“Do you remember me?
I sat upon your knee
I wrote to you with childhood fantasies…”
– from Grown-Up Christmas List

For over a decade now, this has been one of my very favorite holiday songs. I can’t listen to it without feeling the mingled love and joy and hope touched with just a bit of sadness that come this time of year. (Yes, even during the holidays there is sadness. But without the bitter, there can’t be the sweet.)

Writing My Christmas Wish, I felt all of those. My heroine, Tara Walsh, had found so much success and happiness. But no matter how wonderful her life seemed, she could never forget the man she’d loved and lost. And Duncan Rousse, the sexy Cajun she left behind, has never gotten over her. Both of them had found success and gone on with their lives, but neither of them had ever found the happiness they’d pushed away.

Until Tara came home for Christmas…

My Christmas Wish is a short novella, so I can’t tell you much more without pretty much the whole thing. So why don’t you just go get a copy and settle down for hot holiday reunion story to put a bit of heat in your day? (I say “a bit of heat” – while this story is not quite as hot as my last 2 releases, it is still explicit. Not one for the under-18 crowd!)

A very quick post this morning. My Christmas Wish has official artwork!

Another day of happy news. My contract from Samhain for my Christmas novella arrived today!

My Christmas Wish is my first contemporary. It’s a story of sacrifice, dreams, and love deep enough to let someone go – and what happens when that person comes back to you. I can’t wait to share it with you!

And my hero is a sexy Cajun nightclub owner. So you know this is going to be one hot story!

One foot in front of the other. That’s what I’ve been doing this week, just keep putting those feet down and moving along, believing that eventually I’ll end up where I need to be. If nothing else, at least I’m not sitting still.

The Christmas novella was bettered from being read by Most Favorite Reader, and is off to Exceptional Editor. I think this was the first one that made me tear up a bit when I did the final read through, which either means that I packed some emotional punch into it or I’m a bit in love with my own specialness. Jury is still out; updates as they come.

The day before I sent it off I still didn’t know what to start writing next. I read through my “ideas” folder, and added a few more to it. Found two things that I was tempted to flesh out and dive into, but in the end I put the old ideas away and started Chapter 1 of the followup to Flawed (which comes out June 30th!). Now I’m racing the clock to get a first draft done before the kids are out of school for the summer, and my days devolve into the sucking morass that is life as “mom”.

Also. Things I don’t want to see by my front door anymore ever – snakes. Black snakes, that the fireman who lives 2 doors down thinks may be Water Moccasins (aka Cottonmouth). None of them – I’ve seen 3 different snakes so far within a few feet of the door – have opened their mouths so far for me to check the inner color, but really, if you ask me they can just slither a few hundred feet across the yard and back into the marsh where they should be living. I’m not at all happy with them where they have been hangin’. Their peeps and my peeps weren’t meant to mingle.

I’ll leave you with this uplifting little ditty that’s helping me keep on keeping on.
~Hugs and snakeless days to you

For the Science Fiction / Fantasy lovers out there, Random House is giving away some free reads. Mmmmm, free. Word of the year.

Some Divas have new releases this week – if you’re looking for something to read, check them out!

“I will always love you.” Not just a figure of speech when you’re undead.

In the Heat of the Night, Book Two

Six months ago, Andre St. James committed the ultimate one-night-stand party foul by turning Cynthiana into the spawn of Satan…also known as a vampire. He insisted he knew they were meant to be together forever and ever, so why wait for her to be on the same page with him to suck the life out of her?

What. Ever. The only thing the two of them share is chemistry that blasts off the charts. So she dropkicked him out of her life and told him to never come back. He listened. Until now.

Andre knows Cyn has trouble dealing with his take-no-prisoners approach to life, and that turning her against her will was a mistake. But he’s got patience born of centuries of immortality, and he’ll do whatever it takes to get back into her good graces and stay there forever. Including wait until she has no choice but to turn to him.

After all, no one understands forever like a vampire. He’s loved her from the moment he saw her…and he always will.

Find out more here

CAROLINA WOLF
By Sela Carsen
Samhain Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-60504-374-6

All it takes is a spark of Grrrrrl power to set the swamp on fire!

Librarian Debra Henry is boring. And she’s okay with that. Really. It’s not as if the teensy amount of witchcraft that flows in her veins is worth getting excited about. Yet someone—or something—thinks it’s worth crawling out of the swamps to attack her. Those “somethings” are werewolves.

When one of them is hurt saving her, the least she can do is take him home and patch him up. Healing him stirs more than her senses. Maddox Moreau awakens the magic that sleeps in her blood. And suddenly, life’s not quite so boring.

