A new release and a BIG thank you

"There are so many people I have to thank for helping with this book: my wonderful critique partner Nara Malone for her valuable feedback; all of the Nine Naughty Novelists for their incredible friendship, support and encouragement through challenging times, in particular, PG Forte and Erin Nicholas who read this manuscript and also gave feedback; as always my family who support me no matter what; and most especially goddess editor Sue-Ellen Gower—thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support and input! I’m so glad we’re working together again, Suz!" 

That is the author note at the beginning of One Wicked Night,  my latest release (yesterday!) from Samhain Publishing. Just in case any of you Naughty Novelists don’t happen to read it, I wanted you to know how grateful I am to you. You all know the “challenging times” I went through over the last year and I wanted to acknowledge how much your support and encouragement meant to me. Every single one of you gave words of encouragement at various times and for various reasons, and helped me get this book out there.

One Wicked Night is one of those stories that “wrote itself”. It didn’t take a lot of research. I didn’t do a lot of planning. The characters developed very clearly and quickly in my mind. I never had moments where I was stuck on what they should do next. I loved Kaelin and Tyler and Nick, and I loved this story and I believed in it. And I hope readers like it too! Here’s a little excerpt!

The boys are back in town…
Ten years ago, Kaelin Daume spent a steamy summer home from college secretly hanging out with town bad boy Tyler Wirth and his best friend Nick Kernsted. The connection was warm, complicated, and came to a crashing end when she walked in on her two forbidden friends with another woman. The shocking scene of sex and bondage has haunted her boring, oh-so-vanilla life ever since.

The fallout from that night tore Tyler’s life apart. He left Mapleglen, disowned and disgraced, to build a successful advertising career and a unique relationship with Nick. Nothing could bring him back except his sister’s wedding, and he plans to hightail it back to Chicago as soon as it’s over. At least one good thing hasn’t changed: Kaelin is as sweet as ever. Except she doesn’t seem too thrilled to hear it.

As tensions run high, Kaelin can’t resist the temptation to commit one crazy act of rebellion. Once the web of secrets, sins and lies starts to unravel, though, their lives will never be the same…

---

Product Warnings

This book contains a nice girl who gets her naughty on with two hot men. M/M/F and M/M scenes may cause an increase in body temperature, pulse rate and respiration. Read with caution! For adult use only.

EXCERPT:

Their eyes met and held in a stretched-out connection.

She didn’t move away from his touch, although she was sitting with both her hands captured by his and Nick’s, sandwiched between them, but she wasn’t trying to get away, and he let his hand drift to her shoulder.

“You’re so sweet, Kaelin,” he said hoarsely. “You put the whole wedding together for Avery. You bailed out Scott. Even my mom loves you.”

A tiny huff of laughter escaped her at that.

Tyler looked at Nick, who also gazed at Kaelin’s face with a look of admiration and yes, hunger.

Nick wanted her too.

As if sensing Tyler’s gaze on him, Nick looked away from Kaelin, and his and Tyler’s gazes locked. Unspoken questions passed between them.

Tyler closed his eyes. It was futile to even let ideas like that tease the edges of his mind. Kaelin was a good girl, the best kind of good girl, sweet and innocent and no doubt as vanilla as soft-serve ice cream. He’d had to take drastic measures the last time he’d started having outrageous, inappropriate thoughts like that about her, and this could be no different.

“What’s wrong?” she whispered, big brown eyes focused on him when he opened his.

His mouth twisted. “Nothing.” He lifted the hand he still held and kissed her fingers. Her pupils went wide, eyes dark as she watched him. Hell. “You’re just so nice, Kaelin. Such a good girl.”

She went very still, sitting there on the couch between him and Nick.

“Really,” he continued. “Brent seemed like a nice guy too. You’d make a good couple.”

“Oh for Chrissakes!” The words exploded out of her mouth and she yanked her hands out of their grip. “I’m not that nice!”

And she grabbed Tyler’s head, yanked him toward her and kissed him hard.

Too stunned to even kiss her back, his head reeled as she shoved him away, but that was nothing compared to the bolt of lightning that struck him when she turned to Nick, grabbed him and kissed him too.

 Buy it at the Samhain Bookstore or Amazon or B&N

More Embarrassing Editor Comments!

It’s time for more embarrassing editor comments!

