today I'm very, very excited to share it with you. Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to the love-child of myself, Aleksandr Voinov, and Chris Hawkins:

Our stage-one website launched late Saturday night at RiptidePublishing.com. We're a gay fiction press with a focus on romance, but we also publish erotica and literary gay and trans fiction.

There's quite the lineup already, including some M/M favorites and some amazing new talent: Andrea Speed, Brita Addams, Bryl Tyne, Cat Grant, Damon Suede, Kari Gregg, L.A. Witt, Peter Hansen, Rhianon Etzweiler, Storm Grant, and of course works from myself and Aleksandr Voinov, too.

We're opening this fall, but in the meantime, we hope you'll visit our website to learn all about us, check us out on Facebook and Twitter for all kinds of behind-the-scenes tidbits, and join our already very active Goodreads Group to chat with our authors and learn more about their upcoming works.

On Wednesday, I'll tell you all a little about the new book I'm releasing with Riptide. If you're a fan of Devon and Nicky from Sublime, you'll want to see it :-)

A View of the Cutting-room Floor

2011-08-05T06:40:00.000-04:00

Morning, folks! I'm still banging away at Crescendo edits, and a big part of the editing process is to "kill your darlings." I've been doing a lot of that with Crescendo; a first draft, for me at least, is almost always overwritten because so much of it is exploratory. Rather than condemn these passages to the darkness of deletion, I thought I'd save some to share with you. So, here's one that won't ever make it into the final story.

The road sloped gently upward, toward the third wall and the Second Ward beyond it a league or so distant. Beyond that, at the top of the rise, Ayden could just make out the parapets atop the final wall and the spired roof of the castle keep.

Their caravan halted at the heavily-guarded third wall, and Ayden watched with wary interest as a captain spotted the ambassador and rushed his fellows into opening the gate. They were afraid of this man, and if their actions weren’t enough to confirm it, their songs certainly were.

After three weeks on the road with him, Ayden couldn’t blame them.

The air in the Second Ward was sweet with broad gardens and autumn leaves, stately terraced homes of brick and stone set wall to wall but well back from the cobbled road. ‘Twas sweet relief to be among the relative quiet—fewer songs pressing in against his mind-ear, fewer threats against which to hold himself ready. He spotted no idlers on the (clean) streets; the men were about their business, the children surely at their lessons, the women no doubt home where these humans so single-mindedly thought they belonged.

Yet he knew the sense of security here was false. A few powerful men were no less dangerous than an armed mob.

And ooh, if you haven't seen it yet, the whole first chapter of Crescendo is up now at the publisher's site!

Have a lovely weekend, folks!

Autographed Ebooks with Kindlegraph!

2011-08-03T00:01:00.000-04:00

Happy Monday, folks. This weekend, a friend of mine discovered a very cool little application that lets you collect personalized electronic autographs on your Kindle! The site is KindleGraph.com, and I thought it was pretty neat, so I created a page there too: http://kindlegraph.com/authors/RachelHaimowitz.

Neat, huh? You just go to the site, search for the book you'd like autographed, and send a request. The author receives the request, types in a note, signs it, and hits "send." (You'll receive the document via your Kindle email address.) And viola!, you have a signed ebook :-) (For more information, play their "about" video.)

I'm happy to sign anyone's ebook--I don't even think you actually need to own the ebook (it looks like KindleGraph basically sends you a signed title page that you can then add to a folder on your Kindle or manually insert into your own PDF documents). After all, this author's ego isn't big enough already . . . as you can tell by her referring to herself in the third person.

And if your favorite authors aren't on Kindlegraph yet? Well, I'm sure most of them wouldn't mind you giving them a little poke through their various social networking sites. I'll be doing some poking of my own for sure. Watch out, Rowan Speedwell, my poking stick is sharp >:D

Read Crescendo Chapter 1!

2011-07-31T23:37:00.001-04:00

Happy Monday, folks! It's a particularly exciting day for me, because today is the first time a long and fully-edited sneak peek of Crescendo is going up on the interwebs. The entire first chapter, in fact. Almost 3500 words. I'm so excited I can't even wait the 23 minutes until it's officially Monday. Ah well, it's Monday in Europe, right? :D

You can find the first chapter at my publisher's book page for Crescendo. Wait--don't go quite yet! Let me tell you about a second exciting thing first: Crescendo pre-orders start today, and there is ten kinds of awesome going down with that. The ten kinds of awesome, let me show u them:

1. For one thing, everyone who pre-orders gets 20% off--you pay $7.99 instead of $9.99 for the ebook, $11.99 instead of $14.99 for the paperback (plus free domestic shipping!), and $14.39 instead of $17.99 for the print + ebook bundle (plus free domestic shipping). I'm not sure how long that special will last, so if you've been waiting for Crescendo, definitely take advantage of it while it's still there.

2. Awesome Point #2 is that folks who pre-order get to download their book a full two days before the "street date"--October 5 instead of October 7.

3. Awesome Point #3 is raffle prizes! Each copy you pre-order gets you entered into a drawing for--get this--a free first-gen Nook pre-loaded with my entire back catalog! A second lucky winner will get signed copies of both Counterpoint and Crescendo, and a third lucky winner will get an autographed print of the gorgeous Crescendo cover art.

Okay, so it turns out there are only three kinds of awesome, but I think they're awesome enough to count for 3.33 points of awesome each, no?

Anyway, off I go, dancing giddily away to wrap up edits. I hope you'll go off to Storm Moon Press and read the first chapter of Crescendo. And I hope it's everything you've all been waiting for :D

. . . Oh, who are we kidding. We both knew I couldn't get through a whole blog post without a picture of Michael Fassbender. So, my present to you. Look, it even unwraps itself!

(Now go! Read Crescendo!)

Weekend Hotties!

2011-07-29T01:38:00.003-04:00

Yup, one more day of hottie picspam. I'll get back to real blog posts on Monday, I promise. In the meanwhile, I'm sure you're all absolutely devastated by the alternative ;-)

So, a big pile of my latest two obsessions (and quite possibly my longest-running in many years for this flighty little bird of an-- Ooh, shiny!) beneath the jump.

(Come on, you didn't really think I could go a whole week without posting pictures of Fassavoy, did you?)

(But to make it up to you, there's also some random topless guy and what is arguably the cutest dog in the history of time and space.)

(Because, srsly u guise, u guise, srsly . . .

)

Mid-Week Hotties

2011-07-27T00:41:00.000-04:00

My sis is still in town (yay!), so you get hotties (yay again!). I think some bondage today, in celebration of a thing I can't (quite) yet talk about but which is all bondagey and exciting :D

More images beneath the jump, all conveniently SFW, if perhaps a smidge kinky. As always, click to embiggen.
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Book Review: Duck! by Kim Dare, 4 of 5 Stars

2011-07-25T02:56:00.006-04:00

Morning folks. My sis is in town this week for the first time since December, so I'll be cheating the blog content juuuuust a little by posting some book reviews I did on Goodreads, and maybe some picspam. (Are you tired of Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy yet? Because I have a whole folder of hot naked guys who are not them; I just haven't felt compelled to open it lately ;-p)

Anyway, today I want to share a review for a delightful M/M BDSM book, Duck! by Kim Dare.

A modern day M/M, BDSM retelling of The Ugly Ducking Fairy Tale using avian shifters.

Raised among humans, Ori Jones only discovered he was an avian shifter six months ago. Unable to complete a full shift until he reaches his avian maturity, he still can’t be sure of his exact species.

But with species comes rank, and rank is everything to the avians. When a partial shift allows the elders to announce that they believe Ori to be a rather ugly little duckling, he drops straight to the bottom rung of their hierarchy.

Life isn’t easy for Ori until he comes to the attention of a high ranking hawk shifter. Then the only question is, is Ori really a duck—and what will his new master think when the truth eventually comes out?

My review, beneath the jump.

