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Excerpt and a Cover!

This morning I got my first cover for my series Secret Heirs of Powerful Men and it’s perfect!! It’s for Heir to a Desert Legacy AKA Superbad Sheikh!!

And here it is!

Ahhh! I die. It’s like my favorite thing ever. So perfect for Chloe and Sayid!

And to go with this stunning cover, I wanted to share an excerpt with you!

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“Chloe James?” he asked.

“What?” Her response was muffled by the heavy door between them.

“I am Sheikh Sayid al Kadar, Regent of Attar.”

“Regent, you say? Interesting. Attar. Nice country I hear. In Northern Africa right near…”

“I am aware of the geography of my country, as are you, in ways that go beyond textbook knowledge. You and I both know this.”

“Do we?”

There was a sharp spike in the crying, the volume rising, the tone growing more shrill. Loud in the contained environment. Louder behind the apartment door, he imagined.

“Um, I’m busy,” Chloe said. “You’ve woken up the baby now and I have to get him back to sleep so…”

“That is what I’m here about, Chloe. The baby.”

“He’s cranky right now. But I’ll see if I can fit you into his diary.”

“Ms. James,” he said, aiming for civility. He could push the door in with relative ease, but he doubted that was the right way to go for this. He didn’t usually care. But not causing an international incident was a high priority to him at the moment, and he imagined breaking in and simply taking the child might create one.  “If you will let me in we can discuss the circumstances of the situation we find ourselves in.”

“What situation?”

“The baby.”

“What do you want with him?”

“Exactly what my brother wanted with him. A legal agreement has been signed, and you should know exactly what it says, as yours was one of the signatures. I have it in my possession. Either I go through the court system, or we discuss it now.”

He didn’t want to involve the courts of either the United States or Attar. He wanted this to go smoothly, silently, to not make a ripple until he and his advisers were able to devise a story about how the child had survived, and why the child had been kept from the public in the weeks since the sheikh had died.

Before he did any of that, he had to find out just what the situation was. If the papers had that had been drawn up were reflective of the truth, or if there had been more to his brother’s relationship with Chloe James than was documented anywhere.

That could complicate things. Could prevent him from taking the child with him. And that was not acceptable.

The door opened a crack, a chain keeping it from swinging open all the way, and one wide blue eye, fringed with long dark lashes, peered at him through the opening. “ID?”

He released a frustrated sigh and reached into the inside of his coat, pulling out his wallet and producing his passport, showing it to the eye that was staring at him with distrust. “Satisfied?”

“Not in the least.” The door shut and he heard the jingle of the chain, then it opened. “Come in.”

He stepped into the room, the cramped feeling of it squeezing down on him. Bookshelves lined the walls, pushing them in, heightening the feeling of tightness. There was a laptop on the coffee table, more books in a stack to the right of it and a whiteboard on a stand in the corner with another stack of books placed next to it. There was a logic to the placement of everything, and yet the lack of space gave it all a feeling of barely organized chaos. Nothing like the military precision with which he ordered his life.

He let his eyes fall to Chloe next. She was small, her hair a deep, unusual shade of red, her skin pale and freckled. Her breasts were generous, her waist a bit thick. She looked very much like a woman who had just given birth, and who had spent the weeks since in a state of sleep deprivation.

She shifted and her hair caught the light, a shock of red-gold burning bright beneath the lamp. If the child was hers genetically, there would be some sign, of that he was certain. She was very unlike his olive skinned brother and his beautiful, dark-haired bride.

“You realize that you have no security to speak of here,” he said. The crying had ceased, everything in the tiny apartment calm now. “If I had wanted to force my way in, I could have done so. And anyone seeking to harm the child could have done so, as well. You do him no favors by keeping him here.”

“I didn’t have anywhere else to take him,” she said.

“And where is the child now?”

“Aden?” she responded, a chill in her tone. “You don’t need to see him now, do you?”

“I would like to,” he said.

“Why?” She edged around the front of the sofa, as if she meant to block his way. Laughable. She was so petite, and he was a highly trained soldier who could remove a man twice his size without feeling any sort of exertion. He could break her easily if he had a mind to, and she just stood there, a small, flame-haired tigress.

“He is my nephew. My blood,” he said.

“I…I didn’t think you would feel any connection to him.”

“Why not?” It was true that his was not a heart connection, not the sort of family connection she might mean. His was a blood bond, a sworn oath to protect the ruler of his country with his very life if it came to it. It was a connection that he felt in his veins, one he couldn’t change or deny. Only death could break it. And in that scenario, the death had better be his own.

She blinked rapidly. “You’ve never been…close to the family. I mean, Rashid said…”

“Ah. Rashid.” Her use of his brother’s first name was telling. And not in a good way. In a way that might complicate things. If she was the mother of the child, the biological mother, it would be much more difficult to use the legal documents against her. Difficult, though, no impossible.

And failing that, he would simply create an international incident and bring the child back with him. By force if necessary.

“Yes, Rashid. Why did you say it like that?”

