Come on, enter. You know you want to…

Cynthia Eden delves into the dark realms of the Others, where desires and dangerous games await the unsuspecting in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Assistant DA Erin Jerome has a secret. Make that two. One: She’s not entirely human–she’s Other, desperately trying to keep her supernatural strength under wraps. Two: she’s got a killer stalking her–an Other rogue set on “gifting” her bloody corpses, not to mention nights lying awake in terror. Small wonder she’s been having bad luck with men.

But the bounty hunter on her new case isn’t worried about any of that. Jude Donovan is a shapeshifter himself, and the new DA’s midnight hair and addictive scent tell him all he thinks he needs to know: She’s gorgeous, she’s definitely not human, and she’s bringing out the animal in him in a really good way. He might have to track a psychotic Other stalker through half of Louisiana. But he might also get the chance to watch Erin’s wild side come out and play.

Welcome, Cynthia!

This year, there’s one thing I’m really going to be hoping Santa brings me. It’s the same gift I like every year. A book. (Who am I kidding? Books!) I love getting books for Christmas. Or book cards. Oh, sweet joy—book gift cards are the best.

When I get a book for Christmas, I know I’ve gotten a present I’ll enjoy. One that will let me relax. One that will let me escape from the real world for a few hours. The absolute perfect present for me.

And, hey, this year…one of my books is being released right after Christmas! ETERNAL HUNTER, the first book in my new paranormal bounty hunter series, will hit store shelves on December 29th. It’s like an awesome extra present for me. Book release days always give me a giddy rush!

What’s your favorite present? Or, what is it that you’re hoping to find waiting under your tree this year? I sure hope Santa brings you everything you want!!
(Elisabeth, thanks for having me over!!!)

Happy Holidays!

Cynthia Eden
www.cynthiaeden.com
HOTTER AFTER MIDNIGHT–mass market re-release 12/1/09
ETERNAL HUNTER–available 12/29/09 from Kensington Brava

Here are the winners for the first week of the contest (picked by random number generator)!

Winners, please email me at elisabeth@elisabethnaughton.com with your contact info (snail mail and email addy) so I can forward your info to the respective authors.

Congrats to all the winners this week, big thanks to the fabulous authors who have participated so far, and good luck to everyone entering this week!!

(Christy Evans’s contest from today is still open for a few more hours so scroll down and enter!)

When Georgiana Neverall’s hectic high-tech lifestyle goes down the drain, she dumps it all and heads back to Oregon and a change of career – she becomes an apprentice plumber. When she finds a distinctive brooch lodged in a drainpipe, she’s convinced there’s more to the problem than a stopped-up drain. Now it’s up to this plumber’s apprentice to flush out a killer.

Christy is giving away a pair of hand-knit fingerless gloves to one lucky commenter today. Just the thing to keep your hands warm while reading, typing, etc. To enter her drawing, simply answer this question: What is the title of the second book in the Lady Plumber mystery series, and when is it due out?

Welcome, Christy!

***
Can we talk? I’ll start!

When I sat down to write SINK TRAP, I knew a little bit about Georgiana Neverall. I knew she was an apprentice plumber, I knew she had a troublesome relationship with her mother, I knew she had owned a high-tech company and that it had ended badly.
What I didn’t know was that I was setting out to write about the changing roles of women in the workplace and the world – but I was.

Georgie is, for me, the epitome of the modern woman: smart, capable of taking care of herself, and not hampered by last-century notions of what roles are acceptable for women. By way of contrast, her mother Sandra embodied all those notions, yet was forced to break the conventions she cherished.

Sandra, raised in a small town where change comes slowly, truly believes in the mid-century model of stay-at-home-mom and devoted wife. Her daughter has a different worldview, and her determination to follow her own compass alternately irritates and baffles her mother.

For Sandra work is a practical necessity, but at the end of the day she still gets her greatest fulfillment from catering to the man in her life. Georgiana isn’t sure she wants a man in her life – bad experiences have made her cautious – but she derives immense satisfaction from her work.

That was one of the delights of writing this book and the two that follow: exploring the relationship between these two women, bound by blood and love, separated by the yawning chasm of expectations.

I am clearly a fan of strong, independent women. After writing two books in the ALIAS series featuring Syndey Bristow, one of the original “kick-ass” heroines, I find myself cheering for any heroine who can do “a man’s job” with style. (Or, like Ginger Rogers, backwards and in high heels.)