Chatting with Cassie Exline

2011-07-22T00:01:00.000-04:00

Here to wrap up the 2011 All Things Romantic Suspense Tour is author Cassie Exline, who'll be dishing on all things writing and her latest release, Ruby's Deadly Secret. I'm a huge fan of the cover art for this, so let's get started, as always, with the cover and blurb.

What do you get when you add a ruby, diary, secrets, and a mansion? A motive for murder. Sheryl Locke Holmes and her best friend, Dot Watson, have been offered an exciting opportunity to explore Bridgeside, a Victorian mansion, to search for items for their antique shop. Their adventure is short-lived when they discover a diary containing dark secrets and a newspaper clipping with a warning written in what appears to be blood. They get trapped in the attic, Dot is attacked and they find out the owner died inside the house. As if that isn't enough, Jake is spotted with another woman. Clues are pointing to Sheryl as the next target, no matter who gets in the way.

Sound interesting? We've got an excerpt and an interview with Cassie, beneath the jump.

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Blurb Time!

2011-07-20T00:10:00.003-04:00

Morning folks! Crescendo edits are chugging along, and I took a break from them this afternoon to write a blurb for Jungle Heat. I still don't know when the story will be posted, but because I am a merciless tease, allow me to share some plotline with you for this story that is not yet available ;D

It takes a special kind of soldier to kill a man at a thousand meters. But for Captain Pete Miller, one-third of an elite Army Ranger sniper team, zeroing in is nothing compared to coming out. Pete’s been nursing a year-long crush on team member Mitchell Walsh, but even with DADT on its last legs, he continues to guard his heart and his unit’s cohesion.

After all, there’s no room for distraction in the field. Especially on their latest mission, a five-week recon through the ass end of the Colombian jungle. They have orders to assassinate the head of the Morales drug cartel. One bullet, quiet and clean. No firefight, no witnesses, no hint of American involvement.

But the mission goes FUBAR when Pete is captured by the enemy. Try though they might to persuade him, he refuses to give up his team. Luckily for Pete, his team refuses to give up on him either, and the mission he thought would cost him his life might instead buy him a whole new future with the man he loves.

* * * * *

That's it for today, folks. I'd say I'm sorry to tease you, but you and I both know that's not true ;-)

EDIT: In a stroke of rather perfect timing, the story has been posted.

Song of the Fallen Fanfiction Contest!

2011-07-18T00:34:00.000-04:00

My amazing publisher is outdoing their amazing selves with a very cool contest in celebration of the upcoming Crescendo release: they are holding a Song of the Fallen fanfiction contest, and the first prize is a 50-page manuscript critique!

I'm a huge fan of fanfiction. It's where I got my start in gay romance (Mulder/Krycek first, then Sheppard/McKay, and now Erik/Charles), and I'm absolutely tickled at the prospect of people coming to play in my Song of the Fallen sandbox. So, if the thought has ever crossed your mind, now's the time. You could write . . .

A prequel piece exploring Ayden's or Rik's life before they met. Maybe Rik as a child, or Ayden as a newly minted soldier. Maybe the day Ella was born, or the day Rik's father died, or Rik's first day at the academy at High Court (because, oh man, we all know boys' boarding schools are basically pornos waiting to happen ;-p).
A sequel piece speculating about what happens after the events of Counterpoint.
A piece exploring a missing scene in Counterpoint. Maybe one of those sex scenes that fades to black, or what really goes on between Ayden and Afi in that red cedar at the beginning of the story, or Ella's first meeting with Kona, or... well, you get the point.
A POV shift of an already-written scene. Ever think about how Rik's and Ayden's many arguments looked to Lord Lini? Or what Rik's groom was thinking when they were making love in the next room? Or maybe what it was like for Corporal Ekkja to see elven magic in action for the first time as Ayden fights in the Surge? Or what Rik felt and saw and thought while he was playing violin for Ayden that first time?

Anyway, that's just a few ideas. I'm sure you all can think of many more. Stories need not be erotic, of course, but hey, I'd never turn away smut ;D Feel free to get as dark or indulgent (did someone say hurt/comfort? :D) or even (*gasp*) as fluffy as you want.

There are three prizes up for grabs: a reader favorite, a publisher favorite (that includes me and my editors), and a door prize. The publisher favorite wins a 50-page critique of an original manuscript--and, of course, the possibility of getting said manuscript published at Storm Moon Press. Don't have an original manuscript? Don't worry; the SMP editors will happily offer constructive feedback on your fanfic offering, plus you'll win an autographed copy of Crescendo and a $20 gift certificate.

There are lots of other neat prizes up for grabs too. And my undying love, of course. Because let's face it--nothing's quite so humbling and flattering and just plain awesome as sitting back and relaxing while other people take your characters out to play.

All the rules are here, at the SMP forum. You do need to register for the forum to participate in the contest, but if you want to post your story anonymously, simply register under a pseudonym.

Want to discuss? Share your enthusiasm? Or maybe share a plot bunny that needs a good home? Just leave a comment below :-) And please--spread the word! Tweet it, Facebook it, blog it, mention it on Goodreads. Then come back here and tell me where you posted it, and I'll enter you in a drawing for a big fat box of awesome Song of the Fallen swag. If lots and lots of people spread the word, said box may even contain an autographed copy of Counterpoint.

Shiny New Cover Art for a Shiny New Free Story!

2011-07-15T09:39:00.000-04:00

Remember the M/M Romance Group's Hot Summer Days event I mentioned last week, full of free gay romance and erotica stories from some of your favorite authors in the genre?

My story's not up yet (but coming soon, I'm told), but I do have some shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiny new cover art for it from the brilliant LC Chase (who also did the cover art for Sublime), and it's so lovely I couldn't wait to share it with you all.

Oh sniper, you mil-dotted your way right to my heart. . . . Wait, that's bad.

Have a lovely weekend folks!

Mid-week Hotties :D

2011-07-13T07:11:00.000-04:00

Crescendo edits are due in about three weeks, and between that and the Seekrit Project (more on that soon!) I'm doing with Aleks Voinov and another lovely M/M writer, I'm a bit crunched for time. So of course that means picspam instead of a real blog post :D

I'm still on a total XMFC kick, so I bring you James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender being drop dead sexy, plus some fun animated gifs, beneath the jump.

Read more »

Guest Blog: Worldbuilding in Urban Fantasy: Quick and Dirty

2011-07-11T00:01:00.000-04:00

Morning all! Today we have author Amanda Arista in the house to talk about worldbuilding in the UF genre and her new book, Diaries of an Urban Panther. She's also here to give away a $25 Amazon or B&N gift certificate to one lucky commenter on her blog tour, so be sure to leave a comment (with email--more info on that below).

As always, let's begin with a blurb and cover art, and then I'll turn the floor over to Amanda for her insightful post on crafting worlds in Urban Fantasy and a hot little excerpt of her new novel.

Violet Jordan thought the fairy tales her mother wove were just a way to get Violet to sleep, not a way to prepare her for the apocalypse she is the key to preventing. When she becomes a midnight snack for werepanther Spencer Haverty, his infectious bite invokes the first element of her destiny. When Violet's budding instincts allow her to save a boy’s life, she realizes this new gig may come with perks: a slimmer figure, the attention of a handsome Guardian, and insights into her future embedded in her mother's stories. But as push comes to claws, can Violet make the fatal strike against the men threatening her new family, her new home and her first boyfriend in ages?

Coming soon: Book Two of the Diaries of an Urban Panther, Dec 2011

And now to Amanda, beneath the jump.

Read more »

A Heap of Free Gay Romance Stories with Hot Summer Days!

2011-07-08T05:01:00.002-04:00

Yep, it's that time of year again! Roughly 130 of your favorite M/M romance authors have gotten together via the Goodreads M/M Romance group to take requests from readers and write stories of "coming out in love, being out in love, and committing out in love." All in the spirit of the M/M Romance slogan: Don't Read In the Closet.