By carlapryor Photobucket

Since I just finished edits on my next Samhain release One Wicked Night (out October 25) I have some fresh new ones to add to my list! I had some definite blushing moments while editing this one! Some of these I blogged about before, but some of you may not have seen them.

When I started writing erotic romance I wasn’t prepared for the “intimate” nature of the editorial comments. But I’m always grateful for my editors’ input because they make the book so much better!

Back on page 60 he still had underwear on, and there’s been no update on that. Is he stroking through the fabric?

Again, there has been no update to the guys being on the bed in their undies (p60), so for this to be possible, you need to work in about him (and possibly Nick) taking off those boxers.

Considering that so far there’s been no anal sex, and the guys have both worn condoms, what’s to wash?

First up, a woman snaking her hand down to take care of herself when she's the meat in a very hot man-sandwich throws me right out of the scene and I wonder if the guys really have a clue what they're doing. Secondly, I’m always amazed when I see this in a story, that a hand can not only fit in the middle of that crush of bodies/groins, but that the woman can move her hand/finger once it’s there. If you decide you want to remove it, but feel she still needs the stimulation, her nipples are right near Nick’s mouth ;-) I also guess that I’m amazed that if two hot, sexy and horny guys can’t do something in this position to get her off, then what’s the point? ;-)

Dangler -  sounds like her gaze is speaking to both of them.

Um…no lube? She’s an anal virgin and he knows it. Is he trying to deliberately freak her out?

Since you just used “womb” about what about “Pussy” or “cunt”?

What about cross contamination. As a doc, he’d know not to put his mouth on her again after it has been on/in her anus.

Did it (his cock) soften from beforehand?

When did his finger enter her? Above he’s playing with her breasts with both hands.

This all sounds like Abby toyed with Abby’s nipples

This can’t be correct if she has hair there as you said above.

Gotta watch the  “her” and “she’s” when writing sex scenes with two women.

Didn’t Melina get a Brazilian for him?

Your womb is your uterus…I’m thinking it’s her vagina that is?

If she’s kissing his nipples, she wouldn’t really be lying on his chest, but leaning over him.

Is he wearing a condom?

If she’s on her tummy, how can any arousal be trailing to her anus? Wouldn’t that be going against gravity?

Just checking… deliberately no condom this time, or did he just forget?

The way this is phrased, it’s not clear whether it’s her mouth or his cock that’s “hot and velvet, hard and pulsing”

Dangler – reads as though she is hot, hard and throbbing

If she’s on the bottom, why would she need to lift her head?

This reads as if her neck is sitting beside her on his couch.

Is this anal or vaginal?

Release day for POWER SHIFT!!

I'm so excited about the release of Power Shift! This book wasn't easy to write. A flawed and wounded hero, and a power shift - or should I call it switch? - that I've never written before made it difficult. But I'm so happy with how it turned out in the end.

For those of you who’ve read my book Power Struggle, you may remember Gabe, the Master Dom from le Château who helped Tori and Dev figure things out when their “power struggle” threatened to end their new relationship. So many people commented about wanting Gabe’s story, and I really wanted to write it, but it took a while! Turns out Gabe is a very complicated man. 

Okay, getting off topic for a moment - don’t you love it when writers talk about their characters like they’re real people? As if they “discovered” this character and put him in a story? I mean, really. I invented Gabe. I created him. I’m the one who made him complicated. Let’s be real here. But that’s how it feels, for me anyway. Yes, I created him, but he became so real to me, I believe in his background and all the things he went through and why he is the way he is.

It was also difficult to find the perfect woman for Gabe. I actually rejected several. They even had names. But they just weren’t good enough for him. (Go ahead, roll your eyes at my craziness, believe me - I understand. Writers are nuts.) Reagan is a woman who’s had to overcome some struggles of her own and has become a strong, independent woman. She’s strong enough for Gabe—strong enough to stand up to him but also strong enough to submit to him. But...is Gabe strong enough for her?  

I also want to mention that if you’ve read Taming Tara, you will meet up again with Tara and Joe in Power Shift. And if you’ve read Taming Tara and Power Struggle, I think you’ll like the Epilogue at the end of Power Shift, which I did not include in my original version of the manuscript. During edits, my editor suggested an epilogue. At first I had no idea what I was going to say! Should I tell you that the characters spoke to me and told me what to write? Really, I’m sane! I am, I am!  

