Ava March - M/M Regency Erotic Romance

Random Updates Version...I lost track

2012-01-20T01:44:00.009-05:00

It's Friday. *g* Love Fridays. I hope everyone has had a great week. It's finally really cold here. Like cold enough to freeze-off-body-parts-you-don't-want-to-freeze-off cold. Not loving it at all, but that's how it goes in the Midwest. It's cold in the winter. No use wishing for warm sunny days until May...or so.

I've updated my website with excerpts for Thief and Fortune Hunter, along with the blurb for Fortune Hunter. Oh, and I just got a release date for Fortune Hunter - April 9th. And I found out the other day that Thief will also be available as an audio book from Audible. So I was rather geeked about that.

If you're interested in the story behind My True Love Gave to Me, hop on over to Jadette Paige's blog for the inside scoop on how the book came to be.

Shawn Lane, my awesome crit partner and fabulous friend, is holding a contest for her upcoming release, Eternally His. The book includes a hot axe-wielding warrior and beautiful rock star. :) Click HERE if you want to pop on over and check it out.

In other news, I had to remind hubby tonight that his role of protector of the domicile extended beyond chasing little furry things out of the garage. A bug with lots of little legs scurried across the basement floor, and hubby didn't jump into action when I pointed and demanded he 'killitkillitkillit'. Apparently there was some confusion on what he was supposed to do. We had a discussion and now we're back on the same page. My job is to bring little unwanted things I don't like in and around the house to his attention. His job is to kill (or chase away) said little unwanted things. Oh, and he's to take care of it very quickly. Life is lovely when everyone knows what their jobs are :)

That's all I have for this week. Have a great weekend, and if you're anywhere north of the equator, remember to bundle up.

2011, Looking into 2012, and Bliss

2012-01-09T11:16:00.009-05:00

At the beginning of a new year, I like to review what I did the prior year and then make some sort of schedule for the coming year (though the schedule always changes throughout the year as things pop up). In 2011, I wrote or finished:

-Convincing Leopold

-My True Love Gave to Me

-Thief

-Fortune Hunter

-Rogues

That's about 155,000 worth of words written in 2011. My most productive year yet :)

The 2012 schedule is in process. I pulled together a list of all the book concepts I have outlined or summaries for, and am waiting to see what pops to the top of the list. I do know that I'd like to write a longer Ava book this year. I've noticed my novellas have been getting longer (Fortune Hunter came in at 43,000 words, my longest Ava book so far), and I have a few ideas that would need to be longer books. I'm been in the mood lately to write characters who like D/s or get into BDSM. Those relationships are always interesting to explore, and I haven't written one of those since Bound Forever. I also might spend some time writing an Evangeline book (m/f). I've got 14 books on the 'ideas' list, some related to published books (like a prequel for Martin and Rys from Beyond Reckless, Arthur's secretary (Fenton) from Convincing Leopold, the other 2 guys who work at Delacroix's brothel, etc), and some stand-alone ideas. I'll give it a few weeks and see what screams write-me.

Right now, I'm in reading bliss. Bought a half a dozen books and started reading Bad Boyfriend by KA Mitchell. Stayed up way, way too late last night and am dragging big time today, but the book is SO good. It's so nice to just read for the pure joy of reading. In 2012, I need to make sure I leave myself with time to read between writing books. I've totally missed that feeling of getting lost in a good book.

In other news, I received an early review for Thief from Publishers Weekly - "March neatly balances erotic moments with the budding friendship and romance between the proudly independent Cavin and the nervous but eager Benjamin in a charming and spicy novella that will leave readers impatient for more." I will admit to grinning like an idiot.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Thief - Cover Lovin'

2012-01-05T14:04:00.004-05:00

I received the final cover art for Thief, the first book in the Brook Street Trilogy! Love it - Carina gave me exactly what I asked for - i.e. a cover that conveyed the smex and angst tone of the book. And I also love that it has a different look than any of my other covers. Oh, and the man-chest. Love that, too. Many thanks to Millennium Promotions for the gorgeous cover.

After a short couple of days to do copy edits, I'm now back to deadline-free bliss. I do have a few things on the to-do list: update my website, start working on all the various promo things for Thief so I'm not rushing at the last minute to do them, etc. But nothing with looming deadlines.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Three Down, 0 to Go!

2012-01-03T14:59:00.006-05:00

I finished Rogues last night! It's officially off my desk and in my editor's inbox. And that means that I'm now done with writing my first trilogy. The books will release in March (Thief), April (Fortune Hunter) and May (Rogues) from Carina Press. In fact, Thief and Fortune Hunter have already made it to the coming soon page.

So what's up next? I'm not sure yet. First, I'm going to take a much needed mini-break. I've become hooked on BBC America's Top Gear, and I plan to watch all the seasons on Netflix. So that should keep me entertained for a while. And I'm looking forward to catching up on reading. It's been months and months since I've read a book simply for the joy of reading. As for writing, there are a few story ideas bouncing around my head. I figure by the end of January, one will pop to the top of the need-to-write list. In the mean time, I'm going to enjoy being deadline free. I've been under deadlines of one form or another for the past year and a half, and it's wonderful if a bit...odd to not have one hanging over my head.

In other news, you can now listen to the Men Under the Mistletoe anthology. It's available as an audio book, and includes all four stories in the anthology - My True Love Gave to Me, Winter Knights (Harper Fox), Lone Star (Josh Lanyon) and The Christmas Proposition (KA Mitchell). I must say, it's pretty cool to listen to someone read aloud a story I wrote.

And that's it for me for now. I hope everyone had a fabulous holiday!

Happy New Year!!

Home for the Holidays

2011-12-06T08:00:00.002-05:00

Today I have the pleasure of hosting day 2 of the Men Under the Mistletoe mini-blog tour.

Many people go home for the holidays. Some with anticipation, others with a sense of trepidation, and some have reasons all their own. But whatever the reason, there’s often a pull toward home when the holidays approach. Perhaps some of that pull is grounded in the classic image of a family around the table for a holiday dinner or gathered around the tree on Christmas morning. Symbols of togetherness with loved ones. And really, that’s at the core of the holiday season– spending time with those you love.

There’s also a giveaway today! Just leave a comment on this post or email me at ava(at)avamarch(dot)com to enter, and I’ll pick a commentor/ emailer at random to win an exclusive print edition of the Men Under the Mistletoe anthology, signed by yours truly. If you’d like, you can share your thoughts on Home for the Holidays, or you can just wave and say hi to everyone. Contest ends December 9th at 11:59 EST, and please don’t forget to include your email address (if it isn’t already in your blogger profile) so I can contact the winner.

Now I’ll turn it over to Josh Lanyon, Harper Fox and KA Mitchell to discuss what Home for the Holidays means to their characters in the anthology, and I'll chime in at the end.

Josh Lanyon

Lone Star begins with Mitchell Evans returning home to Texas following the death of his father. Not exactly a happy homecoming or a terrific way to spend the holidays, but it’s even worse because Mitchell didn’t love his father. Didn’t love him, didn’t understand him -- and he believes the feeling was mutual.

But I guess one of the themes of this story is that home is where the heart is.

A lone star blazed in the midnight blue sky.

It looked like the Christmas star, which was appropriate seeing that it was four days till the holiday, but with Mitch’s luck it was more likely a crashing jet plane headed straight for him.

Incoming.

Yeah, that would be about right. On the bright side, it would spare him driving any more miles down this long, dull stretch of memory lane. Texas looked only minimally better at night than it did in the day. Nothing but rugged, ragged landscape. Igneous hills of limestone and red rock as far as the eye could see—which wasn’t far, given the darkness beyond the sweep of the rental car headlights.

Mitch rubbed his bleary eyes. This was more driving than he’d done in years. He didn’t even own a car anymore. New York had decent public transportation, and when Mitch wasn’t working he was—well, he was always working, so problem solved.

Prickly pear, yucca, and juniper bushes cast tortured shadows across the faded ribbon of highway. A mighty lonesome stretch of country, as they’d say out here. Cemeteries were more plentiful than towns. He wasn’t entirely alone, though. Outside of Fredericksburg a pair of headlights had fallen in behind him and they continued to meander lazily along a few miles back. Some cowboy moseying on home, though not in any hurry to get there.

That made two of them.

It had been six months since Mitch had got the word his old man had keeled over, and he’d have happily waited another six months—or six years—before dealing with what his father’s lawyer euphemistically called “the estate.” But after the blowup with Innis, Mitch had desperately needed time and space. And one thing Texas had in plenty was space.

Harper Fox

Winter Knights

Part of what’s been hurting Gavin so much, making him incapable of loving Piers the way Piers deserves, are the shadows still falling into his life from his bigoted, aggressive father. Now, Gavin has come a long way from home, made himself very intellectually independent, and until the events of the story break him down, he’s been incapable of admitting there’s even a problem. Here’s how he finally explains it to Piers:-

“I hate him. He’s a racist and a homophobe and every kind of bigot you can think of, but when Mam left he was all I had. I love him. I never want to see him again and I’d do anything to make the bastard proud, and short of learning to weld ships together I can’t. I’d die of joy if he picked up one of my books. I want to kill him."

Gavin knows that the one thing he should have done was go and confront the old man. Sometimes we have to go home at the holidays for very non-festive reasons, and Piers has always been there, ready and willing to help him when he finally made the decision. This is what happened when they got there:-

A car pulled up over the road and my eldest brother got out. The sinking in my stomach turned out not to be necessary. For once he was pleased to see me. I put him into perspective, he said, looking Piers up and down. He too had thought the New Year a good time to try for a visit and an introduction, and I didn’t understand what he meant until his beautiful black girlfriend got out of the car and stood smiling nervously on the pavement beside him.

Of course it was all a waste of time. The four of us sat in the dingy little living room and listened for a while to the old man’s bitter, corrosive outpourings, then Piers, who had held my hand without concealment since we had arrived, got up and quietly led me away. My brother and his girlfriend followed. She was crying and so, to my astonishment, was he. I gave them both a hug. Piers, with his usual grave kindness, invited them for lunch at our flat. I felt no grief. I was dizzy with release from my ancient bonds, from chains I hadn’t realised were there. The old man didn’t matter. The morning sunshine did, and the smile on my lover’s face as he drove us away, and that was about it.

KA Mitchell

It's funny that Ava is doing this topic, because when The Christmas Proposition begins, Mel is hard at work longing to be anywhere but home for Christmas. He feels trapped by his home, but at the same time is afraid to leave it. His best friend's destination wedding in St. Thomas provides the escape he's longing for, and then he's trapped again—and forced to host the wedding at his family's tree farm by the end of the chapter.

Home means something different to the other characters, too. Mel's sister is home from rehab. Mel's brother who left home as soon as he could has come home to help Mel enjoy a vacation. And Bryce usually has his home on the road, a trailer that is half-office, half-bedroom. His home is where his work is. I hope by the end of the story, Mel and Bryce find out that home for the holidays means being in each other’s bed—er, arms.

Ava March

In My True Love Gave to Me, Thomas returns to England after living in New York for four years. He goes home for the holidays. But he doesn’t return home out of a need to spend the season with a family he hasn’t seen in years—a family that hasn't bothered to contact him in years—or to share in the holiday festivities with friends. Home is where the heart is, and in Thomas’s case, his heart has always been with Alexander (Sasha), his first and only love.

He did not need to hear the creak of the floorboards to know Sasha was approaching. He somehow felt the man’s presence coming closer. That sense of warmth, of home, that only belonged to Sasha.

Since Alexander’s in London, that is where Thomas goes, and he does so with hope in his heart...and a definite bit of trepidation and determination.

“I had it stuck in my head that I couldn’t allow another holiday to pass without seeing you. I was well aware of the distinct possibility that you would turn me away, but I had to try.”

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

Here’s the schedule for the mini-blog tour:

12/5 - Josh Lanyon on Christmas Kisses

12/6 - Ava March on Home for the Holidays

12/7 - KA Mitchell on Scene and Setting

12/7 - Carina Press on Next Christmas and holiday cookie recipes

12/8 - Harper Fox on Dark to Light

12/9 – Josh Lanyon wraps it up

Happy Holidays! And don’t forget to comment/email to enter to win a print copy of Men Under the Mistletoe.

New Release Day & Happenings

2011-12-05T16:32:00.013-05:00

My True Love Gave to Me, along with the Men Under the Mistletoe anthology, are now officially available at Carina Press and Amazon, B&N Nook, Books on Board, All Romance eBooks, etc...the usual secondary seller places.

This week, the authors of the anthology are doing a mini-blog tour. Stop on by our blogs to read the posts and enter to win occasional prizes, which include rare print editions of Men Under the Mistletoe. Here's the schedule:

12/5 - Josh Lanyon on Christmas Kisses

12/6 - Ava March on Home for the Holidays

12/7 - KA Mitchell on Scene and Setting

12/7 - Carina Press on Next Christmas and cookie recipes

12/8 - Harper Fox on the Dark Side of Christmas

12/8 - Josh Lanyon will wrap up the tour

In other promo-related news, the authors of Carina Press's holiday anthologies are being featured over at Books on Board.

We also have winners for the Men Under the Mistletoe Scavenger Hunt - Tammy, Jaymi, and Tricia. Congrats! KA Mitchell will be contacting the winners through email. Thanks to everyone for participating and we hope you enjoy the anthology.

There's also still time to enter the giveaway for an ebook copy of My True Love Gave to Me over at Stumbling over Chaos, open until 7pm CST December 8th.

Hum...I have this feeling like I'm missing something, but I can't remember what. Anyway, in non-promo news, I'm making good progress on Rogues, the 3rd book in the Brook Street trilogy. I also put a blurb up on my website for Thief, the 1st book in the trilogy.

Edit - the light bulb went on. I wanted to let you all know about another fun contest. Smexy Books and Fiction Vixen are hosting a Ho, Ho, Ho, Guess Who Game, with a new Kindle Fire as a grand prize. There will also be daily ebook prizes...which could, possibly, include some m/m romance. *g* Check out their websites for full details.

More Fun & Games, and the Importance of Timers

2011-12-01T02:20:00.012-05:00

The pre-book release excitement continues with a couple contests. You can find both over at Stumbling Over Chaos (many thanks to Chris for hosting the fun). Just leave a comment on each post to enter to win.

Giveaway for an ebook copy of Men Under the Mistletoe, open until 7pm CST on December 2nd.
Giveaway for an ebook copy of My True Love Gave to Me, open until 7pm CST December 8th.

There's also still time to enter the scavenger hunt for Men Under the Mistletoe to win a $100 gift card to Amazon or another ebook retailer of your choice. Stop by my website or check out this post for the details. The hunt is on until 11:59pm EST on December 2nd.

And stop by next week for some more fun with a mini-blog tour from the authors of Men Under the Mistletoe to celebrate the anthology's release.

In other news, I have confirmed yet again that I really shouldn't use an oven. Or if I do use one again, I need to remember to use the timer. Kidlet and I made blueberry muffins the other day. The first batch went wonderfully. The second batch....well, I'll leave it to you to guess which muffin in the photo was from the second batch.

Scavenger Hunt for Men Under the Mistletoe

2011-11-15T00:20:00.015-05:00

To celebrate the upcoming release of the Men Under the Mistletoe anthology, Josh Lanyon, Harper Fox, K.A. Mitchell and I are holding a scavenger hunt. Winner receives a $100 gift card to Amazon or the ebook retailer of your choice. Two entries will also be randomly selected to win a free download of the anthology.

To play, visit each of our websites and read the excerpts from our holiday stories. Then fill in the entry form with the answers to four questions based on our excerpts. Hop on over to my website for full details and links. Contest runs from 11/15 to 12/2.

For those who are curious, here are the easy-peasy questions:

Lone Star by Josh Lanyon - How long has Web Eisley been a Texas Ranger?

Winter Knights by Harper Fox - Which French cathedral did Gavin and Piers visit?

My True Love Gave to Me by Ava March - Who does Thomas encounter on his way to the gazebo to meet Alexander (Sasha)?

The Christmas Proposition by K.A. Mitchell - What color robe does Mel have to wear?

