Another New Release & More Reading

You know, this week's so wonky that I almost forgot it was my Divas day. Okay, the truth is, I did forget and remembered during my yoga workout. So, here I am. :)

Grace is a myth hunter, playing a game of cat and mouse with a dangerous vampire. Dixon scares her, but not as much as the passion that burns between them.

This short story of mine was released last week, but it's not a Christmas tale. It's a little tale about a vampire and the woman he chases. There's a twist in the end too, and I'd love to turn this into a series. I already have the next five books semi-plotted. I really enjoyed writing it. And since Grace is a myth hunter, it's perfect for all sorts of monsters.

Oh, and here's some more reading:

Once again, I was lucky enough to enjoy three excellent stories! I love it when books are so interesting they keep me going until I get to the end. So cool. I look forward to many more excellent books in 2008.

Which reminds me...

Yolanda
http://www.yolandasfetsos.com/

New Release & Reading

Hey! Let me start out with this:

Yep, that's right! I have a new Christmas tale available this week. This novella is about Noel and Natala. Noel is a widower who happens to have the worst luck during the festive season. Natala is an imp trapped inside a Christmas light. When they get together, their adventure in love begins. Except, there's that pesky demon they need to deal with first...

I had a great time writing this tale, and I think a sequel's in the works. Yeah, it's inside my head. But before that, check this one out and let me know what you think. Just click on the cover if you'd like to know more.

Well, like I've mentioned before, this December is proving to be a muddled one for me. I'm a little here, a little there, and pretty much all over the place. I can't seem to focus on the one writing project, and instead am doing a little of everything. But the one thing I'm finding it very easy to focus on at the moment is reading.

It's no secret that I love to read. I like to get through at least 52 books each year. This year I've fallen behind because of all of my own stuff. Still, I'm catching up.

These are the books I've read during the last week:

They were all awesome! I just love having a great 'reading run'.

Yesterday I started reading this book, and got 100 pages in. It's not what I expected it, but that's a great thing.

Happy reading and writing everyone! Oh, and because I'll post again after it's all done:

Yolanda
http://www.yolandasfetsos.com/

Seven Days and Counting...

Wow, Christmas came fast this year! We're down to the final week. It's hard to believe.

I'm not done shopping yet. In fact, I may brave the local Toys R Us today *shiver*. Wish me luck!

What about you? Are you done shopping yet?

True story: When I was a kid, my mother bought nothing until Christmas eve day. Then she'd take one kid with her as her "helper" (meaning, the unlucky sucker who got hauling-to-the-car duty) and headed to the mall to brave the crowds. It was hot and exhausting. And by the end of the zillion-hour trip, the helper was cranky, hungry, and hating the mall. I vowed as a teenager that I would never adopt her last-minute shopping-in-a-panic approach :) And so far, I haven't.

Anyway, for those who are done, congratulations! Sit back and relax. And for those who haven't started yet, happy hunting! May you find the deals of the year.

Tawny
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Wicked Erotic Romance

She's just a little evil

A project, Reign of Pleasure (Coming December 19th from Cobblestone Press) I completed a couple months ago turned from 1 book into 3. How? Why? Huh? Yeah. I'm there with you. It started off simple enough until the villian (Yes, the villian) took over.

Le sigh. She was in one scene, then another, then another until I knew she definitely needed her own story told. And no she's not misunderstood, she's evil. I guess we can say she knows her talents and she uses them to the best of her ability.
How can she be the heroine when *gasp* she's EVIL?

Don't heroes/heroines have to be redeemable?

And she is...in her own way. She's had a hard life, loses the love of her life (or who she thinks is the love of her life) so of course that's just going to make her even more willing to embrace her inner bitch.

Of course her hero can't be some let's talk about our feelings type of guy. He has to be able to handle her and more...

So is it possible to have a evilly ever after instead of an happily ever after without totally wussing out and turning good at the end? Does it depend on the author and how she (or he) executes it?

