Silk & Shadows

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.

Read Chapter 1

Pre-order at:

Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes & Noble
Powells | Indie Bound | Indigo | Blackstone Audio

Note from Jessa: Meeting people in the story community is much like following links on the web: You meet one cool person who knows a cool person who knows a cool person, and by the time you look up, you have a bunch of cool readers and writers all around you. Case in point….

Today, we have KC Klein whose first (and I mean first) book DARK FUTURE is out now with Avon Impulse. As you know, we here at Silk And Shadows love us some dark heroes. So of COURSE we had to have the author of DARK FUTURE tell us more. Welcome, KC, and congrats on your debut!

First, I wanted to say thanks to Jessa for taking pity on me and asking me to come on her blog. And to everyone else, I just want to say…begging really does work.

Let’s pretend we are trying to get our best friend to read your book, what should we tell her to get her most excited? (And pretend we can’t read the back cover blurb; pretend our friend is running out to the bookstore RIGHT NOW and we have to tell her quick.)

Umm…let’s see…there are some really good sex scenes in DARK FUTURE. The interrogation scene (part of the excerpt in this post) won first place in “Reveal Your Inner Vixen” contest. So that’s good, right?

Your heroine, Kris, is a doctor who has to go forward through time to save the world (and the hero, of course). What interested you about time travel and the future world? And how much of Kris is KC?

I loved the concept of time-travel and a future world because I could make the world out to be whatever I wanted (I was never very good at research). How much of Kris is KC? Umm…that is a tough one. Since DARK FUTURE is my first book I put a lot of myself into the heroine (and not necessarily the good parts). I think Kris is KC, but to the 3rd power. Kris is a bit over the top and not really tempered with a wife and a mom’s hard earned wisdom. But, hey, she was a hell of a lot of fun to write.

Your hero is dark sexy warrior (yay!) ConRad Smith. What did you find most compelling about him as a hero? And what does Kris see in him?

When I wrote ConRad, I was looking for a hero who was a little harder and grittier than the heroes that I was reading. Now, in the world of paranormal romance, there a lot of tortured heroes to choose from, but close to ten years ago that wasn’t the case. Kris sees in ConRad what I love to see in my heros—a sense of security. I’ve been married to the same man for over sixteen years, and my husband still makes me feel protected and cherished. What more could a gal want?

On your website author bio, you say you were surprised to find out you write dark. Why were you surprised?

Well, truly, I was surprised to find out I could even write at all. I come from a family of machinists and bankers. Needless to say, creativity doesn’t run high on my family’s list of priorities. When I started to write, I thought I would lean more toward family dramas and fun, quirky, westerns because that’s my sense of humor. But it was funny, every time I started writing a light romance some character always ended up dead or tortured—I don’t know what’s wrong with me.

DARK FUTURE was the first book you finished, started when your first child was born (who will presumably take longer to finish). How much should we hate you that you sold your first book?

Oh please, even though DARK FUTURE was my first book I re-wrote it like four times. So really, it was more like my fifth book. And to make everyone feel better I have book two and three sitting in my hard drive with no place to go (those were my attempts at funny, quirky, westerns).

Which are your favorite apocalyptic-y scenarios besides aliens? Do you like homicidal computers, plagues, environmental collapse? How do you feel about zombies?

World-wide floods, meteors, deadly plaques, the latest ice-age, I love them all, the more catastrophic the better. I say that, but apocalyptic scenarios do not keep me up at night. I was talking to a guy about things we worry about, and he mentioned he was concerned the sun would one day burn out and we would have to find a new planet to live on. I thought…umm…I’ve never worried about that a second in my whole life, but…I would love to write about it.

Assuming the apocalypse is coming soon, which one weapon and two canned goods would you recommend?

Oh no, don’t get me confused with a character from my book. I’m not the courageous type. I wouldn’t know what to do with a weapon, but I sure can play a mean game of rock, paper, scissors. And as far as canned goods—do a bottle of gin and a bottle of tonic count? Hell, what am I thinking? The world is ending. There are no rules! So yes, gin and tonics DO count.

Thank you, KC, for posting with us. Maybe we’ll have you back for a dark cowboy next

Thanks again Jessa for having me. I love to chat with peeps, so please find me on Twitter @kckleinbooks and on Facebook as AuthorKCKlein.