That's my exciting news for now. Other than that, I'm typing away on Rogues, the 3rd book in the Brook Street trilogy. I also signed up for a Twitter account tonight. If you're on twitter, please follow me so I can follow you. I've tried the search function to find friends, and it bites. I was able to find a few but that's about it. Could be user error, though. Just maybe. Possibly.

Two Down, One to Go!

2011-11-01T00:26:00.008-04:00

Fortune Hunter is done! I finished it right after midnight. *pats self on the back* I got the thumbs up from Shawn Lane, my awesome crit partner, on the last chapter, then sent the book off to my editor. It's officially off my desk...until I get edits.

Next up is Rogues, the 3rd and final book in the Brook Street trilogy. The book features Linus Radcliffe and Robert Anderson, two best friends who become more than best friends by the end of the book...which shouldn't be a spoiler since the book is a romance.

Today's cookie was snagged from Cup'o Porn. The twink on the couch reminded me of Oscar Woodhaven, one of the heroes in Fortune Hunter (he's the one with the fortune, the 'fortune hunter' is Julian Parker). He has the same happy, sweet vibe and the same lean build as Oscar. I can totally picture Julian dragging his lips down the twink's chest. ;) So I thought him fitting to use in a '*squee* I've finished the book' post.

Updates, Relocation, and Tight White Pants

2011-10-19T23:22:00.007-04:00

Fortune Hunter is still coming along nicely. I have about 2 chapters left on the book. The end is in sight. But it's currently on hold for a few days. Got edits for Thief today. So I'm bouncing back to Benjamin and Cavin for a few days to do their edits, then I'll bounce back to Julian and Oscar to finish Fortune Hunter by the end of the month.

I put an except from My True Love Gave to Me on my website. If you want to check it out, it's HERE. It's from chapter 4, but no worries, there aren't any spoilers in it. Well, if you've read the blurb then there aren't any spoilers in it.

In other news, I have officially moved my office to the basement. I'm no longer the author under the cupboards in the garage. I had a couple incidents with little furry things while I was writing. I'd be sitting there, typing away, and hear a *rustle-rustle* then a flash of a little furry thing darting between the cars. Hubby had to be enlisted each time to 'clear' the garage. Usually involved me frantically calling the house from my cell phone while perched on my chair, and yelling at hubby that he needed to come out to the garage now!! For a while, I'd keep the garage door closed and bring Kitteh out with me while writing, but she was no use. Just meowed at the house door to go back inside. Then the other day, hubby went out to the garage and saw a little furry thing. And the garage door was closed at the time. Hubby said it was a chipmunk. They're kinda cute, still... I relocated. So now I'm just a boring author in the basement.

I was at Target the other day and they had a new boy barbie. I got all excited, for about 10 seconds. Then I realized he looked an awfully lot like Ken, and I left 'Nicholas' (aka Ken with combed back hair) on the shelf.

Today's man-candy came courtesy of Janna over at Rarely Dusty Books. I borrowed Mr. Tight White Pants a few months ago. All right. I snagged him. But really, can you blame me?

Cover Lovin' - My True Love Gave to Me

2011-10-03T00:53:00.006-04:00

It's cover lovin' time. *g* I'm popping out of the cave to share the cover for My True Love Gave to Me. The book is part of the Men Under the Mistletoe holiday anthology (available 12/5/2011 from Carina Press), which also includes stories by Josh Lanyon, Harper Fox and K.A. Mitchell.

Here's the blurb for the book:

Alexander Norton loathes the festive season. The revelry of the ton is a reminder of Christmas four years ago, when his first love, Thomas Bennett, broke his heart and fled to New York without a word. So when he encounters Thomas at a holiday ball, Alexander is determined not to let on how much he still hurts.

Thomas has returned for one reason only: Alexander. Having finally come to terms with his forbidden desires, he will do whatever he must to convince Alexander to give their love another chance. But instead of the happy, carefree man Thomas once knew, Alexander is now hard and cynical. Saddened to know he's to blame for the man's bitterness, Thomas resolves to reignite the passion he knows lies hidden behind the wall of disdain...

Since I love covers so much, of course I must share the cover for the anthology.

And now I'm ducking back into the writing cave. Fortune Hunter's coming along nicely, but the deadline is starting to loom so I need to keep focused on the book. If you don't see me around the interwebz, it's because I'm busily typing away.

Full of Lovin'

2011-09-12T23:37:00.006-04:00

I made some nice progress on Fortune Hunter over the weekend. Finished up chapter 2 and started chapter 3. And I did the copy edits for My True Love Gave to Me. When I finished reading through the book for the copy edits, I had that *oh, I really like this one* feeling. By the time I finish writing a book, I've usually fallen out of love with it. Takes a little bit, and some distance from the book, before I start lovin' on it again. And I'm full-on lovin' on this one now and looking forward to the release date. Didn't hurt that I got a peek at the cover on Friday. I love covers. I'll share it as soon as I get the final cover art.

I have a new facebook fan page . It's nice to be liked, so if you're in the mood, hop on over and say hi. I'll be posting updates and news on the fan page, along with posting them here.

Oh, and I've updated my website. Not all reseller or publisher sites include page & word counts, and different publishers have different definitions of novella, short novel, etc. So I added page & word counts to each book's page on my website.

All and all, a very productive weekend.

The mailman delivered shiny new postcards!! Love the mailman. He pushed my car out of the snow when I got stuck in my street last winter, and he also delivers postcards *g* If anyone would like a few, just send me an email at ava (at) avamarch (dot) com and include your snail mail address, and I'll send them right out. They're very shiny and pretty and very fun to pet ;)

Random Updates and News

2011-08-30T13:52:00.003-04:00

I knew it would happen. I couldn't resist tweaking Thief. But it's now done. Really. I turned it in Friday and it's officially off my desk. I spent the weekend working on a chapter outline for Fortune Hunter, the second book in the Brook Street trilogy, and got a start on chapter 1. I also turned in the cover copy for My True Love Gave to Me, my holiday story in Carina's M/M anthology (Men Under the Mistletoe). Once I get the final version of the blurb for the book, I'll post it.

Convincing Leopold has made its way to Amazon and is now available for Kindle. It's also available on All Romance eBooks and on Barnes and Noble for Nook. In fact, all my Loose Id titles are now on B&N. Some of the guys were missing, but Loose Id worked their magic and now they're all showing up.

In other news, Shawn Lane, my awesome critique partner, is holding a givaway on her blog for her upcoming release, Can't Be His. Click HERE for details. Congrats goes out to Sophia who is celebrating the 2nd blogoversary of her fabulous blog, Fiction Vixen Book Reviews. To celebrate, she's holding a giveaway for a Kindle Wifi 6" along with a bunch of ebooks. Click HERE to check it out.

And in fish tank news, we are down to 1 fish. The 3 other goldfish went tits-up (or fins-up) over the past week. One after another, we found them floating in the tank, and not floating in a good way. We're left with 'jerk' fish, as kidlet has dubbed it. We don't think he contributed to the demise of his goldfish buddies, but you never can tell. He was the biggest of the group, and he's always been a bit of a jerk. I'm certain he was part of the little fish carnage, so I wouldn't put it past him to take out his buddies.

One Down, Two to Go

2011-08-22T01:26:00.005-04:00

I finished Thief! It came in just shy of 38,500 words, making it my second longest Ava book. It was longer than I had anticipated, but since it could go up to 40,000 words per the contract, I let the book be as long as it needed to be.

Around 9:30 pm, I had about 2-1/2 pages left to write. I figured I'd be done in a half hour. It wasn't a complicated 2-1/2 pages. Well....about 2-1/2 hours later, I finished the book. Hubby said I write like a football game. I agreed with him.

Next up is Fortune Hunter. Oscar and Julian have already started chattering away in my head, so best not to dally too long getting them on the page. I'll probably take a couple days off, but by the end of the week, I'm hoping to have a good start on chapter one. We'll see, though. I'm going to give Thief a few days to sit, and I might not be able to resist the urge to tweak before I send it in.

Giveaway Winner & Progress Update

2011-08-16T00:45:00.005-04:00

I let the randomizer do its thing and pick a winner for the giveaway. And the name that came out on top was:

1. Jason
2. Chris
3. Lisa
4. Nikyta
5. Dinnakay
6. Brandi
7. Judi
8. Lily

Congrats to Jason, who has won a copy of the Japenese version of Bound to Him/Bound by Deception! Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway. :)

In writing progress news, I got a lot done on Thief over the weekend. I only have two half-chapters left to go (yes, I skip around sometimes when I write). I hope to finish the book before the weekend, so I can be lazy over the weekend, recharge the muse's batteries, then start Fortune Hunter next week.

Giveaway - Oliver & Vincent from Japan

2011-08-08T09:15:00.001-04:00

I'm holding a giveaway on the blog for a print copy of the Japenese language version of Bound by Deception/Bound to Him. Yes, it's in Japenese, and I doubt many, if any, of you can read the book. But it's cool - the back is the front for a Japenese book, and the paragraphs are in columns and are read left to right. Plus, the cover illustration is all kinds of awesome. I'm guessing that since the publisher is Prism Romance, that's why the cover has the prism-ie effect on the paper. Pretty fabulous. The guys sparkle ;)

I ordered the book from Amazon Japan, and ended up ordering a few since the shipping costs were ridiculous. So I decided to share the love and do a giveaway for a copy. It's likely the only time the boys will be in print, and I thought some readers might be interested in having a copy of Ollie and Vincent in print, even if they can't read the book.

Leave a comment on this post to enter, and please include your email address so I can contact the winner. Or you can email me at ava @ avamarch (dot) com to enter. Giveaway is open until Monday 8/15/11 at midnight, EST.

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering why I needed to order copies of my own book...authors don't always get author copies from foreign pubs. Between my Ava and Evageline pen names, I've sold foreign rights to 5 countries. France is the only one who has sent author copies. Spain, Russia, Italy and Japan...apparently not so much. Since I'm impatient and didn't want to wait to see if the boys would eventually showed up on my doorstep, I ordered the books myself.

Schedule Change, Updates, & Back from Vacation

2011-08-02T14:16:00.009-04:00

I'm back from vacation and it's great to be home, and it's SO wonderful to have a reliable wireless connection again. The wi-fi at the beach was intermittent at best, and even my phone didn't want to cooperate. The upside to sucky signal strength - I was amazingly productive. Got 2-1/2 chapters written on Thief. It's looking like the book will be a tad longer than anticipated, but I'm still ahead of schedule. Which is good, because my deadlines got moved ahead while on vacation.

The Brook Street trilogy was scheduled to be released April/May/June, but it will now release in March, April and May 2012. I had the option to keep the original dates, but since I'm ahead of schedule with Thief, I decided I'd be stupid to pass up the opportunity to move the dates ahead. So now the books are due sooner, which means you'll likely see me even less around the interwebz as I'll be busily typing away.

I got edits back on My True Love Gave to Me over vacation, and was able to get them turned in last night, so that's off my desk until I see copy edits sometime in September. My editor gave me a 'fantastic job!' on the book - *insert grinning Ava* - felt like she stuck a gold star on my forehead. LOL.

Um...what else? Oh, the Bound series got a lovely review from Dear Author last week. That put a stupid grin on my face for a couple of days. And also helped me to sometimes forget about the ouchy sunburn I got the 2nd day of vacation. Seriously ouchy, and my chest is still red though now it's peeling. Yep, I'm molting. Let me tell you, it's not an attractive look for me.

Speaking of Ollie and Vincent, starting Monday of next week I'll do a giveaway on the blog for a print copy of the Japenese language version of Bound by Deception/Bound to Him.

That's all for me. Hope everyone has a great week!

Updates, a Delivery & News from the Goldfish Tank

2011-07-21T14:38:00.005-04:00

Things are going very well on the writing front. I've reached the half-way mark on Thief, and it's not even the end of July. I'm ahead of schedule *pats self on back*. I have a love/hate relationship with deadlines, but they truly do motivate me.

The DHL guy delivered Oliver and Vincent from Japan. The shipping costs were ridiculous, but well, Japan is pretty far away. Because the shipping costs were so much, I ended up buying a few copies. So sometime in early August I'll do a giveaway for a copy. Sure, it's in Japenese and I doubt many (if any) of you could read the book, but.... It's in Japenese and the cover art is awesome. No illustrations inside, but still cool.

In goldfish related news, kidlet decided to put an ant in the goldfish tank. One of the goldfish tried to eat it, but it got stuck half-way in her mouth (we've decided she's a 'her'). The little ant legs were sticking out of her mouth and everything. Hubby ended up having to get the tweezers, pull the fish out of the tank, and pry the ant out of her mouth, otherwise she likely would have eventually died (she couldn't eat with the ant stuck in her mouth). I was never certain which of the 4 goldfish had eaten the little fish, since I didn't witness the carnage, but I'm thinking she was one of them.

On Saturday I leave for the annual summer family vacation to the beach. A lake beach, but it's a big lake. The wireless connection there leaves much to be desired (translate to 'one sucky bar of signal strength, if I'm lucky), so I likely won't be posting next week. I will be keeping my eyes open for any beach hotties and will report back when I return ;)

Oliver & Vincent go to Japan

2011-07-11T00:18:00.005-04:00

Oliver and Vincent have gone to Japan! Loose Id has sold the Japenese language rights to Bound by Deception and Bound to Him. The Japenese publisher bundled both books together in one paperback. The title translates to "Noble Aroma Forbidden Love"...well, at least according to the Google-translated Amazon Japan page.

It's my 1st foreign rights sale for an Ava book, and it's very exciting. I was totally geeked when I found out about it. And the cover....it's full of awesome goodness. Love how Vincent's so commanding. He even has his whip ;)

Oliver & Vincent's jaunt to Japan distracted me for a bit, but I was able to ungeek enough to get some work done on Thief over the weekend. I finished chapter 2 and have eeked into chapter 3. I need to write a chapter a week in order to finish by the end of August. And there's no possibility to push out deadlines as Fortune Hunter and Rogues are also due this year. So I need to keep moving on Thief. If you don't see me around the interwebz much, it's because I'm busily typing away.

In other news, I have learned that goldfish are predators. We took home 4 little fish from kidlet's school at the end of the school year. Not thinking anything of it, we put them in the tank with the 4 big goldfish. Then about a week later, we noticed there were only 2 little fish swimming around and looking rather worried. Um... A day later, only 1 little fish. He was a bit bigger than his little fallen fellows, so we thought he'd be fine. Um....nope. Not fine. We now only have 4 big goldfish in the tank. No little fishes. Kidlet called the goldfish 'jerks'. I agreed with her.

Convincing Leopold - now available

2011-06-28T00:06:00.004-04:00

Convincing Leopold, the sequel to Convincing Arthur, just released from Loose Id!! *insert Ava clutching her capri sun and doing a happy dance*

The book came in at just shy of 34,000 words, making it my longest novella (but not my longest book). It's got smex and angst, and more smex and angst, and...you get the idea. I had fun revisiting Leopold and Arthur, and hopefully readers will enjoy catching up with them.

Mr. Leopold Thornton finally has the man he’s loved for a decade, yet he can’t believe his good fortune. A reformed rake and a conservative solicitor? Can it possibly last? To add to Leopold’s worries, Arthur’s spending more time at the office...with a handsome new secretary. Desperate not to lose Arthur, Leopold does the only thing he can think of -- use pleasure to keep him.

Mr. Arthur Barrington truly wants their relationship to work. Sinfully beautiful and devoted to him, Leopold’s the opposite of Arthur’s staid ex-lover. And Leopold’s given up his old vices, putting those concerns to rest. Yet lately, all Leopold wants is sex -- in the study, in the carriage, and at Arthur’s office, no less. The sex is amazing, but juggling demanding clients and a demanding lover leaves Arthur exhausted and worried perhaps he and Leopold aren’t suited after all.

It takes one disastrous night for Arthur to realize how much Leopold means to him. But convincing Leopold he loves him, all of him and not just his body, proves difficult. For Leopold’s disappeared and Arthur hasn’t a clue where to find him.