This is the second M/M Romance free reads project. You might remember the first from last December, when 25 authors got together to write stories for Stuff My Stocking (download it free at Goodreads or ARe).

This year, we have roughly five times the fun, but the setup was the same: Readers used both a photo and a related text prompt to make requests to the writing community at large, and writers beat and clawed and scratched at each other to snatch up their favorites. (I lost out on three perfect photo prompts before I finally landed the one I ended up loving and writing.)

Be sure to keep an eye on the Hot Summer Days thread all through July and August, where the mods will be posting twenty-thousand words' worth of new stories each and every day! Already-posted stories include reader favorites like Kim Dare and Jade Archer, and there are stories yet to come from AJ Llewellyn, KZ Snow, Aleks Voinov, Clare London, Amy Lane, Mark Alders, and over a hundred more! And, of course, me ;-)

Speaking of me, here's the photo prompt I picked:

I'm sure you'll be shocked--shocked!--to hear that when this photo went up, people actually came looking for me on Twitter to make sure I wouldn't miss it. Thank you to those folks--you know who you are :-D

And here's a little teaser of my story to come. I don't know when it's going up, so if you want to read the rest of it, you'll just have to check back in the Hot Summer Days thread and read through all those awesome free stories until mine comes up. A terrible hardship, I know. And no excuses about not belonging to Goodreads or the M/M Romance group--it's easy, fun, free, and as friendly as folks can possibly get.

But enough with the alliteration. Here's a page from Jungle Heat, below the jump.

Guest Blog: Breaking Mythology with Louisa Bacio

2011-07-07T03:26:00.000-04:00

Morning all! I know a Thursday post is unexpected, but I had so many wonderful guests to feature this week that the only way to bring them all to you was to post an extra day :-)

So today let's welcome Louisa Bacio to the blog. She's here chatting about her new M/M/F book, The Vampire, the Witch, & the Werewolf: A New Orleans Threesome, and she brought a three-page excerpt with her for you to, er, sink your fangs into. She's also giving away a free ebook copy to one lucky commenter, so be sure to say hi, and leave your email address so we can contact you if you win. (And if you haven't checked out yesterday's guest post yet, you'll definitely want to--there's a Kindle up for raffle!)

Before I turn the floor over to Louisa, just a quick reminder that today's the last day of the Where He Belongs release party blog tour, and I'll be at three places today, giving out prizes at all of them! For the complete list of blogs--many of which are still open for prize drawings--check out this post.

And now for The Vampire, the Witch, & the Werewolf with Louisa Bacio.

Haunted by paranormal abilities that she can't control, and plagued by nightmares about a demon that seeks her soul, Lily Anima travels to New Orleans in search of salvation.

In the French Quarter, Lily dives into the paranormal world and enlists the help of an unlikely couple: a vampire, Lawrence Justice, and a werewolf, Trevor Pack.

As the trio encounters ghosts, voodoo and unspeakable evil, will Trevor and Lawrence be able to help Lily turn her powers into a gift rather than a curse? And when Lily discovers that she needs to lose her virginity in order to embrace her powers and get the demon off her back, will the twosome be able to survive as a threesome?

Read the excerpt, beneath the jump.

Chat and WIN A KINDLE with Minette Meador!

2011-07-06T01:00:00.006-04:00

Morning folks! Today we have guest-blogger Minette Meador in to chat with us about worldbuilding in her new release, A Ghost of a Chance. She's here as part of an extensive blog tour, and at the end of it she's giving away a Kindle to one lucky commenter and a $100 Amazon Gift Certificate to a second commenter, so be sure to visit all her stops and say hello--each comment gets you an entry into the prize drawing.

As always, let's begin with the cover art and the blurb.

Keenan Swanson is your typical, everyday graphic designer. Well, except for the hundreds of pesky, prank-loving poltergeists that make his life interesting (in a Chinese curse sort of way). He finds his situation precarious yet manageable—until witty, smoking-hot coworker Isabella enters the scene and Keenan decides he wants her all for himself. With a horny succubus who has other ideas, a burly city cop determined to lock Keenan away, and an evil entity who’s hell-bent on using Keenan’s seed to create a living demon, the reluctant psychic realizes he just might not come out of this alive—or with heart intact.

Sound fun? Here's a little tease of an excerpt--and one that'll fit right in for readers of this blog ;-)

Keenan headed down Thirty-second Street, turned left onto Hawthorn, and ran like an antelope with a lion biting his tail.

When he hit the crowd outside Taps at full speed, he came to a crashing halt and sailed to the ground, taking down two brawny beer drinkers, their respective girlfriends, and an innocent table that was sitting there minding its own business. Four obviously filled pints of stout flew through the air and the contents rained down on the struggling quintet in a dark brown shower, soaking all of them. Two of the empty pints hit Keenan squarely on the back of the head, one after the other.

The tangled pile of human beings and beer began to disentangle itself, but Keenan’s head was spinning wildly. So wildly, in fact, that he didn’t feel himself roughly yanked to his feet and then off of them, or see the swollen fist appear out of thin air until it was too late. All he heard was a distant son of a bitch and the sound of meaty flesh striking cheekbone.

The sparklers that gleamed in front of his eyes reminded him of the Fourth of July on the coast. He found himself down on the ground again.

“…you stupid prick!” The words soaked into his stupor and he squinted up to see six-foot-six of angry male mountain, a pleading red head attached to the man’s arm.

Not that it would have stopped another blow, but Keenan forced his hands into the submissive position and tried to find his voice. “Oh, man…” he said to the mountain. “I’m really sorry. Are you all right?”

And now let's turn things over to Minette, beneath the jump.

Release Day!

2011-07-01T03:17:00.002-04:00

Yay, Where He Belongs is officially out today! It's up now on ARe and Amazon (but please consider buying it directly from the publisher if you're interested, as Amazon keeps 65% of the sale price :O !), and it's already gotten some lovely reviews: 4.75 stars at Reviews by Jessewave, 4 stars at Amara's Place, and 5 stars at Between the Covers. Does that mean I can say the critics are raving? ;-D

Anyway, it's just $1.99 and a great introduction to the Belonging universe, even if you haven't read Anchored. I'm popping into a bunch of blogs giving out free books and swag and talking about the Belonging 'verse and writing in general (I'm particularly amused by my stop at LC Chase's), so I hope you'll join me along the way. Don't forget to comment for a chance to win something at every stop!

In other news, I went to the Fantasy, Future, & Paranormal Gathering tonight at the RWA national convention. I was unable to attend the rest of the convention, but it was nice to jaunt into Manhattan and meet a whole bunch of new writers and editors, several of whom attended the Gathering in superhero costume (photos to come when I'm less exhausted). I also got to meet my writing buddy Kari Gregg in person for the first time tonight, which was most excellent. She and I met up with the electric Damon Suede after the Gathering and nursed drinks for almost three hours in a fabulous little restaurant staffed by gay male models (I shit you not). God, I love New York :D

And because it's apparently become A Thing I Do, let's wrap this up with your daily dose of Michael Fassbender, beneath the jump.

Read more »

It's Unofficial Release Day--Let's Have a Party!

2011-06-29T06:43:00.001-04:00

Yay! Today's the day everyone who pre-ordered Where He Belongs gets to download it--a full 48 hours before the official release date of July 1. (It's not too late to "pre-order," by the way; any orders placed today or tomorrow can be downloaded instantly and you'll still be entered in the nifty pre-order prize drawings.) I've downloaded my own copy onto my Kindle, and boy does it look snazzy. The folks over at Storm Moon Press did a gorgeous job.

To celebrate, I've started a little blog hop, visiting some of my favorite places and giving away free ebooks and swag. So far I've talked about "the prequel problem" at Kari Gregg's place (while Kari heinously insulted me, natch), and brought Daniel over to do a character interview at Amara's Place. And today I'll be at Well Read doing an interview with Jenre. What all three of these things have in common--aside, of course, from my winning personality and charm--is free stuff. Go, leave a comment on each post, and you'll be entered to win a copy of Anchored: Belonging (the precursor to Where He Belongs, although you don't need to have read Anchored to enjoy WHB) or some neat swag.

