The WAIT FOR ME winners are:

Comment #23 – Shelley Bagby
Comment #15 – Viki S.
Comment #2 – Rebecca Rainbow

And to make up for being such a slacker, I picked two other winners. These two get to choose any book from my backlist:

Comment #7 -Donna McCabe
Comment #17 – Jeannie Antol

(all winners have been notified via email)

Thanks to all who have bought WAIT FOR ME. Have heard great things from readers and am so happy readers are loving it. And BIG thanks to those of you spreading the word about my latest book!

Stay tuned for release day party fun for ENRAPTURED!

Buy STOLEN FURY:
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords

Buy STOLEN HEAT:
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords

Buy STOLEN SEDUCTION:
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords

And if that weren’t enough…it’s also available as a box set. All three books for one low price!

Buy Stolen Box Set:
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords

(If you’re not an ebook reader, don’t worry, they’ll also be available again in print with new covers soon. More to come on that.)

I absolutely LOVE these books, and I can’t tell you how thrilled I am that they’re finally available to readers once more. For those that haven’t read them, I hope you enjoy!

Comment #24 Vanessa N.!

Congrats, Vanessa! I’ve sent you an email with info on how to claim your prize. Thanks to all who entered, and BIG thanks to Trish for stopping by!

Thursday, January 12, 2012 – Novel Thoughts
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 – Kiss and Thrill
Thursday, January 19, 2012 – Long and Short Reviews blog
Friday, January 20, 2012 – Vanessa Kelly’s blog
Thursday, January 26, 2012 – Sizzling Hot Book Reviews
Saturday, January 28, 2012 – Cocktails and Books
Sunday, January 29, 2012 – Night Owl Romance blog
Monday, January 30, 2012 – Books-n-Kisses

And…

To get the party started for this mini-blog tour, I’m giving away THREE copies of WAIT FOR ME right here! To enter, just tell me about your favorite reunion story of all time. (Winners will be drawn on Friday, January 13, 2012.)

Filling the Creative Well

A big THANK YOU to Elisabeth for hosting me today!

I’ve always loved to read.

If I’m waiting somewhere and I’ve forgotten a book, I’ve been known to read the back of a match stick booklet, or every single item on the menu. In high school, college and early in my working life, I’d often read a book a day. I was voracious, devouring authors across almost every genre—romance, suspense, mystery, horror, fantasy, sci-fi, historical fiction—I’d read it all. There was always a book in my hand and two or three in my backpack. When I started to drive they were tucked in the glove box, tossed in the back of the car, or sitting on the passenger seat beside me.

Back then, I couldn’t imagine a time when reading would get lost in the shuffle of a busy life. I couldn’t imagine a life without reading.

This obsession with reading is what compelled me to write, to dwell in my own imagination, and bring my own worlds and characters to life. But as I sank deeper and deeper into writing, I stopped reading.

It happened so slowly I didn’t even notice.

I was working full time, with an hour commute each way. Plus, I was writing on the side. Writing brings with it a host of other time consuming activities, like critiquing, and beta reading. So I guess you could say I was reading, sometimes I even enjoyed what I read. But reading a critique partner’s work, chapter by chapter, isn’t the same as getting lost in a book. It doesn’t fill your creative well. Or at least it didn’t fill mine.

Since there are only so many hours in a day, and those hours were spent working, commuting, sleeping, writing and critiquing—reading evaporated.  I literally didn’t have time to read.

I didn’t notice the affect at first. I was riding high on the drug of writing my first book and involved in several critique groups both online and local. When I realized it had been months since I’d read a book for pure enjoyment, I shrugged the realization aside. Serious writing, required serious sacrifices, I told myself. I couldn’t afford to cut back on the time I spent writing and critiquing, not if I wanted to get published. The reading, however, wasn’t necessary. I could do without the reading.

I was so naïve.

The months turned into a year. And then two and then three. I went from reading a book a day, to reading maybe a book a year.  As that third year without reading bled into a fourth, my creativity dulled. Everything I read from critique partners sounded vacant, and dull. Everything I wrote felt stagnant and boring. All those exciting premises churning through my mind, tarnished. Like wisps of smoke on the wind, they blew away. All the sudden I was left with no interest and no energy for writing. There were no images, no stories, and no characters in my mind. No words demanding their time on the page. My mind felt empty. My creativity gone.

I struggled for months with this strange apathy, forcing myself to write even though the enthusiasm was gone, forcing myself to critique even though every thing about every story irritated me. Because my critique partners’ work couldn’t pierce this mental fatigue, I didn’t think other fiction could either. Instead I turned to television and dulled my mind even further.

