Master of the Opera: Dark Interlude – Release Day!

Master of the Opera, Act4 Dark Interlude (ebook)Release Day for the Next Episode!

In the fourth fiery installment of Jeffe Kennedy’s scintilliating Master of the Opera, a woman surrenders-body and soul-to the one man who is everything she desires, everything she craves, and, possibly, everything she fears…

Reeling from the discovery of a dead body in the Sante Fe Opera House, intern Christy Davis is forced to reassess the strange, erotically-charged relationship she’s forged with the mysterious masked man who lives in the labrynths below. Could her masterful lover be capable of murder, and worse? Perhaps it was the thrill of danger that drew Christy to him in the first place-like a moth to the flame-instead of a more conventional romance with the opera house’s handsome benefactor, Roman. For the sake of her sanity, she must at least give Roman a chance. But for the love of her master, she must give in to every wild fantasy, every wicked game, and every whim he commands…

Is Christy prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice? To surrender her heart, her soul, her everything? First she must acknowlege the truth: a woman in love can serve only one master…

and here’s a fun review: (entirety here)

Worldbuilding: I’m thrilled out of my mind about this installment in the serial, but even more so about the next one. As you might have seen from my Genre OCD-ness, in this one we get to see a glimpse of a fantasy world that I CANNOT wait to explore! Aside that, the brilliance of the Santa Fe setting with the Opera in particular still made my heart throb.
Characters: I will admit I found Christy somewhat less likable than in previous parts of the story, but to her credit this is the make or break point (I think) in her and the Master’s chemistry. It makes sense that she’d be confused, hesitant, indecisive – her behavior makes sense to me in the circumstances. Then again, she did end up doing what I wanted her to :D So all is good. I loved Hally, I always love it each time she shows up because she has this cool, spiritual vibe while being wicked fun at the same time – love the combination.
Characters I’ve previously found annoying got even more so now, and can I just say I hope they get a rash in parts they can’t scratch? :) If you’ve been reading this serial, you know for sure who it is I’m talking about *coughRomancough*.
Plot: Aside the growing mystery vine, a fantasy tangent made a teasing entrance and I’m dying to follow all these leads to the end of the story.
Writing: Awesome third person narrative, Christy’s POV. The more the Master shows and his world, the more I fall in love with Jeffe Kennedy’s atmosphere-building and relationship-building.
Curb Appeal: Great cover, hooking blurb, instant buy author name = epic win.

All in all, I felt this was a great addition to the serial and that it ended with a huge teaser (for me), making me want to REALLY want to read the next one like right now. But then again I feel that way after reading anything by Jeffe Kennedy, so no surprise there.

That Old Black Moment

2_15Want some GOOD news from the SFWA front? Really, there are so many amazing, talented members of the organization and I’m honored to be part of it. Several of us have put books on sale this week. A great opportunity to check out some excellent writing! See more here.

I’m over at the Here Be Magic group blog today, talking about black moments – both in our lives and in fiction.

SFWA Sale!

Petals and Thorns, erotic romantic fairy tale, SFWA Sale
This week a group of us writer-types from SFWA (Science Fiction/Fantasy Writers of America) are staging a sale of sf/fantasy books. We’ll be nattering about this and cross-posting all over the Internet. This is an opportunity to pick up some good reading material at great prices.

The promotion lasts through Friday, February 21, and the following authors are participating:

    post-2363-0-81636100-1392434971Amanda C. Davis with new takes on classic fairy tales in Wolves and Witches for $2.99, and also her fantasy novelette The Lair of the the Twelve Princesses for 99 cents.post-2363-0-05227500-1392434930

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

M.C.A. Hogarth with her aliens-only epic fantasy The Worth of a Shell at $2.99.cns-cover-shell-frontcover-198x300

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AdCover-215x300Cat Rambo with her brilliant collections Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Midnight at $2.99 and Near + Far, also at $2.99.HH-Near-Cover1-200x300

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Don Sakers’ tale of futuristic psi and intrigue, The Eighth Succession at $2.99.

 

 

 

BfzPLs7CcAA8A2cAnd I’ll be offering my erotic romantic fantasy novella Petals and Thorns at 99 cents, plus you can still get a free sample of the first episode of my serial novel Master of the Opera: Passionate Overture.

Lots of fun new books to check out – I sure plan to!

 

My Treadmill Desk – One Year Later

treadmill deskA year ago, I set up my treadmill desk. And I posted the Grand Opening message here, which includes links for purchase, etc.

 I promised to give my one-year later review and findings. The upshot?

Love love love.

Seriously. Best investment I ever made.

Yes, I use it pretty much every day. Sometimes I don’t on the weekends, particularly if I’m being really active with other projects like gardening or house-cleaning. I’ve walked as much as 12 miles in one day, though it’s usually more around 8-10 miles. That translates to about 3 to 6 hours on it daily. For reference, I’m at my desk about 12 hours a day.

Can I work on it? Yes! I usually walk anywhere from 1 mph to 2.2 mph. The 2.2 seems to be my maximum for working at the same time. I walk during conference calls, while doing social media and writing blog posts (doing 1.4 mph while drafting this) and especially while writing. I do my 2.2 mph while drafting or editing the novels and it works great. As you can see from the pic above, the way I can rest my forearms on the desk allows me an anchor. I totally forget that I’m walking, too.

More – the steady cadence of walking works great to induce the trance state conducive to writing. Hopefully you all know what I mean. My best work comes out when I disengage all the “thinky” parts of brain that are making lists, wondering what’s for lunch, posting alerts that I need to remember to call such and so back, etc. Once I can sink into that state, the words flow and I’m totally focused. The walking is absolutely trance-inducing and has become part of my ritual for working.

