I like reading. Always have, probably always will. It started with easy stuff, like Nancy Drew and the Animorphs. (Not that Nancy Drew and the Animorphs aren’t awesome.) Then my third-grade teacher gave me Watership Down by Richard Adams. I almost always list that one on my favorite books list because it convinced me that I could read outside of the children’s section.

Then I began to roam through several genres. I liked mysteries, fantasy, and science fiction best. Nowadays I’m reading lots of urban fantasy and paranormal romance. Er, that and YA fiction, historical romances, and categories with particularly ridiculous titles and/or summaries. Due to my college courses, I’ve also discovered a fondness for medieval literature and literature of the Indian diaspora. I’ve kept one trait: I hate reading series out of order. I’ll do it if I have to, but I much prefer to read without skipping. (Sybil is trying to corrupt me, but I’m resisting.)  But I’ve discarded another trait: I will put books down. If I’m not into it, why waste my time? I have a ton of books to read and not a lot of free time. (Okay, since I graduated and am now looking for a job, I have free time at the moment.)

My first romance was some book my mom left lying around, which is a dangerous thing to do around a voracious book reader. If s/he is bored, s/he will pick your book up and read it no matter how lame it sounds. I’ll admit that I’m still embarrassed by some of the book covers and titles. If I’m reading in public (on the bus, in a waiting room, etc.), then I’m likely to hold my hands very strategically over any cover with naked/half-naked people.

In December 2010 I graduated from UT-Austin. I find it extremely strange to no longer be a student. It does give me time to do things, however. I ask people who know more about that stuff than me to help perfect my resume and cover letters. I read. When I’m not reading, I’m watching movies (anything from a guilty pleasure to arthouse fare), hanging with friends, listening to music (the louder the better), or running (often in the house). I draw. I write. I edit. I talk about food – making food, eating food, food other people eat, food I’d like to eat. I can be a little pretentious, but I’m fun to hang out with if you like puns and homemade baked goods.

Here’s a recipe for my famous Holiday Spice Double Chocolate Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies, adapted from this Smitten Kitchen recipe:

Ingredients:
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (homemade, if possible)
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground clove
1 cup quick-cooking oats
6 ounces butterscotch chips
2 teaspoons freshly grated orange zest
6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (mini morsels preferred)
6 ounces dark chocolate baking chocolate, chunked (Ghirardelli preferred)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter. Add sugars, salt, vanilla, and almond, then beat well (approx three minutes). Stir in eggs, one at a time. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove in a separate bowl. Add half of the flour mixture to liquid mixture on low. When just mixed, add the second half. Stir in oats, orange zest, butterscotch chips, and chocolates. Drop tablespoons of dough onto the cookie sheets. (They don’t spread much, but they do spread.) Bake 10 to 12 minutes. Cool on rack.

I’m Laura J and I love to read.

Well, it hasn’t always been that way. Thanks to an overzealous teacher back in third grade, who made us only read non-fiction historical or biographies, my reading experience was pretty much nil. Fortunately, a good friend of mine told me about a book she thought I should try. That book was Mary Janice Davidson‘s Undead and Unwed. I’m sad to admit, but it took me about three months to finish the book. By the time I finished, though, I was grabbing up all her other books and lots of others. I was hooked on reading again. A dream come true for my mom whose second home my entire life was the public library.

I love reading contemporary romances, erotic romances, and some cozy mysteries. I definitely want a “happily ever after” in the books I read. I also love my books to have some comedy in them. I don’t like heavy suspense at all. I can get that from the evening news. I have read a couple of historicals, but don’t really care for them.

Some of my favorite authors are LuAnn McLane, Janice Maynard, Karen Kelley, Bonnie Edwards, and Leslie Kelly.

When I’m not reading I’m busy transporting three active kids here, there, and everywhere. Of course, I usually have a book in the car with me, which annoys the heck out my oldest child. I am also married to a pretty fantastic guy who puts up with a lot of, “I’ll start supper just as soon as I finish this chapter.” I was a clog dancer for about six and a half years and during breaks we would read and discuss books. I’m a pre-school gymnastics instructor, swimming instructor, lifeguard, and manage a concession stand. That sounds like a lot, but it’s all at the same place. I also am the photographer for our local parks department. I also volunteer with a parade for one of the country’s largest festivals and I volunteer with our church to set up a stage where our preschoolers get their bible lessons.

You want the truth? Well some of it, anyway.

I’m an adult and I write novels for adults. And I love writing them, so I’m not about to stop. I write for Ellora’s Cave, Samhain Publishing, Loose-Id Publishing and Total E-Bound, and I love it. The best job I’ve ever had.
I write books with sex in them because I believe that’s what an adult relationship should contain, and I hate the closed-door bedroom scene. All that sexual tension building up, and then you don’t get to witness the denouement! But I always remember where I am and who I’m talking to. And when I’m writing, the character I’m writing about. If I ever end up with a shy heroine who doesn’t want to tell, then she won’t. Sigh.

Of course, if you want a bit more of that, there’s some on my website, (with appropriate warnings).

I’ll wait while you nip over there and then nip back.

I hope to give you the news on the e-publishing scene, and publishing in general. News and goss, though the scurrilous stuff isn’t for me, and I won’t join in on any witch-hunts. But I can only say what I see, and any juicy tidbits I can confirm for you.

I’ve been in e-publishing since the year 2000 (why do we call it that, when every other year doesn’t have that pompous “the year” before it?) I’ve seen companies come and go. Mostly go, but that’s the norm, it seems. I was involved in a new market before, (disposable diapers, wasn’t that sexy?) and so far the e-book market has followed the pattern of emerging markets. First there are a bunch of companies, most of whom fall by the wayside as barriers to entry go up and the market expands. Then larger companies move in (I think we’re here at the moment) and the smaller companies that are left find themselves comfortable niches to fill, something many larger companies have also attempted with some success. Either that, or they go out of business. Percentage growth is huge at first, but since it’s on a small base, that’s not surprising. It continues to grow, and then flattens off in a nice, long plateau. Eventually.

Okay, how did that work for me? Well when I started out, I wrote a book for a company called RFI West (I can feel fellow authors’ shudders from here!) Not good, but out of it came some industry professionals who rose above the morass and are still with us. Then I went to NBI (more shudders) where I worked with the likes of Linnea Sinclair, Rowena Cherry and Ann Aguirre. Fun days, until the owner did a runner (as we say in Blighty) and left us holding – not a lot. We hadn’t been paid for nearly a year. From there I went to Triskelion. I know, I had all the luck, didn’t I? However, this was when the rumor machine went into overdrive. Some of the things I read at the time of Triskelion’s closure were completely invented stories that people just swallowed, because it was more fun than the truth.

Which was that they ran out of money. They went into mass market print, underestimated the returns and ended up with two warehouses full of books they didn’t know what to do with. Mostly from Borders’. Unlike the larger, well established companies, Trisk didn’t have the reserves to cope with that level of returns, and thus, bankruptcy happened. Oh yes, there were management problems, centering on the owner of Triskelion, whose – idiosyncratic – management style had something to be desired. But had the money been there, they might have had a chance.

After that, I decided on safety. If a publisher says it works like one happy family, I back off, fast. I have one of those thank you, and one is more than enough for me. I want a happy professional relationship where both sides keep their promises. With the publishers I have now, so far, so good. So very good, actually. An adult relationship with nice sales and great support.

Being an adult carries responsibilities. One of them is telling the truth, something I always try to do. And behaving like an adult which is something I do – mostly. When I lose my temper, I step back and wait, and the urge to lash out goes away. I’ve done a bit of that recently, and I feel better for it. Mostly.

I can honestly say that I love the publishers I’m with, and I love the way I’m treated by them. That might change, I hope it doesn’t, but I don’t ever discount it these days.

After all, here sits the woman who was happy with NBI and Triskelion, and said so, and the one who very nearly signed with RFI West.

Never say never.

I have several series going in historical, paranormal and contemporary genres. Richard and Rose, STORM, Department 57, Cougar Challenge – so I must be insane to want to write here as well. It’s a privilege, to be able to offer my opinion on the books I read, and the odd column on the business of writing. But remember always, they’re always my opinion only. I have my prejudices – I don’t like the Victorian era, for example – but I try to state them upfront, so you know. Big misunderstandings aren’t my favorites, either. Or revenge plots. But I love a story where the characters count, where the plot comes from deep inside their personas. I’m not keen on over-elaborate world-building, as that takes space from the romance. Yes, I’m a romance reader, pure and simple. I don’t often read anything else these days. I need those warm happies.

Oh yes, and the picture? Me with some of my favorite things. My laptop, my doll’s house and a chocolate cake. I thought of putting one of those author pictures up, the ones I paid to have taken. I hate to have my picture taken, so there’s not much out there, but this one, although not flattering, is at least honest. And the minion presenting the cake? My husband, who hates to have his picture taken even more than I do.

I’m on Twitter and Facebook, I don’t think I’ve deleted my Myspace yet, but I don’t go there any more, so I really should, and I have a website and Amazon page. I try to get to Romantic Times every year, so if you’re there – come and say hello!

You should send that into Reader’s Digest. They have a page for people like you.
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Once Upon a Reviewer: Lawson

Once upon a time a young rabid reader named Lawson was searching for something good to read. Being young at the time, dear Lawson did not have many choices for books. One day her mother handed her Julie Garwood‘s The Bride to read, being a conscientious mother and not really wanting to have “the talk” with her young daughter.

After this first educational read, a romance reader was born! Since then I have read many books, both good and bad, but loved every minute of it.

Over the years I have fallen in love with historical, paranormal, fantasy/sci-fi, and contemporary romance. Authors such as Nora Roberts, Julia Quinn, Lisa Kleypas, Eloisa James, Candice Hern, and Karen Marie Moning have taken me to reader heaven.

The thing that makes me think of a book as my favorite is the answer to this question: Did I enjoy this enough to reread it? If the answer is yes, then the number of rereads puts it higher on my list of favorites. In no particular order they are: Ashes in the Wind, Brighter Than the Sun, Three Fates, A Rose in Winter, Worth Any Price, The Gift, London’s Perfect Scoundrel: Lessons in Love, Betrothal, and Romancing Mister Bridgerton.

Of course no fairy tale would be a fairy tale without a dastardly plot by an evil stepmother, however there’s really not any of that here. I do have a stepmonster, but she really doesn’t affect my reading habits (besides my disdain of her constant reading of US Weekly). After so many years as a reader of many things there are things that do tend to hurt my reading experience.