As usual on release days, I give away a copy of my book to one of my newsletter subscribers, so I you’d like to enter, you can sign up here:

Click to join KellyJamiesonnewsletter

Here's a little excerpt from Power Shift:

Sparks once again danced in the air around them, making her skin warm and tingly.

“What happened to your marriage?” he asked softly, leaning closer.

She moved her head from side to side. “You didn’t answer my question. What makes you think I’ll answer yours?”

“Fair enough. My wife...” He hesitated and she sensed he was about to tell her something he hadn’t told many people. Her chest tightened. “My wife didn’t like to have sex.”

She choked on her wine. “Oh.”

He grinned and once again, the genuine smile lit up his face. The corners of his eyes crinkled up appealingly. “You asked.”

She licked her bottom lip. She wanted to look him up and down and say, “Was she crazy?” because he was gorgeous and so damn sexy she was having a hard time concentrating on business every time she was with him, lust rolling inside her. But instead she looked down at her hands holding the stem of her wineglass.

“Sex can definitely ruin a marriage,” she said.

“Speaking from experience?” he asked softly.

“You know, this is an entirely inappropriate conversation for two business colleagues,” she said, unhappy with the breathless quality of her voice. But when she looked up at him and saw the way he was looking at her, pretty much the up and down, I-want-to-eat-you-up look she’d wanted to give him a moment ago, with an added layer of power, her entire body went hot.

“We can’t be friends, too?” he asked softly.

She tried to ignore the inferno in her face. “Mr. Pejovic.” She leaned across the table. “Are you flirting with me?”

Flirting? He didn’t know how the hell to flirt. His relationships had involved seeking people out in the club, women with needs that matched his own. The feeling that Reagan had those needs kept growing every time he saw her. And yet she didn’t seem aware of it at all.

Aware of him, certainly. He wasn’t oblivious to the sexual tension arcing between them every time they met. He’d been amused by her distraction earlier in his office, knew she was feeling it too. But the subtle cues that told him what she needed were at odds with her determination to appear assertive and in control. Her innocence and gentleness, the way her gaze dropped sometimes, not with uncertainty― she was clearly confident and assertive―but rather just a subtle deference in her tone and body language. The way she tried so hard to keep control. It was annoying. Frustrating. Sexy as hell. And a challenge.

He sipped his beer, watching her, and he thought of Tori. How her strength had appealed to him. How an easy conquest no longer satisfied. And he had to admit, despite the hints of submission, Reagan was strong. But what the hell was he thinking? He’d already decided he was taking a break, no matter how appealing the sub.

On the other hand, flirting―just flirting, with a woman, not in the club―was...fun.

She waited for his answer and he shook his head, smiling in spite of his internal battle between the decision he’d made and his attraction to her. Between his certainty that he could give her something and his suspicion that she could make him feel things he wasn’t sure he wanted to feel.

“You know what?” He too leaned forward, voice low among the other people on the patio, feeling like he was stepping off a scaffolding into thin air. “I think I am.”

Not a hockey blog...

And it's killing me!! WE HAVE AN NHL TEAM AGAIN!!!

But, ahem. I have a print book to promote! And since I have a pile of shiny pretty print books here (see there it is, right there↓) I'm going to give one away.

Lost and Found comes out in print next week. This is a book that takes some risks, incorporating things that aren't usually found in romance novels, like infertility, sex for the sake of procreation, infidelity and, oh yeah, a ménage à trois! It's gotten great reviews and reader feedback! Yay! The blurb is below and you can read an excerpt here. But how about for something different, I talk about the setting of the story?

If you’ve seen the trailer for the book (view it here) you’ll know that the ocean features prominently in the story. Krissa and Derek live in Montecito, California, in a fictional house on the Pacific Ocean. (If you’ve read the book, I encourage you to watch the trailer again, I think it’s much more moving when you know the story!)

Some of the images I used in the trailer are ones taken by my husband, a professional photographer who went to photography school in Santa Barbara, California, which is now one of our favourite places to visit, and which is why I set many of my stories there! Also, I love the ocean which is so exotic and fascinating for a girl from the middle of the prairies.

© Lance Thomson Photographic

The heroine of Lost and Found, Krissa, likes to wander on the beach when she has important things to think about. The vast, seemingly endless ocean helps put her problems into perspective and the ceaseless rhythm of the waves onto shore soothes her.