The only things I can’t do on the treadmill is anything that requires intensive mouse work. For example, I have been working on complicated flow charts for my day job. Lots of creating shapes, dragging them, attaching connector arrows. I find it too difficult to maintain a steady line with the mouse while walking.

Otherwise, anything goes! In fact, I find I get restless now if I can’t move while I work. Sitting so much feels wrong.

Since starting to use the treadmill desk, I’ve dropped 10 pounds in body fat. My blood pressure dropped from 160 to 120. Also, my endurance has increased. Though I’ve been running and weightlifting for several years now, the daily walking has really made a difference in my overall health. My body just *feels* stronger and I can, of course, walk much farther without tiring.

Cautionary note on that: start out gradually and work up. Even if you’re in great shape already, the steady pace of the treadmill desk seems to work my body differently. I overdid at first.

I’m happy to answer questions in the comments or via personal message. I absolutely recommend it if you’re considering making the leap. I can’t imagine going back to sitting all day.

I’ll leave you with this – Jackson trying out the treadmill, too. (He still jumps on with me, from time to time. )

 

Too Many Tits

Too many tits, erotic romance, Falling Under, Going Under, contemporary romanceLoved this dragon sculpture on the waterfront in San Diego.

So, in the flurry of travel for a weekend-long seminar for my day job in San Diego – which was illuminating, valuable and utterly exhausting – I totally forgot to announce the THING I’d been waiting to announce officially since, um, August. You all pretty much know about it already – that I signed on with Carina for a new trilogy. These are essentially more Facets of Passion books, but full-length novels, which means 2- to 3-times as long.

All you people saying “I wish it had been longer!” – see how I give you what you wish for??

The reason we did not announce immediately is because we – meaning Agent Pam, Carina and I – all wanted to go for a retitling and rebranding of the series. It’s sad on the one hand, because I really did love my “jewel” titles. But readers would see those titles – Sapphire, Platinum, Ruby and Five Golden Rings – and not know that they were erotic romances. I’m no marketing or business guru, but apparently that’s a problem. 😛

Thus, though I snort-giggle at some of the titles out there, I have gone full Borg and have been assimilated.

(You would not believe the cool stuff this ocular implant can do!)

So, I’m delighted, excited and just really pleased to OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCE

*clears throat*

*makes jazz hands*

My new erotic romance trilogy:

FALLING UNDER

The books will be

GOING UNDER (July 2014)

UNDER HIS TOUCH (January 2015)

UNDER CONTRACT (mmfflbrg 2015)

When you all get your paws on them, you’ll find that the titles really *do* reflect the stories themselves, which was important to me.

You all know about GOING UNDER already, because I had been calling it Emerald here. And yes, it’s all written. In fact, I’ll be working on developmental edits on it as soon as I finish this post.

An amusing story came out of my critique partner (CP) reviews of the initial draft, which carries a useful take-home message.

See, these books will also be a departure for me, because I’m including the hero’s point of view (POV). The Facets books were all from the heroine’s POV. Going Under, at least, alternates between the hero and heroine’s POV’s. (Probably they all will, but you never know what will happen when I get to actually writing them.) I wrote from the hero’s POV once before, in the fairly obscure Hunting the Siren, but this was my first significant effort to capture a “guy voice.”

Part of his voice emerged in that, at least in the lustful throes of sex, he thinks of her breasts as “tits.” To me, this is a convincingly guy thing. Particularly this guy. It’s a strong word, as these things go. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever used it in a story before – and pretty much not in real life either. Well, one of my CPs (nothing against you, darling!) mentioned, pretty much as her very first comment, that I needed to search for “tits” in the manuscript because I’d used it way too many times.

Taking her comment to heart, I searched for it and found 19 occurrences. In 308 pages and over 82,000 words. Conversely, I used the word “breast” well over 100 times. (Hey – it’s erotic romance. What did you expect?) That’s a 0.02% incidence of tits versus over 0.12% for breasts (I got tired of counting) – an order of magnitude in difference.

But, because “tits” struck her as such a strong word, it stood out.

I guess I mention this because readers will always have their pet peeves. Especially with sexual terms. Sometimes a blog post or Twitter hashtag will prompt people to riff on the words they hate. “Moist” crops up quite often. Surprisingly often, to me, because I don’t have the issue with it that so many seem to.

The thing is – this is something a writer simply cannot control for.

It falls under the “you can’t please everyone” umbrella. It’s simply not worth worrying about. Let the readers have their fun and riff on most-hated words and phrases – heavens know, I have them, too – but don’t write accordingly.

Way too crazy making to fret over too many tits.

I need that on a t-shirt.

Master of the Opera – Act 1 is Free!

Free Read, Contemporary Romance, Erotic Romance, Phantom of the Opera Lots of exciting news to share today! First of all, Act 1 of Master of the Opera, Passionate Overture, is FREE everywhere!
Here’s a few links to download that puppy:

ARe
Blio
Books on Board
Google Play
Kobo
Nook
Amazon

Also, Act 3: Phantom Serenade is releasing on Thursday, February 6. You can read an excerpt here at the Contemporary Romance Cafe!

 Master of the Opera Act 3 600

Finally, Act V: A Haunting Duet, is available for review on Net Galley!! As always, if you have trouble getting approved, tag me somewhere and let me know. I have a WIDGET (one widget to rule them all!) that you can use.Master of the Opera Act 5 600