Historical heroines who act completely out of time period, pretentious dialogue, and through and through bodice ripper sort of material where the woman is a simpering fool and the man is so out there Alpha-male that he never admits his love in the book. But luckily I have run across very few of these, of which I count myself lucky.

It is my hope for a happily ever after reading new and steamy books for many, many years to come.

Once Upon a Time I was one of those kids who was always reading books until the wee hours, under the covers, with a flashlight. I always thought my mom didn’t know how much I sneaked my reading, but have since learned she knew alllll about it and just didn’t mind – she was just glad I loved books. All that anxiety about being caught for nuthin’.

I’m still a voracious reader of fiction, normally going thru two or three novels a week. I’ve been thru a fantasy phase (Tolkien’s Middle Earth were my first “adult” novels), a sci-fi kick (couldn’t get enough Heinlein and Bradbury when I was in college), deluged myself in suspense (Kay Scarpetta was a hero/antihero of mine), and I’ve dabbled in Allende (my daughter’s name is Isabel).

All thru each of these fiction phases was the constant thread of romance. I seem to gravitate back to it no matter what writing genres I’ve visited. It can be contemporary romance, historical romance, suspense, paranormal, sci-fi, urban fantasy, you name it. I think I’ve read them all and enjoyed each and every one.

However, if I had to say I had a favorite, it would be sci-fi and futuristic romances. I LOVE Jess Granger, Gena Showalter, and, while John Scalzi isn’t technically a romance writer, he still pens romantic sci-fi stories.

And there’s so many more.  I can’t even begin to name all the terrific writers.  I love Moning‘s paranormals, Singh‘s shapeshifters and angels, Briggs‘s and Wilks‘s wolves,  Kleypas and O’Shea of all flavors. If I find a writer who knows how to write a steamy love scene, a good action scene, and still make me cry, I’m their bitch forever.

I confess to being a picky reader.  Good editing and careful proof-reading mean a lot to me. I get too distracted by simple errors. I remember one particularly poorly proofed novel when “brooch” was used when it was obvious the author meant “broach” — it totally threw me out of the book.  I kept going back re-reading that sentence to make sure I saw it correctly. Occasional simple errors are unavoidable when talking about the printed word.  However, my skin starts crawling when the sheer quantity of errors jumps up and slaps me – I just want to throw that book at a wall (a desire that is thwarted by e-books, by the way).

As a reviewer I have authors I love but I’m not afraid to tell them if their book disappointed and why. I’ll also gush a little when an author gets it right, but only a little. I can be cynical, but I’m always polite – there’s no room in reviews for personal attacks.  It’s all about the writing.

And huge thanks to Sybil for providing such a terrific forum for sharing ideas and our passion for good writing! I love swimming in this pond.

Okay, so, about me…let’s see. I love reading, I love books, I love holding books, buying books, sharing books, and even just looking at my books.

Some of my favorite memories of growing up are sitting  with my mother reading. Her with her romance books, whose covers I was fascinated by (it was totally the holograms in the corner, not the half-naked men), and me with an R. L. Stine book.

I was 12 when my sister gave me Interview With a Vampire, and I realized there was more outside of Fear Street. It’s always been about paranormals for me.  Eventually I discovered that all romance was not full of oiled up men in ripped shirts and that now shares my heart just as much as paranormals. Put them together and I am one happy girl.

I am a sucker for friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, tortured heroes, tortured heroines, arranged marriages (which I admit is weird because I am not big on historicals, unless it’s set in Scotland, I love me some men in kilts), trapped in a cabin/island, and, wow, I could go on and on.

What I hate to read about is children in books (I have one of my own, thanks, books are my break from kids lol), pets that play a huge roll, whiny heroes/heroines, big misunderstandings, h/H can’t get over dead ex, series that should have ended 15 books ago, and again I could go on with this list.

As a reviewer, I am still getting use to being able to be…true. After reviewing at a place where I had to censor myself, I’m still trying to find a balance. How to be honest with my feelings without being mean. Hopefully I have been doing it pretty well, and if not I am sorry. Coming here has been freeing and I am pretty sure that is why I can’t say no to Sybil and my pile of books to review is getting scary big.

Final Update: If I have this right… ONE. THOUSAND. ONE. HUNDRED. FIFTY. DOLLARS!

WE DID IT!!! WE DID IT!!!

Our current goal is 260 comments… but I’m holding on hope that more people will step in with donations (of any amount) if we hit higher numbers! <3

Keep it coming! And to think, this started as a ten dollar drive. Rock on, Lovelies!

From $10 to $1,100!!! Incredible!!! (Also, shout out to Mara who already donated $50. As did I – you get this nice email from the UN Foundation, signed by Ted Turner. Which the wonderful Shiloh has gotten to, as well as Liza. And an amazingly beautiful other contributor.) Now please comment to make sure Ali, Courtney, Bree, Vivian, Stacy, Tigris, Carly,  HelenKay, Lauren, Donna, and Jennifer have to step up as well! Well, Ali, Courtney, Bree, and Vivian are done for. Cheers, everyone!) Likari, Ann Marie, and our very on C2 stepped in as well! And the very kind and generous Magdalen. And Shelli – and so many more.

Today is Social Good Day. You can see hashtags on twitter with #SocialGood

YOU have the power in your hands to make sure a minimum of $975 on my/our part gets donated to (RED). Please make it happen.

Most of you know about Mashable, which is actually a company/something I know less about. Social media opinions are for another post. (RED) is an organization I’ve kept on my radar for a while, because of my interest in ONE.

(RED) Video

The Global Fund (where all (RED) money goes) invests 100% of (RED) funds into HIV/AIDS programs in Africa. I’m totally cool with giving them my money.

Need or want more reasons to feel good about this?

Why you should feel good about supporting the (RED) cause today:

• Thirty-three million people in the world have AIDS. Twenty-two million live in Africa.
• Every day 3,800 people die in sub-Saharan Africa from AIDS.
• It costs just 40 cents per day for the life-saving medicine someone living with HIV/AIDS in Africa needs to help them live a healthy and productive life.

I’m poor- I have no job and have law school loans, but this is important to me. I wish I could give more… but here’s what I’m going to do. If 10 people comment on this post today, I’ll donate $10 to the (RED) fund. [And let's hear it for optimism, because if there are a whole slew of comments, I'll re-assess that amount.]

I included a [multiple links] of the (RED) video too, as WordPress hates me and strips my video code. Anyway – come on Romance Community, I know we can do something awesome. Help me give away my money – and now I challenge you. What are you going to do?

Oh – and here’s something else totally easy for you to do – and where I got/ganked the idea – comment on these blogs, and they’ll donate too! *I copied this list from My Aim is True – wanted to give credit.

• Bake It Pretty – Amanda is one of my favorite clients and best friends! Get inspired to bake some yummy treats.
• Yuping Liu-Thompkins – Yuping, a super smart friend of mine who’s an expert in internet marketing and customer loyalty
• Reina Communications – my good friend Michelle (this meetup was her idea!) and one of my awesome clients, we are going to Blogworld together in a few weeks! Vegas baby! Look for some videos from that adventure.
• Greater Good Life – Michelle’s personal blog about how easy it is to live well, be generous, and do social good
• Powerful Learning Practice – social media enhances education; over 4,000 teachers have been impacted by their brand of professional development. My mom runs this company, I am so proud to be a part of what they’re doing. They’re up for an Open Leadership award too! They’re donating $5 per comment, so please leave one and make a difference.
• OBX Design Works – William Dodson, a talented Web designer and blogger in the Outer Banks of North Carolina
• JASE Digital Media – a local digital media design consultancy that employs some of the area’s best designers (hi, Keith!); their blog offers up lots of good tips and resources on social media
• My Aim Is True – [This is Bake It Pretty's personal blog]

Really – all you need to do is comment. And you’re doing something awesome. Now get chatty. [*ETA here is "edited to add."]

*ETA!!! You guys!!! The most awesome Shiloh Walker told me if I get 50 comments, she’ll donate $50. Please! Take our money!!!

**ETA #2: O.M.F.G.! I said to a friend earlier today (when there were only 7 comments for like the longest time, it seemed) that I’d cry if we didn’t hit 50 today. Well I just got a message from Ali, one of my favorite people, who told me that if we get 75 comments, she’ll donate $50 as well. Now I might cry because this is getting to be more awesome than I thought.

And – since we’re nearing 50, which is way more than I thought, I am for sure committing myself to a $25 donation… and we’ll see if my guilt complex pushes me to $50 as well. (I mean, I’ve got to match these incredible ladies, right? So please- spread the word!)

**So to recap: I pledged $10 if I could get 10 comments today. Shiloh messaged to tell me if we hit 50, she’d donate $50. How amazing is that? And I just got word from Ali that if we get 75 comments, she’s donating $50 as well.

At this point, I’ve changed my commitment to $25, and am contemplating $50. How about, if we hit 100 comments, I’ll do $50 as well, so there you go. Simple – 100 comments, and a minimum of $150 gets donated!

***ETA 3: You guys. I might cry. I’m sniffly right now, with good reason. Courtney Milan, who is all around incredible, told me if we hit 100 comments, she’ll throw in $50 as well. That’s $2 per comment that  someone else will be donating!!!

I have no words. And won’t be using asterisks anymore. If you see in the comments, Mara said [she? they?] would donate $50 as well if we hit the 100 comments today goal. Honestly – this is for an amazing cause. And it takes so little effort!

WOW! And the hilarious and great Bree, half of the much loved writing team that forms Moira Rogers told me to put her down for $50 as well if I wanted. And I do. So I did.

! Vivian Arend asked if I wanted to put another $50 down for her. Of course I  have no problem spending other people’s money, so now she’s listed too. This makes me so happy.

Stacy is also getting in on this – come on, if we hit 150 comments, she’ll donate $50! Talk!

And now Tigris Eden has promised to contribute as well if we make it to 150 comments!!! Whee!!!

YES!!! The great Carly Phillips is joining this fabulous cause! She’s also setting the goal at 150 comments!

I have no words, really. HelenKay Dimon is a fabulous author, a fabulous person, and well, pretty much all around is fabulousity. And as incentive to make you comment and spread the word, she’ll go in $50 too if we hit 150. Not a bad deal, right?

Awesome! Liza has said she’ll contribute $10 to the cause as well. <3 Every little bit helps!

More more more!!! Lauren Dane, who is all kinds of fantabulous and awesome as well, is going in with $50 if we meet the next comment goal!