When Nate arrives in Montecito, he’s a photographer in danger of losing his career. He’s made his fortune photographing water – often the ocean – in calm conditions and using long exposures that make the water smooth and glassy and tranquil. He too, finds comfort in walking on the beach and sitting beside the ocean.

A number of images in the story are symbolic of Krissa, Nate and Derek’s lives –  turbulent, crashing waves; a tangled mass of seaweed, impossible to unravel; a seashell that’s beautiful and perfect on the outside, but empty and lifeless inside.

As well as photographs, here are a couple of poems that provided some inspiration to me when writing Lost and Found:

From Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Sea Shore:

Behold the Sea,
The opaline, the plentiful and strong,
Yet beautiful as is the rose in June,
Fresh as the trickling rainbow of July;
Sea full of food, the nourisher of kinds,
Purger of earth, and medicine of men;
Creating a sweet climate by my breath,
Washing out harms and griefs from memory,
And, in my mathematic ebb and flow,
Giving a hint of that which changes not.

And ‘maggy and milly and molly and may’
by ee cummings:

maggy and milly and molly and may

went down to the beach(to play one day)  

and maggie discovered a shell that sang

so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles,and  

milly befriended a stranded star

whose rays five languid fingers were;  

and molly was chased by a horrible thing

which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and  

may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.  

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)

its always ourselves we find in the sea

I hope the setting adds to the experience of reading the book!

BLURB:
To find happiness, first you have to find yourself.

Krissa has always been the responsible one. Driven to fulfill her mother’s abandoned dreams, to make her husband Derek happy. She’s brought that single-minded determination to the one dream she has for herself—a child. Except she and Derek can’t conceive, and Derek refuses to consider using a stranger’s sperm. The result? Guilt that her desperation is causing their marital rift.

The last thing they need is a long-term houseguest, but Derek’s best friend Nate, a nomadic photographer recovering from a career-threatening eye disorder, has nowhere else to go.

Nate thought his friends’ home would be a temporary haven from the grief that has dogged his heels since his wife died. Instead he’s in the middle of a marriage in meltdown. Soon their friendship develops an underlying hum of forbidden sexual tension. When Krissa proposes a wild idea—that Nate be their sperm donor—Derek has an even wilder proposal: bypass the fertility clinic and accept Nate’s donation straight from the source.

At first, Krissa believes she’s on the fast track to having her dream. But it quickly becomes clear that when the heart gets involved—and secrets are revealed—the simplest of arrangements can become entangled beyond belief. Or repair…

Warning: This title contains a man who’s lost, the woman he finds, sizzling ménage sex, tender romantic sex, love lost and love found.

Buy it here:
Amazon
Samhain
Barnes & Noble

OKAY!! TO WIN A PRINT COPY OF LOST AND FOUND, LEAVE A COMMENT WITH THE NAME OF YOUR FAVOURITE NHL TEAM. OR ANY NHL TEAM.

I know, I know, it has nothing to do with Lost and Found, but humour me, y'all! Leave your email addy if you can, or check back tonight for the winner!

The Naughties Get Smutty with Crystal Jordan

Greeting from sunny California! Okay, I'm kidding. It's actually raining here in my neck of the woods in Cali, but considering I've lived in places where they made me dig my car out from under a small mountain of snow just to get to work every morning, I'll take the rain and not complain.

Right, right. You don't want me to talk about the weather. All righty then, here's how I'm going to roll today. We have a theme we're talking about this week, so I'll play with that. Then I'm going to lay down an excerpt on you from my book that comes out next month. My first full-length novel even, so I'm so excited I could just burst about it. And to make up the fact that I'm throwing down some blatant pimpage on you, I'm going to offer up some free goodness that plays into both my new book and being a Smutketeer.

Eden, naughty girl that she is, told me we should talk about our favorite smutty moment on film. Because we're Smutketeers, don't you know? We know smut when we see it. And, for the record, she said it wasn't allowed to be porn. Well, fine, if you want to limit my creativity that way. Hee.

All right, seriously. Smuttiest film moment. I asked my guy, and he voted for the love scene in Last Tango in Paris, but I haven't watched that one--I may have to now! I have to admit the smutness that revved me up was that sex scene in Brokeback Mountain. Anyone who's seen the movie knows exactly what I'm talking about. Oh, yeah. That late night moment, two hot guys in a tent together and they go from zero to hot sex in about 2.5 seconds. I wasn't the only one getting an embarrassing little flush going in the theater, was I?