The only reason I started reading again was because I lost electricity one day. With no television, I had no way to occupy myself, so I picked up a book for the first time in years. The book was Vanished by T. J. McGregor and it revitalized me. I got lost in that book—lost in an imaginary world, with imaginary people. And when that ride was over, I reached for another book and took another imaginary ride. And then another. What followed was a reading glut like I hadn’t enjoyed in years. Not since I started writing.

And wonder of wonders my creativity surged. Suddenly new ideas and new characters started spinning through my mind. The words that streamed from my fingers onto the computer screen were vibrant and thrilling. My critique partners’ chapters were brilliant.

My creative well was full again.

Since then I’ve made time for reading—allowing myself a major reading glut every couple of months. And with each reading glut my creativity has soared. It was the Black Dagger Brotherhood that inspired Forged in Fire, my paranormal romantic suspense. Without that reading glut, without that inspiration, I would never have written Forged, which means I wouldn’t have been able to quit my day job in order to write full time.

So it’s fitting that my first resolution this year is to read more. At least a book a week. I have a brand new Nook Tablet and I’m filling it with books: Christy Reece’s Last Chance series, the fourth book in Maya Bank’s KGI series, and the first two books in Elisabeth’s Eternal Guardians. Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Linda Howard, Lara Adrian, Caris Roane, they are all either downloaded into my Nook or about to be downloaded.

What do you have on your Kindle or Nook or sitting on your bedside table? Comment for a chance to win a free e-file of Forged in Fire, my paranormal romantic suspense!

Beth Brown doesn’t believe in premonitions until she dreams a sexy stranger is gunned down during the brutal hijacking of a commercial airliner. When events in her dream start coming true, she heads to the flight’s departure gate. To her shock, she recognizes the man she’d watched die the night before.

Lieutenant Commander Zane Winters comes from a bloodline of elite warriors with psychic abilities. When Zane and two of his platoon buddies arrive at Sea-Tac Airport, he has a vision of his teammates’ corpses. Then she arrives—a leggy blonde who sets off a different kind of alarm.

As Beth teams up with Zane, they discover the hijacking is the first step in a secret cartel’s deadly global agenda and that key personnel within the FBI are compromised. To survive the forces mobilizing against them, Beth will need to open herself to a psychic connection with the sexy SEAL who claims to be her soul mate.

“Forged In Fire is a smoking hot adventure with an irresistible alpha hero. Danger, action, suspense, and a steamy romance make a story that’s impossible to put down!”
–Patti O’Shea
National Bestselling Author of Through a Crimson Veil

WAIT FOR ME is the book that got me writing. It’s not the first book I wrote, but it’s the story that’s been in my head the longest. Before I sold, every time I’d get frustrated with the market or the length of time it takes to sell, I’d go back to WAIT FOR ME and fall in love all over again. All I had to do was read a small part and I was reminded why I write in the first place. I’m so so SO excited that it’s now available for readers, and I hope you each fall in love with Ryan and Kate as much as I have.

A woman without a past…

After a tragic accident left her with no memory, Kate Alexander struggled to fit in with a husband and world that didn’t feel right. She’s had no reason to question what friends and family have told her, not until her husband is suddenly killed and she finds a photo of a young girl in his office. A girl who can’t be anyone but a daughter Kate didn’t know she had.

A man desperate for a reason to live…

Ryan Harrison lost his wife in a plane crash five years ago. To cope with the pain of her loss, he dedicated himself to his job and to raising their daughter. Now a successful pharmaceutical executive, Ryan has everything a man could want—money, fame and power—but he’d give it all up in a heartbeat for just one more day with the woman he still loves.

Two lives about to converge.

As Kate begins to dig into a past she doesn’t remember, evidence leads her to San Francisco and puts her on the path toward Ryan, a man who sees in her the woman he loved and lost. Kate feels a draw to Ryan, one she can’t explain, but is that feeling enough to convince her this is where she’s supposed to be? As Ryan and Kate search for answers, they uncover lies long buried, a passion hotter than either expected and a danger that threatens…even now…when the second chance they’ve both been searching for is finally within reach.

You can buy WAIT FOR ME at the following locations:

Amazon Kindle

Barnes & Noble Nook

All Romance Ebooks

Smashwords

It will also soon be available for Sony, Kobo and at iBooks, and in a few weeks I hope to have a print version available for those of you who don’t have ereaders.

In the meantime, you can find an excerpt on my website page for WAIT FOR ME, but here’s a little something extra to whet your appetite!

Happy Reading, and Happy Holidays!