Whee! We haz VOLTRON! Heh – Donna stepped in as well, the other writing half of Moira Rogers – see? I told you that Moira Rogers is awesome! She’s in for another $50!!! <3

I LOVE THIS WOMAN! I think all? Most of you know Jennifer Haymore has been dealing with cancer. She just finished her radiation today. And she just told me if we hit the next level, she’s in for $50 – come on! Help this woman meet her goal!!!

Yes!!! And the duckies have stepped up! The most lovely, kind, and generous c2 has pledged $75. I wheedled her into it. She’s so beyond awesome.

Then, Likari stepped in with $50.

And Mean Marie, Ann Marie, who obviously isn’t that mean, is coming in with another $50 if we meet our goal.

As is Magdalen, with another $50 – BUT only if we hit 256 comments (or more) – how fun, right?

And  – Jackie is now issuing the challenge of 260 comments. For $25.

Shelli Stevens is in with another $50.

And and and!!! You guys are so awesome! Will have a complete list later!

Result? 260 comments = $975 donated to (RED) – come on romance community! Show me you care! (For those of you keeping track, Mara, Shiloh, Liza, and a beautiful silent contributor and I have donated already so that is $225 – and we’re depending on your comments to bring in the rest!)

My thoughts on RomCon are all over the place. If you want an extremely detailed minute by minute playbook, this is not where you’ll get that. RomCon? Well, I’d do it again. I’ve never been to any conferences/conventions before 2010, but this year I’ve hit up RT, Lori Foster’s get together, and now RomCon. I think of the three, RomCon was my favorite. It just has more. (I really enjoyed Lori Foster’s get together, and I have to say RT was my least favorite.)

Incidentally, most of the pictures have nothing to do with my rants – I just needed somewhere to put them. So for the second one there, I have nothing but nice things to say about Nalini Singh et al. Also, I’m not in any of these pictures, in case you were Lime hunting.

Straight off the bat, however, I vehemently, 100%, completely, cannot tell you how much I disagree with people saying there were too many authors. [I cannot help but say this snarky thing: apparently there was a lounge for authors. Well, maybe if there hadn't been one, or if authors didn't go to it, they would've been out there mingling with readers. Not to say there wasn't enough of that. But I mean, hello. If you're going to be in an author only room, of course it's going to seem like all authors and not enough readers. And that's my snarky bit. I of course understand that authors who went to the lounge weren't there the whole time and a lot of them did interact with readers and I pretty much saw every author I wanted to.] Did I get enough time with each and every one? No. And guess what? If more more more more more readers go we’re not going to be able to interact with the authors at all.

And on a different note, there were a lot lot lot of scheduled conflicts. Like a lot. I don’t know if I can stress this enough. The conference is short – something like 48 hours, and you know sixteen of those hours are allotted for sleeping. It depended on what event you were going to. For example, the teas were filled with what looked like  60 people.  Likely most readers. At the same time there were intimate chats with authors, which generally had 10-15 readers in the room. The teas and intimate chats being the “coveted events” as they were ticketed, all other panels I’m sure had less people, and it made it appear as if there were no readers. Well, based on what I observed, say during the day 150 readers were at “closed” events and the remaining were sleeping, meeting with people, or otherwise attending one of 2-4 scheduled panels. Yes, I can see how it seemed that readers were thin on the ground. However, I don’t think that’s the case and really really really hope the numbers don’t shift too much. (And here’s more snark – come on now authors. Do you really need that much more of a rockstar feel?)

Some of us were discussing – readers do talk to each other. Yes some people don’t know about the online community, but that seems to be the exception to the rule these days. And you know – maybe we’re just not that interesting. I don’t know. I feel completely fulfilled without going to conferences in my book talk and gushing. That’s what blogs, twitter, chat, texting, and phones are for.

So that’s my rant. Sure, let the conference get bigger. But don’t limit the number of authors. That’s probably at the top of my list for reasons to not come back to RomCon

Now, I will say I was unimpressed with the panels that I attended. Admittedly, I’m not very much of a panels type girl. I “just” got out of school. I don’t need to sit and be talked at. However, I dutifully followed friends to the controversial Fairy Godmother one, and felt as if I was being lectured and reprimanded. Every single person in the room I talked to felt the same way. (And as I hear it, there was only one person who thought the panel was enjoyable. Telling.) It could have been interesting, and fun and interactive, but that’s not the tone of the panel. It made me quite angry. I had to use the restroom, so I left, but after that, I didn’t want to, and was told not to bother going back in. Some people I hear were tweeting about it, but I went straight to texting my WTF feelings. Why was I annoyed? Piracy was brought up immediately after introductions, and the way it was approached and discussed we all felt like we were being attacked, and that we were all pirates. It only got worse. I truly felt that this was a[n understandable] pet peeve but those on the panel had finally gotten a captive audience/a trapped room of human bodies and faces that they could yell at. Not amazing. I ran into Sarah (from Smart Bitches) that evening and she was still unhappy. Of course I later found out she’d also gone to the book reviewer panel with Jane (from Dear Author), and that one was full of head exploding material was well – and led to the “books are not babies” discussion and hashtag on twitter. I’m still curious as to the results of Tessa Dare’s “experiment.”

I will say that in a way, coming to RomCon (I’m sitting in the hotel lounge/lobby as I write this, because I’m staying two extra days in Denver) was to play with friends. I didn’t know originally that they were going to be here, but I figured I’d meet fun people anyway. (It worked well enough at the Lori Foster event.) However, Ali and Joy did come, and that basically was the highlight for me – seeing friends. But in a more conference centered manner… meeting authors I’d interacted with online, but never met in person.

My list would be Julia Quinn (admittedly I’ve never interacted with her online but I always read her books and it was so cool to meet her. And talk about Outrageous Tacos.) Nalini Singh, Meljean Brook, Carolyn Jewel, Pamela Clare, Leanne Banks, Melissa Schroeder… There are more but I’m realizing this is turning into a something I don’t want, and anyway not really – I guess I talked to the same people/nobody. (And I’d met Carolyn Crane and Coutney Milan previously at RT.)

My random fun things and highlights? I tried to hang out with Carolyn Jewel all weekend, and it never worked. On Friday night for cocktails just when we were about to sit it was time for dinner- and Julia Quinn was at the table so I walked over to dinner with her (and ran into Ali and Joy and Eli) so we all sat together. We got there late. Bad us. I also sat next to Sally MacKenzie, whose books I’ve enjoyed, and had no idea who she was. (Sorry! I think I need to put in here that I’m just… not much of a fangirl. I barely recognized Julia Quinn and actually hadn’t recognized her the first time I saw her in the hallway. There. My secret shame.) Anyway, Sally MacKenzie is a fun, fabulous lady. We were bad and chatting throughout dinner and the “performance” because we were sitting in the back, the acoustics were bad, and we couldn’t hear a damn thing. This is also where the No Ordinary Taco discussion started. (Somehow Julia heard that instead of No Ordinary Cowboy. I don’t know either.) I didn’t know who the other two ladies  at our table were either, but I had a lot of fun with them. [Erm, Lavinia Kent was one of the them. So sorry to the third!]

Saturday was full of events – intimate chats with authors, and author sponsored teas which were ticketed events  – you entered a raffle to get into them. The historical one was fabulous, with a goody bag and prizes for all. I also went to the contemporary author tea the previous day, where it was more of a Q&A panel. I didn’t go to publisher spotlights on Friday, but had heard they weren’t that impressive. Saturday just seemed to be a more fun and worthy day all around. And I have to say the publisher spotlights on Saturday were extremely generous with the swag. (Swag is stuff we all get – and we all got books. It was nice.)

I also got to spend more time with Courtney Milan, because she sat with us at the HCI launch party. I have to admit, I had thought she might not really care for me – but I knew that was equally likely not to be true as nothing had happened to make me think that. So I figure if Courtney Milan didn’t like me, she wouldn’t have chosen to subject herself to my company during something she couldn’t leave. (I also didn’t know another author at the table was an author but she was incredibly gracious. Sorry!) Anyway, our table talked about dogs, and there was a girl across the table from me (sorry, woman) and she was the most adorable thing and I wish I’d gotten her name. So – Courtney showed me pictures/video of her dog. I’d heard of him before and seen pictures via twitter, but I want to meet him! (I love dogs.) He’s an Australian Shepherd and so adorable.

On Saturday night I sat next to Elizabeth Hoyt for dinner. I had no idea who she was (she looked familiar but I couldn’t remember, and I’m horrible about names and faces, so I’m pretty sure I committed some sort of faux pas and asked her what she did.) I also joked with her in a way I might not have if I had known she was Elizabeth Hoyt at the time, but I’m actually glad about that. Being too restrained isn’t fun – and not really how I am.

I do wish the hotel had been one downtown. I’m actually shy, and hate people. (Heh.) So it’s important for me to be able to leave a conference hotel and go do something. This was not possible at the Crowne Plaza and their concierge was not accommodating on Saturday night. I have/had mad love for Crowne Plaza concierge services (especially for the one in Columbus – I love you!) but this one disappointed. Of course I also became annoyed at a few of the hotel staff, but that’s all tied into the being trapped here issues.

Something I’d like to make a note of that every single person [reader] I spoke with mentioned – yes we were getting books, and that’s wonderful, but we were getting the same books. It seems like we were getting the same books over and over again. I know there a bunch I have two of – so guess what? I’m going to give them away. [At the moment I'm still figuring out how I'll do that.] I also gave away a number of books as soon as I got here – Jessica and Carolyn Crane were nice enough to let me stash stuff in their room, and when I went to pick it up I gave them books I already owned in hopes that they’ll read them. This process was repeated throughout the weekend.

Um… oh and this is totally a personal thing non-conference related. But a lot of people complimented me on my purse (and thank you! You’re all too sweet) – so I want to say, it’s the Lorca bag from Hayden-Harnett, and I think they’re such a fabulous company that I’m giving them a shout out. You should buy from them. Get your own Lorca. Really – and their customer service is basically unmatched. In excellence. And I also wore a flower ring that I’d just gotten as a birthday present – and that was Kenneth Jay Lane. Just in case you wanted to know O_o. (Well, if you want it, I think you should get it, right?)