Mmm-hmm. Yum. That's definitely the smuttiest moment that comes to mind for me. Jake and Heath worked the hell out of that movie.

While several of my books have guy on guy sex scenes, my upcoming one EMBRACE THE NIGHT is just one guy with one girl. Though, I'm toying with a guy-on-guy-on-girl ménage for later in the series. It might end up being a permanent threesome or one of the guys might go off and find another girl. The characters haven't told me yet. Anyway, enough teasing and on to some real details about the book.

They're the Magickal ones...vampires, werewolves, witches, and fae who dwell among humans, united by extraordinary talents and unbridled sexual powers...

Chloe Standish went looking for a one-night stand to erase the memories of her cheating ex--and found the hottest sex of her life. A witch and biochemist working on a cure for werewolves, Chloe knows all about magic, yet Merek Kingston evoked a spellbinding lust beyond anything she'd ever felt. But now her ex-boyfriend and research partner is dead, his part of the formula in terrorists' hands...and the detective in charge is Merek, the same man who's haunted her dreams ever since the frenzied night together.

Chloe is the one person whose future Merek can't predict...the only woman who could make him break every rule just to posses her again. Nothing will stop him from protecting her, and an explosive passion too primal, too perfect to forget...

Where to get EMBRACE THE NIGHT (which comes out on May 31st)--Amazon, Amazon Canada, Barnes & Noble, B-A-M, Borders, Chapters, IndieBound, Powell's


Excerpt

“Mmmph.” Something heavy landed on Chloe's stomach, jerking her out of the erotic dream, the erotic memory. Her heart thundered, sweat slid down her face, and her lungs heaved in a desperate bid for air. Icy fear and hot lust warred for dominance inside her as the fantasy gave way to reality. She shuddered, her fingers balling in soft cotton sheets. Her familiar's eyes glowed in the low lighting of the lamp she'd left on, a freakish little alien head peering down at her. Ophelia blinked, her whiskers twitching. Chloe groaned, shoved the Siamese cat off her belly, and flopped over to bury her face in the pillow. “Gods.”

How many times was she going to have that dream? How often did she have to relive that wild night? It had happened two months ago, and hardly a night had passed that she hadn't had the dream.

Maybe she just needed to get laid. Get that night out of her system. She moaned into her pillow, squeezing her thighs together as a lingering throb of desire went through her. That was how she'd ended up having that night in the first place, by telling herself she needed to get laid, to get her cheating ex out of her system.

That had gone so well for her.

She'd gone out to Sanguine, her favorite Magickals-only private club, scoped out every species of hotty the Magickal community had to offer--elves, Fae, vampires, werewolves, warlocks--mentally debated the sexual gifts each species could bring to the table--bedroom, whatever--and then she'd seen him. After that, there'd been no contest. Chemistry was a bitch like that. She would know--she was a biochemist.

Sighing, she rolled over, kicked the sheet off of her, and forked her hands through her sweaty hair. Her body still burned, her sex aching with a need to be filled with more than just her vibrator. “Damn it.”

Dwelling on her lack of a love life since her one-night stand wouldn't help her. And thinking about Damien-Raines-the scum-sucking-vampire who'd left her for a she-vamp he'd knocked up, which was where her shame spiral had started, wouldn't help her disposition at all. However, the fact that his ferret familiar was probably still hexed into an ugly lampshade made her lips quirk. Vampires sucked at casting spells. Damien had just sucked, period. Too bad it had taken her so long to figure that out.

She heaved herself out of bed and played soccer with Ophelia's sinuous body as she tried to twine herself around Chloe's legs while she walked. Tripping, she hit the swinging door to the kitchen and almost face-planted into the floor. “Damn it, Ophelia.”

The cat sniffed, leaped up onto the counter, and flicked a delicate paw at her food bowl in an unmistakable feline demand. Chloe rolled her eyes and grumbled all the way to the cabinet that contained the outrageously expensive cat cuisine her familiar liked. Dumping the contents into the food dish, Chloe went about retrieving her own sustenance while the cat dug in.

Thirty seconds later, she had a steaming mug of coffee cradled between her palms. The first sip made her moan. “Ahhh.”