“I’m trying to ascertain the nature of your relationship with my brother.”

She crossed her arms beneath her breasts. “Well, I gave birth to his child.”

A cold, calm sort of fury washed through him, the ice in his veins chilling the rage as it ran through him. If his brother had done anything to compromise the future of the country…

But his brother was dead. There would no consequence for Rashid, no matter the circumstances. He was finished now, with this life. And Sayid was left to ensure than Attar did not crumble. That life went on, as smoothly as possible, for the millions of people who called the desert nation home.

“And you drew up this agreement,” he produced a folded stack of papers from the inside of his coat, “so that if anyone caught onto the fact that it wasn’t Tamara who gave birth to Aden, they would believe it had been a part of the plan from the beginning?”

“Wait…what?” She curled her lip, one rounded hip cocked to the side.

“You conspired to invent the story about the surrogacy to cover up the relationship that you had with…”

She held both hands up, palms out. “Hey! No. Oh…no. I gave birth to his child, as a surrogate.”

Small Town Christmas

Today my family and I went into town (yes, yes indeed, this is a drive into town for us) To experience the Victorian Christmas they do every year.

We have cider, coffee, roasted chestnuts and carolers. And the North Pole is set up with Father Christmas there to see the children! There’s also a horse drawn covered wagon. 😀

This sort of feeling is what drew me to writing the Silver Creek series. I love the glamour and fantasy you find in Harlequin Presents, but I find something so comforting about a small town. There’s a feeling of home in a small town. Character and a sense of friendliness.

And nosiness of course. I never go anywhere without knowing someone, and that has nothing to do with people recognizing me for books!

But you know, small towns have their charm. Most especially at Christmas! And I wanted to share my town’s charm with you.

Don’t Reject Yourself

I was starting to really psych myself out over starting my next Silver Creek book. I’ve only written one book that length, did I have enough conflict to sustain it? Would I enjoy it, or would I hate the experience?

As the deadline for that book gets closer (March) and the need to get going on it LOOMS (like a doubt crow) those sorts of fears were starting to get really, really big in my mind. And it’s silly, because I haven’t written more than 1K on that book and I’m turning it into a demon beast before it even has a chance to…at least evolve into that organically.

This got me thinking about our tendency to do that in…a lot of areas of life. I’ve done it to myself repeatedly with different projects over the years, or even with publishing in general.

I used to be afraid to finish a project. Because if I finished one, I’d have to submit it. And if I submitted it, I would have to suffer through the first of what would surely be fifty rejections, because that’s what EVERY writer has to go through, right? And I wasn’t ready for that.

So I didn’t write more than twenty pages of a book. Ever. Because it kept me safe from those rejections.

And what I didn’t realize was that I was rejecting myself. I was making the decision FOR all of those editors.

I finally got the courage to write a book. And I sent it in. And HOLY COW the publisher wanted to buy it. So I happily went along writing Presents because I had contracts there and it made me happy (still do! Still does!) But inevitably, the topic of venturing into Single Title romance would come up with people. Was I going to do it? When? Did I want to meet their agent?

Uh…no. No no. No no no. Because if I did that. I would have to get rejections. It would never work. Don’t you know contemporary romance is a REALLY hard sell??

I’ve told the story before, but I met my agent in Florida at RWA and had breakfast with her and one of her other clients. Single title came up. I said I wasn’t ready yet (my first book hadn’t been released at that point) I thanked her for meeting with me. She asked me to query her if I ever had an idea for ST.

When I was finally ready to entertain the idea of a doing a single title I got another breakfast meeting with the same agent at RWA in NY (facilitated, again, by Lisa Hendrix, who is good at pushing me into things) And I was so nervous before the breakfast. I was going…I don’t want to do this! I don’t think I *can* do this.

But I went. I pitched the idea. I gave her my partial. The next thing I knew she wanted to submit it places! So I had to finish it.

I sort of went terrified and trembling into the whole process, never quite ready to be doing it. And you know what? I got rejections. LOTS. It was hard.

But I sold the series. And I learned a lot. And it’s opened up a ton of new opportunities for me.

I have so many writer friends who do this same thing. They decide from the get go something will go wrong with a book, so they don’t write it. Or they don’t submit it. Or they don’t query the agent. Or they don’t pitch the book.

When we do things like that, we’re rejecting ourselves. We’re limiting ourselves. We’re putting a cap on our dreams and saying, gosh I really want that! But not enough to try and fail!

Looking back on my history, I’m so glad I had people pushing me through. People saying, stop being a whiny kiddie baby whiner, Maisey and just TRY it. If you fail, so what? Try again.

So I’m going to do that for you, right now, Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah. That thing you want that you think you can’t have? Go after it. Try. Push yourself. Risk rejection. Because risking rejection is so much better than stopping before you ever get out of the gate. Or up to the gate. Or even to the races.

If you don’t try, you’ll never know how far you could go.

