Congratulations to Sharon Ashwood for her 2011 RWA RITA: UNCHAINED, the third book in her Dark Forgotten series, won for Best Paranormal Romance. Yay, Sharon!
Susan Fox (who also writes as Susan Lyons) is one of the best contemporary romance writers I’ve ever read, and I’m so pleased to be able to host a guest blog for her at S&S! We’re celebrating the release of Yours, Unexpectedly, so check out the contest at the end of this post!
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Thanks to Sharon Ashwood and the rest of the gang at Silk and Shadows for inviting me here. What a great way to start 2012!
When an old year fades away and a new one begins, I get reflective. What did I accomplish? What did I learn? How will I make the next year a better one?
Well, one thing I accomplished in 2011 was to finish my second 4-book series: Wild Ride to Love (Kensington Brava). It seems like a very long time ago that I first had the notion of writing a sexy “planes, trains, and automobiles” anthology of 3 novellas about single older sisters who come home from far-flung places for their baby sister’s wedding and find sexy romances along the way.
Lesson: Listen to the muse – or instinct, or whatever you want to call it – when she speaks! Don’t discard any ideas, even if you’re not ready to use them now.
I pitched the idea for that anthology to my Kensington editor and somehow she got the notion I was talking about a 4-book series. Huh?
Lesson: Don’t turn down a good opportunity! When asked if you can do something, say yes!!
So I started on the series. In the first book, Sex Drive, oldest sister Theresa, the serious professor, comes home by planes from Australia – and her sexy seatmate, Aussie thriller writer Damien, shows her some in-flight entertainment that just might turn into true love.
In book 2, Love, Unexpectedly, second sister Kat, the girl with the worst luck in love, comes home by trains from Montreal – and her best friend Nav plays “stranger on the train” and gets her to view him in a whole new, sexy and romantic, light.
In book 3, His, Unexpectedly, third sister Jenna, the free spirit, comes home from Santa Cruz by automobiles – and hitches a ride from hot marine biologist Mark, who shows her that some things in life – and some people – are worthy of commitment.
So far, so good. But what about book 4? I’d initially conceived of baby sister Merilee as the one who was lucky in love, having fallen for Matt in grade 2 and been with him since then. Very sweet and romantic, but where’s the tension that makes for a compelling book?
Lesson: Be flexible and creative. You can always find a good idea if you hunt hard enough.
The runaway bride!! But with a twist. That’s what I came up with.
We authors do like to torture our characters. So, as Merilee watches her sisters arrive home with exciting new romances, she realizes that her own relationship is sadly lacking in excitement and passion. Full of doubt, she calls off the wedding and she and Matt break up. Yes, I split up my young lovers.
And now, here’s the twist. When Merilee decides to go on the honeymoon Mexican Riviera cruise alone, to get some distance and perspective, she discovers Matt has the same idea. So there they are, reluctant roommates, aboard a luxury ship bound for Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas. And now what?
Lesson: An author is bound to put a large chunk of herself into her books. Or at least, if we do, it tends to make our books deeper, more insightful, and more emotional.
I remember what it was like to be 21. You think you’re all grown up, but nope, that’s not true. Actually, I believe you’re never “all grown up,” in the sense that you have nothing left to learn. And to me, M&M’s problems hinged around the concept of growing up.
They’d been best friends, then boyfriend-girlfriend, then lovers, over the course of 14 years. They thought they knew themselves and each other inside out. But how dull is that? People need to change, to explore new ideas and activities, to – yes, you know it’s coming – to keep growing.
And that’s the journey I sent M&M on, as they go on their cruise as individuals rather than a bonded-at-the-hip couple. As they give themselves make-overs, play pirate and flapper, explore Mexican towns, go zip-lining, and experiment with their sexuality.
It’s time for each of them to find out who they really are and to become adults. There are lots of surprises in store for them as they discover whether growing up means growing apart or growing together in a way that’s deeper, more exciting, and more passionate. A way that will last a lifetime.
Lesson: Okay, this one I knew all along. I write romance. There will be a happy ending!!
Often, I write about strangers becoming lovers, and Yours, Unexpectedly presented a different kind of challenge, and a different romantic journey.
Lesson: For me, every good romance shares two common elements. One is, of course, getting to know your lover – whether they’re someone you’ve just met or someone you’ve been with, perhaps even been married to, for a decade or more. The other is getting to know yourself better – to stretch and learn and grow and become a better person, a person who will fight for love, and who deserves love.