Oh and my plug – if you haven’t read Julia Quinn, do so. Not only do I love her books, but she’s fantastic. She’s incredibly nice and fun – but not like nice in the way you’re scared you’re going to be bad and really have to be on your best behavior. She’s sarcastic and has a great sense of humor. The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever was a book I got here and gave away in hopes the person will enjoy it. That’s one of my favorite books by her. Also The Duke & I, The Lost Duke of Wyndham, Splendid, and I think my favorite book by her is Brighter than the Sun. (Ok and/but since I’m me, I will say I don’t love love love all her books. Some people also got What Happens in London here, and that didn’t work for me. Nor did I go for Mr. Cavendish, I Presume, even though Liv tells me I’m wrong.) Anyway, not only are Julia’s books great, but she’s nice. I was going downstairs and had a book I wanted her to sign – there was a historical authors event. However we ran into her at the elevators, and she actually got back off and came and signed a book for me. I mean, I know not a huge deal and like she gave me a kidney or anything, but I thought it was super sweet. Because I was like “oh wait-  oh no!” I did meet some authors who gave me the “I don’t want to talk to you but we’re so close to each other in passing it’d be rude not to acknowledge you and I’m a professional here so I’ll give you the curt hello.” So you know, I’m that much more thrilled with Julia Quinn’s awesomeness.

So, I hope RomCon is essentially the same next year as it was this year, with some tweaks. The entertainment ” ” was… not amazing- and most people seemed to flee the dance parties. There is that – I didn’t really talk about them because it wasn’t so much worth going. [Oh and along the same "keep going what you're doing line - reader focused. Please. Please please please don't assume all readers are wannabe writers. I know some readers are aspiring authors. But not all of us. Do not, for all that is good and holy on this Earth, turn this into another RWA/RT thing. Because let's be honest- RT is now more like RWA than anything else. I almost felt more like an intruder than anything else there.]

And I did like the format of the signing. With books elsewhere, you don’t feel a sense of obligation to buy a book just by looking at it. (It’s so awkward to pick up and book and put it down – unless you tell the author you already own it.) And with the ability to book browse people do buy more books, I heard at RT some people didn’t buy books they were curious about because they didn’t want to check out the book then realize it wasn’t for him/her and be obligated to take it. Also, it got rid of the whole ridiculous sticker business of RT. If you walked into the signing with books at RomCon, they were obviously yours. That was amazing. I think it would just help or be nice to let authors know this is the format, so they could have something in front of them at the signing – swag, little props, extra books, what have you.

So again, I have to say, I really hope the book signing format remains the same. But you know, I‘m just a lowly reader. What do I matter? [Sarcasm!] Also an author had a fantastic idea – of panels with readers sitting on the panels, answering questions. I love that. So… maybe not panels because that’s a lot of pressure, but how about round tables? I think that would also really fit in with the idea, concept, and spirit of RomCon. Incidentally, Carolyn Crane had this idea – and I think it’s amazing. [Incidentally NO those aren't all the books I got at RomCon. A few pictured, yes, but this is why I'm not too torn up about not getting books. And why I'm so avidly going for ebooks. Don't need to add any more to my book graveyard.]

And… those are my rambling wandering RomCon thoughts. If you’d like to know more about something [anything] I’ll do my best to answer any questions. Or gossip more

Ok – so I’ve decided to celebrate random holidays each year. Last year it was the Chinese/Lunar New Year. This year, after a quick and random, totally unscientific twitter poll… it was decided 2010 I’d highlight Earth Day.

Being green is very popular now. I’m all for that. I’ve been accused of being a tree hugger, but I’m definitely not on top of everything. I don’t turn off all my electronics, etc – anyway there’s more I could be doing.

I’m not going to give a little Earth Day lesson, because you can find all the information online. I do like that it’s such an international holiday – more than 175 countries celebrate it each year!

I’ve been meaning to give away an ebook as well, so… what’s the prize? A copy of Maya Banks’ new and improved Colter’s Woman. That’s how I plan to celebrate Earth Day this year.

My question is then – what do you think about Earth Day? Did you ever celebrate it? Do you? And… if you read them, what book would you most like to see as an ebook? If you don’t read ebooks, why not?

Personally, I most want As You Desire by Connie Brockway to be released as an electronic book.

And because I’m always for more frivolity…well, me being me I’ve forgotten – so I’ll put it on you! Tell me something lighthearted and fun, that is relevant to this post! (Earth Day, ebooks…)

*NB: As usual, the winner will be announced in the comments. Contest closes a week from Friday.

So… you might remember my part 2 of 3 post awhile back, titled Speak, Boo Boo, Speak. I wanted you to know that winners have been chosen and notified, and prizes have gone out.
First up, there’s the grand prize winner who got a copy of Leave Me Breathless by the fabulous HelenKay Dimon. Names of winners haven’t been added to protect the guilty. (Of course if they want to step up and say in the comments, that’s great. It’s just I was threatened with dire consequences by some of the entrants if I revealed their identities.)

Dear Helen Kay,

Notice that I’m spelling your name the proper way. Why do you smash the Helen and Kay together? That’s really weird. Do you do it on purpose, or did your parents do that to you? Can they speak English?

Anyway, I wanted to write to you for advice. I keep trying to write a book but can never get past the first page. Can you help me? Maybe if you read my page you could give me advice. And don’t give me some bullshit legaleze about being unable to read unpublished work. No one has to know except you and me, and I’m totally trustworthy. I would never sue you, even if your next book was a complete ripoff of my ideas.

Thank you for your time, and I’m enclosing the page. Please read it. If you don’t, I’m going to make sure everyone knows how selfish you are, and no one will ever read your books again. (That’s not a threat, just a fact, because if you’re a selfish person, I just think people should know.)

Your fan,

Wanna Be

And we have a second winner, who got a book by Larissa Ione (Pleasure Unbound). I’d like to note at this point, that there was a panel of 3+ impartial judges who picked winners. Because I totally wouldn’t have picked this one. (Kidding!)

Dear HelenKay Dimon, Larissa Ione, Jaci Burton, and Lauren Dane.

I know you receive a lot of fan mail. Some of it questionable. However, I am not a nutjob. I read your books, I put them up and other than sacrificing a newborn kitten every year on the release date, they stay on the keeper shelf waiting to be re-read.

I’m writing today about Limecello

For years now I’ve read her blog. Her reviews make my change purse jingle. Sometimes she’s made my Amazon account sob. And ooo the times I’ve giggled!! Even when she gets snippy and tart she’s still a wonderful blogger gal.

So in her honor I’m sending you this list of things to make out of limecello…

With Limecello juice you can make:
Margarita
Lime Pie
Lime Marinade to soak meat in

With any jiggly bits:
Lime Jello Mold

Crunchy bits:
Crispy Lime Cookies
Lucious Lime Crusty Chicken

So for the sweet, savory, jiggly and the crusty end this letter with a heartfelt appeal to you. Please Authors, send me Limecello’s address so I can GPS her and squeeze the juice outta her. Feel free to roll her around on the countertop to soften her up before I get there.

Signed,

Freaky Fruit Freak.

So there you have it. And stay tuned to part 3/3 of my “Boo Boo series” (Hah!) That will go live… you know. Some time. Up for grabs there will be a copy of Jill Shalvis’s baseball book Double Play. (And possibly others. Or not. We’ll see how the wind blows. ‘Cuz that’s how we roll.)

As we all know, there are some crazies on teh interwebs. We’ve all heard about them, read them, or even experienced them. If you’re an author, you might also get the bonus of getting some crazy emails. Fan letters, hate letters, the works.

Every so often, an author will mention a “speshul” email on twitter. Recently, some authors talking about such a happenstance were HelenKay Dimon, Larissa Ione, Jaci Burton, and Lauren Dane.

Here’s an example.

Dear Larissa,

Thank you so much for writing your Demon books. I’ve been following the Demonica series since the first one, PLEASURE UNBOUND was released, and I can’t tell you how glad I am that I found them.

Finally!

An author is writing books that are specifically relevant to me! I, too, have my own special Demon who rocks my world. It’s so nice that you do too, and that you can understand where I’m coming from.

One of my problems with the series is when Wraith gave the Heofon to Kyran. Wraith would never have done such a thing because it would have been all about him and no one else. Why did you do that? You were wrong. Why would he do that?

And you’re wrong about Hell. I’ve been there. Satan is super cool. I’m going to tell him about your sucky books.

If I had more time, I’d tell you more about my Demon, but you don’t deserve to hear about him. I’m going to tell my demon to kick your demon’s ass the next time he sees him in hell.

I hope you learned your lesson. I’ll be looking for your next Demonica book, just to see if you did. Do not disappoint me in this. I do not like being disappointed.

Your #1 Fan

P.S. I’ve got my eyes on you.

So there you go. Why does this involve all of you? Well. Here’s where the fun begins! I teased the aforementioned authors that I was tempted to write them a very special fan letter. They said they’d post any bat shit crazy email I sent them.

This is where you come in. You have your choice of any of those four authors. Write the craziest, most freaky, creepy, incendiary email you can, and send it to crazyfanletter@gmail.com. (I know, I know I said I’m for contests where you just have to post to be entered, but don’t you think this is a fun and worthy cause?!) **NB** Because I’m having you email that specially created address, please include your info (name + address) in your email to expedite the shipping process for winners. Believe me – I won’t be sharing your information. And, you don’t need to sign your fan letter with your own name – sign it however you want, and add the info somewhere else in the email.

I’ve found an impartial panel, and the winner will get a copy of one of HelenKay Dimon’s books. (I’m hoping to find Holding Out for a Hero at Borders.) There might also be additional winners who get one of Larissa Ione’s Demonica books.

Incidentally, if you have any questions, please post them here, at the blog, rather than emailing that address. Also, if you’d like – and to keep conversation going, which author you’re writing your fan letter to. It’d be great if we could get a nice mix.

And don’t worry – I’ll be posting the best letters we get, and possible snippets of others as well. Ready, set, go!

*P.S. That’s not a real reader letter. I wrote that with my good friend Mad. At one point I had to tell her she was being too nice. And we kept trying to up the crazy, but we’re just not that good. I’m pretty sure you can do much better.

So… I posted it in the comments – but since I wasn’t clear… the winner of a brand new, shiny copy of Coming Undone is

KARA

Please send me your info – theduckeez@goodbadandunread.com
I’ll draw another winner if you don’t contact me in 48 hours. And for future reference – my contests, winners will be announced in the comments.

Have a great weekend, all!

I like to share the love (and you know, sometimes hate) – but right now it’s all about the food love.
I’ve got 30 $10 restaurant.com gift cards to give away per day, until 11:59 EST on Christmas day.

Of course, I’ll be running around, but will do my best to honor each and every request – first 30 per day. No strings, other than I’ll need your email address(es) – which you need to post a comment anyway!