I'll be hopping around for the rest of the week giving stuff away too. You can find that schedule here.

And just because I haven't posted one of these in, oh, twelve hours (the horror!), let's end today's post with some Fassavoy, beneath the jump.

Read more »

Chat and Win with Lynda K. Scott

2011-06-27T13:31:00.000-04:00

Happy Monday, all! My guest today is a lovely speculative fiction author, Lynda K. Scott, here to dish on all things writing and romance. She's also giving away a signed paperback copy of her recent release, Heartstone:

Eric d'Ebrur is out of time. He must find the legendary Heartstone and fulfill the ancient Gar'Ja bond he shares with the Stonebearer. But when he finds her, he discovers that love can be more dangerous than the Gawan threat. Eric can defeat the mind-controlling Gawan but will it cost him the woman he loves?

After terrifying episodes of hypersensitivity, Keriam Norton thinks she's losing her mind. When handsome shapeshifter Eric d'Ebrur saves her from the monstrous Gawan, she's sure of it. But insane or not, she'll find the Heartstone and, if she's lucky, a love to last a lifetime.

Beneath the jump is an excerpt for Heartstone and a nice long chat with Lynda.

Vampires, Hocky, and Blood & Bondage with Elizabeth Jewell

2011-06-24T10:37:00.003-04:00

Greetings all! Today I'm welcoming Elizabeth Jewell to Fantasy Unbound to chat Vampires and a new flashfiction press. She'll also be giving away a free copy of her new book to one lucky commenter, so be sure to stop in and say hi.

As always, let's begin with a little blurb and cover for her new book, Blood and Bondage.

After decades of being “good” -- for vampires -- Alaric and his lover need more. When Seth brings home a pair of handcuffs, Alaric discovers he still needs it rough. Fortunately, so does his lover.

Sounds tasty, yeah? Let me turn the floor over to Elizabeth, who has some thoughts on vampires and an excerpt of Blood & Bondage beneath the jump.

Chat and Win with Adriana Kraft

2011-06-22T03:31:00.004-04:00

This is a month of firsts at Fantasy Unbound--last week we featured our first YA romance writer, and today we're featuring our first F/F romance writer, Adriana Kraft!

Adriana's here to talk all things writing with us, and also give away a free copy of her latest release to one lucky commenter. So, what's up for grabs? The Lady Wants More.

Janet Baxter keeps her post-divorce life neatly compartmentalized: Secure job, spacious Westchester County home, successful adult children, dependable community volunteer activities. Why is she drawn – for the first time ever – to attend her twenty-year college reunion in New York City?

Always a free spirit, Brenda Cassidy is comfortably bisexual and has no plans to ever settle down. But a fling? The reappearance of svelte, reserved Janet Baxter in Brenda’s life is nothing less than a gift, worthy of every enticement Brenda can conjure up. Can Brenda seduce Janet into an endless night of the lovemaking they enjoyed too briefly as college roommates? What if the lady wants more?

Excerpt

Brenda spun around to face Janet when they got to the far corner of the dance floor. She knew Janet would prefer to be in the corner rather than on the front edge where bar patrons could easily gawk at them. She, herself, preferred center stage but—she grinned at her partner—tonight she’d cater to Janet’s desires. She just wished she could get a better read on her former roommate’s desires. Did they include her, yet? There was no need to rush things now that they’d reconnected after all these years.

Brenda had already decided that Janet needed, once again, to break out of her shell and get on with her life. Of course she’d often been accused of making quick judgments, if not rash ones. But surely the universe hadn’t crossed their paths just so they could share a drink and swap life stories. While she wasn’t looking for a permanent relationship, whatever that was, she was always on the lookout for a relationship that might offer enough challenge and spice to keep her going for more than a night or two.

Brenda grinned at Janet. She knew for certain this tall dark haired women with gorgeous long legs could provide ample challenge and spice for some time. She held out her hands, interlaced her fingers with Janet’s and picked up the beat to the fast paced hip hop music. At arm’s length they swayed and stepped to the music. They circled each other.

Brenda filled her lungs. Her body throbbed with the music. Her brain clicked into hypersensitive mode—once again, she’d become the huntress. “Are you ready for me?”

Janet grinned and nodded. She dropped her hands, spun around and reached for Brenda again.

* * * * *

And now my interview with Adriana, beneath the jump.

Where He Belongs Release Party (w/Prizes, Natch) Coming Up!

2011-06-20T01:46:00.004-04:00

Happy Monday, folks! Where He Belongs will be releasing in just under two weeks, and I woke up today really feeling the excitement about that for the first time.

My gorgeous cover, let me show u it. Again, I know, but really, it's just that gorgeous :D (Click to embiggen for extra gorgeousness.)

I'll be doing a little mini release party for this, stopping at a few blogs/sites here and there over the next couple weeks. You can find me at:

June 24: Kari Gregg
June 28: Amara's Place, a.k.a. home of the Black Mamba :D
June 29: Well Read by Jenre
June 30: L.C. Chase
July 1: Taboo Indeed
July 2: Brita Addams
July 3: Marie Sexton
July 5 & 7: Reena Jacob's
July 7: Bryl Tyne
July 7: Amber Skyze

Hmm, maybe not so mini after all :-p Anyway, I'll be giving out a prize at every stop to one lucky commenter--some neat WHB swag, a free backlist book here and there--so be sure to visit all my lovely blog hosts. They're pretty awesome folks, so poke around their sites while you're there; you might discover a great many new authors to add to your TBR pile!

And now for the hard sell ;-) You can still pre-order Where He Belongs directly from the publisher for just $1.99 and get access to the book two full days before the official July 1 release date! Plus, each copy you pre-order gives you one entry into a raffle for some very cool prizes.

Okay, hard sell over. Let me make it up to you with some fan-service from McFassy. Because, let's face it, there's no such thing as too much of James McAvoy diving face-first into Michael Fassbender's lap.

"The End" FTMFW. And Free Stuff. Horray!

2011-06-16T23:57:00.001-04:00

I'm thrilled to announce that at roughly 4 o'clock this morning, I typed the final words on the first draft of Crescendo. No, they were not "The end." But they could have been, as Crescendo marks the end of the 215,000-word journey Ayden and Freyrik started in Counterpoint and just finished on my laptop last night.

Now there will be edits, of course. Lots and lots of edits. But for the next day or two, I'm giving myself a break. I've been laboring hard under deadline for months now, and I'm looking forward to doing nothing for the next couple days but sleeping and reading Charles/Erik X-Men slashfic :D

And celebrating, of course. But what's a party without gifts? So I've got one for you folks. Here it is. (Click to embiggen.)

You're looking at one shiny canvas Crescendo tote bag; a lined, magnetic-backed Crescendo note pad, some Crescendo sticky notes, and two large Crescendo 2012 calendar magnets (one with full front-and-back artwork, and one with fonting).

Next Friday, I will happily ship this to one lucky winner anywhere in the world. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment (with your email, please!) telling me which character in the Song of the Fallen series is your favorite and why. Are you an Ayden gal like me? A Rik gal like my Counterpoint editor? Or maybe you loved the ever-staid ~~Alfred~~ Lord Lini, or ~~the Disney princess~~ Ella, or even ~~the White Witch~~ Lady Kona. Whoever it was, whatever the reason, leave it in the comments and I'll draw one winner at random from among all entries that follow this simple rule.

If the competition is fierce or your answer is particularly inspired, I'll throw in some other goodies as well, both from some of my other titles and from Kari Gregg and Aleks Voinov. (Yes, the three of us are all so internet!married to each other that we give out each other's swag.)

Oh, and one more thing before I go. My ridiculously brilliant Counterpoint editor has started up a fun new writing prompt blog called Creative Writing Prompts to help feed and inspire the muse in us all. It's brand new, but some creative prompts are up already, so go check it out!