Reign of Pleasure will be available on the 19th, so you'll be able to decide for yourselves. In the mean time here's a little tiny excerpt. Nope, it doesn't have our evil Eve but it does have ROP's hero, Lord Sebastian Ignius and heroine, the deposed Queen.

THIS IS AN ADULT ONLY EXCERPT! YOU MUST BE 18 or OLDER TO READ THIS EXCERPT!


Reign of Pleasure
Excerpt from Chapter Three

“You will never be my king.” It wasn’t what I’d meant to say. In my mind, I had a long speech about how treachery and machinations never got their patrons anywhere.

His pupils expanded until they blotted out the color of his irises and made his eyes appear black. I didn’t know if the change in his eyes were an indication of emotion but as soon as I had said the words, I wished I could call them back.

“Wh—what I meant was—” I didn’t get a chance to finish my sentence. He moved quicker than the viper I likened Eve to earlier and snatched me from my seat.

Off balance, I collapsed against his chest, our faces less than an inch apart.

“You are so fond of using that mouth of yours. Maybe I should show you a better use for it.” His breath feathered against my lips, and I trembled. I told myself it was out of fear and not because his hard, biting grip didn’t hurt the way it should.

Instead, it sent fissions of heat to rest directly in my cunt. Hotter and stronger, with a nonsexual touch, than the sensations Eve provoked with her tongue buried in my cunt.

Swallowing hard, I waited for him to free himself from his pants. Would I fight him if he expected me to pleasure him with my mouth the way Eve had done me? I’d never had a man in my mouth. My eyes dropped to the bulge between his thighs.

It was impressive, and he wasn’t even aroused. Would I be able to even fit him in my mouth?

“Please,” I said, even though I knew being polite wouldn’t get me any mercy from this merciless man.

“You will respect me. You will remember, during the time you are with me, you are mine. To use any way I see fit.” He punctuated each sentence with a light shake.

“And just so you don’t forget, you are to call me Sire.”

I nodded automatically, cowed in the face of his unyielding tone.

He flattened a hand against the middle of my back and pushed me down.

Oh, God. He is really going to make me do this.

What if I disappointed him? I didn’t know what to do. I was so caught up in my own thoughts that it took me a moment to realize he wasn’t pushing my head toward his groin. He was pushing it to rest against the heated, leather seat so he could swing my body up until I was draped bottom-up over his lap.

I held my body stiff as he pushed my dress up. Cool air kissed the skin of my buttocks as he bunched my skirts around my waist.

I concentrated on keeping my breathing even as my heart pounded. It wasn’t fear that spiked through me. Well, it was, but more fear of the unknown, of what he planned to do to me.

I flinched as his large, calloused hand cupped one of my cheeks, massaging it before doing the same to the other. He rubbed his hand over both of them, and the combination of the heat radiating off his body and the gentleness of his touch lulled me. My head drooped against the seat, and I allowed my body to relax against his.

When the first blow fell, it was so unexpected my mind took a minute to process what happened. By the time I identified the sound of his palm hitting my skin and the resulting sting in my buttocks, his hand had fallen a second time.

“For the next seventy-two hours, whose pussy is this?” I guess I didn’t answer quickly enough, because he brought his hand down again, harder than the last time.

My head lifted, and I thought of scrambling off his lap, but before I could act, he pressed his other hand into the flat of my back to hold me down. Over and over his hand fell, heating the flesh of my buttocks and pooling a curious heat between my thighs.

I was confused. Hitting should not feel good. Should not make me want to grind into the erection I could feel growing and stabbing into my belly. My sex shouldn’t be tingling, dampening, and throbbing in time with the blows to my ass.

Biting my lip, I lost count of how many times he brought his hand down. I concentrated on keeping my body still and not giving voice to the bewildering pleasure he gave me.

I tried to fight it. Tried to remind myself, deposed or not, a queen did not enjoy being spanked like a mischievous child. But my bloodline or title mattered not one bit to my disloyal flesh.

“Spread your legs.”

Eyes clenched shut, I obeyed the command before I realized he had stopped smacking my ass and was immediately ashamed how easy I capitulated.