If I would have listened to my fear, I wouldn’t have submitted to Harlequin. If I had listened to fear after that, I wouldn’t have signed with my agent. And I wouldn’t have done my single title and gotten a book deal with Berkley.

More things were possible than I believed. Blind faith, or rather just a willingness to ignore terror, were essential.

If you try and you fail, at least you gave it everything. If you don’t try, you still fail. And you might not have had to.

So…go on. Get out there. YOU CAN DO EEEET.

(And I will be repeating that as I get going on my second Silver Creek book. Because I’m going to take my own advice!!!)

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Yes, it’s the holidays. But for me, December is even more than that! Two of my children were born in December…lucky me with gift buying, right?

But wait! There’s more! December 1st, 2009 was when I got The Call from Mills & Boon, offering me a two book contract with Presents. I’ve since written 21 books for Harlequin Presents and a couple of shorts. And I’ve recently sold a series of single title contemporary romances to Berkley. (Random Penguin, if you will)

Three years and so much has changed. I had my daughter three years ago, and she completed our family. I sold my first book.

Since then, there have been so many milestones. Of course with watching our daughter (and our boys!) grow. We bought our first house, went on our first real vacation. I made USA Today. 🙂

One thing I can say for certain, that phone call, that day, changed my life. There is no question about it. I remember feeling like we’d come to the end of our rope financially. We were already on already on food stamps to help us get by. Already deep in debt with our landlady. Scraping bottom of the barrel about covers it, and we had a baby due in three weeks, one son enrolling in speech therapy and the other starting autism evaluations to try and see if we could get a diagnosis for him.

And then I got The Call.

So it’s really not an exaggeration to say this changed my life, that day three years ago changed my life. As I sit here in the first real house I’ve owned as an adult, the first for my husband too, the point seems underlined.

This has always been my favorite time of year. I love to celebrate Christmas. But I’ve been given so many things to celebrate in December. So many wonderful gifts!

And this December first is special because I have THREE (count them…three) books out in some capacity or another. Here’s the breakdown for you:

A Royal World Apart: Virgin Russian Bodyguard hero (yeah, I said it) guarding the rebellious princess until her arranged engagement can be finalized. She’s the one woman he shouldn’t have, and the one woman he can’t resist. Buy it EVERYWHERE now in print or ebook. (Or Amazon or Barnes and Noble)

At His Majesty’s Request: Linked with A Royal World Apart, this book follows the heroine of the previous book’s brother on his search for a suitable woman to become his queen. Unfortunately, the only woman he finds appealing is his purely unsuitable matchmaker! The divorced, angry birds playing, vintage wearing, self-made millionaire who can never give him an heir… You can buy it now in print and ebook on eharlequin, wide release January 1st. AND it is now on shelves and Amazon UK in the…well, in the UK!

Her Little White Lie: A lie at the wrong time lands Paige Harper in hot water and engaged to her boss. In order to adopt her best friend’s daughter, Paige needs a husband, and she’s accidentally volunteered Dante for the job. But Dante has wounds that run deep, scars that Paige could never have imagined. Could she and little Ana be the key to helping him find healing? And love? Her Little White Lie is available on M&B UK. (And check out a mildly spoiler-ish excerpt of HLWL here!)

I’m not certain when this book will be out in North America. When it is, it will be e-only and I imagine it won’t be for a while, if you would like to purchase it, it IS possible for those outside the UK to buy books from the M&B site. You will encounter a notice that says you can’t, just click OK and continue with the transaction. 🙂

Three year anniversary and three books out! Not bad, eh?

Definitely think the day calls for cake and kermit flailing!!

Hey! You Got Work in my Life!

And you got life in my work! (if anyone remembers the Reese’s cereal commercials, you know what I mean)

I think the thing I get asked about the most is my schedule, and how I balance work and writing life.

And I’ve kinda blogged about it before, but the thing is, things change. Life changes, workloads shift, the work life balance isn’t an immobile thing that one day comes into absolute order.

No, it’s walking on a tightrope, continually, while you’re balancing kittens on spinning plates up on sticks, and the kittens keep moving. And growing. And sometimes they leap off unexpectedly. And then sometimes they come back and bring another kitten. You get the idea. It’s not a stable I GOT DIS IT’S ALL GOOD kind of thing.

I had a plan for the next…uh…year basically for my writing that got upended by the addition of three projects, two just needing to be a higher priority and one I wasn’t expecting to do at all, but jumped at the chance to be a part of. (Lori Foster’s charity anthology for HQN!)

So that plan changed. And Fall hit and my husband got busy, and all of my kids got sick for like ever and so…the way I was working had to change.

I think being willing to change the way you work is really important. I prefer to have at least two days dedicated to work in a week. Two days where I get up, get coffee and go to the office. I haven’t had that in MONTHS. I’ve been working early mornings for an hour or so, stopping, doing life, working late afternoons or (bleah) late nights.