But I would love to know how readers feel. Do you like to read about a female character doing an unusual job? Or do you prefer your heroines a bit more on the traditional side? Is a non-traditional job an interesting character trait, or merely a distraction? Or does it even matter to the modern reader?

Your turn – tell me what you think!

Enter, Enter!

Beauty vs. power–a dangerous game with the heart as the prize…

Jacey Cass radiates confidence and sensuality just once a year, when she meets her rich and powerful lover for a night of anonymous sex. The rest of her calendar is filled with the daily struggle to survive. Her cashier job at Insomnia, Miami’s hottest lingerie shop, doesn’t go far toward college tuition, but she’s determined to rise above her mother’s freeloading legacy.

Alex Vaughn is one promotion away from realizing his life’s ambition. For years he’s been forced to stand by and watch his father systematically destroy the values that made Insomnia great. Now, with an expected vacancy in the summer catalog, he takes a chance. He’s never formally met the fascinating woman he takes to bed every year, but he knows a marketable body when he sees one. The last thing he expects is for her to turn the opportunity down flat.

Jacey won’t consider a handout–even from the man whose white-hot caress is the one bright spot of her life. Then a modeling competition’s prize money lures her from behind the register and into the blinding spotlight, unaware of what the cost could be to her heart…

Avery is giving away an ebook version of For His Eyes Only. To be entered, go to her website and find the answer to this question: What month does my debut novel, Sexy by Design, release in paperback?

Please welcome Avery Beck!

As I write this blog, I’m preparing for a long day of Christmas shopping. I have two kids, family and friends to buy for, and usually I do most of it online and am long finished by the first week of December without any hassle. This year, November was exceptionally busy and I fell behind…therefore no online shopping, because everything wouldn’t ship in time…therefore I’ve no choice but to face the masses in brick-and-mortar stores.

The good news is, hubby and I get to drop the kiddos off at Grandma’s house and spend the day together. In this case, I don’t mind the crowds, lines, lack of inventory and parking spaces six miles out. Those things, along with the holiday decorations and music, add to my festive mood when I know I don’t have to fear any sudden explosive tantrums. The problem is, I have no idea what to buy for individuals who have everything they need, can buy anything they want, and probably won’t care for whatever I come up with to give them because we have completely different tastes.

And that’s just the adults.

It’s no fun to shop for people who all have more money and fewer children than me. There’s nothing I can buy for them that they can’t buy for themselves. There’s nothing I can dream up that they don’t already own. Whatever happened to putting an item on your wish list and hoping someone would be kind enough to purchase it for you? My husband, though I love him dearly, is terrible about this. He’ll mention something he wants, into my mental shopping list it will go, and then bam—he goes off and buys it. Over and over again, no matter how close it is to December—and then he expects I’ll come up with something new that will thrill him on Christmas morning. Hello? You took all my ideas already! Sigh.

Please tell me I’m not alone in this. Do you know anyone who is impossible to buy for? What kinds of gifts do you buy for them—and do they like what you pick out? With any luck, by the time you read this, I’ll have a closet full of shiny, wrapped gifts…and maybe some time to write again. Happy holidays!

(Winners for the first few days will be announced on Sunday.)

Be sure you enter!

Today I’m thrilled to welcome author Helen Scott Taylor!

As a child, when Helen didn’t pay attention her teachers accused her of being away with the fairies. Things haven’t changed much! Only now, the fairies are tall and sexy and they live in her stories rather than just in her head. Helen resides in South Western England near Plymouth with her husband, two teenagers, two Shih Tzus, and a cat who rules the household with a velvet paw. With the rocky cliffs of the Atlantic to the south and the windswept expanse of Dartmoor to the west, she loves to walk in the countryside while she plots her stories. She believes deep within everyone there’s a little magic. Visit her website at www.helenscotttayolor.com

Helen’s latest release is The Phoenix Charm (isn’t this cover gorgeous?!):

He’s Pure Temptation.

Cordelia has sworn she’ll abstain from looking into Michael’s future—particularly when the image in the gilded smoke of her divination mirror shows him half naked. Yet she can’t resist watching the sexy rascal slowly running his hand down his ribs, over his abdomen, flicking open the button on his jeans with a little flourish like a magician performing a trick.

She’s Trying To Resist.