A wildlife manager at Congaree National Park by day, Maddox likes being the BWIS—Big Wolf In the Swamp. By night, he lets his wild side out to play lone wolf. At least until he meets the one woman who can share his soul. Perhaps it’s best, though, if he holds off on sharing his preference for raw meat.

Rescuing her seals his fate—but only if he can protect her from a rogue of his kind. A werewolf with a nasty stalker streak…

The Jealousy Plot – By Jolie Cain

For as long as she can remember, Callie has been in love with her next-door neighbor Trey, a firefighter on the Oceanside Fire Department, but he has never seen her as anything more than a good friend, a pal. Then for her birthday, Trey gives her something wonderful … not the usual tire jack and mace spray. No, he gives her a beautiful antique locket, and Callie begins to dream that maybe he has changed the way he sees her. After all, when a guy gives a girl jewelry, it means something special–right? Only her friend Marianne Riley isn’t so sure. She thinks Trey needs to be nudged just a bit in the right direction. So she enlists the aid of her brother, one of Trey’s fellow firefighters, in a plot to make Trey jealous. But Ben Riley seems interested in more than simply helping Callie out. And he arouses feelings in Callie that Trey never has. While Trey has always made her feel safe and secure, Ben makes her feel wild and out of control. He pushes her and fulfills her darkest desires. Eventually Callie must decide … which firefighter is the one that sets her heart on fire?

Captive Flame – Rhiannon Leith
As a djinn, a being formed of fire, Adara has spent centuries enslaved to the human Magi, passed from one to another, made to do their bidding. She yearns for freedom. She yearns for love.

When firefighter Peter O’Connor pulls her out of an inferno, he snatches her from her current Magus. This new master has no idea of what or how powerful she is, and the opportunity to break free finally becomes a real possibility. If only her body didn’t react to him with such abandon. If only his touch didn’t make her lose the will to do anything but be with him.

With the Magus closing in on them, and Peter’s life in danger, Adara must choose between her desire and her dreams.

And with supernatural arson attacks sweeping the city, Peter must decide if a firefighter can ever really trust a fire?

BUY IT HERE

“Oh Goddess ” by Gwen Hayes
Read An Excerpt Online
Genre: Paranormal Romance

ISBN: 978-1-60504-367-8
Length: Short Story
Price: 2.50
Publication Date: January 27, 2009
Cover art by Tuesday Dube

Born to protect women’s hearts, her own beats longingly for a mortal. Oops…

Ondina, one thousand years a goddess, doesn’t think much of mortal men. Probably because her sole purpose in life is to protect the hearts of women who don’t want to fall in love. And now one of those blasted men—Jack—has shattered her sacred chalice, trapping her in a mortal body.

Jackson Nichols, on the partner track at his law firm, is the first to admit he always follows his head. Never his heart. Dina is infuriating, messy, condescending, sexy, beautiful and…well, just about everything that doesn’t fit into his meticulously planned life.

Neither expects to find many redeeming qualities in the other. But when push comes to love, which will Dina choose? Her newly human heart…or one thousand years of duty?

*All author and editor proceeds from the sale of Oh Goddess will be donated to the Coalition for Pulmonary Fibrosis. You can find out more about the foundation at www.coalitionforpf.org.

Warning: Recent studies show that consuming beverages while reading this story can cause damage to computer monitors, clothing, and sometimes nearby walls. Reader agrees to hold both Samhain Publishing Ltd. and Gwen Hayes harmless in case of accidental spewing caused by laughter.
Read An Excerpt Online

Buy from MBaM!

Gypsy Afterglow is out now!!

GYPSY AFTERGLOW by Jennah Sharpe

Genre: Torrid Romance Contemporary

EBook formats ISBN: 978-1-60313-490-3

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-60313-491-0

Rating: Sensual Romance - Sensual

Brynn Parker was warned to stay away from the gypsies from her first summer in Spain. Ever since then, her curiosity has piqued her interest in a certain young Gitano. As she grows into a woman, her illicit involvement with Marco Kaldera becomes more intimate until she must return to her home country. Years later, through a mutual friend, a funeral and Marco’s fame, Brynn works to earn his forgiveness and convince him to love her once again. But…he belongs with the gypsies. Can the sacrifices they must endure to be together bond them forever?

Visit Jennah’s website today!

(Kresley Cole is a fantastic author, and she does great promo! Check this link for details on how to be entered for a $50 gift cert or a Sony eReader.)

I read my first book of the year – BIG Temptation, by the fantabulous Robin L Rotham. I loved every minute of it. When I opened it on my laptop I was so very, very tired and ready to crawl off to bed at the old people hour of 7:54. Two hours later, I was wishing it were longer and that I weren’t only a few pages from the end.

Go read it now. (And that uber hawt scene with the hero and his best friend and the so very lucky heroine? Let me know what you thought of it after you’re done.)