In my experience, the willingness to adapt, to take an hour or two when you can and make the most of it, is one of the biggest stress relievers. Because rather than feeling all day like I’m missing out on my work time, I plan on doing it after the kids go to bed, or for an hour when the husband gets home, or I plan the night before to get up extra early, and just make do with what I have.

I’ve experienced that feeling of “I’m not going to get my day so I can’t get anything done and it’s ALL RUINED” and I still struggle with it. But even two hours can be productive. Especially if you form a small plan for what you’ll write before you sit down. (Panster that I am, I don’t always stick to it, but it makes me feel equipped)

This mindset also helps me relax and enjoy my day more. I accept that the day is what it is, and just have fun with it. This has been a journey for me, and it’s one I’m still working on (cats on spinning plates, remember?). Because sometimes I look at everything I have to do and I still get a stress.

But for the most part an attitude of flexibility helps. It eases that panicky feeling and creates a lot more harmony in my house. And that’s the most important thing!

That and feeling happy with what you’re doing. I’m a big believer in being happy. 🙂 The fact is, work spills into life, life spills into work, and it all becomes a peanut butter chocolate breakfast cereal blend, but it can be surprisingly tasty and okay! (I’ve exhausted that metaphor, haven’t I?)

There you have it, the work life balance is spinning kittens on plates. And learning to embrace the changeable nature of it.

But sometimes, when you’re on a deadline…it’s okay to just go lock yourself in your office and tell your husband to eat a frozen pizza. (He doesn’t have to eat it frozen, he can heat it up, but that’s his job.)

Because it doesn’t hurt the other people in your life to help you balance a kitten or two either.

Some News and Water Changes Everything

If you follow me on twitter (@maiseyyates) or like me on Facebook, then you’ve already heard me talking about my current hero, the man I call: Neat Freak Cowboy.

BUT I’ve been tight-lipped about what I was going to do with him!

So, now I’m going to share!

I’m pleased and excited and generally squeeish to announce that Neat Freak Cowboy will be out in Lori Foster’s charity anthology (eBook in June, print to follow) along with Jules Bennett and Heidi Betts! ALL of the proceeds go to a no kill animal shelter.

Neat Freak Cowboy, clean, sexy and all of his proceeds go to charity. 😉 The book is being published by HQN.

This has been a really, really fun book to write. It’s a friends to lovers and it’s funny and HOT, so basically, it’s all of my favorite things. 🙂 So far, there have been mentions of cherpumples, an inner doomsday prophet and of then there’s the heroine’s big black dog who sheds on everything…

AND in the spirit of charity I wanted to highlight a challenge being put on by a blogger friend of mine, Limecello! Her chosen charity is Charity:Water. Right now, she’s doing a comment drive. People have pledged to donate money, just for your comments! Here are some of the offers:

• Limecello is going to give $300 if they reach 1,000 comments.
• Cecilia Grant will give $1 per comment up to 100 comments
• The Romance Manwill give $50 when we reach 250 comments will match Limecello’s $300 if we get to 1,000 comments!!!
• C2 will give $150 when they reach 500 comments
• Farrah Rochon will give $10 for every 100 comments

So please, go, comment and find out more about Charity:Water and what you can do!

Cover Copy for Unbuttoned and Novellas

I’m working on another novella right now. This one isn’t for Presents OR Silver Creek. (Sekrit Project alert!) But it is a rom com in the vein of Silver Creek, and, like that series, is set in Oregon and contains shenanigans and a sexy cowboy.

I never thought I would enjoy writing short, but now that I’ve done it, I find that I really enjoy it. I’ve written two ‘shorts’ for Harlequin, one a 14K ebook (The Life She Left Behind) and now an online serial read, which is 10K and has a chapter release every week. (You can read it here)

I’ve also done a couple of 30K novellas. This will be my third one. I find there’s something wonderfully straightforward and refreshing about them, and part of me wonders if it’s the manner of conflict you have time to deal with in a novella.

It has to conflict you can solve in an abbreviated word count. Presents is like that too, but 50K, so long as its tightly focused on the main characters, is enough time to delve pretty deep! And that’s not to say novellas can’t be deep. But I think it’s easier to fill them with real world conflict and have it sustain over the course of the book nicely.

I’ve said it before, but size matters. The size of your conflict matched up with your word count. Striking that balance is a huge part of whether your book is successful…or not.

And on that note, my editor said I could share the cover blurb for Unbuttoned, my Silver Creek novella, coming out in June!

Carly Denton has learned to keep her buttons and emotions firmly fastened. Her parents’ constant drama, and an unrequited crush on her brother’s best friend, taught her to keep her passion beneath the surface. But she can no longer avoid the one man with the ability to bring that passion to a boil…

Lucas remembers Carly as a freckle-faced tomboy—not a frosty woman who treats him like a burr under her saddle. But when they have to work together on a charity project, Lucas is shocked to find their bickering melt into some serious mutual attraction. He’s determined to show Carly that he’s the man for her, if only she’d learn to let loose.