Sorry to our international friends, as far as I can tell, restaurant.com only works in the US. If, however, you find otherwise, I am more than happy to send you the card.

[*ETA I do need a last name, or at least last initial though- and if your IP shows no location, I pick one for you! It's needed for the form. I'm not trying to stalk you. Honest.]

One last point – if I do send you a card, please don’t spam me. I would not appreciate it if you returned my gesture by using my email address indiscriminately, for newsletters, contest invites, etc.

So… that’s all! There’s also a code for 80% off which I’ll include in the message.

Happy Holidays, from me and everyone at the pond!

Cheers,
Limecello

Site will prolly go down at midnight CST.
Not really sure how long it will be down for…

It has been so long, I have forgotten how it is suppose to look when it comes back up.

No I haven’t taken anything yet, I am just oddly over it and ready for the site to be updated. Of course I am cynical and ready for it to just break, stare at it in horror, and figure out who to have fix it and really I have faith in the geek. And lots of xanax…  Don’t be shocked if you hear screaming, see a blank screen or a ever changing template over the next few days.

It will prolly come right back up. I cry to think of what the format, linkage, pictures, tags… ok really tis ok as long as the database is there and the comments all stay where they belong and everything doesn’t dup again and oh god. I cry.

How Ya?

I am slowly ‘trying’ to dip my toes back into the pond.  My internet is still touch and go but I am trying to work with it.  Lawson was a doll and let me babysit her laptop for a weekend.  So I am down from 1200+ emailsbut still fighting.  I am NOT saying don’t send emails… do do do.

I am delighted to see the blog doing well without me, even if the reviews got down way below what I would like.  Hopefully we will be back up to 2 a day soonish.  Sorry some of them are old. Some of the quacks had to take breaks for this reason and that reason – the books were read and I feel the books still deserve reviews.  We will try to mix them in with the ‘hot and happening’, maybe you will find something you missed.

Sandy has been doing a bang up job on the duck chats and we will be adding a Duckie Hour.  Something of a quickie interview with a few authors, more info on that coming up.  As always there will be Duck Flashes, Ponderings, randomness and all that jazz.  IF my net holds up we might even get our template updated, le sigh, wouldn’t that be grand?

Interesting (if overblown) interview at AAR with two Editors at Avon.  I posted at AAR, which of course never showed the new owners of AAR were all about getting me fired for being a ‘blogger’ and apart of ‘maili’s clique’ almost from the moment I joined up to review so no shock there.  Aww good times.

Any other amusing dust ups I have missed? I did see the ever delightful Bella has crowned herself queen of the internets.  She is special.

I have tons of reviews to do. LOVED: The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie by Jennifer Ashley, First Comes Marriage by Mary Balogh, Never Love a Lawman by Jo Goodman, Burning Wild By Christine Feehan, Sudden Death by Allison Brennan, Tempted All Night by Liz Carlyle, Hard and Fast by Erin McCarthy

Enjoyed: Rachel and the Hired Gun by Elaine Levine, Then Comes Seduction by Mary Balogh, At Last Comes Love by Mary Balogh, Montanna Creed series by Linda Lael Miller, Led Astray by a Rake by Sara Bennett

Those are just the A+ – C- sitting next to the computer no clue how many I will do or not.  I am currently reading Tasting Fear by Shannon McKenna and going back and forth with starting Skin Trade by LKH.  And I STILL haven’t decided what I think about Ward’s last book and I have read it twice.  Parts I adored, parts I hated and parts just made me go what the fuck.

Soooo what about you?  What cha reading? What cha up too?

More contesty goodness – because I promised you it was coming! Read on, gentle readers, and try your luck! After all, it is an anthology set in Vegas!

 WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS…AFTER DARK anthology

 Release Date: May 1, 2009

 Anya Bast’s story in this anthology is called THE PROMISE. It’s a prequel to THE DEAL, (WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS… the first anthology, released in 2008), and tells Damian’s story and how/why he came to jilt Cassidy at the altar on their wedding day.

Here’s the whole blurb for the book:

Las Vegas… it’s the town that lives up to the promise of its nickname, Sin City. A gamblers’ paradise for innocent tourists, it conceals a darker, sexual world where the ethereal and wraithlike meet to play a different game….

If there’s one thing succubus Deitre understands it’s revenge. That, and enticing men into arousing, exciting and, okay, perilous sex (for him).
Beautiful on the outside, demon on the inside, she’s going to get back at the naughty firefighter in Darkness…unless he plays his cards right…

Bounty hunter Nell is a hell of a tracker. Now she’s in Vegas on the tail of the witch who dared to steal from her clan. She’s going to get to the unsavory harlot through the woman’s ex-fiancé, and nothing about their charged encounters will be shallow, quick or friendly.

When the half-blood fae male comes to club Darkness, Elena can’t resist acting on the mind-blowing heat coursing between them. She might be betrothed to another, but fae culture says sex with other men until marriage is most definitely foretold.

Tattoo artist Devi is the latent vampire the warlocks need to heal all wounds. But taking her power is a sexually exhausting and dangerous task requiring dark deception…and gambling on her life.

*******

In Anya’s story, The Promise, the heroine, Elena, has known her entire life she would have to marry someone she didn’t love. Family duty binds her and resigns her to her fate, though there’s a part of her that wishes to be free. To enter to win a copy of What Happens in Vegas…After Dark, name a time in your life when you felt duty bound to do something you didn’t want to do.

Three winners will be selected.  

Well it isn’t ALL her fault and I do plan on bringing up the EVER loved topic of reviews more later but avid reader posted about Susan Wiggs Fireside reviews on you know THAT PLACE…. ::whispers::amazon::/whispers:: and her response to a few bad reviews.

I  have no comment about it at this point because I haven’t read the reviews, Wiggs posts and don’t plan too yet because I have the book in my pile of to read next.

I had gone back and forth on it because I didn’t really care much for her last few books but had heard good buzz about this one and well… baseball hero!  WOOT!

Then it hit number one on NY Times and I wondered if it was REALLY that good so I moved it up a bit.

Now here is the rub, from what I can tell from Keishon’s post the four bad reviews are harping on Fireside being too political. Depending on how it is done that could seriously bug the shit out of me but if it goes well into the plot and doesn’t take away from the romance (something I won’t know till I read the book) I will be totally ok with it.

And from what Susan Wiggs comments were (again quoted on Keishon’s post, never emailed with the author or know her) we lean the same way.

Hence my CHALLENGE TO TEH GWEN, our lil republican duckie, yes le sigh we lurve her anyway ::ow:: stop pulling my feathers! I kid, well sort of, I do live in Texas, I am sure there are a few republican’s out there.  Well maybe not reading this site but in romanceland, err maybe? But I digress… seriously this isn’t meant to be a political post.  No really. My migraine is already coming back. Onward… (how cindys of me *g*)

As you can tell from The Sins of Lord Easterbrook, gwen and I have a totally different review style. I think everything is about me.  So give much less plot away and much more about what I think (shocking yes?)  Gwen bores you with details on the book… I mean informs you lol haven’t you missed having me around? Anyway… MY POINT and I did have one.

I thought it would be amusing to see if Gwen could like the book or not and if she didn’t, well we would certainly know she wasn’t one of those people who have already posted on amazon… yes?

What cha say gwen? Dueling reviews at dawn? OR you know… whenever we get to it… since I can’t keep to a schedule to save my life and currently only have one copy and WOOT I gots it *g*.

to be continued… or not I haz a short attention span you know

Gwen started this forever ago and honestly I forget why. Like all things which look difficult and like they are lots of work I just didn’t click on the page. What? It works for me.

Wendy, dear sweet wendy doesn’t work that way and she clicked… ::giggle::

So behold the power of the updated 2008 Review Page

It is still a bit wonky but I am sure gwen will come along and fix it at some point.

And yes if you click on some reviews the formatting might be wonky as well from the last move (maybe) dunno we are working on that…

Sunday Afternoon at the B&N Café

Almost every Sunday afternoon I flee my house of chaos for the Barnes & Noble Café. It’s a long drive for me, so usually I go to a local coffee shop to get a little uninterrupted writing time. However, I prefer the B&N Café because you have to pay for Internet access (at my little local coffee shop, it’s free), which means I don’t buy it and I actually write instead of procrastinate by checking my email, playing on Livejournal or Twitter or hunting down eBook pirates (my own private and pointless obsession).

The chairs are fairly comfortable, the staff is friendly (I’m in the B&N Café as I write this, in fact), and once I plug myself into my iPod, the auditory environment is conducive to writing. I like to try and get a table that backs up to a wall so no one can read over my shoulder, especially if I’m about to write a sex scene…which I intend to do right after I finish writing this post. Today I snagged a wall table, so today is a good B&N Café day.

Muted conversation fills my ears, since I don’t have my ear buds in yet. So does the gurgling sound of the café staff making coffee. The scent of that coffee fills my nose, along with the faint aroma of the woman’s perfume beside me. I can also hear the clinking of change at the register, the beeping of machinery, the sound of a child crying in another part of the store.

Today I’m wearing a comfy black sweater with black running pants and fuzzy red socks. On a totally different topic, Limecello gave me a list of possible subjects to write on and one of them was about my favorite kind of socks. You’re probably all just dying to know that I prefer slipper socks and wear them most of the time in the winter. As a full time writer, I can get away with that. Comfort is my first priority. A fashionista, I am not.

Back to the topic at hand, I get a lot of writing done at the cafe. I write for a while, then stop and think, staring out over the top of my laptop with my eyes unfocused. I’m not really seeing anything because I’m deep in thought, thinking about the scene I’m writing or how I need the next part of this particular chapter to show something significant about a certain character, set up for an upcoming battle or black moment, or show how the relationship between my hero and heroine is evolving. I do a lot of staring and thinking when I write.

That doesn’t mean I’m not aware of my surroundings. On the contrary, I’m hyper-aware of everyone around me. I think most writers are. Writers observe. They take in all people and events around them and consider them. For a writer everything and everyone around them is potential inspiration or story fodder. . Today there’s a woman next to me who is dressed in a stylish fawn colored sweater dress and expensive looking thigh-high boots (her perfume smells expensive too). She’s reading a stack of books on divorce. I can’t help but wonder about her, who she married and why they’re divorcing. I can’t help but make up stories to fill in the gaps about what I don’t know about her. . What about that man in his mid twenties in the corner who is pounding away on his laptop like me? Writer? Or grad student?

