Authors After Dark 2013 Spotlight : Heather Long Answers Some Questions

 First question we always ask; why do you choose to write romance?

I could say something cheesy like romance chose me, but the truth is I'm like every other little girl out there who grew up weaned on fairy tales about true love and the Harlequin romances my grandmother read to me. I love the idea of love and I love the way love can bring people together. As an adult, I recognize that fairy tales don't happen--you have to work for it and that's why I write romance, because life is what happens when you aren't paying attention and most of my characters weren't looking for it when it found them.

Who is your favourite romance hero/heroine of all time?

Um. Don't ask a hard question. I think my current favorite is going to be Damon Salvatore on The Vampire Diaries with a close tie being Oliver Queen on Arrow. In Damon's case, this is a man who's every decision and choice for 160+ years has been driven by love--the love he had for Katherine, the love for his brother, and now the love he has for Elena. He's always lost in this game too and never thought he was worthy of being loved. When Elena chose him in the last episode of Season 4, Damon's look of incredulity broke my heart--because he finally got the girl, someone finally chose him and I think it's a powerful statement how far he was willing to go and how much he did for her even when he didn't believe he could have her for real. That to me is love.

Oliver Queen is a close second because this spoiled rich kid had a great life and never appreciated it, he had a fantastic woman her love scared him to death and he sabotaged it brutally. Flash forward five years after being stranded in hell on an island with mercs and fighting for his life and he's back and the thing that kept him going all those years was love for Laurel. But he knows she may never forgive him and he's made his peace with that, he's another that is willing to just love her and let her have her life, but they are constantly drawn together and for them love is messy, and complicated and painful--and very visceral.  So yeah, those are my two favorites right now.

What is the most swoon-worthy scene that you have written?

Oh, I can think of two--there's a moment in No Regrets, No Surrender when Logan tells Jazz that she can push him away, fight him, hit him--it didn't matter. He wasn't going anywhere. And then in my most recent release, What Part of Marine Don't You Understand--there's this moment where the first kiss happens that just kind of knocked my socks off when I wrote it. 

Matt McCall’s struggles to reintegrate into civilian life have been an ongoing battle for the better part of two years. Daily group sessions and weekly one-on-ones have only allowed him to grow so far. Twice he’s returned to his home state of Indiana and twice, he retreated to Mike’s Place. Uncertain of where he belongs in the world, he silently battles depression. The unexpected gift of Jethro, a black Labrador Retriever, perks his spirit…and a chance meeting in the park gives him a precious gift…

 Aspiring country singer, Naomi Sparks, comes from a long line of Marines, so she knows all about sacrifice and struggle. When her Congressman brother asks her to visit Mike’s Place on his behalf, she discovers a real opportunity to make a difference. And meeting former Marine Matt McCall inspires her with the real challenge of discovering love and daring heroes who takes risks. Writing music has never been so sweet….
 
Can one woman who believes in him really heal the wounds in this Marine’s heart?

You have written a lot of books with Marine's as the romantic Hero. Why do they make such good ones?

They are tough, hardcore men and women who put country and service above themselves. They are first in to situations I want no part of, they put their lives on the line and no just how ephemeral the chances are they may go home whole and intact, but they don't regret their service. While that's a sweeping generalization, these are still people, they still have vulnerabilities that can hamstring them and I have always loved heroes--and these are heroes who wear dog tags, not capes and they don't expect a thank you or a parade, they just want to protect their way of life for their families and come home to them.

If you had to give yourself a tagline, what would it be?

Currently it's Rediscovering romance one couple at a time. But the sassy answer is it's - Love doesn't come with a guarantee.

Thanks so much for having me! I've attached the cover and excerpt and blurb for Matt's book which is available now!