If I bear those elements in mind as I write, it helps me set the challenges my heroine and hero need to meet, and to make sure their journey is an emotional and satisfying one. As I hope M&M’s is.
In a Top Pick review at The Romance Reviews, Shana Rea said: “Yours, Unexpectedly is both wild and sweet. It tugs at the heartstrings and delivers a powerful message or two. It is the perfect ending to the exciting Wild Ride to Love series that has kept me captivated and engrossed… Matt and Merilee’s story is one that will stay with me for some time to come. Fluid writing, absolutely unforgettable characters, Yours, Unexpectedly will touch you and provoke you to think about love and life. And like Matt, this book – the entire series – is a keeper!”
You can find an excerpt, behind-the-scenes notes, a discussion guide, other review quotes, and recipes (chocolate mousse, anyone?) at my website.
And now, looking ahead to 2012, I intend to take all those lessons I’ve learned – and my belief that we all need to keep growing – and challenge myself to create new love stories that resonate emotionally with my readers.
All the best for 2012 to all of you!
I’d love to hear your thoughts on my book, the concept of the series, lessons you’ve learned in the past year, or anything else you’d like to talk about. I’m giving an autographed copy of Yours, Unexpectedly to someone who comments.
Currently working on: A new story! Mood: Follow that plot bunny!
Did everybody have a fun holiday? Here are my highlights:
I totally screwed up the frosting for my Christmas Eve party cupcakes. I’d decided to use a sour cream frosting for my blackout cupcakes but when I followed the glossary at the back to page 462 and started making the recipe… It was the WRONG recipe. It was a fluffy chocolate frosting. The actual sour cream frosting was on page 463. Catastrophe! That might not seem like the worst thing in the world… Unless it’s 2:30 pm Christmas Eve Day and the party starts in mere hours. You CANNOT go to the grocery store on Christmas Eve Day, as you all know.
So I totally winged it. (Wung it?) I kept the ingredients I’d already mixed together and just added sour cream. And it totally worked.
Christmas Lesson Learned: You can’t go wrong with pretty much any proportions of cocoa, whipping cream, sour cream and vanilla.
Christmas Corollary: Double check the name of the recipe before you start mixing ingredients.
After thankfully not ruining the Christmas Eve party cupcakes, I spent Christmas Day with my XY and dog. Ah, bliss. Pictured right are the gifts he got me. Which apparently have been wrapped by monkeys. Monkeys with access to all my Christmas ribbons and yet somehow have managed to NOT use the Christmas wrapping paper but birthday wrapping paper instead. Which would be fine if Baby Jesus was getting this particular present, since it’s his birthday, but this was my present.
Happily, one of the presents was a double boiler so I can more easily melt chocolate like in the first picture.
Christmas Lesson Learned: Bows and ribbons and wrapping paper — or the lack and/or incompetent wielding thereof — can’t hide the love.
Christmas Corollary: Men require inordinate amounts of tape.
I eat a lot of chocolate at Christmas, as is obvious from my posts, but not so voraciously as Christmas seems to eat my time. The prep, celebration and cleanup always leaves me blinking in surprised confusion at the end of the month. But life continues and I am finally back at my computer, writing words. Phew.
Christmas Lesson Learned: Don’t forget to enjoy the days. They are particularly short in December.
Christmas Corollary: The dog still needs to be walked. But now I’ll be doing it in boots that don’t have holes!
So Christmas is over, but I have one more gift to give away. Want an Advanced Reading Copy of DARKNESS UNDONE? Leave a comment with your Christmas Lesson Learned — or just say hey on any post this week — and you’ll be entered for a chance to win a copy of Sid and Alyce’s story:
Coming March 2012
The war between good and evil has raged for millennia,
and as a powerful new enemy ascends, the Marked Souls
are pushed to the ragged edge…
Sidney Westerbrook has always studied darkness and damnation from a sensible distance. Now, to earn his place as a league Bookkeeper, he must discover why Chicago is such a battleground of soul-linked warriors. But the research becomes personal when he finds himself over his head and under attack — and at the mercy of a waif with demon-lit eyes and a deep yearning in her heart.
Alyce Carver has been alone longer than she can remember, battered by the living nightmares that haunt her city. Cornered by yet another gang of demons, she unwittingly joins forces with a handsome scholar who can salvage her past, and she in turn may be the key to his investigations. But she won’t let him go until he shows her everything she’s been missing.