Chat and Win with Ella Jade!

2011-06-14T23:51:00.000-04:00

YA romance writer Ella Jade is at Fantasy Unbound today to tell us about--and give away a copy of--her very first novel, Jocelyn's Choice. This is also the very first young adult romance I've ever featured at Fantasy Unbound, and I'm very excited about that. Young love--isn't it sweet? :D

Anyway, as always, let's begin with cover art and a blurb. Beneath the jump is an interview and a nice long excerpt of Jocelyn's Choice for you all to sink your teeth into. And don't forget to leave a comment (with email address, please!) to enter into a drawing to win a free copy of Jocelyn's Choice, winner to be drawn on Sunday night.

Jocelyn Andrews, a shy, awkward, high school senior, has never even been on a date until she meets Alex Jordon, the older, more experienced brother of her best friend Evan. Jocelyn falls hard for the charming player and wants to explore all of the “firsts” that go along with young love. Alex has no problem showing her what she’s been missing.

Alex is captivated by young, innocent Jocelyn and to his own surprise, only has eyes for her. One night of careless passion leads to a life-altering dilemma. Alex must head back to Yale to finish an internship, having no idea what he’s left behind. Jocelyn must decide what to do on her own, forcing her to grow up much faster than she anticipated.

Reality sets in, decisions are made and Jocelyn has to live with her choices. Alex returns home to more than he ever bargained for. Young love has never been more complicated as they deal with a teen pregnancy, social barriers, and concerned family members. Life sometimes throws a curve ball, but the unexpected isn’t always bad.

And now let's turn the floor over to Ella, beneath the jump.

Slasharific!

2011-06-13T06:47:00.000-04:00

Yup, still wrapping up Crescendo. But I did take a brief break from writing this week to go see X-Men: First Class. And if you've seen it too, or if you hang with the M/M crowd on Twitter, then you know it probably should have been called "Charles and Erik Get a Room" :-p

So in honor of the slashiest not-actually-intended-to-be-gay movie of all time (heck, even James McAvoy thought Charles and Erik should "have sex and become married"), and given my ~~unhealthy~~ perfectly normal and understandable ~~desire to kidnap and do unspeakable things to~~ obsession with Michael Fassbender, I thought I'd engage in a little picspam of the finest order today. Oh, and also a fiction rec. If you want to read some smokin hot NSFW Charles/Erik action, you will find it here.

Photos beneath the jump.

Read more »

Charity Auction, Writerly Style

2011-06-11T18:46:00.002-04:00

We interrupt the usual Saturday quiet to bring this to your attention: Charity Auction to Save Kitty Kolya.

The auction has just gone up, but there are already some lovely things for offer, including three items from me (digital copies of my entire backlist, a swag bag, and an autographed copy of Counterpoint). If you're a writer, editor, artist, agent, or other creative-type folk who would like to donate something, you can help save a beloved pet's life with your generosity. If you're a reader or writer, you'll find many wonderful things to bid on over the coming days, and the dollars you spend on the bid items will help save a beloved pet's life.

One thing that's just continuously amazed me since I joined the romance community last summer is just how much of a community it is. One of our own is hurting, and needs help. Let's not disappoint.

Thank you.

**UPDATE** Offers are starting to come in, and we've got some great ones, including all three Infected books from Andrea Speed (Infected: Prey, Infected: Bloodlines, and the brand new Infected: Life after Death), any two digital titles from the Storm Moon Press store, any five backlist titles from Aleksandr Voinov, the entirety of the Sapphire Club series from Brita Adams, a beta read for your own work, and a tarot reading! Go--check it out!

Giveaway and Favorites Round-up

2011-06-10T11:29:00.000-04:00

Happy Friday, folks! Pollage indicated--much to my surprise, I must admit--that a surprisingly large percentage of you were interested in me continuing book reviews on this blog. Being as I know so many of the authors in the genre now, and am or will be published with so many of the houses, I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea of posting negative reviews (though it's quite possible that sometimes I just won't be able to help myself ;-p), but I'm happy to share some positive ones. I thought I'd do something a little bit different today, though, and point you all to recent releases from two of my favorite authors. Since I've been head-down finishing Crescendo, I've only had time to read one of these, but the one I haven't read yet is at the very top of my Looking Forward To It Like Whoa pile.

First, though, a quick contest notice: The lovely Amara is doing a giveaway for Counterpoint: Book I of Song of the Fallen over at Amara's Place. All you have to do to enter is comment, so go, give her some love. She deserves it :-D

And now a short round-up of new releases I can't wait to get my grubby hands on, beneath the jump.

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Chatting with S.R. Claridge - ATRS Guest Interview

2011-06-08T16:29:00.000-04:00

Let's all give a warm welcome to S.R. Claridge, who's here today to talk writing, happily ever afters, and her latest release, Tetterbaum's Truth.

As always, let's begin with a blurb and some lovely cover art--I'm a big fan of this one. We also have a video book trailer today :-)

Angel Martin plans to marry Tony and live happily ever after… until Tony disappears. Nursing a broken heart, she takes a job at Tetterbaum’s Pub, unaware it is the most prestigious Mafia hangout in Chicago. Through an unlikely turn of events, Angel finds herself in the middle of a revengeful scheme from a past she’s never known and a Mafia blackmail scandal that’s already left several dead.

Racing to find answers, she discovers her entire life has been one carefully orchestrated lie. No one is who they say they are and everyone has an agenda of their own.

The closer she gets to uncovering hidden evidence the more the crime families want her out of the way.

With her true identity now exposed, learning who she can trust becomes a matter of life and death and unraveling the past becomes her only hope for staying alive.

And now I'll turn the floor over to S.R., beneath the jump.

Eye Candy, Crescendo Style!

2011-06-06T11:57:00.000-04:00

Morning folks! I'm still working to wrap up the last few thousand words of Crescendo, so I'll be making this short and sweet (and also hot!). My new poll indicates you want to see sexy pictures on this blog (and if you haven't taken the poll yet, please do!), and your wish, dear readers, is my command :-D

So I thought I'd run today with some photos of the men I had in my head as I was writing Ayden and Freyrik. That's beneath the jump.

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It's Poll Time!

2011-06-03T00:01:00.000-04:00

Crescendo Sneak Peek #5: Jewish Mothers Are Everywhere ;-)

2011-06-01T05:42:00.001-04:00

I'm coming down to the home stretch on Crescendo (at Goodreads here). This time next week, I hope to be able to report to you all that I'm done with it. In the meanwhile, I'm very focused on writing and not so much on blogging, so I thought I'd share another short excerpt with you. As always, beware spoilers. And Jewish mothers, whom of course I love dearly (Hi, mom!), even if the Big Bad Elven Soldier thinks maybe his is worrying a little too much :-D

Six-hundred hot-off-the-keyboard words, beneath the jump.

Crescendo Cover Art and Super-sales!

2011-05-29T20:55:00.000-04:00

Happy Memorial Day, folks! I've got such exciting things to share with you today that I'm caving in and putting Monday's post up several hours early.

First, it wouldn't be Memorial Day without a sale, and All Romance Ebooks is holding a crazy one. They're offering a 50% rebate (in store credit) on all purchases made on their site this weekend. Yes--every single book. And unlike the 50% off sales at Fictionwise, publishers and authors will still receive their full royalties on the purchases you make, so it's sweet for us as well as for you. Looking for some shopping ideas? You could purchase Counterpoint and use your rebate to get Anchored for just $0.95 ;-)

To help you take extra advantage of the sale there this weekend, I've put Sublime on sale for $1.97, which is already 36% off. After the rebate, it'll cost you just $.99! That's a two-thirds discount off the regular cover price.