Respectable wise woman Cordelia restrains her secret water nymph sensuality with the Celtic symbols painted on her skin. But Michael’s powerful fairy glamour leaves her breathless, off balance, struggling for control. When Gwyn ap Nudd, the Welsh King of the Underworld, steals away Michael’s infant nephew, Cordelia must work with him to save the child. But how can she trust her instincts with Michael tempting her to explore the hidden elemental depths of her nature and insisting that she believe in the power of…The Phoenix Charm.

Today Helen is giving away a copy of The Phoenix Charm. To be entered into the drawing, find the answer to this question: What type of pet does the heroine Cordelia have. (Hint, check the first page of the excerpt.)

Still time to enter:

CHASING RAINBOWS drops you into the world of a young woman who yearns for a “normal” family, but instead has an eccentric aunt, an inventive uncle, a mother who wears poodle skirts and a brother who wears pearls. However, none of her family can discourage the man who knew she would be his wife from the time her faux breasts fell on his spit-shined shoes.

Today Genene is giving away a a plush white Christmas stocking that contains an autographed copy of FEATHERS ON THE FLOOR, a white angel bear, and an angel ornament. All you have to do is answer this question: What are the names of Julia’s Cabot’s children in FEATHERS ON THE FLOOR?

Welcome, Genene!

So far, I’ve written two holiday stories for publication: FEATHERS ON THE FLOOR, which has been described as a “feel-good Christmas story,” and CHASING RAINBOWS, which will be released on Valentine’s Day 2010. I enjoyed writing both of those holiday stories and yes, more holiday stories are being planned.

Since we are in the middle of the Christmas season, a blog post about FEATHERS ON THE FLOOR seemed appropriate. In that book, Julia Cabot’s four-year-old twins firmly believe in angels, and wish for an angel for their mother, who arrives as sexy bodyguard Mitch Garrison. After the twins are kidnapped, celestial beings seem to guide the way to rescuing the children–just in time for a Christmas morning celebration.

What about in the lives of real people? Do angels visit people like you and me? From stories both online and in books, many people say yes, they have been visited by angels. These visits have been described in a variety of ways: as a voice sternly warning not to go into a certain store that the person later found out was being robbed, or hands taking over the steering wheel of a car to avoid an accident, or a ten-foot tall being in white robes standing between a person and danger. Whatever form they take, real-life people say angels have come to them in emergencies, in times of great sorrow or serious illness, or as reassurance that their deceased loved ones are doing fine.

Critics may explain these incidents as hallucinations or tricks of the light or label people who believe in angels as “crazy.” However, stories of angel visits continue to accumulate every day.

My celestial experiences don’t involve white-robed, golden-haired visitors. My experiences usually come as an inner voice that steers me in day-to-day situations. Oh yeah, and I see angels in the eyes of my herd of doggies who offer love, trust, forgiveness and sloppy kisses with great joy.

How about you? Do you believe in angels? Have you had an experience with angels you’d like to share?

Don’t forget to enter my STOLEN SEDUCTION Release Contest!

And now I’m thrilled to welcome author Vivi Anna to the blog!

2008 Romantic Times Reviewer Choice Winner and Canadian author, Vivi Anna likes to burn up the pages with her unique brand of fantasy fiction. Whether it’s in the Amazon jungle, an apocalyptic future, or the otherworld city of Necropolis, Vivi always writes fast paced action-adventure with strong independent women that can kick some butt, and dark delicious heroes to kill for.

Vivi Anna’s current release is The Bewitching Hour, a Valorian Chronicles story

Witch Fiona Woodland hopes fate brought her and sexy crime scene investigator Hector Morales together at her cousin’s wedding in the Otherworld city of Necropolis. In his arms she feels graceful and beautiful, and the promise of his kiss takes her breath away. Then everything around them starts going wrong, making Fiona think it’s a sign their union isn’t meant to be….

But the burning desire between Fiona and Hector cannot be refused. And before the night is out, Hector will show how he feels with a night of pleasure that will leave them both bewitched….

Today Vivi Anna is giving away a $25 Amazon Gift Card!!! To be entered into the drawing go to Vivi Anna’s Website and find the answer to this question: What Vivi Anna book was just recently nominated for a RT Reviewer’s Choice Award? Be sure to leave the answer in the comment section of this post.

Welcome Vivi Anna!

More romantic scifi – I really dig Ann Aguirre’s Sirantha Jax series and I’d love to see more of this type of book More dark UF – I really loved Caitlin Kittredge’s Steet Magic, it’s set in London and it’s really creepy and dark. More different UF – loved Norse Code by Greg van Eekhout, it was way different than what’s out there right now, I would love to see publishers take a chance on more of this type of book
More groundbreaking YA – some of my faves in this genre, Suzanne Collin’s Hunger Games and Catching Fire, Michael Grant’s Gone and Hunger.