What begins as an experiment in possession becomes a trial by desire so powerful it threatens both their lives, even as it binds their souls.
[Note from Jessa: Today we have Genie Gabriel with us. Her new Rock'n'Romance series isn't technically paranormal (although there a reference to angels if you visit her website) she explores some of the dark places where shadows AND silk are found.]
Domestic violence, abusive childhoods, the murder of a spouse, the loss of a child–all these experiences can cast long shadows on the soul. Toss emotional demons into this mix–of guilt, of shame, of thinking you didn’t do enough or should have been able to somehow stop this from happening–and you come up with characters as tortured as those who come toenail to talon with fantasy beasts.
I blame twenty years of exposure to social workers for the trauma, drama, and hope in my stories. I worked at a social services agency when the shrouds of secrecy around the ugly realities of humanity were being torn down. Then came the process of guiding damaged young souls to become successful, healthy adults.
Yes, I know there are people who shouldn’t be social workers, and I’ve seen cases where the rebuilding stage didn’t work out so well. However, I’ve also seen incredibly committed, caring and courageous social workers who have the patience and intestinal fortitude to bring together a team to shape miracles from the muck of the worst of abuse.
I was amazed, a bit disbelieving, and fascinated. And I had an endless supply of ideas for my stories, starting with my Rock’n'Romance trilogy–just re-issued from Rogue Phoenix Press.
THE ROCK STAR grew up without much direction or love. In his own words, “My old man took off when I was five or six, and not long after that my mother had a nervous breakdown. Then I bounced in and out of foster homes. In my teens, I discovered music…” and the heady adoration of fans. Then came the crash of discovering a daughter with a terminal illness, whose death plunged him into a dark abyss of grief.
The second book of the series begins with a child psychiatrist helping kids heal from abuse, who becomes caught in the viciously ironic situation of domestic violence. A terrified flight to save her children lands her under the protection of THE BODYGUARD, ripping open Mitch’s emotional wounds… “[Julia] turned to say something to the child, revealing the jagged purple bruise smeared across the ivory skin of her cheek. Memories plowed into Mitch so hard his knees almost buckled. The sound of shots. A scream. A frantic ride in the ambulance and a flat line on the heart monitor. Squeezing his eyes closed, Mitch gulped a deep draught of air, battling the memories as valiantly as [his wife] had once fought to save women battered by those who claimed to love them…”
Zach started out as the antagonist in the first book of the Rock’n'Romance series, but partially redeemed himself. In the third book of the trilogy, THE LEADER OF THE BAND, he faces the rest of his journey to redemption and to winning the woman he has loved since they were both teenagers. However, they have been dancing around each other for so long with excuses why their lives won’t mesh, it takes a life-or-death situation to help them see the truth…”Time ceased to exist as Zach helplessly watched Lauren crumple on the porch. Gravity sucked at his feet, trying to hold him in place while he ran as fast as he could. Ka-thump, ka-thump, ka-thump. His heart thundered in his ears, terror oozing through his body like the blood seeping down Lauren’s face.”
Lest you think my stories sound totally sadistic, please know I sprinkle touches of humor and hope among the angst while my characters struggle toward happily-ever-after endings.
The heroine in THE ROCK STAR has a dog who makes her coffee in the morning, and a cadre of young music therapy patients who fill the walls of her house with drawings of their dreams. The twins in THE BODYGUARD firmly believe in angels–in fact, they think Mitch is the answer to their wish for an angel for their mom. And THE LEADER OF THE BAND, Zach, has outfitted a “Chamber of Love” in his house to exude a playboy image, complete with heart-shaped, vibrating bed.
Overcoming shadows on the soul with courage, determination, foot-dragging, humor–there are many paths to a brighter future. I love exploring these paths in my stories and, beginning in March 2012, my new LEGACY series will introduce a family of eight adopted siblings who make their own journeys. As they uncover secrets that lead to the truth that killed their adoptive father, the action, romance and family drama heat up.
Thank you so much to the ladies of Silk and Shadows for giving me a chance to talk about the stories I love to write!
Who is your favorite rock star? Leave a comment
for a chance to win a free ebook from Rogue Phoenix Press!