***

Excerpted from WAIT FOR ME

Ryan’s adrenaline surged as Julia tore straight at him, her face a mix of fear and anger and heartache.

“What is it?” he asked as he dropped to one knee in front of her, gripping her shoulders and scanning her body to make sure she wasn’t hurt.

“I…go inside, Daddy. Go inside!”

“Julia, calm down. What’s wrong? Tell me what happened.” His gaze jumped past her, to her bike lying in the road. To the person standing in the middle of the street staring at them. To the woman who looked like…

The air whooshed out of his lungs. His knees turned to gelatin.  “Oh, my God.”

“No, Dad!” Julia pushed against his shoulders, tried to force him back into the house as he slowly rose to his feet. “No, Dad. It’s not her. It’s not her, Daddy. It just looks like her. Please, Daddy, please. Look at me.”

His gaze dropped to Julia’s tear-streaked face. Panic filled her eyes, but it barely registered. With shaking arms, he lifted her out of his way then looked toward the brunette standing still as stone in the road. Watching him like he was watching her.

His head spun. His pulse raced. It couldn’t be.

He was vaguely aware of a car screeching to a halt next to the curb, of Mitch climbing out of his Land Rover, of Julia’s hysterical voice as she tried to pull him back into the house, but he couldn’t feel her hands. Couldn’t seem to stop his feet from moving forward. He felt like he was in a fog. A dream. Like he was hallucinating in broad daylight.

Somehow he made it down the block, stopped in front of her. Stared at her in shock. At his side he heard Mitch mutter, “Mother of God.”

No one spoke. For a long minute there was nothing but silence. And fear and hope and utter disbelief. And then his heart lurched in his chest.

“Oh, my God.” He closed the distance between them, cupped her face in his hands, ran his fingers over the smooth skin of her jaw. This couldn’t be real. It had to be a dream. Memories bombarded him from every side, condensed beneath his breastbone and squeezed as he soaked her in. As he felt her pulse beat beneath his fingers. As the heat of her body surrounded him to leave him foggy and light headed.

She was real. She was warm and soft and alive beneath his fingers. She was…Annie.

She stared into eyes. Recognition flared in the depths of those green gems. And that connection they’d had from the very start, from the first second they’d met so long ago, burned hot and bright, warming him in places he hadn’t even realized had gone cold.

All this time. All these years…

“Annie,” he whispered.

Her eyes darkened. The recognition fled. Was quickly replaced with confusion and…fear.

Before he could stop her, she jerked out of his arms, took a big step back. Held her arms out in a very clear don’t-touch-me move. “No.” She swallowed, looked from face to face with her brow drawn low, took another step away. “No, my name is Kate. Kate Alexander.”

Pain slashed through him. He tried to reach for her again, but Julia tugged hard on his arm, stopping him. “Dad, I told you it’s not her. It just looks like her. Dad, Daddy, listen to me. It’s not her.”

Not her? It had to be her. It had to be…

Most of you know the first two books in this series – MARKED & ENTWINED – were originally published with Dorchester Publishing. For those who follow publishing, you also know that Dorchester has been in the news over the last eighteen months, and not everything (okay, most of it) has been unflattering. When Dorchester decided to change their print program from mass market to trade, I decided to leave, and moved the series to Sourcebooks. I’m not going to get into specifics about my personal situation with Dorchester, but I will say this: no matter what happened, they gave me my start. They published the Stolen Series and they launched the Eternal Guardians. I met and became good friends with my editor – Leah Hultenschmidt – who is also my editor now at Sourcebooks, and that would not have happened if I hadn’t originally sold to Dorchester.

I’ve been getting emails for months from readers who are anxious to read the first two Eternal Guardians books but can’t find them online to download. The reason for that is because I recently got my rights back on these books, meaning Dorchester can no longer sell them. You can still purchase print versions from online retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble until the print stock they purchased runs out, but once those are gone, the print versions with the original Dorchester covers will be gone as well.

What does this mean for readers?

Well, it means two things. 1) It means control of the books is back in my hands. And 2) It means I get to decide when and how they’re available for purchase.

After several months of waiting while things were finalized behind the scenes, I’m excited to announce that MARKED and ENTWINED are once again available for download! You can now find the first two Eternal Guardians books at all the major online retails, specifically Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. Because Dorchester technically owns the cover material on the books, I had new covers created (which you can see here), and I’m really excited about them because I think they’re even better than the originals. In the next few weeks, I’ll be working to make the books available in print with the new covers, and I’ll be sure to post as soon as they’re available. (I will add…If you’ve already read the books, you aren’t missing anything. The content inside is the same. The books are just being repackaged and redistributed.)

