Weekend Lover Is Free On Amazon

Not sure how long it will last, but Weekend Lover is free on Amazon. Pick it up if you haven't already. Tell the folks you know too.

Link: http://www.amazon.com/Weekend-Lover-Cupid-Shorts-ebook/dp/B0094XQRX8/ref=la_B007FQ3FOA_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1350437068&sr=1-6

The Little Things

I live across street from a high school. Let me tell you that alone should be enough fodder for a gazillion young adult novels. But that's beside the point. Right now they're building on this high school.  To get a breath of fresh air every now and again I sit outside and watch. They come in early to work and leave a little after two. Their cars are lined up on the street. Every single one of them start up their car, take off their gear and then just stand for a moment outside their car. Next, what they do is so simple and yet so specific it's a little mesmerizing. It's something the average person wouldn't think about it. They slap off the dust from their clothes. Depends on the person, but they either began at their chest and work their way down or they start at their feet. Puffs of dust float off their clothes and it's a ritual. 

While I'm sitting there outside I'm capturing all this and it's so well timed. Tony, my hero, works in construction. Now, I've assembled furniture before. I've glued together popsicle to make this or that either as a child or with my kids. But I know absolutely nothing about what it takes to build something. What the aches are at the end of the day. I don't know anything about the small things that make up a profession. 

I would have no idea that before these workers get into their car, they'd slap the dust off their clothes. It's so little it could have been something I've seen before but never paid any mind to. 

Yet, it matters when you're building a world. It's a little thing. I love those.

Craftastic

I'm not exaggerating when I say I’ve read practically every book written on How To Write my first year of writing. If the title had writing, plot, character, writers, writing market, publishing, Big Author Name (expect it was actually a name, of course), craft, etc, I read it. I immersed myself fully into learning all there was to learn about writing. Ninety percent of it went over my head because I simply didn't have the writing chops to get motivation or what makes natural dialogue or even what makes great character. I didn't understand good writing is subjective anyway. It would have never crossed my mind or seem like a possibility that there could be some alternate universe where the writing is good, there's nothing wrong with it craft wise, but it's not engaging in any way possible. 

I've found, even after all this time later, my go to is craft. When I'm truly stuck on a story I don't just watch other movies or read other books, I pick them up and tear them apart. This may seem like a strange way to fix my own book, but this method has never failed me. There's something about reading or watching something that works or doesn't work that helps me see where I'm going wrong. 

Why?

Because no matter how many books you write, you still may write something where the pacing is off. You may, Whedon forbid, break character. That scene you wrote and loved and it's brilliant beyond the telling of it, may derail the whole damn story. 

Watching other movies, reading other stories, never fails to remind me that craft isn't something you learn and never go back to. Craft is something you have to take with you into every story.  

So, right now I'm stuck, but I'm taking in craft because I know for a fact it'll save the mess of a story I've written. 

What's the one thing you do to unstick a stuck story? Or unstick something in your life?

Down With Cupid: The Must Have Conclusion

Ok. One or two people felt they must have the conclusion. I'm going with it. Here's the links so far where you can pick up Down With Cupid, the follow up to Weekend Lover. Now hold onto to your shorts because there's about to be some serious linkage in this blog. First...

Here's the blurbage:

Two months have passed since Nicole Harrison’s weekend of forbidden pleasure. It should have been more than enough time for Nicole to forget Sebastian’s charming smiles and wicked kisses. Except, during those nights together, she managed to leave behind her driven lifestyle as a publicist and took what she wanted, experiencing freedom and the wild abandon of their reckless agreement of no last names, no shared details. The woman she was with him is the hardest part to erase from her memory.

Unfortunately, one detail was tantamount—Sebastian Clark is a publicist and now he’s gunning for her job.