CPQ Magazine

CPQ Magazine is now a free download!

I'm really excited about the magazine being free now. We'd discussed it when we first decided to take the dive with this project but decided that we would charge for each issue in case it didn't take off like we hoped. After two issues, however we could see that the popularity of the magazine would NOT be a problem.

We are keeping the advertising at the same costs and are brainstorming new ideas to give authors more ways to connect to readers. Our advertising now ranges from $5 for a clickable cover ad to much more expensive video advertising. We wanted CPQ to be a magazine that was affordable for every author to use as a marketing tool in their promotions. We also wanted to make a magazine that appealed to authors AND readers. It seems we've acomplished that! And the full page ads that we do for authors...we send the image to the authors for free to use in other promotions for their books. - It's so freakin expensive to have ads designed that we thought that would be a cool thing to do for authors.

For those not familiar with this magazine it's a quarterly publication that includes interviews with agents, authors, artists, and other industry professionals, writing related articles and columns, short romance stories, featured websites, and of course an Around Cobblestone section (it is afterall OUR magazine). But we welcome other publishers to advertise in the magazine as well as authors published at other presses.

One of my favorite features of CPQ is that every cover, link address, and banner is clickable - a direct link to that book page, publisher, or author website. And the book videos play on click...I'm all about the visual...lol

Sooo, that's my big news...what I'm so excited about right now. If you guys are interested in looking at of the issues (did I mention that the magazine is FREE now? lol) you can check it out at http://www.cobblestone-quarterly.com/

Sable Grey
Cobblestone Press, LLC
www.cobblestone-press.com

Christmas & New Releases

Well, it definitely feels like the holiday season now. Though we certainly don't have any snow in Sydney. Heck, it's not even winter. Here, we're enjoying summer. Ah, okay. I'm trying to enjoy summer. And also trying hard to pretend I don't notice the weather outside feels more like Autumn than it does summer. Which makes me wonder, what the hell are we doing to our planet?

Anyway. Christmas for me has a certain feel. I can't explain it, it just feels positive and nice. And mostly I feel this way during the whole of December. There's a lot of magic in the air, and some of it comes in the way of inspiration for me. I've gotten a few story ideas the last few days, one which happens to be for a festive story. So, maybe I should get writing, huh?

Okay, today I'm also celebrating the release of my latest eBook. Yay! That's right, HELL OF A X-MAS is here! It's now available from Aphrodite's Apples.

Jess always leaves her Christmas shopping until the last minute. This Christmas Eve, she gets more than she bargained for when she walks into a large shopping center filled with dead shoppers. And the corpses are rising.

When she finds a handful of survivors hiding out in the cinema complex, it becomes a race against the clock. Together, they need to venture outside and find somewhere safe.

Trying to stay alive, with corpses at every turn is hard enough. An instant, deep attraction towards a survivor called Larry, will only complicates things further…

You can click on the cover if you'd like to know more. :D

Oh, but that's not all. See, today the latest issue of CPQ Magazine is available. And it's FREE! Can you believe it? You certainly don't want to miss out on checking this out. It's full of excellent stuff. And hey, there's even a short story by moi. It's called HIDE: Wild at Heart.

So, click on the cover to get your copy:

And if you read my little, hot story... let me know what you think, because I'm thinking of turning this world into a series.

Okay, that's it for me today. Have a great week!

Yolanda
http://www.yolandasfetsos.com/

Let's have some fun!

Before I continue with this post, understand that I am one of the most down to earth and practical girls you'll ever meet. For Christmas, I asked my hubby to buy me a new office chair, since the one I have is literally in tatters. Practical.

But today, I feel like indulging in some fantasy. Wanna play with me? Let's talk about fantasy Christmas gifts. If you could have any materialistic, self-indulgent gift in the world, what would it be? (no fair wishing for world peace or a cure for AIDS. We all want those.)

The first thing on my list (being a writer) would be a huge contract with a six figure advance, ginormous marketing budget, and world promo tour :) I've always wanted to see Europe.