Speaking of covers, let me show you the one for Crescendo: Book II of Song of the Fallen. I am so excited about this gorgeous work of art I could squeal. Er, have squealed. May yet be squealing for some time ;-D

You can click to embiggen that, but if you really want to enjoy Nathie's artistic talents in full size, then click to embiggen this full-spread one instead:

Sexy, huh? I don't know about you, but I can't wait until October 7, when I get to hold this shiny new paperback in my hands :-D

Chat and Win with Savannah Chase

2011-05-27T06:36:00.001-04:00

EDIT: My apologies, folks--I forgot to mention that one lucky commenter will win a copy of Savannah's new book, Unwrap Me!

Let's all give a warm welcome this morning to award-winning erotic romance author Savannah Chase! She's here to answer some questions and share a steamy excerpt from her latest release. As always, let's begin with some cover art and a blurb.

Makayla has the perfect boyfriend and a fulfilling job. A hot, sinful threesome would make things perfect for this prim and proper librarian. An upcoming anniversary provides the ideal opportunity, if only she can gather the nerves to ask. Confessing could bring her ultimate pleasure, or end her relationship forever.

Is the risk of losing one man really worth a forbidden fantasy?

Sound fun? You can purchase Unwrap Me at Amazon.

And now I'll turn the floor over to Savannah for her interview and excerpt, beneath the jump.

Read more »

Give Me Your Worst and Win a Book!

2011-05-25T17:06:00.000-04:00

I have a missing guest again, so I'm pinch-hitting today, and it's short and sweet. I'm on the hunt for a spectacular insult. Funny, playful, not too cruel. And the real challenge? It can't be more than 129 characters long.

What's this for, you ask? Well, I'm coming up on my 8,000th tweet on Twitter. I've started a little tradition of using every thousandth tweet to insult my dear friend and writing buddy Kari Gregg. After seven 129-character insults, I'm running out of ideas. I need help. And quickly, too--I'm only 25 tweets away.

So, leave your worst (or your best!) in the comments. Nothing hateful. We're all adults here, so I don't think I need to mention the things that are Not Okay, but do please avoid the Not Okay things. In-jokes are fine, as gay erotic romance is a pretty small community and we all know each other's secrets here anyway.

Best insult gets a prize--winner's choice of an ebook from my backlist, OR a free copy of the upcoming Where He Belongs, OR some neat swag (t-shirt or tote bag or notebook or mug or the like, domestic winners only for the swag).

So have fun, and have at it!

Crescendo Sneak Peek #4

2011-05-23T00:58:00.000-04:00

Good morning, folks! Hope you all had a lovely weekend. Mine was spent mostly in the world of Crescendo, and I'm happy to report that for the first time, I can look into the not-too-distant future and see the end of this story. If I had to guess, I'd say I've got ten to fifteen thousand words left to write. I may actually get it done by the end of the month :-D

Since I'm still very much in head-down / ass-in-chair mode trying to finish this novel, I don't have too much spare time, so I thought I'd share with you all a short excerpt from a bit of Crescendo I wrote today. That's beneath the jump. But first, one quick bit of news:

I'm all giddy about having finally figured out how to send a newsletter! So, my first-ever newsletter went out on Friday night. If you'd like to get in on the fun, you can read it here (the link is at the bottom of the page), and subscribe to future ones if you'd like. There was a big fat exclusive excerpt from Break and Enter in there, and I gave away an autographed copy of Counterpoint to one lucky subscriber. I'll have an exclusive excerpt and a giveaway in the next newsletter too, so don't miss your chance to win!

And now today's Crescendo excerpt, beneath the jump. Also, a random hottie (SFW) for the heck of it. Because you can never have too many random hotties.

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A Sexy New Boy and a Story to Go w/Him!

2011-05-20T00:06:00.001-04:00

Happy Friday, folks! I've been tumbling way more than is probably strictly healthy lately, but in the process I came across this little gem of inspiration. (Which you may have seen, oh, eight or twelve times if you follow me on Twitter.) I named him Ben. I think you'll rather like him.

Look at him, just braced up against that wall, waiting for his whipping like a good boy. He's nervous, but he's not gonna run. And I'll tell you why beneath the jump.

Crescendo Sneak Peek #3

2011-05-18T16:16:00.000-04:00

My scheduled guest couldn't make it today, so I thought I'd share a bit of my WIP with you all. It's hitting the 70,000-word mark today and will hopefully be wrapped up nice and tidy by the end of the month (or my editor will make me scrub toilets, yikes!). I've basically been eating, sleeping. and breathing Crescendo these last several weeks, and I'm very excited about it lately. I hope you will be too :-)

Before I get to the excerpt, just a few quick bits of administrava:

It's not too late to enter the drawing for a free print copy of Sublime. Just pop on over to my last blog entry and leave a comment with your thoughts on the subject of pricing, which I discussed in the entry. I'll draw a winner on Friday. If you're having trouble leaving a comment (some people have mentioned this), just drop me an email or contact me via my website comment form instead.
Storm Moon Press has added one more awesome incentive to pre-order Where He Belongs: you'll get to download the book a full 48 hours before the official release date! Of course you'll still be entered in the drawing for all the cool prizes too, so go, order! It's only $1.99 :-)
Counterpoint is at last for sale as a Barnes and Noble Nook book, horray!
The Anchored trade paperback is currently on sale at Amazon for $12.75. I don't know how long that sale will last--the last one disappeared in less than a day--so if you're interested and have been waiting for the price to drop, now's the time.

And now what you came for, beneath the jump.

Slave Auction Recap w/Photos, and a Question/Contest for You All

2011-05-16T03:39:00.000-04:00

At last, the promised slave auction recap is here! But, I'd like to begin with a question and contest first, if you don't mind.

You may be aware that I self-published Sublime: Collected Shorts. It was a little experiment for me in managing a title and learning what goes in to putting things out on my own. Currently, I publish the paperback through Createspace, which is convenient and requires no up-front costs but makes the per-copy costs pretty high, hence the $6.95 sale price on the paperback now. That strikes me as a lot to ask people to spend on a 14K book they can get digitally for $2.99.

So, I've been looking at moving the print book to Lightning Source. I'd be able to sell the book a lot cheaper, at maybe $4.50 or $4.99. The problem with this is that up-front costs at Lightning Source are significant for a low-volume title, which the paperback will almost certainly be (though the ebook sells quite steadily, paperback sales in this genre tend to represent no more than 10% of total sales).

What's this got to do with you, you ask? Well, I'm wondering how the pricing would affect your buying habits. If you wanted Sublime, but didn't buy it in print at $6.95, was it because of the price or because you simply prefer ebooks? Would you buy it in print at $4.99? Would you be more likely to buy it at $4.50, or does that $.49 make no real difference? Would you buy it in print even if you already have it in ebook if it's affordable enough? What if you could get an autographed copy ordered directly through my website for the same $4.50 or $4.99, shipping included? Or does the autograph not terribly matter and, for convenience's sake, you'd just as soon order it through Amazon or B&N?

I know that's a lot of questions, but I'd be most grateful if you'd answer as many as you're able in the comments. This'll be a huge help to me and may well be the deciding factor in whether or not I can bring the print copy of Sublime to you at a more affordable price. Also, to say thank you for your input, I'll be giving away an autographed print copy of Sublime to one random commenter (be sure to leave your email address!).

But enough of that. You're here for the slave auction results, right? Beneath the jump, then, complete with photos.

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Porn Friday, & Pre-Order and Win with Where He Belongs!

2011-05-13T16:58:00.003-04:00

Yeah, so Blogger was broken half the day and now I'm exhausted and also feeling really pretty sideways-awful, so my witty, clever blog post about last weekend's sale of Aleks Voinov and Kari Gregg is getting put off once again. But once again, I shall pacify you with peen.