Lucas is the last man on earth Carly should give in to. The freedom she finds in his arms has her feeling happier than ever, but is it enough to make her realize that the greatest risk isn’t losing your heart, but losing the chance at happiness?

A Complicated Post About Process

I say complicated because I’ve been musing, and taking in several opinions on the subject and really…nodding along with most of them. I say complicated because everyone is different, and every writing process is somewhat different. And, if you’re like me, every book is different.

Here are some things I believe about process: We all have a natural process. For some of us, this process works swimmingly. Some of us have a process that doesn’t work well. If that’s the case, you can change is, but it may not be easy.

There is always a debate between Plotter v Pantser. And then there’s the general distrust and stank eye directed at ‘fast’ writers.

All of the above is, IMO, short-sighted at best. Plotting works best if you’re a plotter. Pantsting works best if you’re a pantser. If pantsing doesn’t work for you? Well then, I’m sorry to say you probably DO need to learn to plot. On the flipside, if you’re getting a lot of editorial feedback about characters being wooden and stock, maybe YOU need to ditch the character sheets and approach character in an organic manner. (I use that as an example because I had a Presents ‘set aside’ at partial stage a loooong while back and it was the one time I used character sheets, and I think it failed me there.)

YES. No matter what approach you take to writing naturally, you could learn another way. We’re adaptable like that. It’s pretty awesome. But if pantsing works for you? Then there’s no need. If that makes sense.

I’m essentially a pantser. One who tends to know their characters and character arcs and internal conflicts from the get go. But in terms of the story? Yeah, I don’t so much plot that. And even the character stuff I don’t chart or anything. And it’s something that’s served me well for 23 books. Maybe it will change someday. Maybe my process won’t work for me forever. But I can’t worry about that now, and if someday I come to that bridge, I’ll have to learn to cross it. It won’t do me any good to say BUT I’M A PANTSER, because ultimately the method doesn’t matter as long as the result is solid. So I can’t be too married to a process, nor can I make it my ‘ideal’ way to write a book.

The ideal way to write a book is the way that gets it DONE and done well.

So now we come to speed. Yes, indeed. Here are some things I believe about speed: You can probably write faster than you think. (I say probably, girl, I don’t know your life. Remember that.) Fast writers aren’t always just vomiting garbage onto a page. Some fast writers are and they’re editing it later. Whatever speed you write at has to be sustainable. It has to enable you to meet your deadlines, and it has to not make you crazy insane.

My speed has increased since I first started writing. I think it’s because when I started structure and craft were a struggle, and now structure and craft are becoming, for lack of a better way of putting it, more second nature. Now, some books are faster and some are slower. But then, I also plot some books more than others.

For me, the faster I write, the better a book is going. The more solid it is in my head. The fastest Presents I wrote had some of the most minimal revisions, but for me, that was because everything had aligned perfectly. My slowest Presents was my last total rewrite. For me, a faster speed has never spoken to a lower a quality. But that’s how it’s been for me.

I also wrote a novella at a fairly breakneck pace and sent it off to my agent. That novella is, I believe, responsible for the sale of my Silver Creek series to Berkley.

But the important thing is that I enjoy the pace I’m working at. It enables me to meet deadlines and, yes, I do have a social life. It plays to my strengths.

I think ultimately, that’s the key. Finding the process that plays to your strengths. You might have to play with a few different ideas or methods. You might be able to work up to higher daily word counts and find it’s completely possible for you, and that you enjoy writing more in a day. You might find that a messy first draft is something that really works for you. You might find that you’re one who HAS to edit as you go so you don’t build off of a foundation that isn’t solid.

I have done all these things and found they worked for different books. Another reason it’s good to be flexible. Sometimes different books require a different method.

The bottom line of this is, no process is sacred. Not even yours. Not even mine. And I think we all possess the power to change it if we NEED to. Or not if we don’t.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask! (or just comments…comments are welcome too!)

Happy writing.

The Call of Duty

I’m in the throes of a double release day across countries again! This time it’s for my Call of Duty series. The first one was out in the UK already, and the second book, At His Majesty’s Request is now out in Mills and Boon’s website, and due for a shelf release in a couple of weeks. (It’s a December book but they hit shelves early! E-readers in wide release on the first of the month) And the first book in the series, A Royal World Apart is set to do the same here in North America.

They were very fun to write as a series, and I’m excited to have them out back to back Stateside. The characters in each book were really different from each other, and I enjoyed exploring the way different people find love. 🙂

And I thought I would share some special teasers with you!

The following is a bit of a naughty scene from A Royal World Apart…

She had fire in her. And he only had cold stone. Just for a while, for a moment, he wanted to be warm. To be with her.

“I’m sure,” she said. She lowered herself onto his lap and he put his hands on her waist. She dipped her head to kiss him.

“Wait,” he said, his throat tight. She looked shocked, but froze in place. “I just want to look at you for a moment. To know that tonight, you’ll be mine.” He moved his hands through her thick, dark hair, finally able to relish the feel of the silken curls.
Guilt had no place in things tonight. Tomorrow, it would be there. It always was. Guilt was his constant companion, gnawing at him always, the reasons varied, but ever present.

