RITA ® Award-Winning Author of Fantasy Romance
//Should you throw out the first 30 pages of your manuscript? Um, no. Bad advice. BUT, figuring out where to start a story is an ongoing challenge, craftwise, and also because the marketplace changes rapidly.
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I found out by chance this morning that GOING UNDER released in French today! (I happened to see my name on Twitter in relation to it – Harlequin never tells us these things.) It’s the same title, SEXY GAMES, as the Italian translation. Love this sexy cover, too. Unlike the Italian version, I ought to be able to read this one. I checked the Harlequin Author Network (mainly to make sure this version was legit!) and it looks like UNDER HIS TOUCH will also release in French in May. C’est magnifique!
Sexy games Tome 1 Elle est son fantasme le plus absolu. Mais, pour la faire sienne, il va devoir découvrir son secret. « Je réaliserai tous tes fantasmes. Mais, d’abord, tu dois apprendre à me faire confiance. » Confiance ? Emily ne se fie à personne ! C’est la seule façon de garantir sa sécurité, et la raison pour laquelle elle a veillé à garder ses distances avec les habitants de la petite île brumeuse de la côte Est où elle a trouvé refuge sous une fausse identité. Pourtant, face à Fox Mullins, son nouveau – et très séduisant – voisin, elle sent un enivrant mélange de peur et d’excitation la gagner. Cet homme éveille en elle un désir primitif. Quelque chose de puissant, de sombre… et de libérateur. Car, elle le devine, si elle s’abandonne à lui, il lui permettra d’oublier – pour quelques heures du moins – le secret qui ne la quitte jamais… A propos de l’auteur :Il y a bien longtemps que Jeffe Kennedy a trouvé sa vocation : l’écriture sous toutes ses formes. Romans, essais, et même poésie, rien ne lui résiste. Mais, depuis quelques années, c’est la romance qui a sa préférence, et plus particulièrement la romance érotique. La recette de son succès ? Deux héros aux personnalités complexes, un amour impossible et un désir irrésistible – le tout saupoudré d’une pincée de BDSM.
Pincée de BDSM? Un désir irrésistible?? Oui, oui, oui!!
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One of the fun things about writing in several genres and series is that sometimes exciting things happen in multiple worlds at the same time – a very frisky kind of serendipity!
If you haven’t seen it yet, the USA Today HEA Sci-Fi Encounters Blog has a great write up on Fantasy Romance, with terrific insights from the leading writers of the genre – including me, wow! – along with selections from their TBR (to be read) lists.
Also, Going Under tied for Honorable Mention (3rd Place) for Best Book of 2014 at the Love Romances Cafe! This is a readers’ Yahoo loop, so I don’t *think* there’s any way for me to link to it. That came as a total surprise – a thrilling one!
One of the most fun parts of being a writer – particularly in the romance community – is sharing the love with other authors. I’ve been so privileged in the last year to have developed even more friendships with writers who are writing similar stories and even reading mine. We get to have the great pleasure of talking about each others’ work with sincere enthusiasm. Two authors who I’ve been reading and loving – and who’ve been really great about suggesting my books to their readers – are Grace Draven and Jennifer Estep. Really fabulous ladies.
and the possibilities for collaboration go up.
For example, I’m participating in an anthology with five other amazing authors. We’re calling it DARK SECRETS: A PARANORMAL NOIR ANTHOLOGY. It’s going to be SO delicious, people!! The participating authors are Rachel Caine, Cynthia Eden, Megan Hart, Suzanne Johnson and Mina Khan. I’ve only read Megan Hart’s story – a chilling and sexy deal-with-the-devil tale – but I’ve read everyone’s blurbs. Really excited about this!
Through this anthology – and another weird, random connection – I’ve become quite chatty with Megan lately. Yesterday on IM she suggested an idea for a future project. Did I want to play? Yes, ma’am! I’m already percolating on that one. Her idea is terrific and I love being inspired that way. In a similar vein, I read and loved, loved, loved Rachel Caine’s PRINCE OF SHADOWS. Seriously amazing book. It’s a retelling of Romeo and Juliet, but from Benvolio’s point-of-view. Almost impossible to describe how super good it is. That said, Rachel doesn’t go for the smexy like I do, and I complained to her about the scene we did NOT get. (I don’t want to be spoilery, but if you’ve read it – and if you haven’t, you should! – you’ll know exactly what scene I mean.)