And there’s clutch of women in the corner that’s obviously a book club since they all have the same mass market paperback on the table beside them-with the title I can’t quite make out – and who are clearly having a wonderful time and not talking about books.

The man at two o’clock is flipping through a book by Mike Huckabee and has Sean Hannity sitting jowl-to-jowl with Michael Savage (books by those men, I mean, not the actual men). He keeps furtively checking out the well-heeled women who is reading the books on divorce.

The chess players are here again. They’re here every single week-the same people scowling down at the boards, scratching their heads and trying to figure out their next move. Another group of women are in the corner. It’s a study group for library science, unless I miss my guess. I can tell their relationship is tentative and new (probably the first time they’ve studied together) because of the nervous chatter and the self-conscious laughter. It’s the kind of communication one engages in when one is not totally sure. . It strikes me every week how many people come here to do things other than drink coffee and consider their purchases. People come to study, write novels or dissertations. They use it as a library, pulling books up next to themselves along with a pad of paper and pen to take notes. The woman on my other side is angry that so many people are making noise (the noise culprits are the library science group and the two tables in front of us who have struck up a conversation about football) and is hissing into her cell phone about how people should be quieter here. of one’s audience.

Except, of course, this isn’t a library…it’s a bookstore. Me? I just put my ear buds in and turn to my sex scene….

*P.S.-  Anya, because she is awesome, has very kindly offered to give away an autographed copy of her recent release Witch Heart to one lucky commenter. Not that you wouldn’t have stopped by to chat with her anyway, right?

Sorry about that, I don’t do tables well and lime is used to doing ponderings that don’t need a ‘cut’.

To make up for the long delay, here is Lisa Kleypas new author picture.

It was taken by her husband Greg in their back yard.

It is tres cute yes?  You should be able to click on it to make it larger, if not maybe gwen will come along and do the thing gwen does best and fix it *g*.

read on for the winzors

WOOT! Smooth Talking Strangers is fabulous.  And we will post more info when we it regarding when Lisa will be here to chat about the book.  And of course I am already trying to rope a Raw look at her next historical cuz well I am like that *eg*.

Well, a number of you, anyway. Remember a long time ago when we had the contest for Lisa Kleypas’s books? One for A Wallflower Christmas and another for an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of Smooth Talking Stranger? . And remember how I said I’d begin a monthly contest? I also said that  for January, I’d pick it from one specific post, and I did- though that won’t normally be the case. So without further ado, here is a list of all the winners. . The one I think we all want to know most….

1) The winner of an ARC of Smooth Talking Stranger is Kate Niswander! . And as chosen by randomizer.org, the following winners are:2) The three winners of A Wallflower Christmas are Kim, CrystalGB, and Carolyn Jean! . and last but not least, the winner of . 3) Happy New Year!!! is … Sherry Thomas! . Congratulations, winners! Please use the “quack at us” link (which I also provided). And stay tuned for future contests and events! For example, Anya Bast visits with us this Friday, the 6th, for our next “Author Makes a Splash” post.

Enough said. 3 Guesses as to who wrote this post (i.e., unsurprising I’m the one who wrote this.)

Here at The Good, The Bad, [and] The Unread (TGTBTU/ The Pond) we’re giving away an ARC of Smooth Talking Stranger by Lisa Kleypas. That’s a pretty special giveaway, so for once we’re making you do a bit more work.

We’re not fond of cheating, so email your answers to theduckeez@gmail.com. Do not post answers here. If you do, we will curse you and the evil duckling will find you and beat you to death. And the comment will be deleted if it has the answers. Discussion comments are fine and welcome.

A word to the wise – all the answers can be found here, on this blog, or on Ms. Kleypas’s website (or the real no brainers which if you can’t find you don’t deserve to win e.g. book release dates). Without further ado… good luck!

1. What is the release date for Smooth Talking Stranger? Who is the publisher?

2. What are the names of the hero and heroine in Smooth Talking Stranger?

3. Lisa was first published at the infant age of…?

4. How many books are listed on Lisa’s a) historical page b) contemporary page?

5. RITA award(s). Lisa. Go. [Yes? No? If so what book(s)?]

6. What was the release date for A Wallflower Christmas? The Publisher?

7. In the passage/excerpt from Blue-Eyed Devil, where a female on the radio is singing “Summertime” – when Hardy visits Haven in her office, where does he say he wants to take her?

8. Which Lisa Kleypas book/hero does Sybil MADLY LOVE? (Hint: It’s the same. Also, fyi, this site is Syb’s “brain child.”)

9. A gimme question… has Lisa Kleypas ever had a guest author day/visited at the pond? (Bonus points if you find the dates- but you really don’t have to.)

10. How many characters are on the “Book-Hopping Characters” page at Lisa’s site. Which is your favorite, and why? (Bonus points if you pick mine! … kidding… OR AM I?)

11. Bonus question!: Explain/reason the cover of “Smooth Talking Stranger.” (Obviously there’s no right/wrong answer here.)

12. Double Bonus: Why are there so many reviewers at the pond with “L” names? (This is for pure entertainment value.)

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Ah yes, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

p.s. – you’re allowed to ignore the “bonus” parts.

p.p.s. – bonus points for writing out, and translating all the Latin abbreviations

I really like Lisa Kleypas‘s novels. I’m sure you all know that. I don’t know Ms. Kleypas as a person, but I’m sure I’d like her in real life as well. Regardless, I can wax poetic on a number of her novels. Prince of Dreams, Dreaming of You, Suddenly You, and Because You’re Mine are some of my favorites.

But this is a post about the Wallflower Series. (I suppose I could talk about the most recent A Wallflower Christmas, but … why when you can win one and find out for yourself?)

Opinions seem to differ vastly about this series… but I really like Secrets of a Summer Night. Maybe because I’m traditional, or I just have major positive association with it because it was first. Accordingly, I’ve found a passage I liked. (Ok, I admit I basically thumbed through pages, and stopped, and voila! But it is cute. Not a sexy tension filled scene, but pretty adorable all the same.)

“Mr. Hunt,” she said carefully, “there is something I must ask you…”

“Yes?” His eyes were definitely his most attractive feature, Annabelle thought distractedly. Vibrant and full of life, they made her wonder why people generally preferred blue eyes to dark ones. No shade of blue could ever convey the simmering intelligence that lurked in the depths of Simon Hunt’s sable eyes.

Try as she might, Annabelle could think of no subtle way to ask him. After grappling silently with a variety of phrases, she finally settled for a blunt question. “Were you responsible for the boots?”

His expression gave nothing away. “Boots? I’m afraid I don’t take your meaning, Miss Peyton. Are you speaking in metaphor, or are we talking about actual footwear?”

“Ankle boots,” Annabelle said, staring at him with open suspicion. “A new pair that was left inside the door of my room yesterday.”

“Delighted as I am to discuss any part of your wardrobe, Miss Peyton, I’m afraid I know nothing about a pair of boots. However, I am relieved that you have managed to acquire some. Unless, of course, you wished to continue acting as a strolling buffet to the wildlife of Hampshire.”

Annabelle regarded him for a long moment. Despite his denial, there was something lurking behind his neutral facade…some playful spark in his eyes… “Then you deny having given the boots to me?”

“Most emphatically I deny it.”

“But I wonder…if some one wished to have a pair of boots made up for a lady without her knowledge… how would he be able to learn the precise size of her feet?”

“That would be a relatively simple task…” he mused. “I imagine that some enterprising person would simply ask a housemaid to trace the soles of the lady’s discarded slippers. Then he could take the pattern to the local cobbler. And make it worth the cobbler’s while to delay his other work in favor of crafting the new shoes immediately.”

“That is quite a lot of trouble for someone to go through,” Annabelle murmured.

Hunt’s gaze was lit with sudden mischief. “Rather less trouble than having to haul an injured woman up three flights of stairs every time she goes out walking in her slippers.”

Annabelle realized that he would never admit to giving her the boots-which would allow her to keep them, but would also ensure that she would never be able to thank him. And she knew he had-she could see it in his face.

“Mr. Hunt,” she said earnestly, “I …I wish…” She paused, unable to find words, and stared helplessly at him.

Taking pity on her, Hunt stood and went to the side of the room, picking up a small circular game table. It was only about two feet in diameter, constructed with a clever mechanism to allow a player to flip the top from a chessboard to a draughtsboard. “Do you play?” he asked casually, setting the table in front of her.

“Draughts? Yes, occasionally-”

“No, not draughts. Chess.”

Annabelle shook her head, shrinking back into the corner of the settee. “No, I’ve never played chess. And I don’t wish to sound uncooperative, but… the way I feel at present, I have no desire to try something as difficult as-”

“It’s time for you to learn, then,” Hunt said, heading to a niche of shelves to retrieve a polished burl-wood box. “It’s been said that you can never really know someone until you play chess with him.”

Annabelle watched him cautiously, feeling nervous at the prospect of being alone with him …and yet she was thoroughly beguiled by his deliberate gentleness. It seemed almost as if he were trying to coax her to trust him. There was a softness in his manner that seemed utterly at odds with the cynical rake she had always known him to be.

“Do you believe that?” she asked.

“Of course not.” Hunt brought the box to the table and opened it to reveal a set of onyx and ivory chessmen, carved in scrupulous detail. He slid her a provocative glance. “The truth is, you can never really know a man until you’ve loaned him money. And you can never know a woman until you’ve slept in her bed.”

Next, is It Happened One Autumn. I’m not sure why but Lillian and Westcliff, while great, aren’t my favorite characters. I think Lillian’s personality is way too different/foreign from mine. And Westcliff while “perfect” isn’t that personable. But there’s definitely one part that comes to mind.

“My lord.”

…”Yes, Salter,” he said brusquely, resenting the interruption.

“There is a…a situation, my lord, that I felt certain you would wish to be informed of.”

“What kind of situation?”

“It involves one of the guests, my lord.”

“Well?” Marcus demanded, annoyed by the butler’s diffidence. “Who is it? And what is he doing?”

“I am afraid the person is a ‘she,’ my lord. One of the footmen has just informed me that he saw Miss Bowman in the library, and she is…not well.”

Marcus stood so suddenly that his chair nearly toppled over. “Which Miss Bowman?”

“I do not know, my lord.”

“What do you mean, ‘not well’? Is anyone with her?”

“I do not believe so, my lord.”

“Is she hurt? Is she ill?”

Salter gave him a mildly harried stare. “Neither, my lord. Merely …not well.”