In the meantime…if you own an ereader and have been wanting to try this series…now’s your chance! MARKED and ENTWINED are available for download for only $4.49! You can find links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords on the right of each book page on my website by clicking the hyperlinks above.

And if that wasn’t enough news to share…

In case you haven’t seen the OTHER new cover on the my blog sidebar, I’m thrilled to announce the publication of my very first contemporary romance. WAIT FOR ME is a book that has been in the works for a very long time, and it’s a book that holds a special place in my heart. When I got the rights back for MARKED & ENTWINED I decided to take the plunge and publish this one as well, and I really hope readers fall in love with the characters and story as much as I have.

Yes, WAIT FOR ME is a contemporary romance, but it does have a suspense thread (I can’t seem to get away from the murder and mayhem!). It’s scheduled to be released in ebook form December 22nd, and will be available in print soon after. You can find a blurb and excerpt of the book by clicking the title, which will take you to the book page on my website.

Thanks again to everyone who follows me and reads my books and shares them with friends and family. I have lots more excitement in the works for 2012 and can’t wait for what’s to come. Until then…Happy Reading!

Note to self: Do not ever agree to something you’re deathly afraid of!

Today was the day of doom. My hubby, my brother, my mom and I headed up to Newberg, Oregon for the dreaded hot air balloon ride. We had to get up at the butt-crack of dawn, and since I’m NOT a morning person and was already starting to stress, you can imagine my mood. The first thing we did when we got there was sign a waver stating we understood all the risks associated with hot air ballooning. My favorite? “Risk of arrest and incarceration” from landing in unauthorized areas. This lightened my mood considerably.

Then they started filling the balloons.

You can just see the excitement radiating from me, can’t you?

Actually, watching the balloons fill was fascinating. First they blew air inside with enormous fans, then heated the air with giant (what my brother called) flame throwers.

Once the balloon was inflated, they tipped the basket up and we all piled in. This was where the nerves kicked in. Our basket was divided into three sections: One for the pilot, then two for passengers. There were 10 passengers in our balloon – the Northwestern, apparently the largest hot air balloon basket in the Pacific Northwest (or so they said). Standing in the basket, watching the other balloons launch was really cool. Until I felt ours lift off. (Enter Xanax…which is a Godsend!)

I was amazed at how fast we lifted off the ground. Within seconds we were a thousand feet up. Surprisingly, the balloons are extremely peaceful. You feel like you’re gliding, which you are. The only time there’s noise is when the pilot turns on the burners for short spurts. I was fine so long as I didn’t look down. Of course, I had a death grip on the padded edge of the basket (like that would have done any good had something gone wrong), but after a few minutes in flight, I found myself enjoying the ride. (And again, I’m sure the Xanax played a big part in that!)

View of the Willamette Valley looking east.

This is one of my favorite shots – over the Willamette River. The sky was hazy from forest fires far off in the Cascades, but an absolutely breathtaking view regardless. My husband (who is not afraid of heights) wasn’t nervous at all until the pilot announced we were going to do a “splash and dash”. Since he doesn’t swim, that freaked him out way more than the flight itself. But for me it was the most relaxing moment of the entire flight!

Yes, what you’re seeing is correct. Our basket is basically sitting on the surface of the Willamette River. I took this shot as we watched another balloon land. We floated downstream with the current for a few minutes then took off again (much to my husband’s relief), leaving a waterfall of water behind as we flew out over manicured fields toward our landing site.

Aside from how quiet the balloon was, the other thing that surprised me was the temperature. I was expecting it to be cold up there in the sky, but between the burner directly above and the inversion layer that was actually warmer than ground level, I was hot. There was no wind, so I didn’t need the hat I’d brought with me, and the landing was a piece of cake. Not even a jolt as the basket touched down in a field miles from where we started. To be honest, the only disappointment to the entire trip was that it didn’t last longer than about an hour. Now who would have ever thought I’d be disappointed the flight was too short?

We piled out of the basket, helped take the balloon down and load it in the trailer, then we crammed ourselves in vans (enter claustrophobia!) and went back to the launch site where they had a champagne brunch laid out for us.

All in all, a perfect day. And one I’m really glad I got to experience. Am I still afraid of heights? You betcha, but I was okay so long as I didn’t look straight down. I have to admit the entire experience was really fun. And you never know…a hot air balloon may wind up in a future book someday!

Laura (comment #33)

and

Kristin Nelson (comment #15)

Winners, I sent you an email with directions on how to claim your prize. Thanks to all who entered! Follow the uber-talented Joan Swan on twitter (twitter.com/joanswan) for chances to win more of her amazing bookmarks and other goodies!