And you can get all the available links right now here:

http://www.heatherlong.net/bookshelf/always-a-marine/what-part-of-marine-dont-you-understand

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About the Author

Heather Long lives in North Texas with her family and their menagerie of animals. As a child, Heather skipped picture books and enjoyed the Harlequin romance novels by Penny Jordan and Nora Roberts that her grandmother read to her. Heather believes that laughter is as important to life as breathing and that the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus are very real. In the meanwhile, she is hard at work on her next novel.

Website | Twitter | Facebook 

Tessa Dare Series Giveaway : A Week to Be Wicked, A Lady by Midnight and Once Upon a Winter's Eve

Last month, there was a deal on the Tessa Dare books so I bought them all. I bought them from the All Romance website and now I'm giving them away to one of you lovely commenter's for no other reason other than they are fab :)

Due to Geo-Restrictions, I was only able to buy Book 2, 3 and One of the novella's. They can be read as individual books or you could fill in the blanks yourself. They are ALL ePUB copies. 

My favorite in this series is book 3 and I am so happy to be able to give someone the chance to win Kate's tale. To whet your whistle, I've attacthed the blurb to Book 2 which is the first I can give away :)

When a devilish lord and a bluestocking set off on the road to ruin...time is not on their side.

Minerva Highwood, one of Spindle Cove's confirmed spinsters, needs to be in Scotland.

Colin Sandhurst, Lord Payne, a rake of the first order, needs to be...anywhere but Spindle Cove.

These unlikely partners have one week to
• fake an elopement
• convince family and friends they're in "love"
• outrun armed robbers
• survive their worst nightmares
• travel four hundred miles without killing each other

All while sharing a very small carriage by day and an even smaller bed by night.

What they don't have time for is their growing attraction. Much less wild passion. And heaven forbid they spend precious hours baring their hearts and souls.
 Suddenly one week seems like exactly enough time to find a world of trouble. And maybe...just maybe...love.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Felicity Heaton Blog Barrage with Giveaway Links

Unleash, the sixth book in Felicity Heaton’s Vampire Erotic Theatre romance series is now available. To celebrate the release, she’s holding a fantastic giveaway at her website and she’s also offering the first book in the series, Covet, for FREE at selected Amazon Kindle, Kobo Books and Apple iBooks Stores.

You can find all the links for the Covet special offer (and two other free paranormal romance ebooks) at: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/paranormal-romance-ebook-offers.php

GIVEAWAY TIME!

Find out how to enter the Unleash international giveaway (ends May 26th) and be in with a shot of winning a $75, $50 or $25 gift certificate at her website, where you can also download a 5 chapter sample of the novel: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Unleash

Here’s more about Unleash, including an excerpt from this long vampire romance novel.

A powerful vampire lost deep in his bloodlust, Snow is a savage animal, mindless with rage and a thirst for violence, and trapped with no hope of awakening from an endless nightmare… until a song draws him up from the abyss, restoring his sanity but leaving him haunted by the sweet feminine scent of lilies and snow, and fragmented familiar lyrics.


When the mysterious and beautiful songstress reappears in Snow’s room at Vampirerotique, she awakens a fierce protective streak and stirs dark desires that drive him to claim her as his female, even when he knows his touch will destroy her innocence.


A single forbidden taste is all it takes to unleash emotions in Aurora that she shouldn’t possess, tearing her between duty and desire, and luring her into surrendering to her wildfire passion and embracing hungers that burn so hotly they threaten to consume them both.


One act of kindness can lead to one thousand acts of sin though, each a black mark against the bearer’s soul and another grain of sand that slips through an hourglass. The clock is ticking and time is almost up. Can beauty save the beast?

Unleash is available from these and many other ebook stores:

Amazon.com Kindle | Amazon.co.uk Kindle | Amazon.ca Kindle | Apple iBookstore US | Apple iBookstore UK | Apple iBookstore Canada | Apple iBookstore Australia | Apple iBookstore New Zealand | Kobo Books 

Find all the links at: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Unleash

Unleash – Excerpt

Pain. Blinding. Debilitating. Sickening. Pain.