…His hands gripped into white-knuckled balls, and his pace quickened. It seemed to take forever to reach the library. By the time he crossed the threshold, his heart was driving in sharp blows inside his chest …a rhythm that owed nothing to exertion and everything to panic. What he saw caused him to stop short in the center of the large room.

Lillian stood before a row of books, with a pile of them surrounding her on the floor. She was pulling rare volumes from the shelves one by one, examining each with a puzzled frown and then tossing it heedlessly behind her. She seemed oddly languid, as if she were moving under water. And her hair was slipping from its pins. She didn’t look ill, precisely. In fact, she looked…

Becoming aware of his presence, Lillian glanced over her shoulder with a lopsided smile. “Oh. It’s you,” she said, her voice slurred. Her attention wandered back to the shelves. “I can’t find anything. All these books are so deadly dull…”

Frowning in concern, Marcus approached her while she continued to chatter and sort through the books. “Not this one…nor this one…oh no, no, no, this one’s not even in English…”

Marcus’s panic transformed rapidly into outrage, followed swiftly by amusement. Damnation. If he had required additional proof that Lillian Bowman was utterly wrong for him, this was it. The wife of a Marsden would never sneak into the library and drink until she was, as his mother would phrase it, “a trifle disguised.” Staring into her drowsy dark eyes and flushed face, Marcus amended the phrase. Lillian was not disguised. She was foxed, staggering, tap-hackled, top-heavy, shot-in-the-neck, staggering drunk.

More books sailed through the air, one of them narrowly missing his ear.

“Perhaps I could help,” Marcus suggested pleasantly, stopping beside her. “If you would tell me what you’re looking for.”

“Something romantic. Something with a happy ending. There should always be a happy ending, shouldn’ there?”

Marcus reached out to finger a trailing lock of her hair, his thumb sliding along the glowing satin filaments. He had never thought of himself as a particularly tactile man, but it seemed impossible to keep from touching her when she was near. The pleasure he derived from the simplest contact with her set all his nerves alight. “Not always,” he said in reply to her question.

Lillian let out a bubbling laugh. “How very English of you. How you all love to suffer, with your stiff… stiff…” She peered at the book in her hands, distracted by the gilt on its cover. “…upper lips,” she finished absently.

“We don’t like to suffer.”

“Yes, you do. At the very least, you go out of your way to avoid enjoying something.”

By now Marcus was becoming accustomed to the unique mixture of lust and amusement that she always managed to arouse in him. “There’s nothing wrong with keeping one’s enjoyments private.”

Dropping the book in her hands, Lillian turned to face him. The abruptness of the movement resulted in a sharp wobble, and she swayed back against the shelves even as he moved to steady her with his hands at her waist. Her tip-tilted eyes sparkled like an array of diamonds scattered over brown velvet. “It has nothing to do with privacy,” she informed him. “The truth is that you don’t want to be happy, bec-” She hiccupped gently. “Because it would undermine your dignity. Poor Wes’cliff.” She regarded him compassionately.

At the moment, preserving his dignity was the last thing on Marcus’s mind. He grasped the frame of the bookcase on either side of her, encompassing her in the half circle of his arms. As he caught a whiff of her breath, he shook his head and murmured, “Little one…what have you been drinking?”

“Oh…” She ducked beneath his arm and careened to the sideboard a few feet away. “I’ll show you… wonderful, wonderful stuff… this.” Triumphantly she plucked a nearly empty brandy bottle from the edge of the sideboard and held it by the neck. “Look what someone did…a pear, right inside! Isn’ that clever?” Bringing the bottle close to her face, she squinted at the imprisoned fruit. “It wasn’ very good at first. But it improved after a while. I suppose it’s an ac”-another delicate hiccup- “acquired taste.”

“It appears you’ve succeeded in acquiring it,” Marcus remarked, following her.

“You won’ tell anyone, will you?”

“No,” he promised gravely. “But I’m afraid they’re going to know regardless. Unless we can sober you in the next two or three hours before they return. Lillian, my angel …how much was in the bottle when you started?”

Showing him the bottle, she put her finger a third of the way from the bottom. “It was there when I started. I think. Or maybe there.” She frowned sadly at the bottle. “Now all that’s left is the pear.” She swirled the bottle, making the plump fruit slosh juicily at the bottom. “I want to eat it,” she announced.

“It’s not meant to be eaten. It’s only there to infuse the-Lillian, give the damned thing to me.”

“I am going to eat it.” Lillian tottered drunkenly away from him as she shook the bottle with increasing resolve. “If I can just get it out…”

“You can’t. It’s impossible.”

“Impossible?” she scoffed, lurching to face him. “You have servants who can pull the brains from a calf’s head, but they couldn’ get one little pear out of a bottle? I doubt that. Send for one of your under-butlers-just give a whistle, and-oh, I forgot. You can’t whistle.” She focused on him, her eyes narrowing as she stared at his mouth. “That’s the sillies’ thing I ever heard. Everyone can whistle. I’ll teach you. Right now. Pucker your lips. Like this. Pucker… see?”

Marcus caught her in his arms as she swayed before him. Staring down at her adorably pursed lips, he felt an insistent warmth invading his heart, overflowing and spilling past its fretted barriers. God in heaven, he was tired of fighting his desire for her. It was exhausting to struggle against something so overwhelming. Like trying not to breathe.

Lillian stared at him earnestly, seeming puzzled by his refusal to comply. “No, no, not like that. Like this.” The bottle dropped to the carpet. She reached up to his mouth and tried to shape his lips with her fingers. “Rest your tongue on the edge of your teeth and…it’s all about the tongue, really. If you’re agile with your tongue, you’ll be a very, very good”-she was temporarily interrupted as he covered her mouth with a brief, ravening kiss-”whistler. My lord, I can’t talk when you-” He fitted his mouth to hers again, devouring the sweet brandied taste of her.

She leaned against him helplessly, her fingers sliding into his hair, while her breath struck his cheek in rapid, delicate puffs. A tide of sensual urgency rolled through him as the kiss deepened into full-blown compulsion. The memory of their encounter in the hidden garden had haunted him for days …the delicacy of her skin beneath his hands, her small, exquisite breasts, the enticing strength of her legs. He wanted to feel her wrapped around him, her hands clutching his back, her knees clamped around his hips…the silky-wet caress of her body as he moved inside her.

Pulling her head back, Lillian stared at him with wondering eyes, her lips damp and reddened. Her hands left his hair, her fingertips coming to the hard angles of his cheekbones, delicate strokes of coolness on the blazing heat of his skin. He bent his head, nuzzling his jaw against the pale silk of her palm. “Lillian,” he whispered, “I’ve tried to leave you alone. But I can’t do it anymore. In the past two weeks I’ve had to stop myself a thousand times from coming to you. No matter how often I tell myself that you are the most inappropriate…” He paused as she squirmed suddenly, twisting and craning her neck to look down at the floor. “No matter what I-Lillian, are you listening to me? What the devil are you looking for?”

“My pear. I dropped it, and-oh, there it is.” She broke free of him and sank to her hands and knees, reaching beneath a chair. Pulling out the brandy bottle, she sat on the floor and held it in her lap.

“Lillian, forget the damned pear.”

“How did it get in there, d’you think?” She poked her finger experimentally into the neck of the bottle. “I don’ see how something so big could fit into a hole that small.”

Marcus closed his eyes against a surge of aggravated passion, and his voice cracked as he replied. “They… they put it directly on the tree. The bud grows …inside…” He slitted his eyes open and squeezed them shut again as he saw her finger intruding deeper into the bottle. “Grows…” he forced himself to continue, “until the fruit is ripe.”

Lillian seemed rather too impressed by the information. “They do? That is the cleverest, cleverest …a pear in its own little…oh no.”

“What?” Marcus asked through clenched teeth.

“My finger’s stuck.”

… and you know, the rest gets even better

Ok – I can’t resist. One more impassioned paragraph.

“It wasn’t a meaningless act for me either,” Marcus said, his raspy whisper tickling her ear. “Yesterday I finally realized that all the things I thought were wrong about you were actually the things I enjoyed most. I don’t give a damn what you do, so long as it pleases you. Run barefoot on the front lawn. Eat pudding with your fingers. Tell me to go to hell as often as you like. I want you just as you are. After all, you’re the only woman aside from my sisters who has ever dared to tell me to my face that I’m an arrogant ass. How could I resist you?” His mouth moved to the soft cushion of her cheek. “My dearest Lillian,” he whispered, easing her head back to kiss her eyelids. “If I had the gift of poetry, I would shower you with sonnets. But words have always been difficult for me when my feelings are strongest. And there is one word in particular that I can’t bring myself to say to you…‘goodbye.’ I couldn’t bear the sight of you walking away from me. If you won’t marry me for the sake of your own honor, then do it for the sake of everyone who would have to tolerate me otherwise. Marry me because I need someone who will help me to laugh at myself. Because someone has to teach me how to whistle. Marry me, Lillian…because I have the most irresistible fascination for your ears.”

Now… Devil in Winter is my favorite of the series. Evie is so likable, and St. Vincent – well, enough said there, yes? Without further ado… here is your [naughty] excerpt:

Sebastian pulled Evie inside the club, where the silence was startling after the tumult of the alley. She labored to keep pace with his ground-eating strides, her own breath coming fast by the time they reached the reading room on the main floor. The built-in mahogany shelves were filled with leather volumes. Against the walls, a multitude of papers and periodicals were draped over racks made with rows of clever movable dowels. Pushing Evie into the room, Sebastian closed them both inside with a decisive slam.

“Were you hurt?” he asked roughly.

“No.” Evie tried to hold back her next words, but they came out in a burst of resentment. “Why were you gone for so long? I needed you, and you weren’t here!”

“You had thirty employees to protect you. Why did you go downstairs in the first place? You should have stayed upstairs until you knew for certain who was outside.”

“Mr. Bullard told me that Annabelle Hunt was waiting for me. And then when I saw that it was my uncle, Bullard wouldn’t let me back inside the club. He pushed me right into my uncle’s arms.”

“My God.” Sebastian’s eyes widened. “I’m going to disembowel him, the gutter scum-”

“And while all that was happening,” Evie continued wrathfully, “you were in bed with a prostitute!” As the words left her lips, she realized that to her, this was the crux of the matter…even more important than Bullard’s betrayal, or her uncles’ assault, her emotions were roiling at the fact that Sebastian had betrayed her so soon with another woman.

Sebastian focused on her with an alert gaze. “I wasn’t.”

“Don’t lie,” Evie said, while their mutual fury seethed in the air. “I know you were.”