To learn more about Genie Gabriel, visit her website or the Rock and Romance page: For years I’ve been fascinated by the puzzle of why some people collapse under life’s traumas and others emerge triumphantly stronger. These triumphs of the human spirit over the ugliest of adversities became the basis for my stories. Yet my dramatic stories have always contained touches of humor, and sometimes I have great fun writing romantic comedy novellas. However, in all my stories, my passion for writing romance is an outlet for the powerful messages that people can overcome great difficulties, and true love can turn life’s heartaches into happily ever after.
Currently working on: Revising sci fi novella Mood: Spacey!
The idea of demonic possession freaks me out. I know that’s kind of strange, considering my Marked Souls series is based on my characters being possessed by demons. But I write romance, not horror, so my demons learn their lessons — thanks to true love — and everyone/thing lives happily ever after*, I promise.
I’ve decided I can’t watch American Horror Story, the new FX series about an evil house, because there isn’t the promise of goodness and light winning out anytime soon. (‘Cuz then the series would be over.) I need my horror in manageable doses. I have to read Dean Koontz only when I have a full day to read the whole book in one sitting because I have to get to the ending where evil loses and goodness overcomes.
I don’t know if demons are real or if evil is “just” another angle of humanity’s many-faceted expression, but as my dad once told me as he handed me money to put in a Buddhist prayer jar, “It’s good to cover your bases.”
Most people know that pumpkins — and in older days, turnips — carved into scary faces were meant to ward off evil that was able to more easily move around our world at this season. Pictured is our blue hubbard squash, carved earlier this year. Stars are often used as a symbol of protection and good luck.
Other instances of apotropaic magic (apotrope being Greek for turn away or avert) include charm bracelets, the gargoyles on the peaks of buildings, painted eyes, and scattering salt.
My personal favorites, though, are old horseshoes, mirrors, and hag-stones — river pebbles with natural holes worn through them. I picked up almost a dozen new hag-stones walking at Ruby Beach in Washington earlier this month, so I have extra wards for this Halloween. What are you using to keep the ghosts and goblins away? (Besides turning off your porch light and scattering empty candy wrappers in the driveway?)
For all the warding, though, it IS Halloween, and while I am freaked out by wandering unrepentant demons, I don’t mind a good evil movie (that ends in 2-ish hours with me rushing out of the theater on a sugar high and preferably with at least ONE of the characters alive). I don’t know how many characters survive in the upcoming movie The Devil Inside, but the preview certain freaked me out.
Wishing you a safe, sugary, as-many-scares-as-you-like Halloween!
Currently working on: Page proofs for DARKNESS UNDONE! Mood: Focused
Putting together a book for your reading pleasure seems to take forever. After writing it comes the rewriting and then revisions, then more revisions, then line edits and copy edits. In between, there are cover conferences and back cover copy proofs, and finally* — finally! — page proofs which is the writer’s last chance to tweak the words. That’s where I am now on the fourth Marked Souls novel, DARKNESS UNDONE, which means the story is now in its almost final form — finally!*
So here is the cover — finally!* — of DARKNESS UNDONE, a novel of the Marked Souls.
The war between good and evil has raged for millennia, and as a powerful new enemy ascends, the Marked Souls are pushed to the ragged edge…
Sidney Westerbrook has always studied darkness and damnation from a sensible distance. Now, to earn his place as a league Bookkeeper, he must discover why Chicago is such a battleground of soul-linked warriors. But the research becomes personal when he finds himself over his head and under attack — and at the mercy of a waif with demon-lit eyes and a deep yearning in her heart.
Alyce Carver has been alone longer than she can remember, battered by the living nightmares that haunt her city. Cornered by yet another gang of demons, she unwittingly joins forces with a handsome scholar who can salvage her past, and she in turn may be the key to his investigations. But she won’t let him go until he shows her everything she’s been missing.
What begins as an experiment in possession becomes a trial by desire so powerful it threatens both their lives, even as it binds their souls.
I do, however, have an actual cover flat, which is a printed version of the book jacket. If you’re interested in such things, leave a comment on this post and I’ll have random.org draw a winner for a giveaway next week.
So, the other day…my ten year old began asking me prolific questions. The conversation went something like this…
Daughter (ten years old and in her “I’m bored” mode as usual): Mom, why do you write about paranormal stuff?
Mom: Well, it is a very popular genre right now.
Daughter: So, you think if you write paranormal that you’ll get big sales?
Mom: That would be great! But that’s not the only reason WHY I write it.
Daughter: Why do you write it then?