It rocked every inch of him. Throbbed deep in his marrow. Lived inside him and refused to die, no matter how hard he struggled to contain and obliterate it.

There was peace too though, a strange sense of calm and warmth that felt as though it was trying to subdue the pain and drive it away. There was also a weird notion that he hadn’t been alone.

Snow’s head thumped the hardest, fiery lightning splintering across his skull and causing his eyes to ache. He opened them a sliver but the light pierced them, increasing his agony, and he screwed them shut again. He tried to rub the salt and grit from his eyes and grimaced when steel cuffs bit into his wrists, causing sharp lances to jab across them.

His ankles blazed too.

He managed to crack his eyes open enough that he could see his wrists. Shackled and scarred. Multiple lacerations. Dried and fresh blood.

Snow focused on them and his body, taking mental note of any injuries and how weak he felt, trying to gauge how long he had been chained to his bed. Possibly a few days. His senses came fully back online.

He wasn’t alone.

His gaze slid painfully down to the male sitting in the wooden chair beside him to his right.

Snow spoke but it came out as a gravelly rumble. He cleared his throat, realised it was sore, figured he had been screaming his head off as usual, and tried again.

“How long have you been in the room?” It took a lot of effort to get that many words out. He drew in a deep breath and it wheezed past his throat and rattled in his lungs. Snow changed his previous calculation to over a week without leaving his bed. He didn’t normally feel this refreshed after an extended period lost to his insanity though.

Perhaps he was wrong about how long he had been lost to his bloodlust. He might have screamed more than usual this time.

It would help if he could remember what had triggered his latest round of crazy.

“Not five minutes,” Antoine said, his voice a low steady rumble that spoke of fatigue. His brother looked like hell too, dishevelled and weary, and that made Snow look away.

Guilt gnawed at his heart. He had worried Antoine again. Hurt him.

“I sensed you calming and came to check on you, and found you sleeping soundly so I thought I would stay a while to keep you company.” Antoine raked his fingers through his thick brown hair. It was longer than usual. Definitely more than a week. More than two? “I did not mean to wake you.”

Snow frowned at his brother’s odd words.

“You did not wake me. I wasn’t sleeping… I mean… I was at least conscious.” Snow looked himself over, the pain in his eyes fading as they adjusted to him using them again. Clearly, he had missed something. He didn’t remember sleeping. He remembered the rage, the dark hunger for blood and violence, the insane craving to kill everyone who came near him but being unable to get free and satisfy that desire. He remembered feeling trapped in his body, caged by his bloodlust, unable to break its hold over him. He recalled coming around from bouts of unconsciousness to rage all over again too. He had been doing neither of those things prior to this moment. “I was asleep.”

Antoine nodded, a glimmer of hope and curiosity in his blue eyes, and rose to his feet. “And you are awake now. Very awake.”

Snow understood why he looked curious and what he was implying. His bloodlust had receded. Receded but not gone. Snow could feel it lurking within him. Something had driven it back but it was waiting to seize hold of him again. Something that had made him sleep too. He never slept before coming around from one of his attacks. He was always unconscious or came out of it while awake.

Antoine took some items from the ebony nightstand to Snow’s right. Cotton wool and antiseptic by the looks of things. His brother doused a wad of the white padding and moved to Snow’s feet, and began cleaning the blood from his ankles.

He looked at his younger brother and frowned, unable to shake the feeling that he hadn’t been alone, and it hadn’t been Antoine’s presence he had felt.

“No one was in here with you?” he said and Antoine shook his head, came up beside him and began cleaning his neck and shoulders. “You did not hear anyone singing?”

“No.” Antoine’s expression darkened, as though the thought of someone being in here with him disturbed him. Had he been that far gone that Antoine had wanted to keep everyone away from him? Someone must have come regardless. He sniffed and smelled Antoine and Sera, and lily of the valley mixed with snow. No one at the theatre smelled that way. “Perhaps you were dreaming?”