Bless the Normal human who'd invented the automatic coffeemaker. Magic did some awesome things, but sometimes Normal technology trumped all. She leaned against her counter and gazed out her kitchen window at the morning mist shrouding her Queen Anne Hill neighborhood, drifting out into downtown Seattle. The city lights were a pretty haze that streaked the skyline. Sunbeams began to pierce the fog, so she knew it would be a rare sunny day in the Emerald City. Yesterday had been wicked hot, too, but Chloe loved the brightness. She'd have to remember to go for a walk during lunch today.

Bon Jovi's “Bad Medicine” blared from her cell phone, jolting her from her reverie, and she jogged into her living room to grab it from the charger. Her best friend, Tess's, name popped up on the caller ID. Grinning, Chloe punched the button to answer. “Dr. Jones, I presume. What are you doing up at the ass crack of dawn this morning?”

“Still haven't slept from last night.” A huge yawn fuzzed the phone line. “We're short-staffed so I pulled a double. Budget cuts.”

“Ouch.”

“Tell me about it.” Tess worked as a pathologist for the FBI. The Normal side of the FBI. She was one of the most Normal humans Chloe had ever met. “I haven't put in hours this awful since my residency.”

Along with werewolf Jaya Nemov, they'd become friends in med school, which was the only reason Chloe and Jaya had gotten close to anyone outside the Magickal community. Most Magickals didn't bother because it was just too hard to keep people in their lives they had to constantly lie to about who and what they were.

Chloe knew she should probably ease out of her relationship with Tess, but when Jaya died during a full moon Change, it emphasized to Chloe that a good friend was hard to come by, magic or no magic. Tess might never know the truth behind Jaya's death, but she'd still shared the loss of someone they all loved. So, Chloe kept her friend and did what she had to do to keep her secrets.

Then again, a part of her had always wondered if the reason she held on to Tess was because her long-dead mother had been a Normal. She grinned, and it wasn't nice. Her family was almost as horrified that she had befriended a Normal as they had been when her father had married one and bred a halfling.

Another yawn sounded through the phone, recapturing Chloe's attention. Her grin softened and she cradled the phone closer to her ear. “So, you're calling because . . . you want to get together for dinner tonight and tell me more about the suckfest of budget cuts?”

Tess chuckled. “You're a mind reader.”

“Sure. That's totally a plausible explanation, Doctor.” Chloe inserted as much drawling derision into her voice as possible, and Tess laughed. Telepathy wasn't one of Chloe's magical skills, so it wasn't an outright lie, it just wasn't the whole truth. This time. A familiar twist of guilt knotted her insides, but she pushed it aside. Tess was Normal, Chloe was Magickal; there was nothing she could do about the need to prevaricate. “How about you meet me here around seven?”

“Perfect. See ya. I'm hitting the hay now.” The call was punctuated with one final yawn from Tess before both women disconnected.

Chloe went to drop the phone in her purse and saw she'd missed a call about an hour before. There was a voicemail message waiting for her. She hadn't heard the phone ring, but then, why would her subconscious want her to wake up from a steamy episode of her regularly scheduled Merek-dream?

She shoved a hand through her disheveled hair and pushed the reminder of her one-night warlock out of her mind. Flipping her cell over to speakerphone, she accessed her voicemail while she wandered into her bedroom to dress for work.

A deep, silken male voice emerged from her phone. “Chloe, it's Damien.”

Chills crept down Chloe's spine and a hollow feeling settled in the pit of her stomach. The last person she expected to get a call from was Damien. Hell, the last person she wanted a phone call from was Damien. Shaking off that inane thought, Chloe zipped up her skirt and shoved her feet into a pair of ballet flats. While she walked into the bathroom to brush her teeth and hair, she hit the buttons to replay the message she hadn't really listened to.

“Chloe, it's Damien.” A muffled thump sounded in the background of the call, but Damien hurried on. “I'm sorry to bother you at home. Don't erase this . . . I need to talk to you about work. It's . . . It's important to the project. Call me back. Please.” The call ended abruptly, as if someone had stabbed the End button with more force than necessary.

The please gave her pause. Damien never said please. Then again, he also never said I'm sorry. He was a vampire. They were, by definition, coldblooded. They also tended to have superiority complexes and thought everyone, from other Magickal species to Normals, were so far beneath them they didn't even register on their radar. Sure, most of them would stoop to having a fling with a non-vampire, maybe one or two non-vampire friends, just for variety, but anything else was out of the question. They didn't mix.