Sebastian never allows himself to get tangled in knots by a woman, and, yet, he can’t stop dreaming about Nicole’s silky thighs and ripe lips, how she'd shuddered under his touch. He doesn’t need a woman who is more of a shark than he when it comes to PR, except he’s seen every, single soft inch of her. Now they’ll have to work side by side and somehow ignore what feels like unfinished business.

Will the weekend they spent together turn out to be more than they could have ever imagined, or will past hurts and career ambitions stand in their way? Only Cupid knows...   Here's where you can get it:   Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Smashwords
ARe

If you haven't picked up Weekend Lover or any of the Down With Cupid Shorts, don't worry...There are bundles.

Amazon
Lovers' Weekend
Down With Cupid Shorts Bundle

Barnes and Noble
Lovers' Weekend
Down With Cupid Shorts Bundle

ARe
Lovers' Weekend
Down With Cupid Shorts Bundle

Ha! This title has a rating already on Goodreads. You can see Weekend Lover's ratings here.

Ok. I think that about covers all the serious linkage. And that's it for my 2012 publishing schedule.

Maybe.

But, totally for now 'cause I'm going to go take a nap.

Release Frenzy And A New Book

I'm about to propel myself into another release frenzy. Down With Cupid is slated to come out in a few days. Along with the bundled versions of all of my Down With Cupid Shorts. I'll be rocking in a corner in no time, sipping on cognac.

But right now, right this second (or after I finish writing this post) I'll be heading back to a story I've been wanting to write for ages. One reason or another, it's been put on the back burner. What story you ask?

Tony's story i.e. Everything He Dreamed.

Me = Hog heaven.

So, I'm adding to the story board I've got on Pinterest.

I repeat: Me = hog heaven.

TONY: http://pinterest.com/pin/112519690660408931/

Phoenix: http://pinterest.com/pin/112519690660396977/

*thud*

Guest Post: Rosanna Leo and the Selkie

Please give a warm welcome to Rosanna Leo to the blog!

*****

I am so happy to be visiting with the lovely Melissa Blue today, and to be able to share the news of my newest book The Selkie. It is an erotic paranormal romance set in Orkney, Scotland. In that part of the world, there are legends about the mythical selkie folk, shape shifters who shift from seal to human form. They merely need to shed their seal pelt and they can live on land for a time. Selkies are legendary lovers. In fact, the myths say that if a human woman is unsatisfied with her love life, she need only cry 7 tears into the sea to call an immortal selkie man. He will love her as no human man can.  Tantalizing, don’tcha think?

In preparing this post, I was trying to recall why I wanted to write about a selkie in the first place. Certainly mythological creatures of all sorts have always attracted me…the males in particular. It could be the allure of the beach. Perhaps it’s the Scottish thing, but selkie men don’t tend to wear kilts. In fact they don’t wear much of anything.

That could be the reason right there.

No, I think one of the main reasons is my fascination with sea creatures. I’m not talking Nessie here. I’m talking about those fantastical beings who dwell beneath the depths, the ones whose very existence cannot be disproved. Ethereal mermaids who lure sailors to a watery demise. Sirens who call to hapless men from their craggy rocks. Selkie men, who are reputed to be unbelievable lovers whose good looks can devastate. What’s not to love?

Actually, now that I think about it, you can blame Aquaman. Was I the only little girl in the 70’s who lusted after this buff cartoon character? That shiny blond hair. Those hardened abs. His insane swimming ability. Think of the things we could do underwater!

Well, so there you have it. I suppose The Selkie is my homage to Aquaman, although not a direct reference in any way. Indeed, all my books have an origin in the interests of my childhood. Greek myths, vampires, firefighters. They all show up in my stories.

Should I be concerned that I also had a crush on Snap, Crackle and Pop? Menage literature…here I come!

*****

Blurb:

This was supposed to be her year. However, after losing her job and discovering her fiancé cheating, Maggie Collins has her doubts. When her grandmother dies, she hits rock bottom. Maggie travels to her grandmother’s home in Orkney, Scotland to sort through her gran’s things, only to discover the old woman has left her a seal pelt as her inheritance. She also learns that others are after the pelt.