Snow hoped his brother was right, but the sense that someone had been here with him plagued him, together with the song. It had been familiar. His brow crinkled as he struggled to remember it, the tune and lyrics drifting towards the surface of his mind only to slip through his grasp and disappear again, teasing him.

He growled. “Someone was singing… I swear it, Brother.”

Antoine moved to sit on the bed beside him and gave him a sympathetic smile. “Do not push yourself. Will you take a little blood?”

Snow forced himself to nod. He wasn’t hungry but it would ease Antoine’s mind and help Snow maintain his current mental state. It would also take his mind off the feelings he couldn’t shake. Maybe Antoine was right and he had been dreaming. He had long ago made it a habit to forget his dreams upon waking, because he never saw anything good in them. His dreams were where the past waited to punish him.

Seeing his brother every night and knowing what he had done to him all those years ago was punishment enough for his sins.

Antoine left the bed and walked around the foot of it to the cluttered black dressing table on the left side of the room, opposite the door, his bare feet silent on the wooden floor. He picked up the small metal canister there, unscrewed the cap and brought it to his nose. He sniffed, smiled, and picked up a glass and returned to Snow, settling on the bed beside him again.

Antoine poured some blood into the glass and held it out to Snow.

Snow reluctantly nodded, closed his eyes and opened his mouth. He hated cold blood, but it was all he had known for centuries now. He could no longer remember what fresh blood straight from the vein tasted like.

Antoine carefully brought the glass to his lips and tipped it, allowing a steady flow of it to enter Snow’s mouth. He swallowed it down and grimaced, suppressing a shudder as it chilled his throat. Disgusting.

It did what he needed it to though. The moment it reached his stomach, his body began to absorb it, using it to restore some of his strength. With his returning strength came memories that had eluded him. The black empty stage of Vampirerotique bathed in blood and entrails. An unfamiliar female and a child. Payne defending them. Males attacking his brother.

His brother’s blood spilling.

Snow growled and bucked against the restraints, the image of Antoine bleeding from wounds across his chest driving his bloodlust back to the surface. He ground his teeth as his fangs elongated, filling his mouth, and threw his head back and roared.

“Snow!” Antoine pressed his palm against Snow’s forehead and pushed his head down onto the black pillows, effectively restraining him. “Look at me, Brother.”

Snow rolled his eyes open and sought Antoine. Antoine knelt over him, concern shining in his pale blue eyes.

“I am well. See for yourself.”

Snow dropped his eyes to his brother’s chest. No blood marred the dark material of his shirt. No wounds. Antoine had already healed. Snow breathed slowly to calm himself and kept his eyes locked on his brother. He was well. Not bleeding. Not hurt.

Not dying because of him.

“Brother,” Snow said and Antoine frowned at him. He ached to be free of his bonds so he could take Antoine into his arms and hold him. He needed to reassure himself that his brother was unharmed, alive and with him. He longed to feel that he did have the power to break the hold of his bloodlust even when he feared that he didn’t. All he could do was ask though. “Your injuries are healed?”

Antoine’s dark eyebrows knitted into a confused line.

“It is a simple question. How are you feeling?” Snow tried again, needing an answer this time, afraid that if Antoine didn’t reassure him, he would lose his mind again and the bloodlust would claim him.

Antoine released his forehead only to stroke it. “Are you feeling alright?”

Snow frowned at that. He had asked the same damn thing and Antoine hadn’t answered. Was Antoine still injured? Had he not healed?

“I am fine… but your injuries… tell me you have healed, Brother.” Snow tried to touch him and the cuffs sliced into his wrists again. He winced at the fleeting stab of pain. Antoine took some more cotton wool from the black nightstand and cleaned the blood off his wrists for him, and then cast him a worried glance. “What is it?”

Antoine sat back on the bed and Snow could sense his concern and frustration. He lobbed the bloodied cotton wool into the bin near the nightstand, drawing Snow’s attention to how full it was. Some had fallen out, littering his wooden floor. How long had he been lost to bloodlust?