Mom: I like the idea of being able to create characters who have supernatural powers and I enjoy the mythology and fantasy of it all.
Daughter (twirls her hair, staring out the window): But you didn’t invent demons.
Mom: No, of course not but I invented the ones in my book like this vampromancer demon who is part vampire and part necromancer.
Daughter (scrunches up her nose at me): But vampires aren’t real. Demons are real.
Mom (suddenly feeling inadequate as to how to respond to the too smart 10-year-old): Yes, well, I write fiction and so my characters aren’t necessarily based on the real study of demonology.
Mom (feeling smart with her wise answer).
Daughter: Hmmm…well can you name any real demons?
Mom (trying to wash dishes and break up battle between a 3 year old and a 1 year old that is currently brewing nearby): Uh, well…let’s see…
Daughter: Because we studied about demons in Bible class.
Mom: Oh, good. I’m getting my money’s worth out of that school.
Daughter (rolling eyes at Mom): I’m serious. Demons are real. Vampires are not demons.
Mom (deep sigh): Let’s talk about this more later. I can’t really concentrate on this discussion with your brother and sister screaming and my hands in the dishwater.
Daughter (shrugs): Okay, well anytime you want to learn about REAL demons…you know where to find me.
Mom (smiles)
How did these kids get to be so smart at such a young age? I mean, when I was 10 years old (I struggle to remember the time) I was into those little pencils that had the removable lead pieces that you pushed down from the top of the pencil to replace it with a freshly sharpened piece. Then you put the used piece back through the top to advance the next nub of lead downward. Kind of like a mechanical pencil but I think they were called “push pencils”. Anyone remember those? The ones I had were the kind where the pencils themselves were also scented with a fruity scent.
That was my 5th grade obsession. That and the new bad (very bad) permanent that my mother (who was a cosmetology student at the time) gave me. I wanted to look like Molly Ringwald and came out looking like…well…most definitely NOT Molly Ringwald.
I was also into this nifty little machine named Atari that my Dad brought home for us. It was the first in real video games and I was determined to master the game “Pong” before all the other kids in my neighborhood.
I most definitely was NOT thinking about demonology or the study thereof. So, are our kids smarter than us? There’s a show dedicated to just that theory (Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?) and despite the fact that my sleep deprived brain couldn’t focus in on my daughter’s impromptu discussion of demons—I’m still the boss in this house. Or, am I?
In Courting Demons, Paisley thinks she’s the boss too. She’s the mother of two children, a much more powerful witch than she realizes, and now the judge of all demons in the Underworld. But really, we may all have something to learn from our kids.
What is something you’ve been taught by your kid? Or, better yet, what were you “into” in the 5th grade?
Thanks for hosting me today at Silk & Shadows. Hope everyone will chime in with their own lessons learned.
Giveaway for the day:
Leave a question or comment to be entered to win today’s prize: A Vintage Push Pencil and an e-book copy of Courting Demons!
Then, enter to win my book tour Grand Prize Kindle by following me on tour and e-mailing me the answers to each question of the day at the end of tour. The more questions you answer, the more entries you gain.
Question of the Day:
To whom is my book Courting Demons dedicated?
Details on how to enter to win the GRAND PRIZE Kindle at the end of my “Dark Days of Demons Tour” located here.
* * *
Paisley Barton was already having a bad day before she turned her husband into a rat.
First, she was fired by her boss and then came home to find hubby in the shower with a naked blonde chick. They say that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned but this break-up may just unleash hell on Earth when Paisley casts a spell of vengeance against her philandering husband.
After her spell casting inadvertently opens a portal between dimensions, Paisley finds her family home transformed into a nightly courtroom for settling disputes between demons of the underworld and she’s the judge! If that’s not enough, she’s got to deal with a charming, ancient demon named Camden who wants to be her personal bodyguard while trying to explain her husband’s sudden, mysterious disappearance to sexy police Detective Dalton Briggs.
But Paisley will show them all that an everyday working mom is better equipped than most to deal with the mystical mayhem…and with a tempting demon hottie and a flirtatious young detective vying for her affection, she soon learns that being single again isn’t so bad after all.
“When a wronged wife turns her cheating husband into a rat, you know you have to keep reading! Kerri Nelson offers up a lot of fun and wild magic in Courting Demons!” –Bestselling author, Linda Wisdom, Demons are a Girl’s Best Friend
Kerri Nelson discovered her love of writing at an early age and soon became a columnist for her local newspaper winning the Outstanding Young Journalist of the Year Award for her efforts.