Read an excerpt of Chapter One

Deliberately Unbound - now available on ARe

2011-06-27T13:58:00.006-04:00

Deliberately Unbound (Bound #2-1/2) is now available on All Romance eBooks as a free .pdf download, in addition to being available on my website. And of course, I couldn't resist updating the cover art so it jived with the cover for Deliberately Bound. All 3 of my freebies are now on ARe for anyone who wants them as a .pdf, and for any future freebies I plan to post them both to my website and ARe.

Today is the last day to enter the giveaway on Stumbling Over Chaos for a copy of Convincing Leopold. The giveaway also includes Convincing Arthur, for anyone who hasn't read the 1st book yet. Contest closes at 7pm CST. Speaking of Convincing Leopold, the book releases tonight around midnight EST, and it's already received a lovely review over at Fiction Vixen Book Reviews.

In other news, I started Thief, the 1st book in the Brook Street series, over the weekend. I also had to do some research on Blackjack. Well, the guys play vingt-et-un, which is the french version of blackjack. Anyway, research was needed since the only card games I'm any good at are go-fish, old maid, and Uno, and my skills with those aren't fab (kidlet routinely beats me at Uno).

That's all for me today. I'm off to start practicing my little happy dance in preparation of new book release night.

Giveaway & Ryan's New Friend

2011-06-21T02:03:00.001-04:00

My True Love Gave to Me is officially off my desk and in my editor's inbox. I will admit to tweaking it a bit over the last week (it's what happens when I finish a book way before the deadline). But I finally stopped tweaking and sent the thing in, so that I can focus on starting Thief, the first book in the new trilogy.

Book release day is just around the corner. Convincing Leopold releases in a week! Which means it's giveaway time. Hop on over to Chris's blog (Stumbling Over Chaos) to throw you name in the hat to win a copy of the book. It's actually a 2-for-1 giveaway, as Convincing Arthur is included in the giveaway for anyone who hasn't read the first book yet.

In other news, my writing buddy, Ryan, has a new friend. I thought he was getting a bit lonely, just hanging by himself behind my laptop, so I got him a buddy. Meet Jake (he's the dude on the left). His official name if Model No. 15 from the Barbie Basics collection, but I think Jake suits him better.

I first saw him on the display sign for the collection at Target, but the store didn't have him in stock. But kidlet saved the day. She went to a different Target with my mom last week and reported back that 'mommom's Target has that boy barbie you want'. And I went the next day to get him.

He has a fondness for hair gel, but Ryan doesn't seem to mind the helmet-hair.

1 Down & a New Trilogy to Go

2011-06-13T14:22:00.007-04:00

I did it! I finished My True Love Gave to Me on Sunday, which just happened to be my self-imposed deadline. The book isn't due until July, but I wanted it done early because...

I have three novellas to finish by the end of 2011. *G* It's a new trilogy that will release from Carina Press in April, May, and June 2012. The novellas are due 9/1, 11/1 and 1/1/12, which means I'll be a busy girl, typing away, until the end of the year.

I'm quite excited about the new novellas. It's my first real trilogy, releasing in back-to-back-to-back months, with related characters. A few of the guys run in the same social circle and live on Brook Street in Mayfair (London). In fact, My True Love Gave to Me is loosely related to the series - both opportunities popped up in the same week, so I couldn't resist loosely connecting them.

Here's the super short, high concept blurb from the proposal -

The Brook Street Trilogy

Regency London – where polite manners and spotless reputations reign supreme. Yet behind the closed doors of three elegant town houses along Brook Street, passion and lust reign as gentlemen dare to risk scandal by falling in love…

In Thief, a lord intent on his first decadent night with a man finds love when he picks up a thief in a gambling hell. In Fortune Hunter, a man determined to gain a fortune by marrying an heiress instead falls in love with an obscenely wealthy young gentleman. And in Rogues, two of London’s most notorious rakehells discover if their friendship can withstand the test of turning into something so much more.

Pleasures of Somerville Park - Now Available on ARe

2011-06-11T14:16:00.006-04:00

I've formatted Pleasures of Somerville Park, the free short sequel to Object of His Desire, for .pdf. It's now available on All Romance eBooks as a free story, in addition to being available on my website. I also updated the cover image because...well...I couldn't resist playing around in photoshop.

In other news, My True Love Gave to Me is coming along nicely. I'm officially on the last chapter. Just need to finish up the resolution part and get the guys to knock boots. Well, they won't be wearing boots in that part of the chapter, but you know what I mean ;)

Bound Forever's received a few lovely reviews of late. It's up for Book of the Week at Whipped Cream reviews, and up for 5-Heart Review of the Week at The Romance Studio. *pats Ollie and Vincent on the back*

And lastly, a quick pic from around the house. Kidlet decided the stuffed animals would enjoy watching the goldfish. I'm thinking the fish look a little worried...

Updates Version....3.0, I think

2011-06-09T12:20:00.010-04:00

What's up with me? I've been working on My True Love Gave to Me, the holiday novella for Carina. I'm getting very close to the finish line. Hope to have it done by Sunday night, but....we'll see how it goes. There's a smex scene in the last chapter, and those usually take me some time to write, especially since my smex scenes tend to be rather...long ;)

The book isn't due until 7/1, but I want to get it done by mid-June. I need to get working on the next book that has a deadline. In fact, I'm now under various deadlines until the end of 2011. Deadlines for what, you might ask? 'Other books' *Ava replies vaguely*. I'm waiting until I finish the holiday novella before I go all squee-ie on the new contracts. Need to stay focused and get this one done. If all goes as planned and I finish the novella this weekend, then next week I'll tell you about what's coming next.

Why does History Channel have to have such interesting shows? I've been getting sucked into shows that I would have never thought I'd find interesting. Last night, 2 hours of Ice Road Truckers. Swamp People is another interesting one. Love how they have to use subtitles most of the time, since you can't understand a thing the guys are saying. Of course, can't forget American Pickers and Pawn Stars (love Chumlee). And tonight at 10pm - Mounted in Alaska. It's about a taxidermy shop. Ew - right? Turns out, so not eww. They mount already prepared hides, so no grossness. And it's very intriquing. Got sucked right into it last week.

Anyone seen My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding on TLC? OMIG. Those wedding dresses are nuts!!

Cover Lovin' - Convincing Leopold

2011-05-31T01:13:00.008-04:00

The inbox stalking paid off. I received the cover art for Convincing Leopold! Many thanks to the talented April Martinez for the awesome cover. I love the blue tones - very angsty, which totally fits the book.

If the guys, and the house, look familiar, it's because the cover artist used the same guys from the 1st book. See -

Same dudes, different images and Arthur's tied his cravat in a different knot. Historically dressed dudes are so hard to find, I'm quite impressed she was able to find multiple images of them. And very happy. Convincing Arthur is my only cover with fully dressed dudes with their faces showing. It could have been a bit...awkward if different dudes showed up on the sequel's cover. Who are you? And what happened to Leo....

In other news, I've been typing away over the holiday weekend, working on the holiday novella. Oh, and doing lots of research. Why ever did I decide it was a good idea to have a scene at a fencing academy? It sounded like a cool idea when I wrote the synopsis, but I know nothing about fencing, besides that swords are used. Well, no, they're actually foils. I do know that now, and a bunch more about fencing than I ever thought I needed to know but that I actually do need to know in order to write the scene.

On a related note, my brain now hurts. The version of 'The School of Fencing' (1787) that I found on Google books doesn't have a single lowercase 's' in the main body of the text. No joke. Every 's' has been replaced with a 'f'. As in 'You muft ftand ftraight...'. Google must have read lowercase s as a f when it digitized the book. The sad thing is it took me about two pages to figure it out (insert very confused Ava wondering what an 'infide opening' was), and even sadder, a couple more pages into it and I was able to read it just fine.

Hope everyone had a fantastic and relaxing holiday weekend!

New Contract News

2011-05-26T00:34:00.011-04:00

I have news and I can finally share!

I am going to be part of Carina's M/M holiday anthology, which will be released 12/5/2011. Also in the anthology will be stories by Josh Lanyon, KA Mitchell, and Harper Fox. I know - awesome company! I'm quite geeked about it. My novella is tentatively titled My True Love Gave to Me, but that will likely change (my guess is to something a bit...shorter). And yes, it's a Regency-set story.

In other news, Deliberately Bound is available on All Romance eBooks as a free story. I've had readers ask if my other free stories were available in .pdf format, and it got me thinking about offering the stories as .pdfs as well as having them on my website. Turns out, it's not all that difficult to format a Word doc and turn it into a .pdf, and it's even easier to upload a book to ARe. Over the next month, I'm going to format Deliberately Unbound and Pleasures of Somerville Park and put them on ARe, as well. I'll post here when they are on the site.

Deliberately Bound - free story

2011-05-19T08:00:00.001-04:00

Deliberately Bound, a new free short story featuring Oliver and Vincent from the Bound series, is now up on my website. Click HERE to check it out.

The story takes place about 7 months after Bound Forever, and like their other short story, it's pretty much one long sex scene. I got the idea while working on edits for Bound Forever. It felt like something the guys would eventually do, so of course, I couldn't resist making it a freebie story. I won't give away any spoilers, but I'll give you a couple of my fav lines -

"You are enjoying this immensely, aren't you?" Vincent muttered.
"Indeed."

I hope you enjoy the story!

Updates Version 2.0

2011-05-17T02:46:00.010-04:00

Just a quick post to say I finally finished Deliberately Bound, the next free short story for Oliver and Vincent! In fact, I just finished it about five minutes ago. Once Shawn, my awesome crit partner, gives it a read (and finds my typos), I'll have it posted on my website. Should be up by Thursday, and I'll post here when it's available.

Speaking of Oliver and Vincent, Bound Forever is now available on Amazon for Kindle.

I found this quiz over at Eyre's blog and couldn't resisting sharing it. How Many Baboons Could You Take In a Fight (armed only with a giant dildo?) I had a pathetically low score of 16. *hangs head at self*

And a thanks goes out to Lily for the cookie. I snagged it ages ago from her blog. I just can't resist studious cookies.

Updates

2011-05-05T01:16:00.008-04:00

Well, it's mid-week and I haven't posted Deliberately Bound yet. The reason - I haven't finished it yet. In the future, I'm going to try to keep my mouth shut until something's done, because just when I think my schedule is perfectly planned, it gets wacked. Never fails. In this case, I thought I was totally safe. I was only looking out a week and the short's 1/2 written.

The source of the wacking? An opportunity popped up. That's all I'm going to say for now since I don't want to jinx myself. Hopefully I'll have more news soon.

I'm not procrastinating. Promise. I am busy writing, but I want to finish Deliberately Bound, so I'll find some time to finish it soon. It's a smexy-fun story to write, plus I really like writing about Oliver and Vincent. The Bound series may be done, but I'm much too fond of the guys to say goodbye to them just yet.

As for today's cookie, I'm reading Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison and this pic reminds me of Dragos. Plus Marco Blaze is hot. ;)

Oh, and I checked my keywords for the blog today. Most intersting one - 'regency cookies'. I'm thinking whoever is searching for regency cookies isn't looking for the type of cookies that can be found on my blog. *g*

Coming Soon x 2, and One Cool Cat

2011-04-26T01:21:00.012-04:00

Convincing Leopold has made its way to Loose Id's Coming Soon page. And yes, I've been by to visit the guys a time or two. I just can't resist. No cover though, and it will likely be another month before I get it. Until then, I'm content with them just being on the coming soon page.

Speaking of covers, I designed one over the weekend for Deliberately Bound, the next freebie short story featuring Oliver and Vincent. I was in a photoshop mood and indulged myself. So since the cover's done, that means I need to finish the story. A while back (like in December) I mentioned that I'd probably post it in April. It's now the 26th. I'm currently working on it and hoping to have it done by the end April, but it might end up being early next week. I'll post on the blog as soon as it's up on my website.

In other news, I found Chococat hanging out on the couch in kidlet's playroom. I really dig the outfit kidlet put on him - pink rhinestone pleather collar and tight, striped-pink shorts.

Convincing Leopold - Excerpt

2011-04-12T00:05:00.004-04:00

First up, His Client is now available on Amazon for Kindle. Ok, so it's been available for a bit but I just remembered to mention it on the blog. We'll just pretend I didn't forget.

Second, Shawn Lane is holding a contest on her blog. Comment on this post before April 25th to enter to win. She'll pick 5 random winners for a pick from her backlist or one of her upcoming releases.

And last but not least, I have an excerpt from Convincing Leopold up on my website. Click HERE to check it out. I also tweaked the blurb a bit before I turned it into Loose Id. So here's the updated version:

Mr. Leopold Thornton finally has the man he’s loved for a decade, yet he can’t believe his good fortune. A reformed rake and a conservative solicitor? Can it possibly last? To add to Leopold’s worries, Arthur’s spending more time at the office…with a handsome new secretary. Desperate not to lose Arthur, Leopold does the only thing he can think of – use pleasure to keep him.

Mr. Arthur Barrington truly wants their relationship to work. Sinfully beautiful and devoted to him, Leopold’s the opposite of Arthur’s staid ex-lover. And Leopold’s given up his old vices, putting those concerns to rest. Yet lately, all Leopold wants is sex – in the study, in the carriage, and at Arthur’s office, no less. The sex is amazing, but juggling demanding clients and a demanding lover leaves Arthur exhausted and worried perhaps he and Leopold aren’t suited after all.

Stolen Cookies

2011-04-06T00:22:00.013-04:00

So, what's new? I received the 2nd round of edits on Convincing Leopold and did them over the weekend. I was also interviewed by Deviant Divas Erotic Book Reviews. Here's the link if you want to check it out. Other than that, I've been renaming guys. It's the book idea I'm planning to work on next, and when I went back to my outline I realized I had given one guy's last name to another dude and the other hero needed a new last name as well. So I spent time going through my spreadsheet of character names (...yes, I keep a spreadsheet) and searching for common Irish and English last names online.

Here's where I admit I have sticky fingers when it comes to cookies. When I see a particularly yummy one, I snap it up. As I was browsing through my cookie file to pick one for today's post, I decided to share some of my favorite borrowed cookies.

'Tackle from Shawn' from Shawn Lane Writes Romance. Shawn's a football fan, and if the players did this on the field on football Sundays, I'd be going to every game.

'Shower from Eyre' from A Reader's Journey. Love the green and blue lighting...oh, and the cookies are mighty nice, too.

'Cross from Lily' from I Love Books. I just love the lines of his body and the look on his face. I really need to work him into a book someday.

'Shaving cream from Janna' from Rarely Dusty Books. She shares some awesome cookies on her Happy Gay Friday posts, and this one's a fav because I can't help wondering what happened before and after this pic ;)

And 'Almost kiss from Wren' from Nonsense and Little Things. I think it's pretty obvious why this one's a fav.

News and a Squee

2011-03-28T15:09:00.006-04:00

I love a naughty man in a suit ;)

First up, His Client is now available on All Romance eBooks. It's not up on Amazon yet, but I'll let you know as soon as it's available for Kindle.

My big news for the day is actually related to my M/F books. Seven Nights to Forever has won Most Innovative Historical Romance in RT Book Reviews 2010 Reviewers' Choice Best Book Awards! *big squee* I've been holding that news in for over a month, as RT asked me to wait until the April magazine came out before I went squee crazy. I got the April edition in the mail today, so now I can squee till my heart's content.

As for other Ava news...not much. I'm still in mull mode on how I should do the next chapter in Back to You, so that work in progress is sitting for the time being. I've been debating what I want to write next and bouncing around like a darn ping-pong ball. Freedom is a great thing, but I'm finding that even though looming deadlines bite, having a deadline keeps me focused. Without one, I get rather bouncy. I finally decided late-late last night to stop the bouncing and make a damn decision. I think I've decided on a book and I even have the first 2 pages written, along with a complete outline by chapter, so that's good. Fingers crossed the fickle muse stays on that book long enough for me to write it.

And lastly, Shawn Lane is holding a contest on her blog. Pop on by if you want to enter to win a book of your choice from her backlist or one of her soon-to-be released titles.

Oh, and I'm actually reading a book. The Morning Star by M.Chandler. Loving it. Thanks for the rec, Chris ;)

Keyword Fun

2011-03-25T00:19:00.010-04:00

...another tattooed sports hottie from my recent internet wanderings.