“Antoine. Answer me.”

His younger brother’s expression grew even more concerned. “I do not understand a word you are saying, Snow, and you are beginning to scare me.”

Snow frowned now and thought about the words that had left his lips. They had seemed normal to him.

“I never learned the language of our family’s homeland.” Antoine refilled the glass with blood and rested it on his knee.

Snow stared at him, struggling to take in what he had said. He had been speaking the old language?

His eyes shot wide and he tried to sit up, only to have the cuffs around his wrists jerk him back against the pillows. Antoine hastily set the glass down on the nightstand and grabbed his shoulders, his fear flowing over Snow. Evidently, he thought Snow was having a relapse.

For once, it wasn’t the case.

“The prince and… homeland. Prince.” Snow knew he wasn’t making any sense and it wasn’t because he was speaking the old language this time. He was speaking English. The look in his brother’s eyes as they darted between his and the glass of blood said he definitely thought the blood had had a negative effect on him, driving him back to insanity.

“Are you okay, Snow?” Antoine moved his hands to Snow’s face, cupping both of his cheeks.

“Not crazy for a change,” he snarled and instantly regretted it when Antoine released him and picked up the glass. “Prince. The song. Winter skies. Snow.”

Antoine lifted the glass to Snow’s lips. “Drink a little more. You need to sleep. Do you feel you can sleep?”

What he wanted to do was slap his brother into the next century and get him to listen, but any act of violence right now would have Antoine calling in Javier and restraining him until he forced blood down his throat and possibly stuck him with a lion-sized dose of sedative.

Snow didn’t have good memories of the last time they had tried that one. He had hallucinated for days about all manner of weird creatures and demons jumbled in with flashbacks of his past, hadn’t slept at all, and had come out of it worse than before they had tried to tranquilize him.

“I will try,” Snow said and allowed Antoine to pour a little more blood into his mouth. It was cold on his tongue and he swallowed it quickly. A sense of calm returned as it flowed into him, making him sleepy. “Prince. Snow. Winter skies.”

It swam around his head, the melody haunting him and chasing sleep away.

“I am sure it will come to you, Brother.” Antoine set the glass down again and sat beside him, his closeness comforting Snow and easing him. “Do not push yourself.”

“Stay a while,” Snow mumbled, struggling to keep his eyes open. He didn’t want to be alone. “Will you?”

“Of course,” Antoine said.

Sleep tried to overcome Snow but he fought it, not wanting to waste this precious time with his brother. He didn’t know when the bloodlust would win and grip him again, and right now he feared next time it wouldn’t let go. Right now, he wanted to be normal again.

“How long was I out?” he whispered and blinked rapidly, trying to keep sleep at bay a little longer. He should have refused the blood. It always made him sleepy when he was recovering. “You look like shit.”

Antoine smiled but it didn’t lift the darkness from under his eyes. “It was over three weeks ago that Chica took you down.”

Twenty-one days. It scared the hell out of Snow.

Antoine’s voice was hoarse, strained as he spoke. “I thought I had lost you this time.”

Tears rose into Snow’s eyes, mirrored in Antoine’s, and he fought to stop them from falling. He didn’t know what to tell his brother. He wanted to tell him that if he had known that he had been scaring him, he would have battled his bloodlust and overcome it to take away his fear and his pain, but it would be a lie. How many times had he lied to his brother?

Too many times, and always about the same thing.

He had promised Antoine that he would fight and he would live, and he would never succumb to the temptation death presented.

It was becoming impossible to keep that promise.

“I am back now,” Snow said, voice thick with emotions that felt more like a burden each day longer that he lived.

Snow wished he could offer his brother more comfort. He wasn’t sure if he would come back from the next bout of bloodlust. He was surprised he had come back from this one. He glanced at his wrists again. The blood on them had been fresh when he had woken, no more than an hour old, yet all the cuts had been nothing but scars.