To add to her frustration, Maggie’s dreams are filled with luscious images of a long-haired man, images that draw her to the magical beaches in Orkney. Although she’s lost her trust in men, this dream man inspires her with a lust she’s never known before.

Calan Kirk has also been dreaming. Dreaming of Maggie, the mortal woman who arouses him as no other woman ever has. Meeting her in the flesh when she arrives in Orkney is nothing short of spontaneous sexual combustion. But she is a human, and not to be trusted. He needs the seal pelt, not a red-haired temptress.

As a thief ransacks Maggie’s grandmother’s house, Maggie and Calan are thrust together. They must search for the animal skin, a mythical relic which once found, will either bring them together or rip them apart forever.

 *****

Excerpt:

She was attempting to stand on her wobbly legs, only to fall back down on her bottom, when she heard the sound of splashing water. Thinking it was her seal, Maggie turned to look.

Her breath caught in her throat. It wasn’t the animal at all.

It was a man. He was rising out of the waves, walking toward her. She froze. He was nude, utterly nude, and was staring at her with overflowing intimacy. As if they’d had, God help her, relations.

And she realized, with sudden panic, they’d had! In her dreams. He was the seal-man from all her sex dreams.

No. Impossible.

Her first instinct was to call for help, but there was no one near. And then she realized with frightening awareness that she didn’t want any help anyway. Glued to her spot, she couldn’t help but drink him in.

He was beautiful, if unnervingly wet and naked. He had long, shiny, brown hair that hung down past his shoulders. His face could have belonged on an ad for expensive cologne, and he had a body to match. Sculpted shoulders gave way to arms corded in muscle. His defined chest was blanketed by a smattering of sparse, brown hair that led tantalizingly to his rock-hard abs.

Maggie held her breath as her gaze traveled lower on his body, taking in trim calves and thighs a quarterback would envy. And, she noted with simultaneous hunger and horror, his penis was the biggest she’d ever had the pleasure of seeing. It was thick and long and glistening with the droplets of water that yet cascaded over his body. And it seemed to be reaching for her. She gulped, and forced herself to look back up at his face.

There was a faint glow about his skin, a shimmery aura. Dismissing it as a trick of the moonlight, she shook her head.

He was almost upon her, and his full lips were taut in a teasing grin. Maybe he was a surfer who’d lost not only his board, but his shorts in the waves. She knew she should be frantic, but wasn’t. There was something in his brown eyes that was so familiar, so soothing, even as they swept over her own body with lustful appreciation.

He stopped in front of her, and stood boldly, unashamed of his glorious nakedness. She managed to spit out one hushed word. “You.”

“You,” was his equally awed reply.

 *****

Buy Links:

www.liquidsilverbooks.com/books/theselkie.htm

 

Weekend Lover Unleashed

The weekend that started it all...

Sebastian Clark's and Nicole Harrison's boundaries are clear—no last names, no shared details. A single night of giving in to temptation turns into three, and their naughty little weekend becomes more than just sex.

As a publicist for Snapshot, Sebastian's days are long and his moral code is to always keep things light. Until he touches Nicole and lust fades any last hold on common sense.

On the fast track for a promotion at Limelight, a PR boutique, Nicole has given up dating, especially handsome men. One kiss, one touch, one night won't break her own rules.

One weekend of shared passion sets Sebastian Clark and Nicole Harrison on a course that could ultimately destroy them both, or bring them a love for all time...

Amazon: The price is $1.67 http://tinyurl.com/cphfpj8

B&N: The price is $1.67 http://tinyurl.com/bnoj7x5

For free:
Smashwords
http://tinyurl.com/9d4mquh

ARe
http://tinyurl.com/8kp8efv
Kobo
http://tinyurl.com/d69x29z

Like it, love it, hate it, leave a review if you are so inclined.