Blogger added a stats feature a few months ago. It doesn't have a ton of stats, but the most interesting ones are the key word searches that brought people to my little slice of bloglandia. There's the expected 'ava march bound forever', and other variants of my name and book titles (though the 'bound forever pdf download' got a frown from me). There's also been some more unexpected key words, such as:

happy dance (...though I do sometimes talk about my little happy dances about the kitchen, so I can understand this one)
pick the hottie
erotic hotties
hotty reading ....I'm seeing a trend here....
loose little shorts

And my all-time favorite. This one is from a month or so ago.

boyfriend nipple ring play

For anyone who has a blog and doesn't check their keywords (they're under 'traffic' in the stats), I suggest checking them out. You might get a good laugh.

I'll leave you with this cookie. I really wish I was with him on the beach instead of here with the cold and crappy weather. It's almost the end of March. sigh. I'm really hoping spring arrives soon.

What's Been Up and Next Up

2011-03-21T23:09:00.007-04:00

It's been two weeks since I turned in Convincing Leopold. The no-deadline thing lasted less than a week, but I'm already back to no-deadline bliss. And yes, the urge to clean and organize has passed, as anticipated. But I did manage to give kidlet's room a complete once-over, which resulted in 2 bags of trash and 1 bag of clothes for salvation army. Oddly enough, it doesn't look like there's any less stuff in her room now then before.

So what else has been up with me? Other highlights of the last 2 weeks involve browsing for new cookies (during which I picked up today's cookie), reading a book (Rougaroux Social Club: Bayou Dreams by Lynn Lorenz - very good book, BTW), and doing the 1st round of edits on Convincing Leopold....which made me realize I need to tweak the blurb for that book. So that's on the to-do list for this week.

I also bought an awesome new ap for my iphone. It's a white noise ap - has all sorts of sounds like rain, wind, and traffic (there's even a cat purring), and you can create your own mixes. My fav so far is air conditioning/light rain - perfect background noise that drowns out everything else (including chatty, skype-lovin' hubby). Many thanks to Sloan Parker for the head's up about the ap. The muse is lovin' it.

Speaking of the muse, next up on the to-write list is actually a to-finish book that I started last fall. I had this huge urge to write something with young lovers. Something that captured that intense first-love, young-love vibe. So I gave in to the muse and started Back to You. If you're guessing it's not all sweetness, you're right. There's some major angst, 'cause, you know, there has to be angst. ;) I need to get back to Sasha and Thomas and finish their book. So in the next week or so (but hopefully not too much 'so'), I plan to get back to them.

So that's what has been up with me. How about you? And if you have any good book recommendations, feel free to offer them up. I plan to get some more reading in before I get back to writing.

Story Behind the Story - Beyond Reckless

2011-03-16T00:43:00.007-04:00

Stats – Sent book idea to Amber Quill Press & received approval 9/7/10, Submitted & received contract offer 9/12/10, Published 11/28/10

Little known fact – This is ‘The Challenge’ book. Shawn Lane and I both had ideas for short stories, and we challenged each other to write them in a week. Shawn finished Manfred’s Curse a couple days before me, but I still managed to finish Beyond Reckless in a week. I don’t like to admit that she beat me, instead I go with the ‘we were both winners’ line. *insert sparkly happy smile*

Extremely little known fact – I finally got to use my invitation to submit to Amber Quill Press with this book. I had received an invite back in 2009, and was super geeked about it, but I had other contracted books on my to-write list at the time. The owner of AQP was very cool and understanding, and left the invite open-ended.

How did I get the idea for the book – I saw a submissions call from All Romance eBooks for a free short story competition for books between 2,000-3,000 words. That night, Rys and Martin popped into my head, and I thought maybe I could smoosh them down to 3k words. Then I rechecked the sub call and realized it was for paranormal stories (should have guessed, as the contest was to run around Halloween). I was bummed, since I knew I couldn’t do characters, smex, historical setting and paranormal in less than 3k words. I mentioned it to Shawn, who gave me a series of nudges that started like this - ‘Can you make it at least 5k?’ (5,000 words is the min length for Amber Quill). And while Shawn was nudging me, I was nudging her to write a short story. The challenge was thrown down, and a week later I had finished Beyond Reckless. It came it at 6,000 words, with no smooshing needed.

If I could edit the book now, what would I change (if anything)? – Um…nothing. I really like how the book turned out. It was my first non-sequel short story, and it was super fun to write. That’s not to say I have plans for any more stand-alone short stories, but in this instance, the short format fit the book idea.

Misc Stuff – Thanks to a nudge from another friend, I’m mulling over the idea of a prequel for Rys and Martin, a story that would cover how they met and became a couple. I even have notes already for the book, but it’s not completely fleshed out yet. Adrenalin-junkie Rys is tons of fun to write, so I have a feeling the muse won’t take too long to finish figuring out the book.

That's the story behind the story for Beyond Reckless. Any questions? Ask away *g*

Bound Forever - Now Available

2011-03-08T09:30:00.004-05:00

Bound Forever released around midnight Monday night! *big squee*

Yesterday I finished a book and today I had a book release. I'm just beside myself with excitement. It takes me a while to write a book and I don't have a lot of releases every year. So back-to-back squee days have gotten me a little over-excited. But it is really exciting, so I don't care if I've fallen off the geeked end.

I will say, I'm feeling a bit (a tiny bit) sad. Bound Forever is the last book for Oliver and Vincent. I'll still do freebie shorts for them, but it's their last published book. Bound by Deception was my 1st published book (way back in Sept'08), and now the series is done. I didn't initially plan for it to be a series. I knew when I finished BBD that Oliver and Vincent's story wasn't done yet, and when I was writing Bound to Him, I realized they needed one more to get to a rock-solid HEA. And now that one more has been released. But I refuse to get too sappy. In any case, I feel another happy dance coming on. ;)

Lord Oliver Marsden’s life is perfect...well almost perfect. His bookshop is doing well, his bank account isn’t empty, and his nights are filled with a deliciously dominant man…who tends to be a bit too domineering outside of the bedchamber. But Vincent loves him and that’s all that should matter. Right? And of course, Vincent still firmly holds the reins of control. Yet while Oliver feels Vincent is finally ready to give himself fully to him, to make good on the offer Oliver refused a year ago, the looming threat his lover could someday be forced to marry keeps him from tugging the reins from Vincent’s grasp.

Then Vincent receives a letter that changes everything. Oliver seizes the moment and pushes Vincent toward a night neither of them will ever forget. Yet come dawn, Oliver awakens to an empty bed.

Lord Vincent Prescot knows he loves Oliver. The man’s his best friend and he trusts him. So why does submitting to Oliver leave him so shaken? It doesn’t take him long to find the answer, yet his solution could drive his lover away for good.

Excerpt from Chapter One

Another One Done

2011-03-07T13:19:00.009-05:00

It's done!! I sent Convincing Leopold to my editor at 3:48am, well, I guess that would be this morning. Five minutes later, I was doing a little happy dance in the kitchen. It was one of those limbs-flailing, spinning in circles happy dances. Fortunately, Kitteh was my only audience.

I'm now out from under all deadlines, for the time being, at least. Last summer, I contracted three books with Loose Id, and Convincing Leopold was the last one that needed to be written. As I just sent the book to my editor, I don't even have a deadline for edits yet. I'm so looking forward to reading and organizing. I've had the almost impossible urge to organize the closets, and now I can finally give into that urge :) Honestly, I'm not a neat-freak, but whenever I'm under a deadline, I always get the urge to organize or clean. Unfortunately for the state of my closets, that desire usually doesn't last long once the deadline has passed.

So what's next as far as writing goes? I want to finish up a novella I started last fall for Amber Quill. It's over half-way done, so it should only take a month to finish it. Other than that, I haven't yet decided. A few book ideas have been nagging of late, so I'm just going to see which one rises to the top and screams 'write me' the loudest.

Bound Forever releases tonight *g*, but I'll save the squeeing for tomorrow's post.

Bound Forever Give-A-Way & Cave Update

2011-03-01T13:55:00.007-05:00

First, the cave update. I'm still there. Convincing Leopold is turning out to be longer than I anticipated - a good 5,000 words or so longer. I got a week extension on my deadline, and am determine to finish the thing by this weekend.

Chris over at Stumbling Over Chaos is giving away a copy of Bound Forever to one lucky commenter. Since the book is the 3rd in the series, I'm including Bound by Deception and Bound to Him in the prize, if the winner hasn't read those books yet. Simply leave a comment on the post to enter to win. Contest runs through March 7th.

In other news, Bound Forever has made the coming soon page at Loose Id. Yes, I admit I've been by to visit Oliver and Vincent more than once in the past couple of days. They're looking mighty handsome, if I do say so myself. Only one week left until their release date *g* I'm already starting to get geeked about it. Hopefully I can keep the geeking to a manageable level so I can stay focused on Arthur and Leopold and get their book finished.

Cookies from the Cave

2011-02-25T15:13:00.008-05:00

I'm still deep in the writing cave working on Convincing Leopold. Just finished a couple of major angst scenes. Poor Leopold, he's in need of some hugs, but first I need to torment Arthur some more and then Leopold will get his HEA.

In the mean time, I'm offering up some cookies to celebrate that it's Friday. Enjoy, and I hope you all have a great weekend!

Release Date News

2011-02-17T13:36:00.007-05:00

I'm briefly popping out of the deadline cave to share some release date news. Convincing Leopold (the book that has me in the cave) has a release date of June 28th, 2011! It's 4 months away, so the release date could change, but I have a date which means it is officially on the schedule and that's a good thing.

In other news, I took the kidlet to Build-A-Bear over the weekend. Kitteh was the lucky receipent of the day's purchases.

Isn't she pretty in pink? (...cue music...)

Company in the Cave

2011-02-10T02:08:00.008-05:00

Shawn Lane had a post the other day which prompted me to take a good look at the calendar and realize the end of the month was less than 3 weeks away. 2 weeks and a few days, to be more exact. Convincing Leopold is due at the end of February. Based on my word count, I'm not yet half way done with the book.

*EEK*

So I'm now officially in the writing cave. I'm even planning to boot chatty hubby out of the basement tomorrow night. Given it's been averaging 14 deg here of late, it's much too cold to write in the garage. My space heater doesn't do crap when it's that cold. So I'm in the basement, but hubby's here too and he's rather chatty (he's discovered Skype recently). I love him and all, but he's seriously disturbing the muse. So he's getting the boot starting tomorrow night.

Good thing is that I've finished reviewing the proofs for Bound Forever and sent them to my editor, so that's done. I can now focus totally on Arthur and Leopold.

And I won't be completely alone in the cave.

Meet Ryan. He's one of Ken's friends. His packaging called him 'Ken', but I mean really, you can't have 2 dudes side by side at the store and call them the same name when they are clearly not the same guy. *shakes head at the marketing dept* One of kidlet's barbie books had barbie's friends in it, and there was a cute little hottie with dark hair named Ryan. So I've decided he's Ryan.

I haven't abandoned the Princes, but those 2 are officially the kidlet's and live in the bin of barbies. Ryan hangs out on my desk behind Pretty. He'll be my company in the cave for the next 2 weeks and 4 days.

If you don't see me out and about, it's because I'm in the cave. Wish me luck!! ...I think I'm going to need it - the frentic music is already playing. ;)

Story Behind the Story - From Afar

2011-02-01T02:07:00.005-05:00

Stats - Submitted manuscript 7/9/09. Received contract offer 10/3/09. Published 2/23/10.

My bad luck when it comes to timing submissions to Samhain continued with this book. My editor left Samhain a few weeks after I submitted From Afar. I was assigned a new editor who got a bunch of new authors and new responsibilities, so it took her some time to read the book.

Little known fact – The final cover took five different drafts and one change in cover artist. Oh, and a final tweak. I swear, I’m not one of those super picky authors, but I didn’t think a sunny afternoon backdrop would fit the feel of a vampire book that takes place at night. I do love the final cover – that guy is simply yum!

Extremely little known fact – I started writing the book in January 2008, back when I was an unpublished author, and entered the first 20 pages in Passionate Ink’s Stroke of Midnight contest for unpubbed authors. Rafe and Aleric got 3rd place in the Novella category. *pats the boys on the back* I put the book on hold to start Bound by Deception, then landed an agent and sold a book to Berkley and got distracted by revisions and edits for that one. Then wrote Bound to Him and Convincing Arthur. So it wasn’t until the summer of 2009 when I turned back to From Afar and finished it.

How did I get the idea for the book – Stephani Hecht gave me the nudge to write a vampire book, and Raphael popped into my head. Even though everything I write is set in the Regency, I love the Georgian era. The clothing is just so gorgeous. Dangerous Liaisons is one of my favorite movies, though Valmont (with yummy Colin Firth) is also a favorite. Since the book was a paranormal, I couldn’t resist making Raphael old enough to have been born and turned during the Georgian era. I had great fun dressing him, too ;)

If I could edit the book now, what would I change (if anything)? The ending is rather…abrupt. A part of me wishes I would have added more to the book. But honestly, the current ending is how I had originally planned it. If I had the chance to change it today, I probably wouldn’t.

Will there be a sequel – I’m on the fence about a sequel. I’ve hopped onto the ‘sequel’ side of the fence then jumped over to ‘no sequel’ a few times since I’ve finished the book. I even have outlines done for both a sequel and a prequel of sorts featuring Roman and Grant. My main issue is time – there are 10+ other books on the ‘want to write’ list and you all know I’m not a hare when it comes to writing. I do have a short free story idea for Raphael and Aleric, so maybe I’ll go that route. Raphael deserves an ‘I love you’ from Aleric. One way or another, I want to make sure he eventually gets to hear those 3 words.

Misc stuff – Aleric’s age in the book was very deliberate. He’s 27, and has been cut off from his family for 3 years for refusing to become a vicar. During the Regency, men had to be at least 24 yrs old to be ordained. I figured his father wouldn’t have made a big huge stink about taking the living at Barton Hall until Aleric was old enough to actually do it, hence why Aleric is 27 in the book.

That's the story behind the story for From Afar. Any questions? Ask away *g*

First Lines

2011-01-28T00:28:00.006-05:00

About a week ago, Devon Rhodes posted an author meme on Opening Lines on her blog that she'd seen over at Val Kovalin's blog. Then Shawn Lane copied Devon and did her own post. Their posts got me thinking about my own opening lines. Of course, I couldn't resist checking my books to see if there was any sort of pattern.

“How much?”
-Bound by Deception

Under normal circumstances, the sight of a gambling hell wouldn’t put a smile on Lord Vincent Prescot’s face.
-Bound to Him

Fifteen minutes until midnight. Exactly on time.
-Beyond Reckless

Raphael Laurent dropped down onto the tree branch and blinked against the bright light spilling from the window.
-From Afar

Don’t touch him. Don’t you dare touch—
-Object of His Desire

The deep amber rays of the setting sun gently receded, cloaking the study in twilight shadows.
-Convincing Arthur

“There ye are.”
-His Client

The familiar press of hot, silken skin against his thigh roused Vincent from sleep.
-Bound Forever

The click of a lock sliding home echoed in the study.
-Convincing Leopold (work in progress)

I think of myself as more of an opening paragraph kind of gal vs an opening liner. When I first started writing, I heard all about how opening lines are supposed to grab a reader and yank them into a book. For a while, I tried to come up with cool opening lines then I gave up. Kind of how I've given up on super cool book titles. They just aren't my thing. Anyway, I don't see much of an obvious pattern to my opening lines besides that they tend to be setting oriented.

In other news, I got the final line edits for Bound Forever yesterday. They're due 1/30, but I've almost got them done. Just need to give the book a read through. Haven't made much process on Convincing Leopold since I've been back from vacation, but I'm planning to kick it back into high gear over the weekend. The book's due at the end of Feb, so yeah, time to really kick it up.

I'm Back, Progress, & the Ultimate Boyfriend

2011-01-25T00:09:00.009-05:00

I'm back from my mini-vacation to FL to visit the in-laws. No, I didn't hang out on any beaches, but I did thoroughly enjoy the warm weather. The main downside to the in-laws is their craptastic internet connection. The 1-bar of wireless signal wouldn't even let me view a blog. Had to surf on my phone, and while I love my iphone, leaving comments with it is just painful. So I was a big o'lurker for the past few days.