What would you love to see more of in 2010? What were some of your fave story lines in 2009?

Just a quick note…

Amazon has STOLEN SEDUCTION in stock early!! If you were hoping to get the book by Christmas, or were wanting to give the trilogy as a Christmas gift, now you can! Click the link to order before the 29th!

And now scroll down to see the 30 Days of Treasure Hunting Contest!!

Woohoo! In honor of the release of STOLEN SEDUCTION, I’m kicking off my 30 days of Treasure Hunting! Here’s how this is going to work:

Each day for the next 30 days I’m going to spotlight a different author. There will be one question in the post that you have to find the answer to. Finding the answer is simple. You go to that author’s website, find the answer, come back here and leave the answer in the comment section of that day’s post. You’re automatically entered into the drawing for that day’s prize by leaving a comment – with the correct answer (don’t forget to answer the question!) At the end of the day I’ll pick a winner. Daily prizes include books, jewelry, trinkets…a whole host of things. It’s that easy!!!

In addition, I’ll be reminding you daily to enter my STOLEN SEDUCTION Release Contest (like I’m doing now). If you haven’t entered yet…go do it!!! You could win a $100 Amazon gift card!

Today’s spotlight author is Cathryn Cade!

Cathryn Cade is a native Montanan, who now resides in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, two sons and (always) a golden retriever. She loves shopping, gallery hopping, boating, golf and enjoying the beautiful outdoors. She is a passionate reader and has been writing since she was old enough to understand that if a story did not end the way she liked, she could create her own.
Check out her website at www.cathryncade.com

Cathryn’s latest release is Tyger, Tyger, Burning Bryght

Half -man, half-beast, untamable…except by the one woman born for him.

As a novice interpreter aboard the space ship Orion, Calla Fellura is in uncharted territory. Especially when it comes to figuring out how to approach the ship’s sexy navigator, who seems to have no shortage of willing women vying for his attention.

Tryon Jag is an alpha male tyger, one of the few who possess the instincts to guide a ship safely through the deadly Cattarus system. Handsome, wealthy, and of royal blood, Jag controls his universe—and most of the females in it—as easily as he navigates the Orion.

But when Jag unexpectedly undergoes his mating shift on board ship instead of safely on his home planet, he must have a woman or go mad with rage and lust. With an eco-saboteur somewhere aboard, there couldn’t be a worse time for him to lose his mind.

For the sake of duty, Calla forces herself into Jag’s lair. And finds herself blossoming into a true Tyger lily, a woman born to enchant a powerful beast.
The only woman who can save Jag—and the entire crew—from certain annihilation.

Welcome, Cathryn!

Whoa! Is that permission to write out my wildest, hottest fantasies, or what?? I’ll tell you a secret – that’s why I write. Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve lived a whole other life inside my head.

My Barbie and Ken dolls had incredible adventures – my mother’s flower beds were enchanted forests, where Ken saved Barbie from the evil wizard, and where she let down her long hair to help him climb her sweet-pea-stake tower. And believe me, she had long hair, because I sheared off her classic blonde locks, and gave her auburn silk tresses that hung to her heels (stolen from an extra-tacky table cloth someone gave my mom). Barbie wore exotic princess dresses hand-made by her own seamstress. (with stitches half an inch long in places, and strange gaps in them. I wish I could show you a picture of one of them. You’d be struck speechless. At least until you stopped howling with laughter.)

Now that I’m grown up, Barbie has morphed into other heroines. Her adventures are just a teensy bit hotter than they used to be. Okay, waaaay hotter! After all, she’s bendable now. I can also give her any color hair I want, without sticking pins in her little rubber head to hold it there.

Nowadays, she may need saving by her own Ken doll, but she can kick ass, too.
And sometimes that ass may be Ken’s, if he needs it. After all, alpha males are incredibly sexy, but a girl has to hold her own, and in my perfect galaxy, they can and do!

Hope you’ll join me there sometime soon. I’ll leave the force fields down for you.

Which Cathryn Cade book was a No# 1 best seller?

Then come back here and paste the answer in the comment section.

Good luck!

Looking for a great stocking stuffer? Check out Dorchester’s Stocking Stuffer Sale where you can get STOLEN FURY for $2.99!

And be sure to check out all the other great books on sale!