After a fifteen year career in the legal field, Kerri fulfilled her lifelong dream of publication and is now an award winning multi-published author of nearly every genre under the sun (and moon) and also writes young adult fiction under the penname K.G. Summers.
A true southern belle, she comes complete with a dashing southern gentleman and three adorable children for whom she often bakes many homemade treats.
Kerri is an active member of Sisters in Crime and Romance Writers of America as well as numerous chapters
including Futuristic Fantasy & Paranormal Writers and her Presidency of Celtic Hearts Romance Writers.
Currently working on: Sorting through my TBR mountain Mood: Earthquaky
With all the traveling I did this summer, I didn’t get as much reading done as I wanted to. Of course, I NEVER get as much reading done as I want to. My once-upon-a-time-reasonable To Be Read stack has become a pile, and then two piles, and then a mountain, and now it’s a mountain on the verge of sliding down on my head. But I did manage to pluck a few new reads from the threatening collapse.
SHADOW TOUCH by Erin Kellison
I’d had Erin Kellison’s SHADOW BOUND in my TBR pile for ages, but never even had the chance to start it. After I roomed with her at Authors After Dark in Philadelphia, I felt soooo guilty. (Note to self: You should never sleep with an author whose books you haven’t read.) So when I got home, I dug through the mountain… and kicked myself for not having read it earlier! There is the dark and tortured hero, who of course I love, and there’s the heroine who is much more than she is willing to admit, and there’s a world one step from the edge of darkness.
After I finished SHADOW BOUND, I immediately went out and snagged SHADOW TOUCH. This ebook novella is a great introduction to the world of the Segue Institute, where desperate people are working round the clock to save the world from the dark forces of the wraiths. (And when last I checked, SHADOW TOUCH is FREE at Amazon!)
SEDUCE ME IN DREAMS by Jacquelyn Frank
Sometimes I find an author whose list of books is long enough that adding them to my TBR mountain could send the whole thing into a deadly slide. But if you haven’t read Jacquelyn Frank’s Nightwalker books and need a jump in where you aren’t so far behind, you can start with the excellent new Three Worlds books. SEDUCE ME IN DREAMS is the first of these hot, futuristic, military heroes.
I fell in love with futuristic romances decades ago with Ann Maxwell’s FIRE DANCER series, but futuristics with a strong love story can be hard to find. This series has love — and sex! — in spades. Happy sigh!
WILD AND STEAMY by Meljean Brook, Jill Myles & Carolyn Crane
These are more novellas and in ebook only format too, but they were so fun I had to include them here. I downloaded the ebook for one of the many plane rides I had to take this year and it made the interminable airport wait actually pleasant. Such is the power of a good book.
Meljean Brook’s has a story from her Iron Duke world, Jill Myles has a sexy shapeshifter menage, and Carolyn Crane checks in with a wonderful, twisty noir story from her Disillusionists series. The stories felt very different from each other, which was interesting in an anthology and perfect for the chaotic vibe of an airport. If you sit down to read it in more comfortable surroundings that don’t include overhead speakers announcing your flight has been delayed — again — then you will find something in this book for several different moods.
What was on your summer reading list? Report in on any Silk And Shadows post this week. I’ll be giving away a copy (not MY copy, of course) of Erin Kellison’s SHADOW BOUND that I stole from her at AAD. (Note to self: Room with more authors whose books you haven’t read so you have an excuse to buy more books.)
My summer started with a family road trip to bury my grandfather with full military honors at Arlington Cemetery. He has a lovely spot next to an apple tree with a peek-a-boo view of the Washington Monument.
Although the reason for our gathering was somber, we had a wonderful reunion with the whole clan where we spent several days at a cottage on a back channel of Chesapeake Bay, harassing the blue crabs and eating Maryland Madness ice cream (lemon ice cream with raspberry swirl, chocolate chips and white chocolate; yes, sounds like madness, but tastes like summer).
Speaking of tastes of summer, I returned home to the first cucumbers of the season. Being a lazy homemaker, I invented this great pickle recipe:
Take 1 cucumber.
Slice it thin.
Put it in an empty jar of store-bought pickle juice.
Let sit for three days.
Eat.
This only works two or three times before you leach all the flavor from the pickle juice. As lazy recipes go, I think I’ve hit a new personal low.