“Why are you so bloody certain?”

“Because you stayed at Madam Bradshaw’s for more than two hours!”

“I was talking about business. Talking, Evie! If you don’t believe that, then you can go to hell. Because if I had slept with someone, I guarantee you that I would be a lot more relaxed than I am now.”

Staring into Sebastian’s eyes, which were as hard as a frozen pond, Evie felt her outrage begin to drain away. She had no choice but to believe him-his offended anger was obvious.

“Oh,” she muttered.

“Oh? That’s all you have to say?”

“I suppose…I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions. But knowing what I do of your past…I assumed…”

Her lame attempt at an apology seemed to erode the remnants of Sebastian’s self-control. “Well, your assumption was wrong! If you haven’t yet noticed, I’m busier than the devil in a high wind, every minute of the day. I don’t have the damned time for a tumble. And if I did-” He stopped abruptly. All semblance of the elegant viscount Evie had once watched from afar in Lord Westcliff’s drawing room had vanished. He was rumpled and bruised and furious. And he wasn’t breathing at all well. “If I did-” He broke off again, a flush crossing the crests of his cheeks and the bridge of his nose.

Evie saw the exact moment when his self-restraint snapped. Alarm jolted through her, and she lurched toward the closed door. Before she had even made a step, she found herself seized and pinned against the wall by his body and hands. The smell of sweat-dampened linen and healthy, aroused male filled her nostrils.

Once he had caught her, Sebastian pressed his parted lips against the thin skin of her temple. His breath snagged. Another moment of stillness. Evie felt the electrifying touch of his tongue at the very tip of her eyebrow. He breathed against the tiny wet spot, a waft of hellfire that sent chills through her entire body. Slowly he brought his mouth to her ear, and traced the intricate inner edges.

His whisper seemed to come from the darkest recesses of her own mind. “If I did, Evie…then by now I would have shredded your clothes with my hands and teeth until you were naked. By now I would have pushed you down to the carpet, and put my hands beneath your breasts and lifted them up to my mouth. I would be kissing them…licking them…until the tips were like hard little berries, and then I would bite them so gently…”

Evie felt herself drift into a slow half swoon as he continued in a ragged murmur. “…I would kiss my way down to your thighs…inch by inch…and when I reached those sweet red curls, I would lick through them, deeper and deeper, until I found the little pearl of your clitoris…and I would rest my tongue on it until I felt it throb. I would circle it, and stroke it…I’d lick until you started to beg. And then I would suck you. But not hard. I wouldn’t be that kind. I would do it so lightly, so tenderly, that you would start screaming with the need to come…I would put my tongue inside you…taste you…eat you. I wouldn’t stop until your entire body was wet and shaking. And when I had tortured you enough, I would open your legs and come inside you, and take you…take you…”

Sebastian stopped, anchoring her against the wall while they both remained frozen, aroused, panting.

At length, he spoke in a nearly inaudible voice. “You’re wet, aren’t you?”

(And if you head to Ms. Kleypas’s website, the excerpt is pretty much what follows this immediately.)

And… now I’m starting to creep myself out, because some of my favorite scenes are right around/the same as the excerpts posted on Ms. Kleypas’s site, so now… here’s more bang for the… well not buck because it’s free – but this is the scene right after the excerpt (sexcerpt? for Scandal in Spring)

Matthew knew it was wrong the instant their lips met. Because nothing would ever equal the perfection of Daisy in his arms. He was ruined for life. God help him, he didn’t care.

Her mouth was soft and hot, like sunshine, like the white blaze of a heartwood fire. She gasped as he touched her lower lip with the tip of his tongue. Slowly her hands came to his shoulders, and then he felt her fingers at the back of his head, sliding into his hair to keep him from pulling away. There wasn’t a chance in hell of that happening. Nothing could have made him stop.

A tremor shook his fingers as he bracketed the exquisite line of her jaw in the open framework of his hand, gently angling her face upward. The flavor of her mouth, sweet and elusive, fueled a hunger that threatened to rage out of control…he searched the damp silk beyond her lips, deeper, harder, until she began to breathe in long sighs, her body molding against his.

He let her feel how much stronger he was, how much heavier, one muscular arm clamped along her back, his feet spread to hold her between the powerful length of his thighs. Her upper half was bound in a laced and padded corset. He was almost overcome by a savage desire to tear away the stays and quilting and find the tender flesh beneath.

Instead he sank his fingers into her pinned-up hair and tugged it backward until the weight of her head was cradled in his hand, and her pale throat was exposed. He searched for the pulse he had seen earlier, his lips dragging softly along the secret pathway of nerves beneath her skin. When he reached a sensitive spot, he felt the vibration of her suppressed moan against his mouth.

This was what it would be like to make love to her, he thought dazedly…the sweet shivering of her flesh as he entered her, the delicate chaos of her breath, the helpless sounds that rustled in her throat. Her skin, warm and female, scented like tea and talcum and a trace of salt. He found her mouth again, opened it, delving into wet silk, heat, and an intimate flavor that drove him mad.

She should have struggled, but there was only yielding and more softness, driving him past all limits. He began to ravish her mouth with deep, twisting kisses, bringing her body rhythmically against his. He felt her legs part beneath her gown, his thigh fitting neatly between them. She squirmed with innocent desire, her face blooming with the color of late summer poppies. Had she understood exactly what he wanted from her, she would have done more than blush. She would have fainted on the spot.

Lifting his mouth from hers, Matthew pressed his jaw against the side of her head. “I think,” he said raggedly, “this puts to rest any question of whether I find you desirable or not.”

So there you go – some of my favorite parts from the excellent “Wallflower” series. And… for those of you who read to the end (unless you skipped to the end and then you CHEATED, YOU WHORE) … we’re having a contest! We have a few copies of A Wallflower Christmas to give away… and also an ARC of Smooth Talking Stranger. Believe me, I’m jealous. (More posts will follow about how to get the ARC, so stick around.)

Now most importantly – how do you win A Wallflower Christmas? Comment on any post at TGTBTU that is about the Wallflowers series, or (here’s the catch) my Who Will Win pondering – but on that one you must follow the rules. And obviously this post. Let’s talk some LK love. Tell me about your favorite Wallflower, a quote, scene, etc.

There! Easy peasy! Good luck everyone, and Happy New Year!

[And remember © Lisa Kleypas. All rights reserved]

The authors of the Unlaced anthology, Jaci Burton, Jasmine Haynes, Joey W. Hill and Denise Rossetti are guest blogging at Book Binge today about the good and the bad about writing for an anthology. They’re also giving away a signed copy of Unlaced from the commenters on the post.  Don’t miss out on your chance to win!

Bingeaduckia Guest Authors: The Good and The Bad About Writing For An Anthology

For a second chance to win, check out the excerpts being posted today and tomorrow.

Part 1
Part 2 (with Contest)

I come from a big Italian family. Holidays at our house are–as I’m sure you can imagine–crazy. It’s loud, rowdy…and filled with love.

Our little romance community is much like that, I think. We have fights and drama, but we also have a lot of love. Books brought us together, but the love is what keeps us going. Love of reading, love and mutual respect for each other. We might have fights now and again (or as I like to call them..debates) but at the end of the day we’re all here for one common purpose: To share our love of books.

This week, we wanted to remind everyone that it’s all about the love.

In honor of the romance community, Book Binge and The Good, The Bad and The Unread have teamed up to bring you Bingeaduckia!!

We hope you’ll join us in celebrating the online romance community. We’ll have games, excerpts, book reviews, guest spots and giveaways. Did I mention the giveaways?

In keeping with our “together” theme this week, we’re featuring anthologies. To kick things off, I want to know:

Do you read anthologies? Why or why not? What are the best anthologies you’ve read this year? What anthos are you looking forward to in the upcoming months?

The celebration is going on until next Wednesday. Be sure to come back and play with us as the week progresses.

So it’s been a bit quiet about the pond here. I’m sure those of you on twitter have noticed Syb being quiet as well. Unfortunately our dear duckie has had an incident and has been away from her computer.

Sybil is in the hospital undergoing some tests, they don’t know exactly what’s wrong, or even how long she’ll be there. If you you’ve emailed her in the past couple of days, that’s why she hasn’t responded. There will be some more updates after she finds out more and can come home from the hospital.

Thanks everyone.

It’s that simple…

The hazard of me going back and adding categories, tags

TEH RETRO POST! For no one amuses a sybil as much as a sybil. If this shocks you, you are new here aren’t you? First posted: Friday, March 30, 2007, First repost 10/5/07

Your favorite authors(s):
JR Ward
Lisa Kleypas
Cheryl St. John
Jo Goodman
Erin McCarthy

What you like about romance.
That it always has a HEA. :: :-* may::

What you don’t like about romance.
The lack of current historical western settings. That people cry about the lack of history in historical novels and then cry when the history isn’t what they want. And Spies.

I would have said socks but that is by no means just a romanceland thing. Teh crazies be everywhere.

Your non romance reading hobbies.
What’s that?

So how about you? Come on you know you wanna answer!

BINGEADUCKIA

…You KNOW You Wanna Know

I know you are very busy so I wanted to help you out and tell you that we are two days away from September 1st.  We are no longer in July, so having a list of book sales that went on in July doesn’t help you or me.  Honestly it is rather mean of you.

I would like to support the SAPL system by buying those trashy bodice rippers you seem to often not like even having with the ‘real books’.  In fact I often take many of them just to get them out of your way.  I rock like that.

I can’t do that if you don’t let me know WHERE and WHEN they are going on.  Yes I know, the cellar in Downtown is open and selling books.  I mentioned the DOWNTOWN part yes?  Trust me, we want to keep sybil from driving downtown as much as possible, for my saftey as much as for others… really.  So you would be doing not only the library a good thing by updating but the good people of the city as well.  See… win/win.

And after talking to the nice lady downtown, it seems my only option at this point is to call each library.  I do not think Wendy would approve of this option and she IS the super librarian (I am sure you knew that).  Sadly I am to the point I may risk her wrath.  And well I am annoying enough to do it but sadly the shiny will come along and distract me.  I will still be amused but your library sale going on somewhere in the city will be less one person who would be all nice and buy books.  I even help put books in right spots and stuff!  And I only make noise about the insulting signs a few times. HONEST!

So please do us all a favor and update the book sale page.  I KNOW you can because other things are updated.  And really I would rather support you than pay hospital bills.  Oh and you aren’t allowed to cause me stress you know… you so don’t want me to pull out my seizure card.

Much love,

Sybil