Snow fell quiet, allowing Antoine to talk to him, his mind elsewhere. The healed cuts and the sleep. The sanity. Someone had been with him and whoever they were, they knew how to calm him.

They had sung to him in the old language.

That was why he had spoken it to Antoine.

Snow couldn’t recall the last time he had spoken it before today. It had been centuries or possibly more. Had he spoken it since Antoine was born? He didn’t think he had.

It hadn’t been a dream.

Someone had been here in this room with him.

A female who smelled of lily of the valley and snow.

A woman who had sung in the language of his homeland.

A song for a prince and an angel.

Unleash is available now from all Amazon Kindle, Kobo Books, and Apple iBooks Stores. It will soon be available for Barnes and Noble Nook, Sony Reader and also in paperback.

Find all the links, a fantastic 5 chapter downloadable sample of the book, and also how to enter the Unleash giveaway and be in with a shot of winning a $75, $50 or $25 gift certificate at her website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Unleash

  

Books in the Vampire Erotic Theatre romance series

Covet (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 1)

Crave (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 2)

Seduce (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 3)

Enslave (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 4)

Bewitch (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 5)

Unleash (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 6)

About Felicity Heaton:

Felicity Heaton writes passionate paranormal romance books as Felicity Heaton and F E Heaton. In her books she creates detailed worlds, twisting plots, mind-blowing action, intense emotion and heart-stopping romances with leading men that vary from dark deadly vampires to sexy shape-shifters and wicked werewolves, to sinful angels and hot demons!

If you're a fan of paranormal romance authors Lara Adrian, J R Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Gena Showalter and Christine Feehan then you will enjoy her books too.

If you love your angels a little dark and wicked, Felicity Heaton’s best selling Her Angel series is for you. If you like strong, powerful, and dark vampires then try the Vampires Realm series she writes as F E Heaton or any of her stand alone vampire romance books she writes as Felicity Heaton. Or if you’re looking for vampire romances that are sinful, passionate and erotic then try Felicity Heaton’s new Vampire Erotic Theatre series.

In 2011, five of her six paranormal romance books received Top Pick awards from Night Owl Reviews, Forbidden Blood was nominated as Best PNR Vampire Romance 2011 at The Romance Reviews, and many of her releases received five star reviews from numerous websites.

If you want to know more about Felicity, or want to get in touch, you can find her at the following places:

Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads  

A Minxy Review - Trouble in Thigh High Boots by Elizabeth Black (4 Stars)

Tita is a Puss In Boots with a little something extra. Being a magical creature, she shifts from a kitty into the form of an alluring, ginger-haired woman when the situation demands it. And what a situation she finds herself in! Her new master Dylan is a poor man who needs a boost in the world.


Sly Tita uses her seductive wiles to pass him off to the villagers and the king as the Marquis of Carabas in order to help both of them gain their fortunes. Her plan is not without its problems. Dylan's malicious brother, Zane, lusts after Tita, and he wants her all to himself, but she refuses to succumb to his treachery. Being a cat first and foremost, she purrs in the arms of her many lovers but her heart belongs to only one man - the king. She hopes that in ensuring Dylan his lofty place in the world the king finds a place in his heart for her. Her life becomes an erotic adventure in reaching her goals.

Trouble In Thigh High Boots by Elizabeth Black is a saucy little tale of a kitty who certainly does love her cream! All puns intended. It is an erotic retelling of Puss in Boots, with puss in question in this erotic short being the were-cat Tita. (Or werepussy as she prefers to be know) the story begins with Tita being gifted to her new master Dylan, he is unimpressed, but she has plans, like with puss in boots she will raise his fortunes. As a poor cobbler all Dylan can give her is a pair of thigh high boots, and that is when his future changes.

It is exactly what it says it is, an erotic version of puss in boots, the story is there, she convinces the world he is the Marquis of Carabas and gets everything her heart desires... And I do mean everything. With erotic play from the start, multiple partners and clever cat, who shifts into a human and who does love her cream it's a fruity little number with plenty of variety and just a hint of evil.

