A hot summer release

I'm so excited. Blood Lines Bitter Love released overnight last night. Amaretto is bomb. I really enjoyed writing him.

Just look at my cover! *points and squeals*

Blurb:

Amaretto is out for a night on the town, a little dinner, a little dancing, maybe a little getting lucky...until he gets a stake in the back. Good thing he really is a vampire.

After getting knocked out by his prey, the would-be vampire hunter, Leif comes to...tied up and at the sexy vampire's mercy. His wannabe slayer days are over. Now he's got no choice but to team up with Amaretto and catch the rogue vampire terrorizing his city.

Soon, their nights are spent pursuing the killer and building sexual tension between them. Leif can't be attracted to a vampire, can he? The sex is hot and there's definitely something there, but Amaretto's not into forevers. Still, he's never been so tempted to try something long term as he is with Leif. When Leif takes off and gets himself into trouble with the killer, who's all too human, it's up to Amaretto to figure out how to save him and whether he can find a love that's never bitter, only sweet.

To read an excerpt.

Mechele Armstrong

http://www.mechelearmstrong.com

http://www.melanylogen.com

Enticements Now Available from Ellora's Cave!

Woohoo! Enticements is now available from Ellora's Cave! This PRINT book contains Capturing Carly and Craving Candy, books 3 and 4 of the Awakening Desires series.

The first two books in the series Katie’s Art of Seduction and Erin’s Fancy are also available in print.

All of the books in the Awakening Desires series are also available in download from Ellora's Cave.

Awakening Desires - Capturing Carly By N.J. Walters

Third in the Awakening Desires series.

Carly Ames has yearned for Nathan Connors for more years than she cares to think about. One wild night of sex with him resulted in their quick engagement. But now that she has Nathan, she's not quite sure that she can handle him.

Big and tough, Nathan is very well suited to his job as a sheriff's deputy. Protective and forthright, he is definitely used to being in charge. Now he wants to be in control of her sexual pleasure, but fears his sexual preferences will scare a good girl like her.

As circumstances conspire to keep them apart, Nathan senses that Carly is having second thoughts. Now he must convince her that she's more than woman enough to meet his demands, in and out of the bedroom, because now that he's captured Carly, there is no way he is letting her go.

Awakening Desires - Craving Candy By N.J. Walters

Fourth in the Awakening Desires series.

Candy Logan loves her job as a publicist for TK Publishing, but her newest client is causing her problems. Determined to meet the elusive Lucas Squires and get him to agree to publicize his upcoming book, she crashes a party that he is giving in hopes of cornering him.

Lucas wishes he'd never let his friend talk him into writing a cookbook. He has his hands full opening a new location of his café, Coffee Breaks. He forgets all about his business problems, however, when a woman straight out of his dreams walks into his party. He knows he can't let her leave without finding out who she is.

Sparks fly between Candy and Lucas from the first moment they lay eyes on each other. The sexual attraction is immediate and consuming, but a case of mistaken identity gets their relationship off to a rocky start. Just when things start to smooth out between them, issues from each of their pasts threaten their budding relationship.

Music to Write By

Do you listen to music while you write? Or while you read? Work? Play?

Recently, I’ve seen authors include their Play Lists either in the fronts or backs of their books, presenting the music that inspired them while they wrote.

I’d love to be able to do that, too, but I can’t listen to music while I do anything else that requires significant concentration.

A lot of people say that music helps them get in the mood, or helps them focus or concentrate. For some, it helps to shut out other noises and activities that would divert their attention. For others it dispels a quiet and an emptiness that is a distraction in itself.

But music is itself the distraction for me. I’m not sure if it’s because I had a fair amount of musical training or if it’s simply that I have a compulsively analytical mind. Music never fades into the background for me the way it seems to do for many people.

Even while I try not to pay attention, my mind starts picking up on the rhythm pattern, the key, the musical hooks, any dissonances or other unusual features. If the music has words, I try to sing along, even though damage to my vocal cords from a couple of sinus surgeries has reduced my once almost four-octave range to a croaky octave and a half.

I love to feel the way the words fit into the music and interact with the rhythm. I can’t help but analyze the chord changes, the interesting riffs and odd bass runs, the melodic highlights and the mood set by the percussion.

Doesn’t matter whether it’s classical, rock, pop, hip-hop, jazz, whatever. You play, I’ll listen. And analyze. The only instrument I play is guitar, but if I’m listening to an orchestral work, that doesn’t stop me from picking through the rippling swells of the violins, the rushing force of the lighter woodwinds, the contained bellow of the brass and the romping beat of the percussion.

Sometimes even when there is no music playing, I hear it in my head, and my mind wraps around the notes, picking them out on the fretboard of an air guitar, adding vocals in my mind...