My website is www.kckleinbooks.com

You can find DARK FUTURE at Avon Impulse and at Amazon. Also for all you non e-reader types, DARK FUTURE has just come out in print form. Check it out on Amazon.

Awakened in the middle of the night by a future version of herself, Kris Davenport is given a mission: go forward in time to save the world–and His life. Of course, her future self doesn’t tell her who he is, just sends her into an abyss and straight into an alien invasion.

He turns out to be ConRad Smith, the callous, untrusting Commander of Earth’s army and the world’s last defense. There’s only one way to know for sure if this strange woman is an alien spy–slice her throat. Except, he didn’t anticipate the heat he would feel as he interrogates the hot-tempered, warm-blooded woman. For a man whose sole focus has been survival, she’s more temptation than he can handle. But a world on the brink of destruction leaves no room for love…and time is running out.

*              *             *

“Mmm, you taste human. Like salt or more like … warm sunshine?” He pinned me with his gaze. His eyes spoke a primal language. Desire warred with anger; need against punishment.

I looked away. Embarrassed. Violated. His body crushed mine, suffocating in its nearness. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even breathe without crushing my breasts against him. I always considered myself strong and physically fit, but he subdued me with barely any effort. Heart racing, I panicked.

The feeling of no control would break me–complete powerlessness always did. I used whatever weapon was available; whatever maneuvers would give me a fighting chance. This was no different. I turned my head, opened my mouth against his neck, and … sunk my teeth in.

He cursed. Grabbed hold of my shirt, picked me up, and slammed me back against the wall.

A painful whoosh came from my lungs. My vision rocked–brain swished inside my skull.

“You bit me.” He sounded shocked.

My head hurt so bad I had to blink hard to keep my eyes in their sockets. “You licked me,” I shouted back.

He assessed me, aqua blue eyes hooded with thick, long eyelashes, for what seemed like an eternity. “I will ask you one more time. Who are you?”

“I’ve told you everything.” My voice sounded desperate, tired, even to me. “I went running and fell into the dark … I’m a doctor at a hospital. If you don’t believe me, just call them. I’ve worked there for years.”

He stood still, his body hard against mine, creating an insurmountable barrier. His face so close I could see his pupils enlarge, almost hiding the hard blue of his irises. The rage in him lived and breathed. One hand ran along my scalp in a mock caress, grabbed hold of my hair and pulled.

“Liar,” his voice barely a whisper, the knife was back … shaking at my very exposed, very vulnerable artery. “There hasn’t been a hospital anywhere on Earth since the year 2075.” And in one efficient movement, he drew the knife across my throat.

Currently working on: Finishing my Halloween candy
Mood: Bouncy!

This fall, two new series started, both using fairy tales as their jumping off point. As a reader, I’ve always ADORED fairy tales! Some of my first books as a kid were fairy tales books, many of them illustrated. I’m also interested in these series as a writer since I’m curious to see how the shows differ (or don’t) in handling the fairy tale elements.

GRIMM is about a cop who discovers he has inherited the ability — courtesy of his last name, Grimm — to see creatures no one else can see and now has the responsibility for destroying the bad creatures. So far, we’ve met big bad wolves (some of whom aren’t so bad, we learn) and werebears. There’s an overarching thread about a faction with witch-beasts seeking to destroy the Grimms forever.

The overall tone is dark. Probably because it’s filmed in my town of Portland where you have to bring your own sunlight. Basically, it’s a police procedural with fairy tale elements woven in.

The other series is ONCE UPON A TIME where the adult daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming must rescue the fairy tale people who are living amnesiac lives in “the real world” under the rule of an Evil Mayor/Queen.

Lighter in tone than GRIMM (at least the cute kid hasn’t been kidnapped YET) OUaT is more of a straight-ahead ensemble drama.

Is TV big enough for two fairy tales shows? They are so different, I hope they both survive. Not that any show I like will survive In a way, I think GRIMM will be easier to watch because every week can be a fun new creature. But what I like best about fairy tales is that they are meant to teach us lessons. Lessons about true love, following your dreams, not eating poison apples. And so far, ONCE UPON A TIME appears to be more faithful to that story behind the stories in fairy tales.

