Circle of Desire Book Trailer!

My First Book Cover!

Here's my cover! It's better than I ever imagined.  She even has the right color of hair.  I told someone at work that's me with a wig. For some reason he wouldn't believe me. Doubters!

Don't forget that you can buy this online at places like Books-a-Million, Barnes and Noble and Amazon.  The release date will be 10/18/11.

Favorite Dialogue

If you had to decide on your favorite line of dialogue from your current WIP, what would it be?

It's like saying a child of yours is better than her/his sibling. Really should never be done. But it is just dialogue. So here's mine. I think it's my favorite. Today.

“Go ahead and get Rex, you crazy bastard. I love you and I refuse to force any man to love me! Go ahead and kill me. But you’ll always wonder what you missed out on.”

Hurray!

I "finished" my latest book. It was a long haul on it. I even began to hate it as I wanted to make sure it was action pack and on the original side.

Actually I had finished it once before but didn't like the ending (really the last half of the book) and cut that part out and started over from there. Now it has a new ending.

Next step is editing and getting others to read it through. A few people have read the first few chapters but as you guessed, not the whole thing.

I'm so happy.

So what should I write or work on next? I have several projects I could work on including a historical. Hmmm.

A Rose By Any Other Name

The other day I was walking by a table of books in Books-a-Million and Russell Brand's memoir called MY BOOKY WOOK caught my eye. I'm not crazy about all of his humor, but he has his moments and to me the title of his book told me he didn't take himself too seriously. I also saw him interviewed tonight and I thought how sweet it was when he said of his fiancée, "I love her you know" and not in an inane tone.

Anyway, titles tell a lot about a book and, like most authors, I struggle with mine. The book I'm working on now was originally called THE ONES, and then DEADLY TEMPTATION, and lately THE ONES: BLOOD WARS. The reason I changed it the first time as a judge and a CP told me the title wasn't romantic enough. So I changed it to the second title and funny enough I had a judge note in a contest the book wasn't a romance. Funny. The first page is about how much the heroine has a crush on the hero. I figured the judge said it wasn't a romance because the book is in first person. Then as I threw out the ending and added tons of words and now working on the new ending, I decided it is closer to urban fantasy with romance in it. So I gave it back the old title with a modifier.

Some titles come easy to me. Like my two books I wrote for Silhouette Romantic Suspense: A SHERIFF TO CALL HER OWN and PREACHER'S SON. Since I finaled in the Maggies with both of them, they ended up on Wanda Ottewell's (Harlequin SuperRomance) desk. She then rejected them. So after some major revisions, I retitled them and sent them to RS as WATCH MOLLY RUN and PROTECTING MARY. Rejected again.

I've found I have a thing for the word shadow. My first romantic suspense (and the second book I wrote) was called CRYSTAL SHADOWS. Presently, I have three more books with that word in it: SHADOW HEALER, OUT OF THE SHADOWS and IN THE SHADOWS. The first is a paranorml romance and the other two are romantic suspense.

One title that was rather controversial was my romance (not paranormal or suspense) THE FEMALE CHAUVINIST. The heroine wasn't a bitch. She loved men but being a successful business woman, she didn't have time for romance or love. She treated men like men treat women all the time. They were sex objects to her. To help her scratch an itch and then to go on her way, taking care of business. Love that book. I'll probably rewrite it one day. My voice has changed so much since it was written, but I'll keep the plot the same.

I like twists for titles. One of my favorites (I didn't write) is THE TAMING by Jude Deveraux. Back in 1989 (whoa!), I thought the title was referring to the hero taming the heroine, but suprise! it was about the opposite. So I was thinking of that title when I named another paranormal of mine called THE CHAMPION. It wasn't named for the hero, though he was a champion in his own right, it was the heroine who wanted to be a champion for helpless children.

I have so many more titles for books I've finished or started, such as THE AIR SHE BREATHES, THE BILLIONAIRE'S REVENGE, TREASURE, WEEKEND LOVER, FOR AN ETERNITY (short story - ironic, isn't it?), GOOD BAD LUCK, FULL MOON, DARK DESIRE (doesn't everyone have a book named this? Or the next one here...), DARK BETRAYAL, CONVICT, BLOOD PROTECTOR (this will probably be the second book in the BLOOD WAR series), THE CAGED HEART, THE RICH MAN'S SON and last but not least, THE PRINCE, THE WARRIOR & THE QUEEN (this one is pure erotica, let your imagination run free). I think I have a few more I need to move over from the floppy disc. Yep, they're that old. LOL!

Great First One Liners

It's so true the first line can hook you into buying/reading a book. Raelene Gorlinsky at Ellora's Cave gave some great examples.

I'm working on my most recent paranormal. When I first started writing it, I used the first line of "It sucks to be me." As I wrote on it (3/4 finished), I've changed it several times. I had for a while "Crap! I'm in trouble again." Then I decided that wasn't really the message I wanted to come across starting off. So I settled for the following. For now.

There was nothing like standing in front of your soul mate, while he gave you a lecture. Soul mate? Yeah. Triton Aleron was my soul mate. And it sucks. Why? Because nothing in the cosmic joke book of the universe promised he would know I was his soul mate.

Yeah, I know. It's more than one sentence, but what the heck?

WATCH MOLLY RUN

I decided to blog with a tidbit from one of my stories. I think it's funny. What can I say? I have a warped sense of humor. It's from the hero's POV.

He shifted in the driver’s seat of his marked SUV and stared at the mansion in front of him. He’d hoped something would click and tell him what had happened there two days ago. Even looking at the Farley place with an eye for detail, examining every window covered by blinds or curtains, it still gave off an air of being closed up and empty, not revealing anything.

Today was his day off, if there was such of thing for a small county sheriff. But this was definitely a time for overtime. Two deaths were two too many for the little county seat. The last person to die of unnatural causes in Sand City was Jeff Mason about ten years ago. His wife had purposely and fatally run over him with the tractor as she’d found out he’d gambled their farm away at a casino in Mississippi. Truth be told, losing her family homestead was bad enough, but she also found out he’d taken a million dollar life insurance policy on her and planned to spend it on his girlfriend.

And how did she find out about the policy? Five minutes before he’d died, he tried to shoot her with his hunting bow but missed. When she’d jerked the bow out of his hands, he took off across the corn field, yelling at her about the policy and his pregnant girlfriend. He never was very bright. She’d jumped in the tractor and did the deed. Later, in court she’d pleaded self-defense. It would’ve worked too except she ran over him twice and then got off the tractor and shot three arrows in his groin. Sometimes it doesn’t pay to be too thorough.

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I thankful for knowing several talented women who are so kind to me. Diane Richmond, JoAnn Weatherly, Christy Reece, Laura Hayden, Jeanie Therkelsen, Jennifer Echols, and so many more.