So she wrote it for me.
Ha! How awesome is that? Even better, I get to make it even hotter. I don’t know if she’ll share it publicly, but what a fun thing for me.
At any rate, this is kind of a rambly, gushy post, but that’s my mood today.
Sharing the love, people!
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I’m over at the Contemporary Romance Cafe today, talking about one of the best book compliments I’ve ever received.
//Yesterday was Release Day for my new contemporary erotic romance, Going Under!
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I mentioned the other day that the delightful Elisabeth Lane planned to recreate Bobby Prejean’s seared scallops from Ruby on her Cooking Up Romance blog. It’s up today. It’s just so amazing to see these recipes. Yes, I totally want to make them.
I also love that she gets Bobby – everything about him, from his controlling ways, to his need to feed people to his marshmallow heart. Yes, yes, yes.
Over at the Contemporary Romance Cafe today, I’m talking about my upcoming NEW erotic romance release, Going Under. There may be an excerpt for you all there. 🙂
If you’re in the U.S., Happy Independence Day and long weekend! (If you’re in Canada, we know you people just took the entire week off – you can’t fool us.)
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SO happy about this one!
//Guess what? Going Under is up on Net Galley!
I know I’ve been all The Mark of the Tala lately but, amazingly enough, Going Under comes out only a month from now! Where does the time go???
Going Under marks the first full-length erotic romance I’ve written and I *loved* doing it. There will be two more in the Falling Under series, with the next out in January.
Here’s the blurb on it:
Knowing all too well the damage online trolls can inflict, game designer Emily Bartwell takes privacy seriously. Living in solitude and working remotely under a male alias gives her a sense of security. The sexy writer renting the house next door ignites desires she’d forgotten she had, and when he invites her to play games of a very different sort, Em is ready and willing. Even if it means breaking all her own rules to abide by his.
Undercover tech reporter Fox Mullins is so close to the biggest scoop of his career: finding the elusive programmer Phoenix. An increasingly erotic adventure with his reserved but passionate new neighbor is the ideal way to heat up the chilly Pacific Northwest nights as he tracks the brilliant gamer.
At first Fox is happy to help Em explore her newly awakened kinky side, no holds barred, no strings attached. But as th
ey push the limits of intimacy, both physical and emotional, Fox discovers he’s not the only one keeping secrets. And revealing hers may mean betraying the one woman who embodies everything he desires.
And it already got a review in Publisher’s Weekly! (The link may be easier to read than the image, alas.
I really love the bit about “talent for organic relationship-building” because that’s so important to me. The stuff about secondary characters and showing more of the gaming world? Absolutely not what I wanted to do with this story, so I’m good there.
For those looking for news on the next Twelve Kingdoms books, I’m nearly done writing book 3, Ursula’s book, The Talon of the Hawk. It’s going to be a long one – fair warning. Probably a quarter again as long as Mark and The Tears of the Rose, Amelia’s book. I think you all will be pleased.
//I’m over at the Contemporary Romance Cafe today, talking about how writing advice at the wrong time can give your stories Shaken Baby Syndrome.
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Knowing all too well the damage online trolls can inflict, game designer Emily Bartwell takes privacy seriously. Living in solitude and working remotely under a male alias gives her a sense of security. The sexy writer renting the house next door ignites desires she’d forgotten she had, and when he invites her to play games of a very different sort, Em is ready and willing. Even if it means breaking all her own rules to abide by his.
Undercover tech reporter Fox Mullins is so close to the biggest scoop of his career: finding the elusive programmer Phoenix. An increasingly erotic adventure with his reserved but passionate new neighbor is the ideal way to heat up the chilly Pacific Northwest nights as he tracks the brilliant gamer.
At first Fox is happy to help Em explore her newly awakened kinky side, no holds barred, no strings attached. But as they push the limits of intimacy, both physical and emotional, Fox discovers he’s not the only one keeping secrets. And revealing hers may mean betraying the one woman who embodies everything he desires.