I think there are good reasons fairy tales are forever popular — namely, cute princes! But also the adventure, the overcoming of adversity, the cute princes… Hmm, sounds a lot like romance novels

If you haven’t gotten your fill of fairy tales, here are a few books I’ve loved based on fairy tales I’ve loved:

BEAUTY by Robin McKinley

This is a “classic” retelling of Beauty and the Beast — a story I never, ever tire of reading — but we get to learn more about the heroine. And she’s a nerd! No, that’ s not quite true, but she isn’t beautiful, she’s actually plain and rather bookish (hmm, remind any of us about who we feared we were?) and actually very strong inside.

WICKED by Gregory MaGuire

If you’ve seen the musical but haven’t read the book based on a retelling of The Wizard of Oz (which technically isn’t a fairy tale, I guess, but it DOES have munchkins which are relatively fairy sized) now’s a good time. The last in the series is out now. Although less a classic retelling like BEAUTY above, we still get to learn more about the “heroine” in this version of the tale.

THE MISTS OF AVALON by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Hmm, I guess this one isn’t really a fairy tale either, but the stories of King Arthur have the same mythopoeic power so I’m counting it. I read this before I read the “real” version of Camelot and I’m afraid I could never think of Morgan as evil again.

All three of these books are especially fabulous for young readers because they twist and turn what we think we know of old stories into something new and wonderful and thought-provoking.

And THAT is a lesson worth learning.

Do you have a favorite fairy tale? Which favorites haven’t been retold enough?

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.

Read the first chapter here.

* By “finally” here, I mean “not really” here. DARKNESS UNDONE will be “actually” available in March. But Sid’s story is available for pre-order at:

Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes & Noble
Powells | Indie Bound | Indigo | Blackstone Audio

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.

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.)

Currently working on: Obsessively refreshing my sales ranking to see if somebody somewhere bought one of my books
Mood: As mentioned, obsessive

This is release week for VOWED IN SHADOWS. Book 3 of the Marked Souls officially hits shelves tomorrow, and I am:

A. Frantic
B. Terrified
C. Horrified
D. Utterly sleep deprived
E. Thrilled
F. All of the above

Yeah. It’s F.

I suppose I could have stopped at D because in the past two weeks, I’ve had multiple dreams about falling off cliffs, getting rolled under by tidal waves (although those could be because of Japan, not release week), being important places without my shoes, hiking up an endless mountain (once, right before I fell off a cliff), and cookies.

The cookie one is obvious; no subtext needed there.

Release week is when the pages hit the pavement. The work is in the wind. Where it goes…Who knows? Hence, A through D above. It’s unnerving to know the spine — the book’s and, in a way, mine — will be cracking in someone else’s hands.

But that’s the point — for me, anyway — of writing. Hence E above.

When I started writing, I always intended to get to this point. I just didn’t have a good sense of what “this point” would look like.

Strangely enough, it looks a lot like walking up an endless mountain without your shoes and staring off the cliff to the raging seas below. The cookie (hopefully hermetically sealed against salt water) is somewhere down there. If I dare throw myself over.

Scary, but maybe more rewarding than walking down the mountain barefoot.

I guess, honestly, I thought there’d be more flying; maybe there is more flying for some writers. I have flying dreams occasionally, and I really like them. But in the release week version of the dream, it’s mostly slogging and plummeting. And the cookie fuels the next hike back up the mountain.

Not sure what it’ll take to earn my wings. Maybe New York Times bestseller? That’d be awesome. Maybe just more cookies. Then I’d HAVE to hike, to burn off the calories.

For tonight, I’ll just hope to dream about something that doesn’t wake me up with my heart pounding. I’m saving the pounding heart for my trip to the bookstore tomorrow to see Jonah on the shelves

Since it’s release week I HAVE to give away a signed copy here along with a set of Marked Soul romance trading cards. Leave a comment anytime this week for a chance to win! And thank you, as always, for reading.

Two lost souls
One last battle
None will walk away
Untouched

Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Borders
BooksAMillion ~ Powells Books ~ Indigo ~ Indiebound

The war between good and evil has raged for millennia,
with the Marked Souls caught in the middle.
Now two lost souls will tip the precarious balance…

Possession by a demon cost Jonah Walker his faith, his humanity, and his wife. Once a righteous missionary man, he endures immortality with nothing but a body for battle and a bent for retribution. But his last devastating fight left him wounded beyond healing and his only chance to redeem his soul lies with a fallen woman.

Thrust into a wicked underworld of shadows and sin, Nim Hamlin can’t believe her wanton ways as “the Naughty Nymphette” enthralled a demon…and a damned saint. The world she knows doesn’t deserve deliverance. But the touch of this good man’s hand holds an unholy allure–and she’s never been any good at resisting temptation.