Not tonight.

Tonight there was only Eva. Only his desire for her. Needs that would finally be met.

Her lip trembled and he leaned forward and kissed her lightly. Eva melted into him, her breasts pressing against his chest, her curves melding to him as she gave herself over to the kiss. And he allowed himself to relish it. Her tongue, smooth and hot, her lips so soft and sweet, perfect.

He was dying to touch her. To explore those soft, feminine curves, so different from his own body. This was what he was made for, a part of himself he had denied for so long. He reached behind her and took the zipper on her dress between his thumb and forefinger, sliding it down slowly, savoring the action. Savoring the experience of undressing a woman who was so alive. So responsive.
It was a beautiful dress, one that had kicked his libido into high gear the moment she’d come down for dinner. But it wasn’t enough. He wanted more. All of her, without any fabric covering her luscious, golden skin. Without anything between them at all.

He tugged the top of her dress down, slowly, revealing more of her rounded breasts with each shift of fabric. His breath stopped completely when the top fell down around her stomach and revealed a thin, black lace bra that showed hints of erect, caramel colored nipples beneath the flimsy fabric.

He lowered his head and kissed the curve of one breast, a sharp shock of need piercing him in the gut, making his erection pulse.
Arousal stabbed him, hot and fierce, a rush of desire overwhelming him for a moment. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. Yes, he was letting go of his control. And yes, in many ways, this night was for him.

But it was hers too. And he would be damned if it was anything less than perfect for Eva. If she was anything less than satisfied.

“You are incredible,” he rasped, raising his head so that he could look at her face. She was exquisitely beautiful. High cheekbones, a strong, rounded nose, full lips. There was nothing generic about her, nothing forgettable. She would be burned into his mind, his body, forever.

“I’ll bet you say that to all the women,” she said.
He felt his muscles tense, his fingers curling into her back. There was no easy way to have the conversation they would have to have tonight. But she was owed his honesty. She was giving him her body, and she deserved to know.

This was the conversation he’d never wanted to have. And yet, somehow, with Eva, it didn’t seem so impossible.
“There have been no other women.”

And now a little teaser from book two, At His Majesty’s Request! (Which is a January book in North America)

“You think you have me figured out?”

A smile curved his lips. Wicked. Dangerous. “No. Not at all.”

“Well, that’s good. I would hate to be thought of as predictable.”

“You aren’t predictable in the least. Not down to what you’ll wear on a given day,” he said, his eyes on her hat. “That makes you interesting. It makes me wonder.” His eyes met hers and she felt a jolt in her system. “It makes me want to discover all of your secrets.”

His made goosebumps break out on her arms. Low and husky, with the kind of accent usually only found in her late night fantasies. And his eyes…dark and rich, like chocolate. A bitter, intense sort of chocolate.

Her favorite.

She swallowed and tried to slow the beating of her heart. “I live in North Dakota when I’m not traveling, as you already know. I don’t own pets. I like clothes. And I do a really dorky celebration dance when I beat my own high scores on computer games.” She tried to smile. “Open book.”

“I would like to see the dance. But I also don’t believe you.”

“I do the dance. But I don’t do it for you.”

“No, I believe you do it,” his eyes locked with hers, the perception in them, the sudden seriousness, unnerving her, “I just don’t believe you’re an open book.”

“And I can’t believe you care. You don’t have time to worry about me or my idiosyncrasies, Prince Stavros, you have a wife to find.”

“No, you have a wife to find. Deliver her to me when you do.”

She laughed, trying to dispel the tension. “That’s the plan. Although, I have to do a bit more than deliver. You have to agree with my selection.”

And speaking of the Call of Duty series…there will be a free online serial starting November 12th on eHarlequin called The Prince and the PA and it connects with the two other books in the series! I’m v pleased that it’s going to be available for free. 😉

So that’s my release day goodies! If you have any questions or comments about the series, feel free to ask below!

Oh…and BUYLINKS. A Royal World Apart (North America) At His Majesty’s Request (UK)

Now Entering Doubtsville: Population…pretty much everyone.

Writers are funny creatures. Really, all creatives are funny creatures. No matter how grand the ego on the outside (and some of them really do have some graaand egos they’re waving around out front like LOOK AT ME I’M SEXAY AND I KNOW IT) the underneath stuff is kind of soft and mushy and easily wounded.

That’s why, I think, you get those writers who freak out about criticism publicly and make excuses or get angry. It’s because beneath the bluster, they’re desperately insecure and they wanted your praise, sweet cheese niblets, not your disdain.

I’m someone who, at the end of the day, likes my books. I’ll admit that here and now. For the most part, I enjoy working on them, and when I’m finished, it’s a story that I’m happy to put my name on and ask readers to pay money for. (I don’t usually arrive at that conclusion until my editor or agent gives me the thumbs up and I can breathe again, but that’s my typical thought on my end product.)