And also a quick cool bit of news. Where He Belongs is now available for pre-order at Storm Moon Press, and you can read a sample vignette from the collection there for free. WHB is only $1.99, and you definitely want to pick it up through the publisher because they're raffling off three cool prizes at random to folks who place an order through SMP before the July 1 release date:

A one-of-a-kind autographed poster of the hot hot cover art
A limited edition trade paperback of Where He Belongs (far less than 100 of these will be printed)
A $5 gift certificate to the Storm Moon Press store

EDIT: One more bonus for the pre-order folks: you get access to the book 48 hours before anyone else! So as long as you pre-order directly through Storm Moon Press, you can download your copy on June 29!

Awesome, huh? Each copy you pre-order for $1.99 gets you an entry into the raffle for the prizes. And of course on release day you'll be able to download it in the file format of your choice.

But enough about raffles and buying my books (you know you want to ;-p). You're here for the peen. So, some truly spectacular (and vaguely frightening) ones, beneath the jump. Super, super NSFW, obv. I'd say click to embiggen, but I'm pretty sure it's not necessary for these ;-p

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Chat and Win with Author Rachel Brimble!

2011-05-11T05:15:00.001-04:00

Morning folks! Today we have All Things Romantic Suspense author Rachel Brimble stopping by to chat, and she's giving away an autographed copy of her romantic comedy The Sharp Points of a Triangle to one lucky commenter!

But her latest release is Getting It Right this Time, and before I turn the floor over to Rachel, let's have a looksie at the cover and blurb.

She's back, but this time she’s a mother…intent on protecting her young.

Two years after her husband’s death, Kate Marshall returns home 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 Mark lost the girl of his dreams to his best friend, he finds no hardship in being single. Or so he thought.

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?

And now to the interview, beneath the jump.

Pic Spam! (NSFW)

2011-05-09T20:20:00.000-04:00

I know I owe you all a blog post on the results of the slave auction, but I don't have one right now, so I shall bribe you instead with peen. And also send you to slave!Kari's blog, where she talked about the results of her and Alek's sale.

Now then, on to your bribery, beneath the jump. Since slaves are on the brain, let's do that.

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Slave Auction Today - Win Aleksandr Voinov & Kari Gregg!

2011-05-07T01:47:00.000-04:00

Remember, folks, today from 3 to 4 PM on the Noble Romance Yahoo Chat, I'll be auctioning off author-slaves Aleksandr Voinov and Kari Gregg to the highest bidder(s). Come prepared with with descriptions and/or pictures of what you're willing to sell, beg, borrow, steal, or kidnap to get your hands on these two valuable prizes (well, okay, one valuable prize and Kari :-p).

All the deets are here: http://rachel-haimowitz.blogspot.com/2011/04/noble-launch-party-win-kari-gregg-and.html

Current high bid for Kari Gregg is a used minivan valued at $8,000 and offered by @_slarmstrong. Increases in increments of at least $100, please.

Current high bid for Aleksandr Vashtan is a kidnapped Paul Walker and Michael Fassbender, plus a real-life genetically engineered version of Daniel Halstrom, valued at $5 million. This one will be tough to beat, folks, but I'm sure you can get creative. Especially since the cops might come looking for Paul and Michael . . . Also I've always wanted a private island. And a yacht to take me there. Just sayin' . . .

Hope to see you all at the auction tomorrow, and remember, even if you don't win your own writer, there are lots of other prizes up for grabs!

The Three-Day Novella by Lori Toland

2011-05-06T02:27:00.003-04:00

Let's all give a warm welcome today to Lori Toland, who's hear to talk about the origins of Trust in Me, her new release with Loose Id. She'll also be giving out a copy of her book and a $25 gift certificate to one lucky commenter on her blog tour, so be sure to say hello (and remember to include your email address!) for your chance to win.

This cover's a sharp one, folks, so let's begin with that and a blurb.

Tristan Winter's day takes a turn for the worse when his best employee calls in sick. As the only other technical specialist able to step in on such short notice, he takes over what seems like a run of the mill job -- until he runs into his old crush from high school, Jamie Hunter. Ten years after a summer fling left him with a broken heart, Tristan now has a different view of life and love but this time around, will he push away the only man he ever cared about?

Genre: LGBT Contemporary
Length: Novella

Let's turn the floor over to Lori now, where she talks about being bitten by the book idea and getting it out on paper like a writer possessed. She's also included a quick little excerpt for your reading pleasure. All the fun beneath the jump.

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Running to Sarah Ballance, and Happy Birthday Aleksandr Voinov!

2011-05-04T02:38:00.002-04:00

Happy Wednesday, folks! I'm still bouncebouncebouncing like crazy over my hot new cover art for Where He Belongs (and the fact that I sold it, yay!) and the appearance of Anchored in paperback, and on top of everything else, it's my dear friend Aleksandr Voinov's birthday today, so it's been a damn great week. I didn't know Aleks on his last birthday, but now, quite frankly, it's hard to imagine life without him. I'm a better, more disciplined, more motivated writer for having him in my life, and he brings me more joy than I often know what to do with. Nearly every day we share laughter, frustrations, and writing. Heck, we're even sharing a story universe now. So, happy birthday, my dear, and may it be full of all the pleasures and surprises that make life so worth living. And also, I got you this:

In other fun news, the delightful author Sarah Ballance is here today as part of the All Things Romantic Suspense tour. And she brought her hot hot Run To You cover model with her. So, you know the routine by now. Blurb and cover, coming up.

Mattie James can't pinpoint exactly when she lost control of her life, but the moment she decided to take it back made the front page of the local paper. Desperate to dodge the fallout— and the tabloids—she jumps at the chance to spend an off-season week in a tiny resort community by the sea. Making the trip with her ex-lover is a complication she can live with; coming face to face with a dead woman is not.

The last thing Sheriff Wyatt Reed expected to find on the storm-ravaged beach was a beautiful blonde with a jealous sidekick, but one look at Mattie left him wanting more. Their first date takes an ominous turn when he gets the call that a woman was found murdered. With a killer on the loose and a troubling lack of suspects or motive, Wyatt has to put his feelings aside to focus on the case. But his vow not to become personally involved is shattered when he discovers Mattie's life is on the line, and this time the truth leaves her with a deadly choice . . . and nowhere to run.

Sound interesting? Run to You is available from Noble Romance Press and Amazon.com.

Speaking of interesting, Sarah talks about her boobs and backyard-streaking beneath the jump ;-)

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COVER ART!

2011-05-03T16:40:00.001-04:00

We interrupt this regularly scheduled no-blog day to share . . . *wipes drool off keyboard* . . . this.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Daniel Halstrom, star of Anchored: Belonging and the upcoming Where He Belongs, a short collection of vignettes releasing July 1 with Storm Moon Press. Click to embiggen; I cannot recommend that highly enough.

This is the cover of Where He Belongs, so the title and my name will be down in the lower left corner soon. Fortunately, my awesome awesome publisher over at Storm Moon gave me permission to post this now before the lettered version is complete :-D I'd have done it a few hours ago, actually, but I Couldn't. Stop. Staring. At. Daniel. Ah well--occupational hazard, I suppose.

If you're feeling like you recognize the style, that's because this was done by the amazing Nathie, the same artist who painted the cover for Counterpoint: Book I of Song of the Fallen, and who will be painting the cover for Crescendo: Book II of Song of the Fallen as well. I feel like the Luckiest Author in the Whole Universe right now.

Oh, and speaking of exciting news? Anchored finally released in print yesterday! :D :D :D You can find it at Amazon (hmm, temporarily sold out at time of posting) or Barnes & Noble (in stock). Sorry about the cover price--I have no control over that--but hopefully if you've been eagerly awaiting the paperback, you'll find it worth the cost. To make it a little less painful for you, if you order one, email me your receipt (metarachel at gmail dot com) and I'll send you some cool Anchored swag.

That's all for now, folks. If I can cease my endless bouncing off the walls, floor, and ceiling, I'll be back tomorrow with the author and lovely lady Sarah Ballance, who'll be discussing Run to You, also of ZOMGHAWT cover fame :D

Crescendo Has a Release Date . . . And a New Home!