The upside to the craptastic internet was that I got a lot written on Convincing Leopold. Arthur and Leopold have already smexed it up twice (including office smex - but sorry, no tree smex in this one) and I'm ramping up to major angst. All in all, good progress so far on the book.

It's a testament to how well the kidlet knows me that she doesn't bat an eye when I whip out my phone and snap pictures of Ken dolls at stores. This one almost came home with me. I could have had so much fun with him. *sigh* I resisted, however, but I could not resist sharing pics.

Sweet Talkin' Ken - the ultimate boyfriend who always knows the right thing to say. Press a button and talk into his stomach, and he'll repeat what you said. In a 'Ken' voice! It really worked (of course, I had to try it out).

There are actually 3 voice options - your own voice, the masculine Ken voice, or a high pitched voice...not sure why Ken needed that last option, the poor fellow. If I had brought him home, I just know kidlet would have stuck him in high voice mode and just tormented the guy. Couldn't subject Ken to that ridicule, so I left him on the shelf.

I hope everyone had a great weekend! The artic north is darn cold, but I am happy to be home and rockin' a real internet connection again. :)

Cover Lovin' - Bound Forever

2011-01-17T01:00:00.007-05:00

I received the cover art for Bound Forever, the 3rd and final book in the Bound series! I love the feel of the cover - totally fits the book - and that house could actually be Vincent's country estate. (hugs) to April Martinez for another fabulous cover.

I tweaked up the blurb a bit before I turned it in (added a stronger hint of some of the conflict), so I'll share it.

Lord Oliver Marsden’s life is perfect...well almost perfect. His bookshop is doing well, his bank account isn’t empty, and his nights are filled with a deliciously dominant man…who tends to be a bit too domineering outside of the bedchamber. But Vincent loves him and that’s all that should matter. Right? And of course, Vincent still firmly holds the reins of control. Yet while Oliver feels Vincent is finally ready to give himself fully to him, to make good on the offer Oliver refused a year ago, the looming threat his lover could someday be forced to marry keeps him from tugging the reins from Vincent’s grasp.

Then Vincent receives a letter that changes everything. Oliver seizes the moment and pushes Vincent toward a night neither of them will ever forget. Yet come dawn, Oliver awakens to an empty bed.

Lord Vincent Prescot knows he loves Oliver. The man’s his best friend and he trusts him. So why does submitting to Oliver leave him so shaken? It doesn’t take him long to find the answer, yet his solution could drive his lover away for good.

I also added an excerpt to my website (scroll down to below the blurb). It's from a scene mid-way through the book. One of my fav scenes, because it leads up to one of my favorite scenes ;)

His Client - Now Available

2011-01-11T01:20:00.004-05:00

His Client is now available from Loose Id! *insert much squeeing from me*

The book is my longest Ava book to date, coming in at 40,000 words, which puts it firmly into short novel territory. The book features two of my favorite themes - unrequited love and friends to lovers. It also features some fun kinky smex ;) Oh, and angst. Gotta have the angst.

Here's the official blurb...which is the same blurb I posted in the past. I must have done a decent job on this one, because it received no tweaks from the marketing department.

Mr. Nathaniel Travers has been visiting Madame Delacroix’s brothel for five years. On every visit, he requests the same man. Stunningly handsome and highly skilled, Jasper not only shares Nate’s fondness for wickedly erotic games and black leather corsets, but he’s become a friend. Someone he can talk to. Someone he can share a supper with. And Jasper’s the only person who knows Nate secretly harbors a love for his old childhood friend, Peter Edmonton.

Mr. Jasper Reed has been working at the house for a decade. He’s saved enough to retire, yet he remains at the decadent London brothel. Retiring would mean leaving Nate and the hope perhaps someday the rugged gentleman would stop pining for his best friend and realize he loves Jasper, just as Jasper loves him.

It takes Edmonton’s marriage for Jasper to see he’s been just as blind as Nate. Stubbornly hoping for something that cannot be. Convinced a gentleman like Nate can never be more than his client, Jasper retires.

Life in the country may be lonely, but with no one to please but himself, it’s calm and peaceful...until Nate shows up on his doorstep.

Here's a link to the official excerpt, which includes all of chapter 1 - Excerpt

Meet the New Guys

2011-01-06T00:41:00.010-05:00

After much perusing of images (yeah, hard work, but someone has to do it), I picked out new guys for my blog and website headers. *squee* Meet Charlie and Matthew, and their photographer is Dylan Rosser. Thanks goes out to Em Woods, for without her, it would have never occurred to me to email the photographer to ask if I could purchase the image and then I wouldn't have the new guys. So really, you have Em to thank for the new permanent cookies.

His Client officially releases in less than a week! I am already starting to get over excited about it. To celebrate, Chris over at Stumbling Over Chaos is giving away a copy of His Client. Simply leave a comment on her blog to enter to win.

A couple of great friends also have upcoming book releases. Yummy Indulgences by Andi Anderson releases 1/8 from Silver Publishing, and Pulling Apart (the sequel to Pulling Away) by Shawn Lane releases 1/9 at Amber Quill Press.

In other news, I sent the edits for Bound Forever to my editor, and I've turned my full attention to Convincing Leopold. Arthur and Leopold are right about to smex it up, so I better get back to them. I don't want to be cruel and leave them hanging ;)

2010 Recap & Looking to 2011

2011-01-03T00:15:00.009-05:00

First off, before I get to anything else, I just have to share this. I went to the post office during the holidays and what did I find in my PO box?

In case you can't read it in the pic, the package is addressed to 'Ava March, Author-Under-the-Cupboards-in-the-Garage'. I seriously laughed out loud (and got a few odd looks from the postal workers). Many thanks to Chris for the gift, and for making my day. ((hugs))

Back to your regularly scheduled post. I tend to be rather type-A in everyday life, so of course I keep a writing schedule where I plan what I want to write for the year and track what I actually got done. For 2010, here's what got done:

- From Afar (novella) - wrote in 2009, released 2/2010

- Deliberately Unbound (free short story) - wrote & posted 4/2010

- His Client (short novel) - wrote in 2010

- Bound Forever (novella) - wrote in 2010

- Pleasures of Somerville Park (free short story) - wrote & posted 9/2010

- Beyond Reckless (short story) - wrote in 2010, released 11/2010

- Back to You (novella) - wrote 16k/25k in 2010

Only 2 book releases, but I spent a lot of time writing in 2010. 2009 was primarily spent writing an Evangeline novel, and in 2010 I focused on Ava. As a result, I already have 2 books written that will be released in 2011.

- His Client - January 11th
- Bound Forever - March 8th

What do I plan to write in 2011? I have a list of what I want to get done, but I've learned such lists tends to get jacked very quickly. Here's the definite will-write list:

- Convincing Leopold (novella) - due end of Feb, release likely in June

- Deliberately Bound (freebie) - April

- Back to You (novella) - finish by April/May. I've been writing this one on and off over the past few months. I wanted to get it done by the end of 2010....and well, that ties into my main resolution. But I will get it done by spring'11 - I promised Shawn I wouldn't leave Sasha hanging.

After that, I want to write the werewolf book I outlined months ago and also a prequel for Rys and Martin from Beyond Reckless. Both would be novellas. But I'll get to them many months from now, which falls into 'fuzzy schedule' territory. So I'm leaving them at the top of the 'want to write' list.

That leads into resolutions for 2011. Tops on the list?

- Be more focused. It's no secret I'm a slow writer, and the primary cause is my tendency to get....distracted. By everything. A shiny new book idea, the internet, TV, email, my internal editor from hell, and just plain stalling. In 2011, I need to use my time more wisely and stay focused on what needs to be done.

So that's a recap of 2010 and the plan for 2011. How about you? Any interesting resolutions or goals for 2011?

Happy New Year, and may 2011 be full of happiness, good health, and love!

Thanks Santa & Updates

2010-12-28T01:51:00.008-05:00

No, Santa didn't bring me him.

What Santa did bring was a new mini-laptop. Meet Mini-Pretty. He's shiny and pretty and so cute and little enough to fit in my purse. I included the CapriSun in the pic, so you can get idea of how little he really is. He makes Pretty look huge.

I still plan to use Pretty for day-to-day writing, but Mini-Pretty's great for writing on the go. So hopefully he'll help increase my productivity.

In other news, I received the second round of edits on Bound Forever over the weekend and have already finished them. I'm letting them sit for a few days, just to make certain I don't want to change anything, then I'll send them to my editor. Oh, and His Client is now officially on Loose Id's Coming Soon page. *g* The blurb isn't up yet, but the book's there. And yes, I have gone to visit Jasper and Nate a few times tonight.

As for real writing, I'll be honest and admit I've been toying with a new freebie for my website. Doing the edits for Bound Forever got me in an Oliver and Vincent mood. The new freebie will be titled Deliberately Bound. It takes place after Bound Forever, so even if I finish it soon, I won't post it until after the book releases. But the scene was so clear in my head, I just couldn't resist the urge to work on it.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas with their loved ones and that Santa was very good to you. Anyone have any fun plans for New Years? Hubby and I are going out to dinner and dancing with some friends. I have no sense of rhythm (Elaine's a great dancer compared to me), so the evening will consist of me clinging to hubby as he moves me around the dance floor. Should be fun ;)

Cover Lovin' - His Client

2010-12-20T01:00:00.008-05:00

I received the cover for His Client over the weekend! Huge thanks to April Martinez. She's done the covers for all of my Loose Id books thus far, and she does fabulous work.

All of the epublishers that I've worked with ask authors to fill out some form of a cover request form. Every time I get a cover, it never ceases to amaze me how the cover artists give me what I asked for. Probably sounds odd to say such a thing, but I don't at all have an image of an 'ideal' cover in my head when I complete those forms. I simply fill in the blanks - genre, tone of the book, descriptions of the heroes, setting of the book, other covers that I like, etc. - and then let the cover artist work their magic.

For this one, I gave 2 setting options - a bedchamber at the brothel or Jasper's cottage. 'Quaint, stone cottage. 2-story house in the country'. check. A guy in a corset to give a hint of the kink in the book (the guys like to play games). check. And there's Nate in his starched white cravat. ...a cravat that makes my fingers twitch to unravel it. One of the reasons why I love writing Regency set books. Gorgeous clothes, and it's so fun to get the guys out of those gorgeous clothes. ;)

Naughty Books and Tiny Little Shorts

2010-12-15T02:03:00.009-05:00

I had a nice long weekend and got the proofs reviewed for His Client. So that's done. The book will officially be out in less than a month. Still seems forever away, especially since it releases in 2011, but according to the calendar, 'forever away' is really only 4 weeks.

It also snowed over the weekend and got freakin' cold on Monday. As a result, it took me over a half hour to drive 4 miles to the EDJ on Tuesday since the roads were seriously a sheet of ice. My car has this little 'Slip' light on the dashboard that goes off whenever the tires lose traction with the road. That light went off so many times I'm amazed the darn thing didn't blow itself out. sigh. Midwest winters. The snow was pretty to look at Sunday morning, but I don't think it's very pretty anymore.

Last Friday I mentioned that Smexy Claus would be visiting at Smexy Books and giving away naughty goodies for 12 days. Well, today he's got some of my naughty boys in his bag. He's giving away a choice of one of my released books. Simply answer Mandi's question about Ken dolls (a subject near and dear to my heart *g*) to enter to win. Contest is open through December 17th.

In other news, if you're in the mood for some naughty Christmas elves, check out Shawn Lane's latest release, The Naughty Ones.

...and yes, it did ocurr to me after I picked today's cookie that it's the 2nd time this month I picked a cookie who could barely fit into his tiny little shorts. Draw what conclusions you may from that. I purposely chose to simply admire the cookie and not wonder 'why him?'...cause really, the answer's pretty obvious ;)

Glad it's the Weekend & Blog Happenings

2010-12-10T21:11:00.010-05:00

I hope everyone's had a great week. I am very happy it's Friday evening and I'm looking forward to a long weekend (I'm taking Monday off from the EDJ - whoo-hoo!). Though it won't be all fun and chillin' and writing new stuff this weekend. I got the proofs for His Client on Thursday and I have to review them by Monday.

Shawn Lane is posting a free Christmas short story on her blog. Part One of Last Christmas was posted last Monday, Part Two yesterday, and Parts Three and Four will post this Monday and Thursday. So if you're in the mood for a Christmas story with a couple of hotties, stop on by to check it out.

Starting Monday, Mandi from Smexy Books is holding the 12 Days of Naughty Books, where for 12 days, 12 different authors will be giving away naughty books. I don't know exactly what's in Smexy Claus's bag of goodies, but I have a feeling he's got some naughty boys who like naughty boys in there ;)

In non-Ava writing news, I was super geeked when a certain Smexy friend told me my Evangeline m/f historical romance was included on Sarah from Smart Bitches' list of Best Romances for 2010. *g* There's a m/m book on the list as well, which I was very happy to see. I haven't read Strawberries for Dessert yet, but I remember seeing some good reviews for it from friends on GoodReads and I'm putting it on the to-read list now.

Story Behind the Story - Mad Blood by Stephani Hecht

2010-12-07T00:05:00.001-05:00

Mad Blood by Stephani Hecht

Stats - Date completed and submitted 1-10-09, Publication Date 4-15-09

Little known fact - In this book the old Tiger Stadium has a cameo appearance. Since, at the time, the stadium was still in the process of being torn down, I went to Google Earth so I could see pictures of its current condition. While I realize it probably dated the book, I couldn’t resist adding this piece of Detroit history to the story.

Extremely little known fact – Dante almost ended up with a female as a mate! Up until Mad Blood, I’d only written M/F books. Then as I started to plot out Mad Blood, I realized that Dante’s mate was Brenden. Instead of fighting it, I just went along with the voices in my head. Since I’d never wrote a M/M book before I admit I was a bit nervous, but once I started I realized that I truly loved the genre. I’m so glad I went with my gut because I can’t imagine Dante having a HEA with anyone else. Not only that, but it started me on my journey to writing mostly M/M books and I’ve never been happier.

How did I get the idea for the book – Oh boy! Now the world is going to know how twisted my thinking process really is. LOL I’d already had the Drone Vampire series started and I knew that Dante would be next. I also knew he would need a strong, yet loving mate to deal with his attitude. All of the sudden this cute, blond vampire named Brenden jumped into the mix and demanded that it was time to write his book, too. I discovered then that Brenden was meant for Dante. I just love mixing the paranormal world with the “ordinary” life of Detroit and outlining cities. One of my favorite characters is Snuggles, a sea serpent who lives in the Detroit River.

If I could edit the book now, what would I change (if anything)? - As sappy as it sounds there is nothing I would change about the book. I love Dante and Brenden just the way they are.
--------------------
Mad Blood, Book #2 in The Drone Vampire Chronicles – available now from eXtasy Books.

Ever since being released from the paranormal prison that served as his home for ten years, all Dante wanted to do was pick up the pieces of his shattered life. Once one the most respected vampires, he now is a shell of what he used to be, both emotionally and socially. Taking shelter with a rebel band of Drone Vampires, he has given up any hope of true happiness.

Then when he least expects it, he finds himself drawn to another vampire. Young and innocent to his dark desires, it’s the last male Dante ever thought he would want. Not wanting to corrupt another, he tries to deny his true feelings. Then after a few stolen taboo touches, Dante can no longer fight the urge to claim his mate.

Where Ken is Not So Cute

2010-12-06T00:09:00.002-05:00

The edits and revisions for Bound Forever are officially done! I ended up adding another 2 chapters (@5,000 words) to the book, so it came in around 30,000 words (same length as Bound to Him). I sent it off to my editor around 4:30 am Saturday night. Well, it was likely technically Sunday morning, but since the sun hadn't risen yet, I'm counting it as meeting my deadline of Saturday night. The next book that has a looming deadline (since it's already contracted) is Convincing Leopold. I have to finish it by Feb/March'11.