But here are a few alternatives I could live with:

1. A 5000 sq ft house in the country, situated on at least a five acre wooded lot...and an office in that cozy little house with a big comfy couch, fireplace, and an enormous window that looks out on all that natural beauty.

2. A full-time housekeeper to clean up after my kids (to not have to pick up another pair of smelly socks...happy sigh!)

3. A big, sparkly diamond tennis bracelet with earrings to match...oh, and you can throw in the Neiman Marcus diamond cell phone too :)

I could go on and on...the Chrysler minivan with those cool swivel seats and DVD players, a winter home in Florida, you get the idea. But I'll quit now.

How about you? What's on your fantasy Christmas list?

Tawny
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Wicked-Hot Erotic Fiction

Distractions & Christmas

You know, the last few weeks have been a little hectic around here. A large chunk of my writing time was spent on editing, and because of that, I didn't realise just how hard I'm finding it to keep my filters from getting clogged up.

As I've already mentioned, the hubby started a new job recently and it threw my day upside down, literally. It's only this week that I actually admitted to myself just how much it's affected me. I'm slowly - very slowly - getting back into the swing of (writing) things. I've started a new story, and so far have only written 6,404. I know it might sound like an okay figure, since I started on Monday. But on Tuesday I think I added under 2k. This is very rare for me.

Looks like the story's really grabbed me now, but the Christmas season is now threatening to affect me. You see, for some reason December gets me into a slower pace. I don't know what it is, maybe it's because I've done so much during the year that my muse, mind and body think it's time to slow down to a crawl.

Who knows? But I do know that the distractions are (usually) winning above everything else so far this month.

So, tell me, does this happen to you? Do you move super fast during the year and then slow it right down when December rocks around? I'm just wondering if it's just me... :/


Yolanda
http://www.yolandasfetsos.com/

Fave Holiday Traditions

The holidays are coming so quickly. Can you believe it's December already? And Christmas is only three weeks away?! I can't resist the temptation to blog about them today.

Every year, about a week before Christmas, I get out the baking gear, cookie cutters and (most importantly) plastic drop cloths.

Why, you ask, would I need drop cloths to bake?

Because it’s cookie time. My favorite tradition of the holidays. It started when I was a little girl. My mother baked stacks of holiday sugar cookies and then set out bowls of colored frosting, sprinkles, little candies, etc and we spent the day “decorating” the cookies.

Naturally, I’ve adapted the tradition to my taste. The cutout cookies aren’t sugar, but chocolate (a recipe that incorporates chocolate pudding is always a winner in my book). And I offer the kiddies chocolate and vanilla frosting, mini M&M’s, shredded coconut, colored sugars and chocolate chips for decorating. It’s a HUGE mess but oh so worth it. The kids are busy for hours, and I have the most sinful, delectable cookies to eat for the next week. YUM!

What about your family? Do you have any special holiday traditions you have (or will) passed on to your kids?

Tawny
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
www.tawnytaylor.com

Back from the TECH Wars

Hi Guys! C.T. Adams here.

Yeah, it's been a while. The computer was having FITS. In fact, the tech guy is scheduled to come out and do a complete overhaul. I'm trying to postpone buying a new machine another year or so until all the bugs have been worked out of the new Microsoft operating system. You can TELL me there are no bugs. I will not (unfortunately) believe you. There are always bugs. And I'm not willing to be a beta tester on my own dime. (Actually quite a few dimes!)

ANYWAY, I'm back. I hope you've missed me, but you've had lots of other people keeping you busy, so maybe not.

Hmmnnnnn what to talk about? All right. I've got it. THE BOOK.

No, not the ones we've got out, or even particulars of the ones Cathy and I are working on. No, this is THE BOOK. There's at least one in every writer's career. (I'm basing this on what I've read in other writer's blogs, and pre-blog era books on writing, biographies, etc.)

In every writer's career there is a book that simply KICKS YOUR BUTT.

It starts out like every other book you will write. The idea's good. The characters speak to you. BUT THIS IS A LURE, a trick to pull you in deep enough that you will be on deadline and unable to cut bait when (DA DA DUM) it grinds to a complete and total halt.