Tita has big plans, and not just for Dylan, she is determined to find the love of her life whom she was separated from many years ago. Only now, he is King! Will she succeed? Well you know how fairy tales go, everyone lives happily ever after, unless you are evil... And then you are probably eaten by a crocodile, thrown from a cliff or torn asunder by wild animals... But everyone else lives happily ever after! At 50 pages its a short and fun read, but if you are a bit squeamish about breast feeding perhaps skip a couple of pages in the middle.

I give Trouble in Thigh High Boots a fruity four stars, enough to get you hot under the collar and leave you wanting more. Enjoy!

Waiting on Wednesday - More Than Friends by Jess Dee

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly event, hosted at breaking the spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating.

This weeks pre-publication "can't wait to read" is:

He was her best friend…until he became her fantasy.

A More Than story.

Lucy Lawson’s got it bad. Bad as in stunned speechless by the situation she’s in, by the feelings sitting on her chest, ready to explode. She’s in love…with her best friend.

Problem is, telling Sebastian Blackford could destroy the best thing in her life, but the longer she keeps her feelings under wraps, the stronger the need to spill her secret.

The last thing Seb suspects is that his best mate is madly, wildly in love with him, or that he’s the star of her seriously dirty fantasies. Worse, he’s just started seeing someone he’d like to see again—and Lucy knows it.

So why does her confession hit him like a runaway train? And why can’t he get her explicit description of her fantasies out of his mind? They’ve never been more than friends, but now that he knows how Lucy feels, everything is out of whack.

Seb figures it’s up to him to get their relationship back on track. He’ll do it too, just as soon as he establishes which track is the right one.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Product Warnings

After reading this, you may just be tempted to jump your best friend. It’s recommended you keep your partner on speed dial or a toy with fresh batteries on standby.

With a product warning like that and a friends to lovers story how could I resist!

Authors After Dark Spotlight : It’s Elementary (or Elemental!): Readers Rock by J.Kenner

When I first started writing (back before social media was social or media-y), I tended to go to writers’ conferences of the more professional kind.  Lots of how-to workshops on craft and business but not a lot of interaction with fans.  So the conferences were fun, but not FUN.

And then I discovered reader conferences. First with Romantic Times—which was a blast!—and then I discovered sci-fi fantasy cons, Armadillocon in Austin (love it!) and DragonCon in Atlanta (have only gone once, but it was beyond fun).

Now I’m looking forward to the Authors After Dark event in Savannah in August, which should not only have tons of readers ... but also the super-scary fact that there will be (cue spooky music) a Vampire Ball and an Elemental Ball!

In the interest of full disclosure, I am super excited about both of these.  But here’s the scary part:  What (what, what, what!!) do I wear?

The Vampire Ball is a bit less scary than the Elemental Ball (I figure I’ll either go as a vampy vampire, a victim or (possibly) a vampire hunter.  But since I’m all about the clothes, I think I’ll end up going with the vampy vampire).  (And, hey, since my current releases are erotic romance—the Stark Trilogy--sexy makes sense, right?)

But what the heck do I do for an Elemental Ball?  Take a shower and go dripping wet to be water?  Set my self on fire ala Katniss? Roll in the mud?

I am clueless ... but I’m primed to play and I absolutely can’t wait.  (My dark little secret is that this will actually be the first conference that I’ve gone to where I’ve done the dress up thing.  I’m soooo looking forward to it!)

Mostly, though, I’m looking forward to hanging with readers!

Do you go to reader conferences?  Which ones are your favorite?  Got any brilliant ideas for my Elemental Ball costume?

********************* 

J. Kenner spent more than ten years as a litigator in Southern California and Central Texas, using her rare free time to indulge her passion for writing. California born, she now lives—and writes—in Texas, with her husband and daughters.

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