On Tuesday (tomorrow), Stephani Hecht will be by to do a Story Behind the Story post for Mad Blood, a significant book for Steph. And of course you'll have to stop by tomorrow to find out why it's so significant. ;)

I was at Toys'R Us again rececently with the kidlet and spotted a new Ken doll that made me go...really???

Shaving Fun Ken. And yes, his head is really that large in proportion to the rest of his body. Apparently some Kens now have real hair, and this one has the added ability to 'grow' a beard. Using ice cold and warm water, you can make him grow a beard then 'shave' him. Give him a goatee, a moustache, or one of those little smidges of hair under his bottom lip. Of course, that begs the question - where else can he 'grow' hair, and can you shave that, too, into fun little shapes?

Hubby thought the doll looked like Kato Kaelin. I couldn't help but agree. I also noticed his hair is styled much better in the pics on the back of the box than it is on the actual doll.

Poor Ken. I felt bad for him, but not bad enough to take him home.

Beyond Reckless - Now Available

2010-11-29T06:00:00.005-05:00

Beyond Reckless is now available from Amber Allure!! I love new book releases. Always get so excited when a book shows up on the New Release page. And yes, there is squeeing and over-excited clapping involved.

The book is my first published short story and I had a blast writing it. It's 6,000 words, 3 chapters, and features an established couple. No major angst or drama in this one, just two kinky guys having a lot of fun ;)

It’s the eve of Mr. Rys Palmer’s 25th birthday. A significant birthday, for it’s when he’ll come into his majority and gain full control of the inheritance from his obscenely wealthy grandfather. But the promise of a fortune isn’t what gets Rys’s blood pumping.

Mr. Martin Trent’s well aware of his lover’s propensity for thrills. After four years together, he knows just how to indulge Rys without risking either of their reputations or their necks. But clearly Rys’s taste for more than a hint of danger has rubbed off on him. Beyond reckless to ask Rys to meet him at a formal ton ball to give Rys his gift. Yet Martin can’t resist the opportunity to give his lover a birthday he’ll never forget...

Excerpt (scroll down the book's page a bit for the excerpt)

Must not forget to mention - since it's a new release, it's available for only $1.95 at Amber Allure.

Giveaway for Beyond Reckless

2010-11-23T01:46:00.007-05:00

I've been deep in the revision cave for the past couple of days, but it's been going good. Oliver and Vincent are cooperating...with me, at least. ;)

This Sunday, the 28th, Beyond Reckless releases from Amber Allure. Yes, I'm already getting geeked about it. Been 9 months since my last Ava release and it feels like forever. To celebrate the upcoming release, Chris over at Stumbling Over Chaos is holding a contest. So pop on over to her blog to enter to win a copy of Beyond Reckless, and say hi to Mayhem and Chaos while you're there.

That's about all I've got for news, at least until Sunday when I'll be squeeing over the book. For all those in the U.S., I hope you have a fabulous Thanksgiving. And hopefully you're lucky enough to have the day off and maybe even Friday off work. Four day weekends are...sigh...wonderful. Yep, you guessed it, I'll be kicking back in the revision cave on Friday. Wish me luck.

Updates, Yummy Cookie & Who didn't come home to The Princes

2010-11-17T01:07:00.009-05:00

Hope everyone's been having a good week. It rained...like all day here today. Total blah weather. But I got a release date for Bound Forever, so that cheered me up. The book will be available on March 8, 2011. *g*

In other news, Stephani Hecht will be by the blog on 12/7 for a Story Behind the Story post on Mad Blood - book 2 in The Drone Vampire Chronicles. Steph's funny and sweet and a very talented author, so stop on by on the 7th to check out the behind the scenes scoop on Mad Blood.

Also, huge congrats goes out to Andi Anderson on the release of The Sweet One! The book's been getting fabulous reviews, so congrats again to Andi, as I know the book holds a special place in her heart.

Last weekend, I took the kidlet to Toys R Us and of course, I checked out the Barbie aisle. The fashionista Ken dolls were a bit scary, but nothing compared to the Bieber doll. The pic doesn't do justice to the oddness of the doll version of the Biebs. He looked strangely muscular for a teenager, like they used a GI Joe body for him....a GI Joe body with pecs so large they appeared rather boobish. And he had hips. Very very strange. Oh, and the way his right hand was molded to hold a microphone....that's just not right. I left him on the shelf. No way was he coming home to hang out with The Princes.

Since I like today's cookie and since I found more than one pic of him, I'll leave you with this -

A Suit, Updates & an Excerpt

2010-11-10T23:41:00.009-05:00

'Cause I love a man in a suit ;)

I've been rather productive lately. Reviewed the galley for Beyond Reckless, and did the edits for Bound Forever. All that's left is to tweak/revise the last chapter, and I'm on track to get it done by mid-Nov (my definition of 'mid').

As far as interesting news goes, His Client's release date has moved to January 11, 2011. Moved out just one week. And I do love the new date - 1/11/11 - has a lovely ring to it ;)

Beyond Reckless is up on Amber Allure's site under the Coming Soon books, with a blurb and excerpt. And yes, I've been by to visit the guys a time or two...or more. I can't help it. I get excited when blurbs and excerpts go up on a pub's site.

Speaking of excerpts, here's the excerpt from Beyond Reckless, which features a Regency-era adrenaline junkie and his inventive, indulgent lover.

(for those who don't like excerpts, here's your chance to avert your eyes)

----------------------------------
“You may need to look for me.”

The words echoed in his head. Martin had spoken so casually, but Rys should have guessed his lover had not been strictly referring to the crush of people who attended such functions.

A smile teased the edges of his mouth. An honest to goodness search. Definitely interesting.

He turned on his heel. The back garden and the balcony were out of the question. A light rain had just started to fall when his carriage had pulled up to the tidy mansion on the outskirts of Mayfair. Just to be certain, he paused as he passed the card room, but he knew the room would hold no one of interest.

No, not the general areas of the house. He would need to look someplace more…private.

The trace of frustration that had seeped into his veins when he’d entered the ballroom was now gone. In its place was the distinct spark of excitement. Of anticipation. Of the added thrill of the hunt.

And to think he had thought staid, old Lady Edgecomb’s ball would be a thoroughly dull affair.

Deciding it best to avoid any diligent footmen, he slipped through a narrow door along the corridor. While he’d been to the house a time or two in the past, he had never before strayed beyond the ballroom. But all homes in Mayfair had similar qualities, including his own. A narrow door was akin to a sign that read Servants, and this one—he caught himself from stumbling on the first step in the dark passageway—led upstairs.

One hand before him bracing for the door, he went up the stairs. When his fingers encountered cool wood, he paused and pressed his ear to the door. Silence.

The door opened soundlessly on well-oiled hinges, revealing a corridor lit by gleaming brass sconces stationed at regular intervals along the walls. Should he go right or left?

His attention stopped on the partially open door across the corridor and down a bit, the room beyond it dark.

A bit of suspicion furrowed his brow. Would Martin have made it that easy?

No way to know unless Rys checked that room.

Plush rugs silenced his footsteps as he crossed the corridor, his blood pounding with an invigorating mixture of excitement and danger and the possibility of victory.

His senses on full alert, he hesitated just the barest bit as he crossed the threshold, then stopped a couple of paces inside the room and gave his eyes a moment to adjust. A pool of golden light spilled from the corridor, but otherwise the room was dark. He could just make out the outline of a settee and a spindle-legged chair. Likely a sitting room, and it felt distinctly empty.

Obviously Martin had not made it that easy.

His lips quirked. He would have it no other way.

He left the sitting room and proceeded down the corridor. Should he check the doors on the left or right first? A systematic search or a more random one and hope luck would be on his side? Usually was. If not, he likely wouldn’t still be standing at the ripe old age of—he quickly checked his pocket watch—now five and twenty.

A large hand closed around his forearm and yanked sharply. The next thing he knew, he was pressed face-first against a wall, wrists held at the small of his back. A body even harder and stronger than his own covered him from behind.

A door snapped shut. He blinked against the sudden darkness and then his instincts screamed to the forefront.

He bucked back, tugged his arms. His gold cufflinks bit into his skin under the force of the man’s hold and then that harsh grip shifted down. Bare skin slid against his wrists. In the back of his mind, it registered that the other man wasn’t wearing gloves. He let out a grunt as the body behind him shoved his harder against the wall, pressing him flat so that he had to turn his head else risk breaking his nose. The grip on his wrists tightened to the point of pain before easing back to a secure hold.

Held tight, he shifted his weight, tested his bonds. He was certainly no slight slip of a man, but it definitely would involve a struggle to break free.

His heart slammed sharp and fast against his ribs, echoing in his ears. The man behind him shifted. A hard arch that could only belong to an obvious erection pressed into the crease of his arse. Lust shot to his groin. So thick and so heavy, he briefly squeezed his eyes closed against the force of it.

The scents of whisky, cheroot smoke and sandalwood drifted over his shoulder. The tendril of true fear, of uncertainty, vanished.

Warm breaths fanned his ear. “What have we here?”

Updates & Seven Nights to Forever

2010-11-03T00:36:00.007-04:00

I try to limit mention of my m/f books on the blog, but it's new book release day and I can't contain myself. Seven Nights to Forever (written as Evangeline Collins) is now available! I will admit to visiting the local Barnes and Noble and gawking at the book on the shelf. I contracted the book almost 2 years ago then spent many, many months writing it. So yeah, I'm super geeked it finally made its way to the shelf.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming. The edits for His Client are officially done. Next up, I'll dive into the edits/revisions for Bound Forever. I'm hoping to get it done within a couple of weeks. And at the end of this month, Beyond Reckless will release *g* Sometime before then, I'll share an excerpt on the blog. The book's a hot, fun short story featuring two wicked and naughty guys, so I'm hoping you all will enjoy it. I sure had fun writing it.

As a thanks for letting me squee about the m/f book, here are a few cookies. Enjoy!!

2011 Book Release News

2010-10-29T00:34:00.006-04:00

I hope everyone's been having a good week. Fall has arrived here. The temps are dropping, the wind is picking up, and summer's now officially gone :( I miss summer already.

Enough whining about the fact winter will soon be here. I do have some news. Bound Forever will release in March 2011! Don't have an exact date yet, but it's in the schedule for March. Loose Id waits 2-3 months between author releases, hence the Mar'11 date even though I turned the book in back in Aug. His Client has a Jan'11 date, so that meant BF would get a Mar/Apr date. I'm happy it's going to be March. And that also means Convincing Leopold will likely release sometime in early summer 2011.

Given that, I have a new target date to complete Convincing Leopold - Feb/Mar'11 (yep, love those nice and open deadlines). Which gives me plenty of time to write it...and just maybe squeeze in writing another story this year. I'll see how long it takes to do the edits/revisions on BF, then see if I have time to write something new before going back to CL.

Enough about me. Shawn Lane is holding a contest on her blog for a copy of her upcoming release, Manfred's Curse. So pop on over and leave a comment if you want to throw your name in the virtual hat. Devon Rhodes is also holding a Halloween contest on her blog. Winner gets their choice of one of her books in her backlist.

Hope everyone has a great Halloween weekend! Anyone have any fun plans? Hubby and I are taking the kidlet trick-o-treating. Kidlet is going to be a black cat witch. She wants to bring Kitteh along to complete the costume, but I'm trying to convince her that maybe that's not a good idea. Kitteh's pretty mellow for a kitty, but not sure she'd appreciate the whole trick-or-treating scene.

Cowboy Kitteh and The Prince's Issues

2010-10-25T00:43:00.009-04:00

Where did the weekend go? I swear, it was just Friday. *sigh* Oh, and I need today's hottie to come to my house to do some painting. I haven't painted in like five years (coincides with when I started writing), and it's past time I changed up some of the colors around the house. I've been trying to nudge hubby to do it, but...so far, no results.

The writing is coming along, I even got all the forms done for Beyond Reckless and turned them in *pats self on back*. I've got the 2nd round of edits due for His Client at the beginning of Nov, so I need to finish them up. After that, I'll need to turn my attention to edits and revisions for Bound Forever. Yeah, revisions. :( But my editor's right, the ending needs a tweak and Oliver will be the better for it. Ollie's my boy, after all, and I'll do whatever it takes to show him the love. *g*

There were some interesting happenings in the kidlet's playroom recently. Kitteh proved herself quite the cowgirl.

When I saw this next one in the corner of the playroom, I will admit, I was struck speachless. Speachless in a 'what the??....oh, dear lord...' sort of way. I snapped a quick pic on my phone when the kidlet was out of the room, then casually asked her what was up with The Prince. Any guesses on her answer?

...."I couldn't get his pants on".

Ahhh. See, totally reasonable reason for him to be bent over Kitteh's scratching thingy with his bum hanging out. The nearby nekkid barbie - not sure what's up with her. Didn't ask. But I did fix The Prince's pants for him. This is not the first instance where the poor fellow's been left in the lurch. Clearly I need to get him some clothes that are easier for the kidlet to get on him.

Story Behind the Story - A Pint Light by Devon Rhodes

2010-10-19T00:05:00.001-04:00

A Pint Light by Devon Rhodes

Stats - Submitted to Total-E-Bound Publishing on August 1st, 2009. Contracted on August 23rd, 2009. Released on October 26th, 2009.

Little Known Fact - I began writing this story on July 30th (see dates above)...yes, I went from conception to submission in two days (well, nights). Plus I was leaving on a month-long road trip the day I submitted.

Extremely Little Known Fact – Raine was almost a girl...for about three sentences. Then he said, hell no, and slapped me upside the head. Brie still hasn't stopped teasing him about it. She always wanted a sister.

How did I get the idea for the book? - I was browsing through TEB's website before bed (for something to read) and noticed their calls for submission for the first time. I immediately thought, so many vamp tales are dark and angsty and violent--wouldn't it be cool to write a humorous one? Not a parody, just with some warmth and funny moments. Then the title came to me, and almost simultaneously, the opening scene. I almost broke my fingers trying to get a new doc opened.

If I could edit the book now, what would I change? – The length. The word count was set by the call, and I was barely under the max as it was. Without constraints, I would pull it out to at least novella length and slow the pace down a bit. The world I built just begs for more page time, which is why I decided to use this as a springboard for the series, Vampires & Mages & Weres, Oh My!

Miscellaneous Stuff – You'll be seeing a bit of Raine and Val, Brie and Killian in the next book in the series this spring, and even more in Killian's story early summer. I can't wait, and neither can they!

Thanks bunches to my lovely Ava, who has been there from the start. Hard to imagine it's been over a year since all this started! Thanks for having me on, and I'd love to answer any questions from her readers (ask the right ones and maybe you'll get some spoilers). ;)

A Pint Light - Now available from Total E-Bound Publishing

Valerian stole Raine's blood, his magic...and his heart.

What's a vampire to do when every day is the same old dull quest for blood? Head to Maui, of course. But before Valerian can hit the beach, he needs to get rid of the sultry mage seducing him in his sleep. She may have fooled his subconscious, but he doesn't need a mate complicating his life. Imagine Val's shock when he finds out she's a he, yet still has the power to arouse him beyond anything he'd ever imagined.

Raine faints at the sight of blood and isn't looking forward to being a vamp's chew toy. Still, family duty calls, and Valerian turns out to be the hottest, and most powerful, male on two legs. Raine is crushed when the sexy vamp of his dreams runs from their rough play in horror. But his pride can't stand in the way when Valerian accidently steals his magic along with his blood.

Now, with time running out, Raine needs to seduce him one last time to even up the score, and maybe this time, they'll exchange more than blood and power. Magic is in the air, and sometimes love only needs a little nudge.

Brought to you by the letter A...

2010-10-14T01:41:00.010-04:00

I've got nothing much exciting to report. Been writing, got edits for both His Client and Bound Forever in the 'need to do soon' queue, and misc promo stuff (like interview questions) for the upcoming m/f print book. Lots of stuff, but none of it very exciting.

So to compensate for my lack of exciting-ness, I'm sharing some cookies which start with the letter A. No specific reason for A, other than it's the 1st letter of the alphabet, and well, the 'A' cookies looked particulary yummy. *g*

Andrew O.

Andrew S.