You put down words.

You delete them.

You put down other words.

They're dreck.

You delete THEM.

It's "writer's block", but then, again, it's not, because everything else you write comes trippingly off your fingers. You can do articles, short stories, other books. But this book, the important one, that you have to get done ON TIME, is stuck in what a friend refers to as "the swampy middle." You are in quicksand, and sinking fast. Despair quickly sets in. (With enough baggage for a long-term stay.)

Cat a/k/a Howling Moon did this to me. For several reasons. First, I had previously written the @#*$&*@ thing several times. It was originally the first book in the series. It was the one for which the world was built. But it was complicated as blazes, and there were problems (I was a beginning writer. New writers usually have problems in their manuscripts. Hell, OLD writers have problems. This is why there are editors.) Besides, a more gradual introduction to the world seemed adviseable. So, Tony came out first. Then Moon's Web. By the time Cat came around for publication there were existing tenets in the world that had changed and characters that were vital to the story had done things that weren't in character for the book as originally written---and were in other locations to boot. Oh, and people had been mentioned in other books doing things at specific times (including Cat, Raphael, Lucas, Tatyana, Ivan, Charles, Emma, Raven, and Jack) with reference made BACK to what was happening in Boulder. Those were already in print. Which meant they couldn't be changed.

SO, the book had to accommodate them.

Which meant that it had to start on a certain date, and run through another date, with full moons being the same dates as in previous books and everybody being in the right place at the right time.

It was a nightmare.

Just thinking about it now I shudder.

I had to work up a calendar chart with dates AND TIMES (and check sunrise and sunset times in the various cities the books were in), and put down where the characters previously written were when, then go back and schedule in when the events of the current book were going to happen, GIVING TIME FOR TRAVEL from place to place. Lucas was particularly pesky since he was a key character with major onscreen time in both Howling and Moon's Web. There is one day when he had to have a meeting in Boulder in the afternoon, then hop on a private plane and fly out to Chicago, to land at the private airport in Indiana to be met by Tony, Asri and Bobby in the evening before going hunting and finding the body. I had to time that day for him down to fifteen minute intervals. UGH!

Anyway, eventually the book got written, on time even (or within a week or two's extension, which ain't bad). In fact they usually do. But for a writer THAT BOOK is their own, personal torture, and I'm not sure about anyone else, but I know for me that, no matter how well it did, I'm not completely happy with it. Even writing about it now frustrates me. Which is sad, because those were the characters I loved enough to build a world around. That first book was the one where I "met" Lucas, and Ivan, and Charles. Raphael Ramirez was as dear to me as an old friend. Catherine started out as someone I could relate to all too well. (She changed over the course of re-writes into someone who I like well enough, but not nearly as well as the original). Holly is a sweetheart. Betty is stalwart. Ivan never fails to make me laugh. I should like the book well enough to revisit it happily. That I don't is a damned shame.

I understand that there are writers out there who have actually given up on the whole career because of THAT BOOK. I hate to think that. Some of our best work is still coming post-Howling. The last two books in the Thrall series are probably among the best things I've done (Yeah, I know, some people just can't stand that series. That's okay. No book is going to appeal to everyone. I'm okay with that. Read what you love. I love Katie, and Tom, and the guys, and am happy with how it turned out.)

How do you get through it? How do you keep from letting it sour you on writing altogether?

Other writers.

Writing groups, critique partners, reading other writer's blogs. In my case, it was thanks in big part to my co-author and a really terrific editor. In talking to them you find out what did and didn't work. Maybe you find out where the plot took a left turn, or get an idea for a new character that refocuses the story in a direction that excites you. But talking to other people who have gotten through it can give you hope, and ideas, throwing you that lifeline that you can use to haul yourself out of the quicksand and get you back onto solid ground.

And while you may never love THAT BOOK, there is a definite satisfaction in seeing it on the shelf and knowing that, while it kicked your butt, in the long run, YOU WON.