As darkness gathers in the sweltering Chicago summer, Jonah and Nim must conquer the demons of their past to face even fiercer monsters in one last assault.  But first they must put aside their doubts and disbeliefs and let their passion for each other burn through the shadows to ignite their furious power…

Read Chapter 1 here

Currently working on: Evil fairies
Mood: Anti-Tinkerbell!

First things first…

In case fellow Silk And Shadows author Sharon Ashwood forgets to mention it, she is a finalist in the Romance Writers of America RITA awards for UNCHAINED! The RITAs are for romances what the Oscars are for Hollywood. Yes, it is that cool! The awards even kinda look the same:

Exhibit A: Oscar

Exhibit B: RITA

Actually, looking at them together, they could be characters in their own romance! “He was upright. She was demure. Together, they were… Solid Gold!”

The winners will be announced at the RWA national conference in NEW YORK CITY in July. Good luck, Sharon!!! Meanwhile, we can print a convenient shopping list of the finalists at the RWA website.

Now onward to my regularly scheduled post…

I read a lot of books on the craft of writing because I fantasize that one day I will find a magical technique that makes writing easy. Sadly, this has not happened yet. I am told it is unlikely to happen (by the same people who probably think unicorns don’t exist) and still I persist.

While I wait for this magical tome, I have found a lot of other good stuff over the years. Most recently, I finished “STORY ENGINEERING: Mastering the Six Core Competencies of Successful Writing” by Larry Brooks.

If I can’t have “easy,” I guess I’ll settle for “mastery,” “success,” and “six.”

What I liked about this book:

It’s left-brained focused. Hence the “engineering” in the title. I already lean strongly toward left-brain thinking so the information is presented in a way that’s comfortable and appealing to me. While the information probably isn’t totally new to anyone who’s been around the craft book block, this presentation is very parsed and analytical, which makes it seem… I don’t want to say easy (still waiting for easy) but manageable.

Some of the previously murky techniques I’ve wrestled with in the past that Brooks’ interpretation made clearer:

• Idea vs. concept vs. theme
• The maximum-effect interplay between a character’s inner and outer conflicts
• The difference between hook and inciting incident

What didn’t work as well for me:

• There are a few too many digs at seat-of-the-pants/organic writers for my taste. If you are a pantser, you’ll have to ignore those parts.
• Despite this being an “engineering” book, there weren’t many charts or graphs or step-by-steps. I can extrapolate from the material, but they aren’t laid out for me. And I do love charts.
• If you read in order, there are a lot of references to material you haven’t covered yet. This is inevitable since every story is an interwoven tapestry of threads, so pulling on one pulls on them all. But if you are brand-new to the basic theories of story structure, I think it might get confusing.

Favorite snippet from the book:

“…you’ll be wallpapering your padded cell with rejection slips.”

He says that like it’s optional!

Final thoughts:

Some of the material from this book is available in posts at StoryFix and a one-page printout of some of the key concepts is at Writers Digest. But the bulk of the info is best assembled in the book itself. It has a lot of passages worth re-reading so although I borrowed a copy from my beloved local library to preview, I’ll be buying a hard copy for my keeper craft shelf.

If you have favorite craft books — writing, cooking, knitting, whatever — please share in comments. I’m always looking for ways to make life easier!

Lastly…

Last week I mentioned that I was designing Romance Trading Cards to take with me to various romance reader conventions this summer. Now I have them in my hot little hands! If you’d like a set in all their shiny glory, email me (jessa at jessaslade dot com) with your physical address (sorry, US addresses only) and I’ll send you a set of the three Marked Souls cards.

Currently working on: Revising
Mood: Hack and slash and burn and pillage

So it’s the week before Valentine’s Day and all the stores are filled with cheap chocolate and expensive flowers, neither of which will last until February 14 if purchased today.

Okay, maybe I’m sounding a little bitter about sweet, sweet love, but that’s because I’m in the midst of revisions. The characters I loved so much in the brainstorming phase, who I struggled and grew with through the hot draft, now inspire my scalding vitriol as I shriek my frustrations at the innocent computer.

In this way, writing is very much like love is very much like butter cookies.

Stay with me here.