Aaron

Alan

On Tuesday 10/19, Devon Rhodes will be by to do a Story Behind the Story post for A Pint Light. So if you find yourself out and about trolling the internet on Tuesday, stop on by and check it out. A Pint Light is one of my fav books from Devon, and when I found out how quickly she wrote it (yep, I've already peeked at the post), I felt like a....what's slower than a snail?....in comparison. ;)

Cover Lovin' - Beyond Reckless

2010-10-07T01:10:00.006-04:00

Squee alert! I love getting covers - it makes my little geeky heart smile. And today my email stalking paid off, and I received the cover for my 11/28 Amber Allure release, Beyond Reckless! Many thanks to Trace Edward Zaber for a fabulous cover.

You may notice a theme with most of my covers...nekkid men. It's because I ask for the nekkidness on my cover request forms. Yep, it's true. I've taken to shamelessly asking for nekkid hotties. Well, I don't actually type the words 'nekkid hotties' on the forms. I phrase it a litte differently, but the cover artists get the idea. If you all haven't figured it out by now, I have a thing for bare skin. ;)

Anyway, back to the squeeing. The book's now on the Coming Soon page for Amber Allure, too. And yes, I've visited the page quite a few times already today. This will be my 6th Ava release, and the thrill of a book first showing up on the Coming Soon page still hasn't worn off, and I hope it never does.

Here's the blurb for the book. I posted it a few weeks ago, and well, I'm posting it again, just because I'm geeking on the book.

It’s the eve of Mr. Rys Palmer’s 25th birthday. A significant birthday, for it’s when he’ll come into his majority and gain full control of the inheritance from his obscenely wealthy grandfather. But the promise of a fortune isn’t what gets Rys’s blood pumping.

Mr. Martin Trent’s well aware of his lover’s propensity for thrills. After four years together, he knows just how to indulge Rys without risking either of their reputations or their necks. But clearly Rys’s taste for more than a hint of danger has rubbed off on him. Beyond reckless to ask Rys to meet him at a ton ball to give Rys his gift. Yet Martin can’t resist the opportunity to give his lover a birthday he’ll never forget.

Excerpt - His Client

2010-10-05T00:05:00.001-04:00

In celebration of His Client's release in less than 3 months (...it releases on 1/4/11, since today's the 5th of Oct, it's officially less than 3 months), I'm sharing an excerpt from the book.

For those of you who don't dig excerpts, here's your warning to avert your eyes. Oh, and here's also the 'book is not fully edited' warning as well. So please excuse any typos or other errors.

----------------------
A hard, sweaty body slumped against him. Nate forced his hand to release Jasper’s prick and then wrapped his arms around the man’s waist. For a long moment the only sounds that broke the silence were their hard pants as they struggled to catch their breaths. Then Jasper shifted. Soft lips coasted up his neck, over his jaw and found his. Lazy and slow and oh so familiar, the kiss lulled Nate’s senses, tempting him to remain right there, with Jasper in his arms, for the rest of the night. But…

Damnation. Keeping the groan inside, he turned his head, broke the kiss. That damn thundercloud of desolation settled right back over his head, dousing every last bit of the post-orgasmic euphoria from his veins.

He opened his eyes to find Jasper staring down at him.

“Something the matter?” Jasper asked, undeniable concern reflected in his heavily-lidded eyes.

“I have a supper I need to attend tonight. Need to celebrate Peter’s last night of bachelorhood.” The last thing he wanted to do, but he had given the man his word and couldn’t very well back down now.

Jasper shifted off his lap, Nate’s sated cock slipping from his body, and stood. A shrug of his shoulders and the torn shift slipped down his arms, falling to the floor. Turning, he reached down and picked up Nate’s shirt then handed it to him. “Any plans besides supper to celebrate the dreaded event?”

Nate shrugged. “Likely he’ll want to go to some gambling hell or other.” The destination mattered not to him. Wherever they went would involve a long night of smiling and putting on an entirely false pretense of happiness. A long night of pretending as though his heart wasn’t breaking.

He scrubbed a hand over his face and got to his feet to finish dressing. He didn’t bother to take much care with the cravat Jasper handed him -- he’d need to stop at his apartments to change and clean up before going onto Peter’s townhouse anyway. Hell, why did the man have to get married? And tomorrow… Christ, tomorrow he had to watch it happen.

And right now, even his bloody coat wasn’t cooperating. Darn top button refused to slip through its hole.

“It will be all right.” Jasper’s words sounded quiet and sure, holding a wealth of compassion, but Nate found no comfort in them.

“No it won’t. It will be terrible.” Was that his voice? He sounded like a disgruntled adolescent. Hell, Jasper had just fucked him into oblivion, and now Nate was acting like a maudlin fool once again. Jasper had the patience of a saint to put up with him.

Deciding he’d have to make do with one less button done up, he gave his coat a sharp tug to straighten it and looked up.

With a faint click, Jasper set the brandy decanter back on the silver tray on the cabinet. Bare as the day he was born, he turned to face Nate. Occupied with locating Nate’s clothes and righting the room, he had not yet pulled on his own trousers. His limp cock hung between his legs, but Jasper made no move to cover it. Nate found the man’s ease in his own skin…comforting. A reminder there were no secrets between them. Nothing to hide. Nothing to shield from prying eyes. They accepted each other as they were.

“Thank you for tonight.”

Jasper lifted one bare shoulder in a half shrug. “Anytime. You know that.”
* * * * *
Jasper watched Nate’s retreating back as he left the room. The door snapped shut. He grabbed the torn shift from the floor. As he tossed it into the bin beside the washstand in the corner of the room, he glanced into the oval mirror. The dark tousled waves of his hair hung over his brow. His cheeks were still flushed with a hint of color from the orgasm Nate had given him. And faint smudges of rouge were smeared around his mouth.

He winced. It wasn’t that he did not adore playing with Nate. Rather, the image in the mirror was a harsh reminder of exactly how Nate saw him -- as a whore and nothing more.

His shoulders slumped as pain began to wrap around his chest once again. He hoped to God Nate would let Edmonton go and move on. But even if he did, what then?

Story Behind the Story - Not Anymore by Em Woods

2010-09-28T00:05:00.002-04:00

Not Anymore by Em Woods

Stats - Submitted to Total-E-Bound Publishing on March 22, 2010. Contracted on April 1, 2010. Released on September 27, 2010.

Little Known Fact - Logan and Dan were so easy to write. They practically poured onto the paper! But they started out in first person. Which turned out to be both a blessing and a curse. LOL. On one hand, oh man, it needed work! But on the other, the editor from another digital publisher thought it was worth enough to send a page & a half rejection letter , which basically said, “Go third person and this is a winner”. She was right.

Extremely Little Known Fact – Logan’s name started out as Matthew. As it turns out, the only request dear hubby has ever made is related to this. He read the opening scene and said, “Honey, I love you. But can we not name characters after our kids?” Um…. Yeah. I can accommodate that. LOL.

How did I get the idea for the book? - I frequent a Writer’s Digest blog called Promptly, and one of the prompts there sprouted this story. It’s truly a testament that you never know where a great idea or story will come from. This one came from five-hundred words or less.

If I could edit the book now, what would I change? – Hhmm… I have to say that I’d like to describe the waterfall scene in more detail. And to make it longer. Logan and Dan are so amazing that I would have liked to give them more airtime. But there’s a next in that series with their friend Jared… so we’ll see them again!

Miscellaneous Stuff – I received the offer for the book just after midnight on April 1st… I swear I sat and stared at the email for hours waiting on the words to change or a follow-up email saying, “April Fool’s!” *grin* But all that came was the contract. Whew!

And of course, I have to echo Andi Anderson’s words in that Ava is a wonderful person who encourages newbies like us to keep at it. Thanks, Ava, both for the encouragement and the opportunity to guest blog today.

Not Anymore - Now Available from Total E-Bound
Programmer Dan Perry needs a vacation. He talks his boss into giving him a week off to fly to Hawaii with his sister and her boyfriend. He knows he’ll be the third wheel but he has to get out of the office and away from his abusive ex.

As the second partner in the software firm where Dan works, Logan has wanted him from a distance for over a year. Now, Logan intends to make his move but things heat up when Dan is abducted. Can Logan save Dan and convince him that love is worth a shot?

Updates and Shiny, Pretty Things

2010-09-24T01:39:00.007-04:00

Since football season is starting up, I thought today's cookie would be fitting. I don't watch much football, but I have been known to occassionally pay attention when a game's on TV. Hot, muscular men in tight pants? Kind of hard to resist sneaking a peak. When they do the hike thing...that's my fav part. ;)

Not much going on with me. I'm currently working on Convincing Leopold and it's going...slowly. Usually does when I first start a book. So nothing unusal there. I get most of my writing done over the weekend, so hopefully the WIP'n Progress meter will show some progress by Sunday night.

On Tuesday 9/28, Em Woods is stopping by to do a Story Behind the Story post. Em's a great friend, a fab writer, and likes to hang out in the shallow end of the pond (the good end where all the fun happens). So stop on by on Tuesday to get the scoop on her first book, Not Anymore.

In other news, if you're in the mood to throw your name in the hat to win an awesome book, Shawn Lane's holding a contest on her blog for her upcoming release, The Beach House. Contest is open until September 30th.

Oh, and I must not forget, I have new shiny, pretty things! The mailman delivered the new postcards for From Afar. Squee!! And yes, I've been pettting them and lovin' on them. If anyone wants a few to pet or fondle, just send me an email (either my blogger email or ava @ avamarch (dot) com ) with your snail mail address and I'll have them out in the mail for you.

Basking, Laziness, & a Balding Prince

2010-09-20T00:05:00.003-04:00

I hope everyone had a great week and weekend. I spent last Monday tweaking the chapter outline for Convincing Leopold, after that, I didn't do much of anything productive. I basked in the wonderful glow of Beyond Reckless's contract offer and was wonderfully lazy. Watched the finale of Top Chef DC (go Kevin! - my fav pick won) and other misc TV, and read books. I also got a lovely review from Publishers Weekly for my upcoming Evangeline book, so I basked in that for a couple of days.

Yeah....lots of basking and laziness. It was a nice week *g*

In non-lazy news, huge congrats go out to Andi Anderson on the release of A Realistic Romance! The book's sitting at the top of my TBR pile - it's my reward for after I finish chapter one of Convincing Leopold. I've read some fab reviews for Andi's newest book, and I figure the book will be a good incentive to get my lazy butt in gear and get back to writing.

The kidlet had a friend over again today. It's always interesting to see what happens when they pull out the barbies, and what scenarios they put the poor dolls in. Today they seemed fond of the Princes. From the looks of it, the guys were babysitting.

The guys look happy, at least. Though I did notice that Prince Phillip has developed a bald spot on the top of his head. I wonder what the kids were doing to him that made his hair rub off?

The kidlet's friend did ask 'Why are you taking a picture of the dolls?'. Before I could even think of a response, the kidlet answered 'She always does that. She likes the boy barbies'. *sigh* I'm as transparent as glass. And to think I thought I was being sly...

Challenge = New Book

2010-09-14T00:01:00.008-04:00

Earlier last week, I issued a little challenge to Shawn Lane. As it so happened, we both had ideas for short stories that had snagged our attentions. The challenge was laid down - we'll write them by Sunday 9/12. Shawn finished Manfred's Curse on Friday 9/10. Go Shawn!! I managed to get mine done by Sunday, the deadline. Go me!!

And now I have news to share. *g* That short story already has a home. Beyond Reckless will be available 11/28/10 from Amber Quill Press! It's my first book with AQP, and I'm geeked to be publishing with them.

Beyond Reckless is a short, definitely hot little m/m story with some D/s elements, and it was super fun to write. I even have the blurb written already.

It’s the eve of Mr. Rys Palmer’s 25th birthday. A significant birthday, for it’s when he’ll come into his majority and gain full control of the inheritance from his obscenely wealthy grandfather. But the promise of a fortune isn’t what gets Rys’s blood pumping.

Mr. Martin Trent’s well aware of his lover’s propensity for thrills. After four years together, he knows just how to indulge Rys without risking either of their reputations or their necks. But clearly Rys’s taste for more than a hint of danger has rubbed off on him. Beyond reckless to ask Rys to meet him at Lady Edgecomb’s ball to give Rys his gift. Yet Martin can’t resist the opportunity to give his lover a birthday he’ll never forget.

Pleasures of Somerville Park - Free Story

2010-09-07T00:15:00.003-04:00

Pleasures of Somerville Park, a new free short story featuring Arsen and Henry from Object of His Desire, is now available on my website! Click HERE to check it out.

It takes place at Arsen's country estate, Somerville Park (hence the title), and occurs eight months after Object of His Desire. It's got smex (of course) and a bit of angst. You also get to meet Arsen's youngest brother who's trying to convince Arsen he's needed in London.

I even made a little cover for it. Yeah, that's what happens when I have the house to myself for an entire day. After I finished up writing the story, I played around in photoshop. At least I resisted the urge to shop for new guys and just used an image I already had. If they look familiar, it's because they're also in my website header (...and random other book covers - those 2 apparently have no issues making out in public).

In other news, congrats goes out to Shawn Lane on the release of Twice in a Lifetime, the second book in her Sutter's Bay series. Go Shawn!!

I hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend (...well, those in the US). I spent Saturday and Sunday writing, and Monday hanging out with kidlet and her friend. At least this time they didn't leave Prince Phillip naked or dress him in a tutu -- I know, for I had to pry a pair of jeans onto the poor fellow since they were too tight for the kids to get on him. No shirt, but they let him wear pants while he hung out with the Barbies.

His Client - Release Date

2010-08-30T00:41:00.008-04:00

I received a tentative release date for His Client - Jan 4th, 2011. Four months suddenly seems like forever away, but it's nice to finally have a date and it will give me something to look forward to after the holidays. No word yet on Bound Forever, but as I just turned in the book a week ago, it will probably be a bit before I get a date for that one.

I didn't get much writing done over the weekend, but I got a bunch of other 'stuff' done. Finalized artwork for a new Ava postcard - this one will feature From Afar on one side. Typed up notes for another short story for Oliver and Vincent, and did some research for Arsen and Henry's short story. I've already got notes for that one, so now I'm all set to actually write it. My goal is to have it posted on my website by the weekend, and I'll post a link here on the blog when it's all set. Still don't have a title for it, though. That's not unusal - titles so aren't my thing. Some authors are great at titles, but me...not so much. Hopefully sometime this week something good will occur to me. We'll see how it goes - it could end up with the oh-so-unique title of 'Arsen and Henry's Short Story'.

So that's it for me. In other news, if you want to throw your name in the virtual hat to win a copy of Shawn Lane's upcoming release Twice in a Lifetime, pop on over to Stumbling Over Chaos. Also, big congrats go out to Devon Rhodes on the release of The Swap, her first book with Amber Allure. Here's wishing her many sales and many happy readers :)

Story Behind the Story - Bound to Him

2010-08-26T08:30:00.000-04:00

Stats – Received contract offer 9/26/08. Sent in book 2/18/09. Published 4/28/09.

No, it didn’t take me 5 months to write it. I’m not that slow. *g* I had other stuff on the writing plate that needed to get done before I could get to Oliver and Vincent’s sequel. I checked my notes and from what I can tell, it took me less than 2 months to write the book. In Ava-land, that’s really fast for a 30k book.

Little known fact – The original idea for the title was Bound by Love. Before I sent the blurb to my editor, I checked around and found another book with that same title on Samhain’s Coming Soon page. So I changed the title to Bound to Him. BTW, Bound by Love (by T.A. Chase) was a very good book – I quite enjoyed it, to the point where I wasn’t miffed that I had to change my title.

Extremely little known fact – Bound to Him was the first book I contracted before I wrote it. A few days after Bound by Deception released, I sent my editor two blurbs for future book ideas. One was Bound to Him, the other was Convincing Arthur. We decided to do Bound to Him next, and within a week, I got word that the publisher wanted to contract it. I never even sent in a formal submission or a synopsis or anything. I was super surprised and super geeked that Loose Id liked BBD so much they wanted the sequel based off the blurb alone.