Then I started a new Library Thing account for 2009. And in the process seem to have broken Library Thing. I’m sure the web gremlins will work their magic and have it back up by morning.

Hunting the Huntress is now available from the Sony online bookstore!

We see hawks fairly often here flying near the house.  We live right off the marsh, which might be the nearest avian equivalent to a fast food drive through – snakes, rats, and other slithering and scurrying things galore.  During the summer I love to float on my back in the pool and look overhead at the small opening in the tree canopy, watching them catch the air currents and glide overhead as they search for lunch.

I’ve never seen them actually land in my yard before though.  The hundred pound dog is a pretty big deterrent most days I guess.  But Tuesday morning I looked out the window and saw this sitting by the pool.

I stared for a minute, sure he’d fly away if I so much as blinked, but there he stayed.  So I eased away from the window long enough to find my camera, and when I got back he was still there.

Enjoying a Florida fall morning?  Taking a break from the constant search for food?  I didn’t know, but he didn’t seem to notice me by the window.

After a few minutes he hopped down onto the ground by the pool.  I started to be concerned that maybe he had injured a wing and couldn’t fly, so I finally opened the patio door to let him know I was there.  He hopped up onto the fence at the sound, which didn’t do much to reassure me – I wanted to see him actually take flight now, to make sure that he wasn’t hurt.  He was safely six feet off the ground on the fence, so I turned the dog outside to see if that would make him take to the air.  And he did, stretching his powerful healthy wings and heading to the skies.

I think there may have been something in the yard he had an eye on, since he found a branch nearby and settled there for a few minutes, keeping a keen eye cocked towards the yard.  After a few minutes, he flew away, off to complete his hawkish rounds.  Maybe he really had just been relaxing in the sunshine, enjoying a few minutes silence in the mid-morning air?

~

It’s been quiet this week around the house.  I forget sometimes just how big a personality hubby has, and how big a hole it leaves when he’s gone.  I love my “alone” time, and since we both work from home it’s something I relish when he’s gone for a weekend, or even just an overnight.  But I’m going into day 7 of it now, and I’m missing him something crazy. 

The kids and I went to the movies Friday night.  We saw City of Ember, a fantastic family movie that wasn’t too scary for the 6 year old but kept both the teenager and myself entertained.  That’s a pretty tiny niche, really, and I was glad to find a movie that fit it.  Pizza before, and the leftovers after, and I finished the evening celebrating the release of the Branchflower Report with several glasses of wine.

Saturday was the annual Fall Festival at the elementary school.  The threat of rain (thankfully, just a threat) pushed the duck pond, ring toss, and necklace making booths into the school courtyard where there were honestly too many people and not enough breeze for the space.  More uncomfortable yet was the gym, where they’d set up the jumpy house, face painting, and cake walk – but weren’t allowed to turn on the air conditioner.  I felt bad for the parents who had volunteered to work those activities.  I escaped after only 20 minutes in the stifling space, but they had to stay until their time was done.  Back in the courtyard we used up the rest of our tickets pretty quickly (20 tickets went very, very fast) and then retreated to the school playground.  Here princess and another dozen kids played happily on the slides, monkey bars, and swings, while their parents relaxed under old Florida oaks and enjoyed the breeze that had been missing in the courtyard.  While there were clouds lurking overhead, the rain stayed away, and it was a pretty, peaceful way to spend half an hour.

Back home, I settled in with a book to read while the kids entertained themselves.  And looked up an hour later with my book finished, shocked that the kids had left me for an hour in peace.  Sure this must have been a fluke, I fixed them lunch, then settled down with another book.  And ninety minutes later, had my second book of the day finished.  How long has it been since I was able to sit long enough to finish two books in a day?  Sure, on my plane ride to SF I did, but in my own house, this just doesn’t happen. 

And the house was still quiet, the kids still self entertained.

So I started book three of the day.  C.E. Murphy’s “The Queen’s Bastard”.  Fantastic book, a sort of alternate history set in 16th century Europe.  The link takes you to a review that’s more succinct than anything I feel up to writing – I was up until 2am reading this, and am a bit fuzzy headed for the 6am wakeup call Princess decided to gift me with this morning.  I’m eagerly looking forward to the next book in the series, “The Pretender’s Throne” – which sadly isn’t even available for preorder yet.  It is definitely the sort of book the resonates with me – very strong female characters, a detailed (nearly too much so, at least at 2am) plot line with political intrigue twisting it’s way through every page, and a strong hook to the end that has me wanting more.

Today is somehow half through, and I’m still trying to chase off the morning brain fog.  A Pumpkin Spice Latte and a batch of Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins has me more ready for a nap than anything I should be getting done – laundry, dishes, yard work, shopping.

Mmmmm, nap….