Wait...

I’m supposed to be writing a blog entry right now.

-- Karen McCullough

Unconscious writing?

Summer is just starting to wane. It's still hot, muggy, and the flowers are blooming, but the thing that always tells me the seasons, more than weather, is the light. There's a certain angle of light that tells me we're at the peak of summer, then the light changes and I know it's waning, it's passing, etc.

Odd how our senses catalog these things before the brain really processes it. It's almost instinctive, I think, this evaluation of our surrounding without conscious thought.

I think writing is like that, too. When I allow myself to drop into a book (and a character and a place), the writing is instinctive. Words flow out, scenes develop, and I don't have to consciously craft a chapter. I 'hear' dialog and I 'see' a setting. When that happens, it's almost magical. I wake up from a trance and realize I've written two chapters and wow, the book is heading in a direction I didn't anticipate.

That's fun. And it's for those times that I write -- for that feeling of 'slipping away' somewhere else. I have more fun in my own head than any TV show can provide, and I suspect other writers would say the same.

Now to go back into that place ....

A Legal Affair by N.J. Walters--Now Available

A LEGAL AFFAIR is now available from Samhain Publishing.

Purchase it from My Bookstore and More.

Blurb:
Book 5 of the Jamesville series.

Alicia Flint enjoys her community, her home, and her career as a lawyer. But since her livelihood depends on her spotless reputation, it’s not easy to even date in this small town, much less take a lover.

Then a chance encounter with a stranger at a friend’s wedding tempts her to do something she’s never done before—have a red-hot, one-night stand. The guy will be gone tomorrow; no one need ever know her delicious little secret.

Gill Baron has come to Jamesville to visit friends and figure out what he wants to do with the rest of his life. As a newly retired, burnt-out cop, he’s not looking for love, but he won’t say not to a night of no-strings sex with the seductive brunette. A night that leaves him wanting more.

When she meets the newest investigator on her latest case, Alicia is shocked to come face-to-face with Mr. One-Night-Stand. Jamesville doesn’t need another lawyer-related scandal to gossip about, but the truth is, she needs Gill’s top-notch investigative skills.

Their attraction is too deep to keep the town clueless of their affair forever. When Jamesville finds out, Alicia wonders if her reputation—and her relationship with Gill—will weather the storm.

It's a Sizzlin' Contest

Where I live in the Southern U.S., July is hot, Hot, HOT. But even it's not as hot as the Sizzlin' Summer Contest the Hussies and friends are having.


I'm participating in this contest along with a bunch of other great Ellora's Cave and Cerridwen Press authors. There are lots and lots of prizes to be won.


Check out the contest here: http://thehussies.us/Contest.html


For even more chances to win, join us this Thursday, July 17th, at the Ellora's Cave Chat list where the contest authors will be having an all-day list-mom marathon. There will be all sorts of summer fun, sizzling excerpts and more prizes.


Join the chat list here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ellorascavechat/join


Come join us. You might win some great beach reading for a hot summer day.


Katherine Kingston

Reading tastes

I was actually going to write a serious blog on animals but when I sat down to start, the subject of reading tastes came to mind.

My daughters are 7 and 9. One discovered reading in 2nd grade and began inhaling books. And I do mean inhale. The other has discovered reading this summer and as she says, "Reading's pretty cool."

But I already see they are going to have very different tastes.

The oldest had read the Fudge books by Judy Blume so I thought nothing of getting her Blubber from the library. She wouldn't read it. Wouldn't crack open the cover. She said, "I mostly like fantasy and mysteries." Which is true. She's read all the Harry Potter series, all the Secrets of Droon to date, is three books away from finishing Animorphs, read all the Nancy Drew books in her school library, etc, etc. I could go on and on about the serieses she reads.

The youngest has discovered Mr. Putter and Tabby. She LOVES those books. She's also reading Amelia Bedelia, Froggy, and Dr. Seuss. Animals and humor seem to be her reading of choice. It will be interesting to see if that changes. But I have hopes maybe she'll enjoy The Black Stallion and Misty of Chincoteague.

As for me, I do have genres I prefer but I read outside of them, too. I read a lot of paranormal and erotic romance. But I read animal books out the whazoo when I was a kid, still do, and read a lot of mysteries. Stephen King, thrillers, and romance rounded out my teen years. I think I have a fairly ecletic mixed bag of what I like to read and always did.

I was just wondering if everyone preferred certain genres like my daughters or was more ecletic like me. Did your tastes change with age? What genres do you read in?

Mechele Armstrong aka Lany of Melany Logen
http://www.mechelearmstrong.com/
http://www.melanylogen.com/