BUT, that doesn’t mean I don’t struggle with bouts of crippling, sucktastic doubt. And I hate those moments more than anything because they make each word a struggle and they make me feel TIRED and they just aren’t fun.

I want to be emotionally connected to the book I’m working on. I want to care about the characters and believe in them. But I don’t always. And by that, I mean, during every writing session on a given day I’m not necessarily like ERMAHGHERD MER GERNIUS!!

And it’s on those days, when I’m sitting there with my stomach sinking, and my head aching and I’m thinking I JUST WANT TO DELETE THE WHOLE THING, that I have to trust that craft knowledge will carry me through, and that, most importantly, if I don’t have it right now, I can fix it later.

For me, writing THROUGH it, the sucky sad blah feelings, it important. Because if I leave it sitting there then I’m just going to get afraid of it. The bad is going to feel badder and bigger and the longer I don’t write, the more fearsome it will become in our heads.

I think pretty much everyone struggles with this crazy doubty pants stuff and no amount of external validation will erase it, you just have to learn to manage it. And tell it to go back to the darkness from whence it came. It’s what Gandalf would do.

And on the flipside, I believe it’s totally okay to have FUN while you write. And to love what you’re writing, and to be proud of what you’ve accomplished in the end. You aren’t obligated to doubt. You aren’t obligated to dislike what you did. I feel sometimes like women in particular feel like they have to downplay their accomplishments and their excitement. I no likey. I think we work darn hard, whatever we do, and we deserve to have a sense of satisfaction with it.

Don’t ever feel guilty for being happy with where you’re at, or what you’re working on. Don’t downplay it to make other people uncomfortable. Haters are gonna hate, whatever you do. (on a side note, it dismays me to realize that I spend more time modifying my behavior for people who will never like me than I ever spend changing it for people who actually care about me, but that’s another blog post and off topic!)

Whatever you’re feeling, know you aren’t alone! And if you’re NaNo-ing, I wish you a happy time of it!

AND OH HEY. I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you, A Royal World Apart will be available on eharlequin November 1st in print and e (Oct 31st, you could preorder it and get 31% off using the code HALLOW3112), and will be on shelves later in the month. (VIRGIN HERO ALERT) And At His Majesty’s Request is available on the Mills and Boon site November 1st!

Milestones, Covers and Cover Copy, Oh My!

So this was a big day. Like…a really big day!!

I got final approval on the Geek Billionaire (who I’m sure will get a better title), I got the cover and cover copy for my January UK release Her Little White Lie AND I got my contract for my Berkley InterMix books (we’ve been pretty much common law for months, but now it’s all official) AND my cover copy for the first Silver Creek Romance, Unexpected, went up on Amazon. AND there’s more, but I’m going to pause on this for now.

First…

Her Little White Lie:

DANTE ROMANI’S SHOCK ENGAGEMENT TO EMPLOYEE!

Paige Harper can’t believe her little white lie has made the headlines. The only way to secure the adoption of her best-friend’s daughter was to fake an engagement with her boss. Now she can hear him marching down the corridor to fire her!

The press have spent years cultivating Dante’s devilish persona, but now he wonders if this ‘engagement’ could be an opportunity to change that. Paige will wish he had fired her when she hears his terms: if she wants his ring she’ll have to play the part of devoted wife in public and in private…

You can read an excerpt here!

And now…the cover copy for my very first single title romance…Unexpected! *dies of excitement*

After spending another family wedding fielding questions about her non-existent love life, Kelsey Noble decides she’s tired of waiting around for things she could go out and get herself. What Kelsey wants is a baby, and she doesn’t see any point waiting for a husband she’s not even sure she wants. But a mix-up at the fertility clinic lands her with a hassle she didn’t count on. A big, muscular hassle in a Stetson and cowboy boots.

Cole Mitchell is shocked to discover that a grand gesture from years past has come back to haunt him. Now, thanks to a clerical error, a woman he’s never met is having his baby—and there’s no way he’s going to walk away and forget he has a child.

Trying to make nice with the unexpected father of her baby lands Kelsey in Silver Creek, Oregon, dealing with the kind of small town life she left behind years ago. Even worse is dealing with the burning attraction she feels for Cole. She knows adding sex to the mix is a very bad idea, but she’s not sure how long she can resist falling for the last man she ever expected…

UNEXPECTED, Silver Creek Romance #1 is coming August 20th 2013 from Berkley InterMix!!

AND NOW…

Milestones. Tonight I hit send on my 20th Presents! ZOMG *balloons fall* *party hats* *streamers*

I can’t even believe it’s been that many! I love writing these books so much. There is truly no other place I could explore the themes I get to explore or write the heroes I get to write. I’m so thankful to the wonderful Jenny Hutton who bought me from slush, and to my wonderful editor Megan Haslam, and co-editor Pippa Roscoe, who give me the most KICK BUTT revisions and help me get the best out of my books.

This is all starting to sound like an Oscar speech. I’m about to star crying and saying YOU LIKE ME YOU REALLY LIKE ME.