Luckily, Chloe hadn't wanted more than that from Damien, but she had expected fidelity while they were together. Apparently, that had been beneath him, too. She sighed, disconnected the call, and slid her cell into her pocket.

The worst part about dating someone you worked with was when it ended badly. She'd learned that lesson the hard way. They were both team leads in pharmaceutical R&D for Desmodus Industries, but since those teams were working on the same project, they did see each other, but not that often. Thank the Gods.

Shoving her arms into a jacket, she picked up her handbag and headed for the side door that lead to her detached garage. If the bloodsucker wanted to talk to her about work, he could do it when she got there.

She wasn't calling him back.

-------

Since you made it to the end of the blog post, here's what you can win. Just make a comment on this post--tell me what your favorite paranormal being is, since I have so many I'll be playing with in the EMBRACE THE NIGHT series--and you're entered to win a pair of copper “Wicked Witch” earrings AND your very own copy of the book. They're kind of steampunky, which is Smutketeer-ish, and the wicked witch label fit my new book, so I just couldn't pass them up when I saw them on Etsy (this contest is limited to people in the continental US. Sorry!).



Hope it was good for you too!

-Crystal Jordan

All for Smut, and Smut for all!

www.smutketeers.com

Athlete romance heroes - yay or nay?

I’ve read the advice that romance writers should never write about heroes who are athletes. But I’ve broken rules before, and writing a romance with a hockey player hero was something I always wanted to do. So I did it!

Why shouldn’t we use athletes as heroes? I actually don’t know the reason behind it other than I always thought it was maybe because they were “overused” and people got tired of them. But actually, I haven’t read many romances where the hero is a professional athlete. Susan Elizabeth Phillips writes about great football players. One of my favourite Sandra Brown books, Play Dirty, is about a (former) NFL quarterback - OMG I loved Griff. I’ve read a few books about hockey players - a couple of Harlequins and a Rachel Gibson book. Erin McCarthy writes some great stories about NASCAR racers and Jill Shalvis has written about baseball players.

Today is release day for my book Breakaway, which features a professional hockey player hero. Lest you think that hockey players are big and ugly and have no teeth, behold:


Zach Parise (Can I just say a hockey player in a suit is sooooo hot)




Henrik Lundqvist



Jose Theodore



Mike Camalleri



Maxime Lapierre



Patrick Sharp

But of course, it’s not looks that make a hero, although big muscles and a sexy smile do help! Qualities of determination, passion, loyalty, dedication, sacrifice and courage are important for heroes too. And don’t professional athletes have all those? In Breakaway, Jase is a man who grew up with a lot of struggles that made him determined to succeed. He’s loyal to his team, dedicated to his sport and passionate about hockey. He’s brave enough to fight when he needs to, but smart enough to step away when fighting isn’t right. He’s not perfect—he’s afraid of commitment and responsibility outside the rink (at least, at first) and he’s a fun loving guy rather than serious. But a hero is also someone who’s brave enough to face his flaws and fears and who is willing to grow.

In Breakaway, Remi’s best friend isn’t thrilled that Remi is getting involved with a professional athlete. She’s thinking about the athletes who've been in the news lately—men who cheat on their wives. Men who are accused of rape or "sexting". Men who get drunk and crash their cars. Men who take performance enhancing drugs. Some of the qualities that make them so successful—single-minded determination and ambition —can also turn selfish. And when an athlete becomes a “star”, when he becomes wealthy, able to do whatever he wants, buy whatever he wants, maybe that can change him. Maybe he feels privileged, entitled, above the law.

Jase is successful and he has reporters and puck bunnies stalking him, and he’s definitely wealthy, but at his core he remains profoundly grateful for the talent he’s been given and determined to make the best of that by working hard at his profession. Yes, it’s a game, but even fun-loving Jase knows it’s a business and it’s serious. And when the chips are down—oh, sorry wrong game metaphor. How about, when the puck is dropped, Jase mans up and takes responsibility for his actions.

Any other athlete romance heroes you’ve fallen in love with?

For an excerpt from Breakaway visit my blog.
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And if you join my newsletter group you can enter to win a copy - I give away one copy of every new release to one newsletter subscriber!