2011-05-02T00:01:00.003-04:00

It's official, folks, an I'm very excited to be able to say that the Counterpoint sequel, Crescendo: Book II of Song of the Fallen, will release October 7 with Storm Moon Press.

Why not with Guiltless Pleasure, you ask? Unfortunately, GPP's owner is facing some difficult times right now, and the press has had to take a backseat to more important issues. I loved everything about my experience there and am deeply saddened by what's happened. I hope they'll re-open GPP's doors in the not-too-distant future and that I can rejoin them again when the time comes. (You can still read the first five chapters of Counterpoint on their website and purchase Counterpoint through them; they're simply closed to new submissions now.)

That being said, Storm Moon Press has rolled out the red carpet for me, and I'm most impressed by everything I've seen and heard there. They are professional, completely on the ball, and run by some of the nicest and most knowledgeable people you'll ever meet. They offer a beautiful package--they even use the same cover artist GPP used!--some of the best editing in the genre, some of the best royalty rates anywhere, and fair pricing for an upscale/boutique reader experience. They'll also be offering Crescendo for pre-order with some awesome raffle prizes (did someone say a Nook???), so be sure to keep your eyes peeled as release day approaches.

Until then, Happy Monday, my lovelies, and thank you for sharing my joy with me.

Noble Launch Party - Win Kari Gregg and Aleks Voinov (and free books and swag!)

2011-04-29T18:10:00.005-04:00

**Due to technical problems, Noble was forced to postpone the Launch Party until next Saturday, the 7th of May. Aleks, Kari, and I will be chatting from 3 to 4 PM eastern time on May 7. Apologies to all who'd blocked out time to bid for Aleks and Kari, but have no fear--I'll be selling them next week instead. Thank you! (If you've not yet read this post, read down to make sense of this :-p)**

Noble Romance is launching a new website this Sunday, and in celebration, they're holding a big release chat party with tons of prizes. Myself, Kari Gregg, and Aleksandr Voinov will be hosting the chat from 3 to 5 PM eastern time, right here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NobleRomancePublishing/. Signing up is easy, and I hope you'll join us.

You see, life's pretty entertaining when the three of us get together, and this Sunday will be extra special. Since we've all written books with slaves--Kari's Spoils of War, my Anchored: Belonging, and Aleks's . . . well, pretty much everything he's ever written--we decided to run with that and hold a little slave auction of our own. Since I'm the "master" of the Belonging universe, I get to be the auctioneer.

Aleks being amazing and talented and all that jazz is the prize of the weekend, and he won't go cheap, so come prepared to list (and show photos of) what you're willing to sell, beg, borrow, or steal to get your hands on him. He's guaranteed to produce at least 150,000 words a year, and I hear he makes a damn fine bed-warmer--top or bottom or both ;-) Current bid for Aleks as of the time of this posting is a house, 3 acres in the Smoky Mountains, 1 dog, 9 chickens, and 2 pre-owned children.

Kari being the GIANT PAIN THE ASS that she is will be going for bargain-basement pricing. Someone, please, take her off my hands. Current bid is a beat-up truck, valued at $8,000. This is at least $7,900 more than I thought she'd go for, but, meh, I guess it's still a bargain?

If you'd like to place a bid before the weekend, hop onto Twitter and check out the #slave4sale hashtag. Bids should be sent to me @rachelhaimowitz, hashtag included; or you can leave a bid right here in the comments (bids with links to photos included will carry more weight). But Kari and Aleks can't be won in absentia, so be sure to join us this Sunday, May 1, from 3 to 5 PM eastern at the Noble Yahoo Loop. There will be awesome swag bags for the first 25 participants, discount codes for everyone, and lots of cool Noble swag (t-shirts, mouse pad, tote bag, etc) being raffled at random. And free books too! Aleks's winner will get a print copy of one of his Noble books, and his runner up will get an ebook copy. Kari's winner will get a print copy of Spoils of War, and her runner up will get an ebook copy. And I'll be giving a print and an ebook copy of Anchored: Belonging to the two bidders who make me laugh the hardest.

Once the auctions end, some of our characters will be making an appearance to chat with you an answer your questions. Expect to see Mitch from Lovely Wicked, Daniel and Carl from Anchored, William of Kent from Deliverance, and maybe even Eli from Spoils of War.

Be sure to join in all the fun, and who knows--you might just walk out with your own shiny new writer!

The Meaning of Home (and a Free Book!) with Mysti Parker

2011-04-27T16:02:00.000-04:00

Happy Wednesday, all! I've got a fun treat for you today--Mysti Parker is in the house, talking about, well, what it means to be in the house ;-) Or home, rather, and how the meaning and perception of home shaped the characters in her new release, A Ranger's Tale.

I'm a fan of this cover, so let's begin with that and a blurb.

In the fantasy world of Tallenmere, the high elf Caliphany Aranea, nearly a century old, has never been allowed to travel farther than a few miles out of the capital city of Leogard. Her father, Sirius, leads the Mage Academy, and after losing his only son, he expects Caliphany to take his place one day. The trouble is, she doesn't want to study magic and doubts she'll ever be as good a wizard as her father. She dreams of leaving Leogard to explore the world and strike out on her own--lofty goals for Sirius' daughter, who also happens to be King Leopold's niece.

When two brutes at Leogard Harbor attempt to kidnap her while she dreams of faraway lands, half-elf ship captain and ranger, Galadin Trudeaux, comes to her rescue. From their first chance encounter, to the finale, where Caliphany must decide where her heart truly lies, she and Galadin will face more adventure, more love, more heartache, than they ever thought possible. Through it all, they discover the
power of forgiveness and of a love that stands the test of time.

And now I'll turn the floor over to Mysti, beneath the jump. She's got a great guest post for you, and an excerpt from her new book, too. If the excerpt appeals--and I suspect it will--be sure to leave a comment; Mysti's giving away one free PDF copy of A Ranger's Tale to a lucky commenter!

Master Class: BDSM Sneak Peek

2011-04-24T23:41:00.002-04:00

Happy Monday, all! I'm totally bouncy today because I've just finished edits on Master Class, a contemporary M/M BDSM novella(ette) I wrote a while back and subbed to Carina Press. Master Class is the story of how Devon ("Sir") and Nicky--the stars of Sublime: Collected Shorts--first meet and start to fall for each other. And it is smokin' hot.

The headless torsos of Sir (back) and Nicky (front).

Alas, Carina was looking for romance with erotic elements, and Master Class is very much erotica with romantic elements, so in the end, despite their brilliant editorial feedback, they just weren't the right fit for this story. When I realized that, I put Master Class away for a while to focus on Crescendo, figuring I'd decide what to do with it later, but the BDSM bug bit me earlier this week and demanded I decide what to do with it right now. And when the muse calls, you damn well better listen.

So . . . I just wrapped up edits tonight, and I think I've decided where I'll be submitting it. The story is definitely better than it was last week, and it's also about a thousand words longer, though still just a quick tasty bite at 16,400 words (about 50 pages). Hopefully I'll have good news for you all soon. In the meanwhile, here's a sneak peek of Master Class, beneath the jump. It is definitely on the NSFW side. And don't be too alarmed by Devon's, er, vigor--Nicky is the sluttiest of pain sluts I've ever met :-)

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Easter Bonus Post

2011-04-24T14:57:00.002-04:00

Happy Easter to all my goyim friends and readers! :D Here, have the cutest bunny I've ever seen, beneath the jump.

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It's Freitag, Let's Have Some Porn and Kindle Books! (NSFW)

2011-04-22T12:00:00.000-04:00

This is my last day of vacation, so you get more porn. Before we jump to some NSFW hotties, I'm excited to announce the opening of the German Kindle store, where Counterpoint, Anchored, and Sublime are all for sale.

But enough with business. On to the boisecks, yeah? In the spirit of inclusion (Allo, meine neue Deutsche freunde!), lets do threesomes and moresomes :D As always, click to embiggen.

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