I also owe a huge massive major squishy weepy thanks to my readers who are THE COOLEST EVERRRRRRR!! <— that’s how my 2yo says it. Lots of Rrrrrs.

Thanks for coming with me on the journey. I look forward to the next 20. 😀

Layery Layers and I Contradict Myself About Secrets…Kind Of

I got revisions back on the Geek Billionaire today from my fabulous editorial duo. They are, again, my most favoritest kind of revisions. It’s…this is all really screwed up…can you make it darker and more screwed up? Yes. Ma’am. I CAN DO THAT.

So, I’m super excited to get going on these, but before I do, I thought I would give you a little rundown on the agenda for these revisions because…well, I feel like I already learned something from them.

I robbed myself of layers and turning points by having everything out in the open from page one. Now, I’ve done this before to great effect. It’s one way I make sure I have enough conflict. If the secrets of their pasts are upfront from the beginning, and you still have crap to work through, then you have good conflict.

Or, as my first editor said during a phone convo: Me: Can’t I just put them in a room and let them deal with it? Her: If you have enough conflict, you could.

So I generally make it a policy to keep secrets thin on the ground in my books, but of course, even if a character’s past is known up front, how they feel about it isn’t necessarily.

So I had done this with Geek billionaire. I exposed his secrets up front with a tell all book, with the idea that the true reveal would be his feelings about his past.

But here’s the problem I ran into. My editor pointed out that once you got to the middle of the book, things stagnated a bit. Because there were no new revelations. The heroine was light on conflict, the hero, while heavy on conflict wasn’t going to open up and share his feelings re the conflict and that meant that there were no new layers being uncovered. I robbed myself of layers and it left things feeling flat.

This is the tricky thing. You have to find the line between BIG SECRET and layers to character. I think, for the purposes of this post a BIG SECRET is a secret kept from either the readers or character(s) or both, until the end, for the sole purpose of triggering the black moment or resolving the conflict.

OHMAHGAH you SLEPT WITH MY SISTER? You MANHOOR!! (heroine storms off in tears and gets hit by a car and loses their baby) (this could also be a big misunderstanding, but that’s a whole other topic, and I digress)

or OHMAHGAH you aren’t really the heir to the throne so WE CAN BE TOGETHER!! Thank you big secret! (that’s also a little deus ex machina but I also digress yet again!!)

The difference between THAT KIND OF BIG SECRET and having some secrets, are huge. The Big Secret often seems random or too convenient, it also has a tendency to undermine conflict. I did this HORRIBLY in the first iteration of my debut book His Virgin Acquisition (you remember, we’ve talked about this. THERE WERE DOLPHINS YOU GUYS)

I triggered the black moment by introducing an ex-mistress of the Marco’s who claimed, to a newly pregnant Elaine, that she’d gotten pregnant with Marco’s baby and he’d coerced her into an abortion. This was many things, none of them good. Contrived, random and undermining to the relationship that I’d built between the hero and heroine. To have Elaine go off weeping and angry, leaving a man she supposedly loved without even talking to him because she believed a stranger’s word over anything she knew of him undermined the romance HORRIBLY.

But in the case of Geek Billionaire, his background is a closely guarded part of who he is. Having it revealed slowly enriches the conflict and character rather than undermining it, or hiding the character from the reader.

In the 1st version of Highest Price to Pay, the reader and Ella didn’t know what Blaise had done to his brother, so when he confessed it, my editor said he felt like a stranger. She thought he was one thing, but he was another entirely, and that was made known way too late for the reader to connect with him.

So in the rewrite of that book, he still had his mask, his public persona vs who he was, but the reader knew, and so did Ella, right away what he had done. But not the guilt, or how deeply his own actions had wounded him.

With GB, I plan on turning his background into a sordid rumor, rather than a known fact. A rumor that plagues him but that he can’t deny. So as we dig deeper we’ll see the truth of him, and as we go further we’ll see how he really feels about it and how this past has informed the public mask he wears, and how much of a mask it truly is. This will hopefully make him more interesting, someone you get drawn into slowly before the full horror of him comes to light. 🙂 (*evil laughter*)

The real thing with layers and secrets like this is that there isn’t a one size fits all approach to a MS. It’s heavily dependent on each set of characters you and you have to think through what will work best for each situation.

So I would ask:

1. Does the secret help reinforce the conflict or is it there for the sole purpose of keeping readers in the dark and creating interest that way? (ie, is it propping up weak conflict)

2. Will is undermine the conflict to save the secret?

3. Will it help you explore layers to reveal it early? Or will revealing it steal your layers and make it feel one note?

4.  Is the secret necessary or is it only there because you don’t know of another way to break them up or get them back together? In which case you may be thin on internal conflict, and I would suggest removing said secret and figuring out how to have them break up/get together based on their issues.

So, those are just my initial, rambling thoughts based on my phone call this morning. I am now for the revision cave and looking forward to it!! 🙂