The pickle juice had only just gone bland when I departed for two reader conventions: RomCon in Denver was a laff riot with events like Build-A-Hero (pictured below, where I contributed the rippling abs, thankyewthankyewverymuch) and Authors After Dark in Philadelphia.
AAD, which is geared specifically for paranormal readers, is in NEW ORLEANS next year! On Bourbon Street! A seven minute walk from Cafe Du Monde beignets! You’re coming too, right?
Scarcely had I returned home (again) when I left (again) on a long weekend writing retreat up in Washington state.
To prove I was working reeeelly hard (shuh, right):
And now I am back at my computer (again) ready to work hard (really, this time). As a welcome home present — to you! – we’re giving away some book treasures from my travels and from some of my favorite book friends.
At the end of the week, Random.org will choose a winner from our newsletter subscribers. If you are already subscribed, just say hey. If you aren’t signed up yet, you can do that from the upper left corner, right up there, see it? One winner will get a party pack of Laurie London, Erin Kellison and Elisabeth Naughton. And I bet I can find some goodies for two more winners too, so go sign up.
We’re glad to be back! How about you? Eager for the change of seasons, or are you clinging to summer with both hands and all ten summer-pedicured toes?
Technically, the Frostbound release was yesterday, but since today is my blogging day, I’m going to have another release mania moment. Unleash the hounds! Bring on the chorus line of dancing vampires! It’s here! It’s here!
For anyone who has escaped the cover copy thus far, here we go:
Every dog might have his day, but the hellhound guards the night . . .
As a snowstorm locks down the city, more than the roads are getting iced. Someone’s beheaded the wrong girl, and vampire-on-the-lam Talia Rostova thinks it was meant to be her. Now she’s the prime suspect in her own botched murder—and the prisoner of her smoking-hot neighbor.
Lore is a hellhound, bred to serve and protect, so he’s not freeing Talia until he’s sure that she’s the prey and not the hunter. You’d think a beautiful woman in his bedroom would be a good thing, but trouble-prone Talia has run afoul of someone more sinister than your average lunatic killer. An ancient Undead is wreaking vengeance on the city—and on her—and Lore will have to go far beyond a stake to put him back in his grave . . .
And that Lore is one naughty puppy.
To celebrate this big moment, I have ONE ARC left and I will autograph it and send it to some lucky person who comments on Silk and Shadows between NOW and NEXT Wednesday (June 15th). I will mail internationally and your comment can be in response to any post that is put up during that time period. Comment every day and multiply your chances to win.
Currently working on: Chicago booksigning tour
Mood: Easter candy overdosed
I’m in Chicago for the Easter weekend, touring most of the bookstores within 50 miles. [Side note: If you live in Chicagoland and want a signed copy of VOWED IN SHADOWS, check with your local bookseller to see if I blew through.] I spent two solid days on the drive-bys, hitting as many stores as I could, signing the books in stock, and handing out goody bags filled with bookmarks and romance trading cards from fellow writers along with my book. Stock signing tours are fun, but tiring.
Yesterday, I spent Easter with my family. Woozy with exhaustion and excessive sugar intake, I listened to the priest’s homily and contemplated the Easter story of resurrection. I was also thinking about chocolate Easter eggs as well as the surprise elements and features on websites, DVDs and other electronic media which are also referred to as Easter eggs. The common element to all these Easter moments is rejoicing, whether that’s rejoicing in the promise of eternal life or rejoicing in the discovery of a hidden chocolate or digital treasure.
As tired as I was after all the running around, I might have forgotten for a moment I should be rejoicing about having a book to sign. But even worse than that, sometimes I forget to rejoice in the writing itself. Just as eternal life shouldn’t overshadow that “This is the day the Lord has made” (emphasis mine), so I have to be careful that the joys (and trials) of being an author don’t overshadow the writing.
As I move forward with Book 3 launched and Book 4 almost a year away (yeah, yeah, it’ll be here before I know it) I am going to remember to rejoice. I will:
Write anew and write a new…something
Try something short and fresh as springtime
Find the heart and spirit of my writing and set it free
Which aspects of writing or your other favorite pastimes continue to surprise and delight you? Leave a comment any time this week for a chance to win one of the goody bags I handed out this weekend.
Other Posts by Sharon Ashwood 
SEDUCE ME IN DREAMS by Jacquelyn Frank
WILD AND STEAMY by Meljean Brook, Jill Myles & Carolyn Crane
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