Writing

Top Student is FREE!

Hey there! TOP STUDENT is here! It’s a FREE prequel to GIRL TROUBLE, but it can definitely be read as a sexy standalone. I hope you’ll grab a copy today (and maybe even leave it a review on a retailer’s site after you finish it. I appreciate ALL reviews, good, bad, and lukewarm!) TopStudent300

When it comes to love, limits are negotiable.

A Come Again Story

Kat St. James is the Come-Hither Queen of the Silver Screen, irresistible to everyone—except the woman she secretly loves, childhood friend Bonita Pritchard. Kat’s come home for a visit, and discovers Bonita has left town to avoid her—for the third summer in a row.

Hurt and angry, Kat heads for Come Again, Bonita’s sex-toy boutique, for clues that will help heal the rift between them. There she encounters Destiny, who gives Kat the shock of her life. Bonita’s become a sexual submissive.

Destiny also offers Kat the opportunity a lifetime: the chance to learn the BDSM lifestyle from the experts. Only then will there be any chance to reconnect with the woman she loves.

Except becoming everything Bonita needs means giving up the one thing she’s fought her entire life to attain. Complete control. Top to bottom, it’s a challenge that will push her past her limits.

Warning: This book contains discipline demonstrations that range from hand to cane, a captivated voyeur, a Dominant struggling to learn submission, two very satisfied instructors, and enough kinky teacher/student roleplaying to make you want to go back to school.

Available from SAMHAIN PUBLISHING, AMAZON, BARNES & NOBLE, GOOGLE, iTUNES, ALL ROMANCE e-BOOKS, KOBO, SONY, and more.

It’s a quick and dirty read, and it has Destiny and Johnny from BOTTOMS UP in it. You want it? It’s yours! Thank you so much for visiting the world of Come Again! XOXO

Darkness And Dawn

So…this is a writing post. Sort of. I spent the long weekend in Cincinnati with my parents. Anyone who knows my family would be thinking, “Oh, my. How’d THAT go?” Um, fine. They are getting older with every visit West (duh), and the bulk of the fetching falls to my older sister, who lives nearby. Occasionally, it is my pleasure to (wo)man up, drive down there and do stuff.

So I grocery shopped, pharmacied, cooked, cooked-ahead and froze, served and tried to rearrange the universe in a more orderly fashion for two people who insist on living in a raised ranch but are having trouble getting around. Which led me to my first realization:

1. I can only do so much. My parents are grown-ups, far more set in their capable ways than I am. Even though I think they should move to a place with a bathroom on the first floor, it’s not my call. And I am still their CHILD. I don’t get to rearrange things to my satisfaction. They get to lead their lives.

It was an eight-hour drive, one way, so I had lots of time to listen to Jennifer Crusie’s MAYBE THIS TIME. I’ve been her fan for at least twenty years now (cripes), and I realized a few things while listening:

2. I think a hero who is blocked at every turn but continues to act in the best interest of the heroine is HOT.

3. I also think a hero (okay, in this case a secondary character) who is the jester but can turn on a dime and become serious and formidable is also HOT.

4. It’s a neat trick to give the reader (in my case listener) insight into characters by desribing them in other characters POV. It does two things, characterizes the person DESCRIBED and characterizes the person DESCRIBING.

MAYBE THIS TIME is a ghost story, a mystery, and my brain doesn’t work like that. The pacing was skillful and I enjoyed trying to figure it out, but the plotting was equally skillful, so I didn’t. Or couldn’t because I really don’t roll the mystery way. I bet my Mom could have figured it out. Maybe. I’m sure there are bigger things I could have admired about the story, but it kept me going for 16 hours. I tend to fall asleep while driving long distances, so that is pretty darn amazing!

I did have one other thought, but it also ties in to EXCLUSIVELY YOURS by Shannon Stacey, which I read while I was down there.

5.Characters must change.

We know this. However, in both books the heroine changed in a gradual, well-motivated way. I went on their journeys with them and believed every moment. As a writer, I know how hard it is to do this when you are CREATING the story. Both Crusie and Stacey made me trust them. I knew I wouldn’t be rolling my eyes at the bottom of a plot hole. I could relax and enjoy the ride. Escape is good, especially in Cincinnati.

Both books also made me think about this:

6. There are two sides to every story – and both people can be right and wrong. It’s all in their perception of the situation.

This is complicated, and I know I will be grappling with it for a while. To explain how it applies to MAYBE THIS TIME and EXCLUSIVELY YOURS would spoil the story – I’m not into that. But wouldn’t it be fun to create a character who is both good and evil, truly? A man who truly did good in his life but has turned into a miscreant still did good in his life. He can’t be entirely condemned, can he? Something to ponder.

I know six is an odd number of epiphanies. I should keep thinking and do ten, but the last four might be lame. I won’t waste your time! I hope you all recover well from Thanksgiving, if you celebrate it, and shopping, if you do it. Have a great week! XOXO!