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Not a hockey blog...

But it's killing me!! WE HAVE AN NHL TEAM AGAIN!!!


Ahem. I also have a print book to promote, and since I have a pile of shiny, pretty print books (see there it is, right there  ↓) I'm going to give one away!

 

Lost and Found comes out in print next week. Blurb is below and read an excerpt here. This is a book that takes some risks, dealing with subject usually not found in romance novels -- sex for the sake of getting pregnant, infertility, infidelity...and oh yeah, a menage a trois. It's gotten some really great reviews!! Yay!!  But how about today I talk about the setting of the book just for something different?

If you’ve seen the trailer for the book (view it here) you’ll know that the ocean features prominently in the story. Krissa and Derek live in Montecito, California, in a fictional house on the Pacific Ocean. (If you’ve read the book, I encourage you to watch the trailer again, I think it’s much more moving when you know the story!)

Some of the images I used in the trailer are ones taken by my husband, a professional photographer who went to photography school in Santa Barbara, California, which is now one of our favourite places to visit, and which is why I set many of my stories there!

© Lance Thomson Photographic 

The heroine of Lost and Found, Krissa, likes to wander on the beach when she has important things to think about. The vast, seemingly endless ocean helps put her problems into perspective and the ceaseless rhythm of the waves onto shore soothes her.

When Nate arrives in Montecito, he’s a photographer in danger of losing his career. He’s made his fortune photographing water – often the ocean – in calm conditions and using long exposures that make the water smooth and glassy and tranquil. He too, finds comfort in walking on the beach and sitting beside the ocean.

A number of images in the story are symbolic of Krissa, Nate and Derek’s lives –  turbulent, crashing waves; a tangled mass of seaweed, impossible to unravel; a seashell that’s beautiful and perfect on the outside, but empty and lifeless inside.

As well as photographs, here are a couple of poems that provided some inspiration to me when writing Lost and Found:

From Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Sea Shore:

Behold the Sea,
The opaline, the plentiful and strong,
Yet beautiful as is the rose in June,
Fresh as the trickling rainbow of July;
Sea full of food, the nourisher of kinds,
Purger of earth, and medicine of men;
Creating a sweet climate by my breath,
Washing out harms and griefs from memory,
And, in my mathematic ebb and flow,
Giving a hint of that which changes not.

And ‘maggy and milly and molly and may’ by ee cummings:

maggy and milly and molly and may

went down to the beach(to play one day)  

and maggie discovered a shell that sang

so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles,and  

milly befriended a stranded star

whose rays five languid fingers were;  

and molly was chased by a horrible thing

which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stone

as small as a world and as large as alone.  

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)

its always ourselves we find in the sea

I hope the setting adds to the story for you!

BLURB:

 To find happiness, first you have to find yourself.

Krissa has always been the responsible one. Driven to fulfill her mother’s abandoned dreams, to make her husband Derek happy. She’s brought that single-minded determination to the one dream she has for herself—a child. Except she and Derek can’t conceive, and Derek refuses to consider using a stranger’s sperm. The result? Guilt that her desperation is causing their marital rift.

The last thing they need is a long-term houseguest, but Derek’s best friend Nate, a nomadic photographer recovering from a career-threatening eye disorder, has nowhere else to go.
Nate thought his friends’ home would be a temporary haven from the grief that has dogged his heels since his wife died. Instead he’s in the middle of a marriage in meltdown. Soon their friendship develops an underlying hum of forbidden sexual tension. When Krissa proposes a wild idea—that Nate be their sperm donor—Derek has an even wilder proposal: bypass the fertility clinic and accept Nate’s donation straight from the source.

At first, Krissa believes she’s on the fast track to having her dream. But it quickly becomes clear that when the heart gets involved—and secrets are revealed—the simplest of arrangements can become entangled beyond belief. Or repair…

---

Product Warnings

This title contains a man who’s lost, the woman he finds, sizzling ménage sex, tender romantic sex, love lost and love found.

OKAY!! TO WIN A PRINT BOOK ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS LEAVE A COMMENT WITH YOUR FAVOURITE NHL TEAM!! (C'mon y'all can come up with something...Jets, Jets, Jets...)
I know it has nothing to do with Lost and Found  but humour me! Leave your email addy if you can or be sure to check back tonight for the winner!