Step 1.
Butter cookies come from a cookie press, a glorious device I just discovered (thanks to XY for the wonderful Christmas gift). The disc that exudes butter cookie dough is deceptively pure and simple. It looks like this:

That barely even looks like a heart, does it? See how the first stage of butter cookies is very much like the first stage of love and stories? Pure, simple, easily scrubbed, and nothing at all like you’ll have at the end.

Step 2.

Yeah, Step 2 and it’s starting to get a little messy, in butter cookies, love and the story. You learn stuff you didn’t necessarily want to know: that the loved one snores, the characters snore too, oh, and you forgot to put an egg in the cookie dough mix (which, by the way, in case you were wondering, doesn’t substantially alter the butter cookie recipe; mostly makes it a shortbread cookie; yes, this is personal experience talking).

You can live with Step 2, you think. But no process has just two steps…

Step 3.
The raw dough of your love — and your story and your butter cookies — has to undergo (dum-da-DUUUMMMM!!!) The Trial By Fire.

Warning: Don’t actually put your butter cookies in a wood-fired oven. You will not be happy with the results; no, this is not personal experience talking (for once), it’s common sense. Which admittedly doesn’t make as good a story but makes better butter cookies.

Your love and your story WILL go through an actual Trial By Fire at some point. No, strike that, not at some point; it will happen when you are at your weakest point, when you can’t possibly stand it, when it’s impossible.

And just as butter cookies stay raw dough without the time and heat of the oven, love and the story will stay soft and unformed and strangely tasteless.

Step 4.
Because despite all the heartache and waiting and the occasional scorched fingers, it’s worth it.

When I’m in Step 3, it’s nice to have a reminder of Step 4. Which is why I’m making the butter cookie press — super fast and convenient! unlike love and writing — my reminder. Because Step 4 — the glass of cold milk, The End, the kiss as the curtains drop — does get here eventually.

And now I can share a bit of Step 4 love with you, in this week before Valentine’s Day. No, not butter cookies. They don’t ship well. (And, yes, I ate them all.) But I do have a festively Valentine’s pink galley (a large-size Advanced Reading Copy without final copy edits or the real cover) to give away.

So if you’d like a chance to win a copy of VOWED IN SHADOWS, Book 3 of the Marked Souls, coming out in April, leave a comment about love or writing or butter cookies. On Valentine’s Day, random.org will help me pick a winner from comments left on any post this week.

Good luck in love, in writing, and in butter cookies!

Currently working on: Sticking with even ONE of my New Years Resolutions
Mood: Fail!

The nights are finally getting shorter but we’re still facing many, long, dark, cold, wet hours here in the Pacific Northwest. What to do with all that time? There can be only one answer:

Yup. Snuggle up. Monster Girl absconded with the purple pillow pet unicorn I won at the Christmas white elephant party, but they make such a cute couple I haven’t interfered with their intra-species love parade. This time of year, everybody deserves extra cuddle power.

For me, that means fuzzy socks and a fuzzy blanket, a cup of hot cocoa, and a stack of books.

Here’s my one cup of cocoa:

2 tablespoons nonfat dry milk
1 tablespoon sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons cocoa plus a little bit extra
1-1/2 teaspoons non-dairy creamer
Tiny pinch of salt

Whipped cream and mini choco chips on top are optional but highly recommended I’m still working on tweaking out the recipe. Is powdered sugar better than granulated? Half and half maybe? Which brand of cocoa makes the best beverage? Surprisingly, the top of the line stuff doesn’t always make the best drinking, although of course the darker varietals taste richer. I feel very noble sacrificing myself on this endeavor.

Last Friday, I burned through the last of my Powells Books gift card to get:

This is a fun triple header because now I have Delilah Marvelle’s PRELUDE TO A SCANDAL which is historical, our own Annette McCleave’s SURRENDER TO DARKNESS, a contemporary paranormal, and Marcella Burnard’s ENEMY WITHIN, a futuristic romance. So I have all time periods and a nice cross section of subgenres covered.

I’m looking forward to a few good dark nights. Oh, I should’ve gotten a medieval romance so I could say knights. Guess I’m making another run to the bookstore. Poor me

It seems to me most romance readers read across many subgenres, but do you have a favorite you default to in time of needful snuggling? I guess it’s no surprise that I always go back to paranormals. Something about the extra darkness of most paranormals — like extra dark chocolate — seems perfect for winter nights. What makes your winter nights perfect?