How did I get the idea for the book? – I knew when I was writing Bound by Deception that Oliver and Vincent would need a sequel. I couldn’t leave them without Vincent telling Oliver he loved him. So the idea for the book came from the need to get Vincent to say those three all important words to Oliver. Vincent’s stubborn and arrogant and Oliver practically worshiped Vincent for years, so I needed to run both of them through the wringer in order to get their relationship to a good, solid place. …and it was fun running them through the wringer. I *heart* angst.

If I could edit the book now, what would I change (if anything)? Add a scene with Vincent sometime during the 3 weeks after Oliver broke up with him. In my head, Oliver is on Vincent’s mind constantly during those 3 weeks, and Vincent fully comes to accept that he’s gay and that he loves Oliver. But I didn’t have any good ideas for a scene, well at least an idea that wasn’t just Vincent ‘thinking’. So instead, I just picked up with Vincent after he and Oliver had the run-in outside the theatre, and added some paragraphs to cover what I skipped. Looking back, those are 3 critical weeks for Vincent, as far as character development goes. He does a lot of growing, emotionally speaking. I should have tried harder to get more than a glimpse of them onto the page.

Will there be a sequel – Yes. *g* Just finished Bound Forever on Monday. In fact, when I got the edits for Bound to Him, my editor asked if there would be a 3rd book. It took me over a year to get to it and then write it, but I finally gave the guys their final book and tied up all the loose ends in the series.

Misc stuff – In my very first concept for the book, Oliver ended up taking full advantage of Vincent’s offer to completely put himself in Oliver’s hands at the end of the book. But as I fleshed out the book, I realized Oliver wouldn’t do it. Well…that he wouldn’t go all the way. And I don’t think Vincent would have truly enjoyed it, no matter how good Oliver would have tried to make it for him. Both guys needed to ease their way into such a change in the dynamic of the bedroom. Therefore, I knew as I was writing Bound to Him that I would end up writing Bound Forever. And hopefully readers didn’t get miffed at me when Oliver pretty much said thanks but maybe later. ;)

That's the Story Behind the Story for Bound to Him. Any questions? Ask away! *g*

Another One Done

2010-08-23T14:21:00.004-04:00

I buckled down this weekend and did it. I finished Bound Forever!! The book is officially in my editor's hands (or rather, in her inbox).

It’s my 7th Ava book and my 9th book overall. Seems kind of odd to think I’ve written so many books, especially since I've been a published author for not quite 2 years. Well, at least 9 seems like a lot to me (it's like nothing compared to some people I know...like Shawn Lane *g*). And the scary thing is I have more than 9 books on the ever-growing to-write list.

I’m very happy the book is done (I even did a little happy dance), but in a way, I’m also a bit sad. It’s the last book for Oliver and Vincent. I really adored writing about them, and Oliver is my favorite hero thus far. But I’m not done with them completely. I have a feeling Ollie and Vincent have some more free short stories in them. *g*

Speaking of short stories, next up on my to-do list is a one for Arsen and Henry from Object of His Desire. Over the next week or so, I plan to work on it. Then after that, it's on to Convincing Leopold. That one is due mid-November and I don't want to dilly-dally too long before starting it.

Happy Monday everyone! ...yeah, it's Monday and starting the work week bites, but today's a good Monday since I finished a book. :)

Convincing Leopold - Coming Soon

2010-08-20T00:21:00.008-04:00

Earlier this week, I mentioned some upcoming news that I promised to share later this week. Well, later this week has arrived *g*

Convincing Leopold, the sequel to Convincing Arthur, has been contracted by Loose Id! Release date is TBD, as I haven't written the book yet. My deadline to finish the book is mid-November (yes, and that's my 10th-20th definition of 'mid'), so it won't release until early 2011.

A couple weeks ago, Arthur and Leopold snagged my attention. I had planned to start writing their sequel toward the end of 2010, but I changed my mind and moved them up the to-write list. I outlined the sequel, then wrote a synopsis and sent it off to Loose Id. While on vacation, the email stalking paid off and I got 'the email'. One of those really, really lovely ones that include a contract offer.

Last night and tonight I worked on the blurb, so I'll share it. It's not the final-final one, but it's what I'll turn in.

Mr. Leopold Thornton finally has the man he’s loved for a decade, yet he can’t believe his good fortune. A reformed rake and a conservative solicitor? Leopold tries to hold firm to his belief Arthur will someday love him, yet Arthur’s spending more time at the office, and the handsome new secretary doesn’t help matters. Desperate not to lose Arthur, Leopold does the only thing he can think of – use pleasure to keep him. After all, sex is all he can offer Arthur, isn’t it?

Mr. Arthur Barrington truly wants their relationship to work. Sinfully beautiful, without a single inhibition in the bedroom and devoted to him, Leopold’s the opposite of Arthur’s former staid lover. When they first arrived in London, everything was perfect. Yet lately, all Leopold wants is to have sex – in the study, in the carriage, and at his office, no less. Juggling demanding clients and a demanding lover leaves Arthur exhausted. Something’s got to give.

For Arthur, the choice is simple…once he realizes he needs to make it. What’s not simple is convincing Leopold he loves him. All of him and not just his body. For Leopold’s disappeared from London, and Arthur hasn’t a clue where to find him.

My thanks goes out to Eyre for the cookies at the top of the post - I snagged them from her blog. What can I say? She's got yummy cookies. :)

Well, now I'm off to finish up Bound Forever. Yeah...I'm gonna miss my mid-month deadline, but only by a couple days. After being gone on vacation last week, the EDJ has been...beyond hectic. Since I'm working on a pivotal chapter in the book, I felt Ollie and Vincent deserved my full attention. So I'm going to finish it this weekend. Promise. The guys will be well and truly smexed up by Monday and in my editor's hands.

Nearing the Finish Line

2010-08-16T00:38:00.007-04:00

I'm home from vacation. Had a wonderful time at the beach house, spotted a couple almost-cookie worthy specimens, and got a ton of writing done on Bound Forever. In fact, I'm working on the last chapter. Well, it's really chapter 5. Since I outline books by chapter before I write them, I can bounce all over the place depending on which scenes I'm feeling at the moment. With this one, I started at the beginning, then jumped to the end and worked my way back. Thus leaving me with chapter 5 to finish.

I'm on track to finish Bound Forever by mid-August. I define 'mid' as the 10th-20th, so even though it's the 16th, I haven't passed my self-imposed deadline yet. Nifty how that works, huh? *g*

I also finished up the first round of edits on His Client. I'll send them off tomorrow - I like to let edits sit for a night, just in case something occurs to me as I'm laying in bed or taking a shower (my two prime times for random writing-related thoughts to flitter through my head).

I took Sunday afternoon off from writing and took the kidlet to the mall. She wanted to go to Build-A-Bear, and since she's so damn cute, I of course said yes. The kidlet's kitty seemed to like her purchases. Though it took a bit of doing to convince the kidlet that Kitteh (that's her new name - it was hubby's doing) would not like to wear the matching jammie shorts, even though there's a hole in them for her tail.

Gotta love Kitteh. She put up with being tucked into bed with the new comforter and pillow set. Even stayed there for a good ten minutes.

Personally though, I think Kitteh was just so happy that we sprung her out of kitty jail (she went to a kennel while we were on vacation), that she was willing to put up with anything. Even the kidlet's particular brand of over-affection.

In case anyone noticed, I moved the Story Behind the Story post for Bound to Him out until 8/26. I've got news I'm gonna post instead later this week. ...yeah, I'm a tease. *g* But if you've been following the last few posts, you just might be able to guess :)

In Search of Beach-Dwelling Cookies

2010-08-07T00:48:00.006-04:00

I'm so glad it's the weekend. I've been deep in the writing cave for the past week, and the EDJ has been...well, evil. But it's now the weekend and I'm one happy gal.

Guess where I'm going today? *the cookies are a hint* :) Yep, the beach! Not an ocean beach, but a lake beach. Lake Michigan is a damn big lake, so it's kind of like an ocean beach. I'll admit, I'm not much of a beach gal. I don't lay out in the sun. I tend to go from white to red in the blink of an eye, so I stay under the beach umbrella. Actually, usually I stay back at the house we rent while everyone else goes to the beach. Peace and quite in the cool shade on the porch. Just me and Pretty. *aahhh*

Another bonus of my spot on the front porch? The house is literally right across the street from the entrance to the beach. I can sit and write and I don't even need to step a foot on the beach to hottie-watch all afternoon. *g* Though...I don't live in CA - land of sun and hotties. I live in the midwest. Still, I'm holding out hope of spotting at least one cookie-worthy specimen during the week.

Even though hubby gives up his wireless card to me while we're on vacation, the internet connection is weak at best. It has to be the proximity to the lake, because if I walk a couple blocks further from the beach, I get a full signal on my phone. Anyway, we'll see how the signal is this year. If it sucks hairy ballocks, then I likely won't be posting on the blog for a week. If that ends up being the case, then I hope everyone has not only a great weekend, but a great week.

Bouncing thru the Week

2010-07-31T15:50:00.010-04:00

It's been a mixed week - bounced from extremely productive to extremely unproductive. Got a ton written on Bound Forever last weekend. I bound and gagged the internal editor and got an amazing amount done. I now only have a 1/3 of the book left to write and I'm on track to finish by mid-August. Go me! :) Then I dropped down to the other end of the productivity spectrum.

It became very obvious to me this week that when I'm not in the mood to write, I allow very bad TV to suck me in. I watched a marathon of Toddlers in Tiaras. And I mean marathon - like all night long, until 3am. It was like watching a train wreck - I just couldn't not watch. Very sad, really, since I was sitting at my desk, laptop on and the WIP open, and I chose to watch Toddlers in Tiaras instead of focusing on Oliver and Vincent. *shakes head at self*

But then Arthur and Leopold came to my rescue and snagged my attention. I pulled my notes for the sequel to Convincing Arthur out into a 7 page chapter outline (single-spaced, mind you). Then I wrote a synopsis for the book. Yesterday I received ARCs for my next m/f print book and spent last night putting together a promo mailing to bookstores and reader groups. I have no idea how effective such mailings are, but I have this feeling like I should do it, so I do. Plus it was a good mindless activity since the kidlet had a friend over last night and they were up past 1am, so there was no way I could have gotten anything done that required even an ounce of concentration. Monday I'll go to the postoffice after the EDJ, and I'm sure the postoffice workers will be frowning at me when I show up with a big box full of stuff to mail. And since the envelopes contain varying quantities of bookmarks, they will all need to be individually weighed. Yeah, the postoffice dudes are gonna hate me. LOL

Tonight I'll go back to Ollie and Vincent - they need to feel the love - and hopefully by Monday, I'll have a lot more written on the book. Still don't have release dates for His Client or Bound Forever, but I now have the feeling both will release this year. We shall see, though, and I'll post dates as soon as I have them.

I hope everyone's having a wonderful weekend! Oh, and the kidlet and her friend made me breakfast this morning. Diet coke, peppermint pattie and a hot fudge sundae poptart...yeah, the kidlet knows me so well ;)

Story Behind the Story - Object of His Desire

2010-07-27T01:14:00.006-04:00

Stats - Sent in full ms 7/14/08. Received offer 8/21/08. Published 3/17/09.

Almost 6 weeks between submission and the offer…it felt like forever. I have really bad luck when it comes to timing submissions to Samhain. For this one, I sent the full a week or so before RWA Nationals (of course, my editor attended, so she was super busy before, during and after conference). And then she went on a long vacation to Australia. In fact, she read the book on the flight and emailed me with the offer when she landed.

Little known fact – The book was originally titled With Him. My editor didn’t think the old title would totally grab a reader, so after a lot of mulling, I came up with Object of His Desire.

Extremely little known fact – Though it was published 6 months after Bound By Deception, Object of His Desire was the first m/m book I wrote, and it was my first attempt at writing a novella. I never used to think I could write novellas, but now I love them.

How did I get the idea for the book – It was so long ago, I can’t remember what sparked the initial idea for the characters. I checked my notes, and I started writing the book back in December 2007. Actually Shawn Lane and I started writing erotic romance at the same time (yep, we’ve been critique partners for that long…I can officially say ‘I knew her when…’ *g*). I started with a m/m/m/f book, but the scenes with only the guys were way more fun to write, so I put that book aside (it’s still ‘aside’, likely indefinitely) and started a m/m book. I wanted to keep it short, and since I had never written anything shorter than a 100,000 word novel, I figured the only way I could do it was by limiting the timeframe. The book occurs over 8 hours. That need to adhere to a short timetable was what drove the premise of the book.

If I could edit the book now, what would I change (if anything)? Lengthen their argument at the end of the book, the one before the last smex scene. I added to it during edits, but I wish I could have gotten Henry and Arsen to really have it out.

Will there be a sequel – I had thought about doing a sequel, but decided the idea would work better as a free short story. I already have it outlined, and plan to write it and post it to my website later this summer. Likely right after I finish Bound Forever.

Misc stuff – This was the book that taught me – you never know if you don’t ask. I used to enter unpublished author writing contests (RWA chapters sponsor them) and had submitted the first chapter of a m/f book to a bunch of contests. My eventual editor at Samhain was the final round judge for one of those contests. She liked my writing and requested the full manuscript (she also placed it 1st…yeah, I had to work that in there *g*). Contests take months from start to finish, so by the time I got the request, I had already contracted the book with another pub. But when I had Henry and Arsen’s book ready to submit to publishers, I remembered that request. I thought the book might fit well at Samhain, so I got some balls and sent the editor an email. A ‘thanks so much, unfortunately have already contracted that book, but I also write m/m and have a novella I would love to send you’. To my total shock, I got a ‘yes, would be interested in taking a look at it’ response. I got to skip the slush pile and send the book directly to an editor who I already knew at least liked my writing. Yeah, I was geeked, and I still can’t believe I had the balls to even ask. But it taught me that all important lesson – you won’t know if you don’t ask.

So that's the Story Behind the Story for Object of His Desire. If you have any questions, ask away!

Bound Forever

2010-07-22T00:53:00.006-04:00

Bound Forever, the third and final book in the Bound series, has a home! It's been contracted by Loose Id, and will come in at novella length. Release date is still TBA, as I am currently writing the book. I'm targeting mid-August to finish it, and I'm hoping it will be able to be released before the end of 2010, but I'll have to wait and see. All depends on the pub schedule.

I worked on the blurb last night, so I'll share it with you. It's not the final version, but it's what I'll turn in.

Lord Oliver Marsden’s life is perfect...well almost perfect. His bookshop is doing well, his bank account isn’t empty, and his nights are filled with a deliciously dominant man who loves him. A man who no longer keeps him at arm’s length in the bedroom. Of course, Vincent still firmly holds the reins of control. But while Oliver feels Vincent is finally ready to relinquish control and make their relationship truly equal, the looming threat Vincent could someday be forced to marry keeps Oliver from tugging the reins from Vincent’s grasp.

Then Vincent receives a letter that changes everything. Oliver seizes the moment and pushes Vincent toward a night neither of them will ever forget. Yet come dawn, Oliver awakes to an empty bed.

Lord Vincent Prescot knows he loves Oliver. The man’s his best friend and he trusts him. So why does giving up control to Oliver leave him so shaken? It doesn’t take him long to determine the cause, yet his solution could drive his lover away for good.

After finishing His Client last week and taking the weekend off to be lazy, it's been nice to go back to Oliver and Vincent. I know them so well, they've become rather like old friends. And speaking of Ollie and Vincent, I better get back to them. I really want to meet my self-imposed mid-Aug deadline. I hope everyone has been having a great week - and it's Thursday, which means Friday is now only a day way, and after that...the weekend! :)

Story Behind the Story - Got Mistletoe? by Andi Anderson

2010-07-19T01:00:00.009-04:00

Got Mistletoe? by Andi Anderson

Stats - Got Mistletoe? was published this past December as part of the Advent Calendar series that Dreamspinner Press publishes every year. When I saw the open call for submissions, I decided to take a chance and write something. I started it on September 11, 2009 and finished it on the 15th. I had just enough time for my sister to do a quick read before I submitted it to Dreamspinner that night. They sent me an email that they had accepted it as part of their series on September 18th.

Little known fact - When I wrote it, I had intentions of finishing Ryan and Blake’s story. I felt like it ended right when things were getting interesting between them. I don’t know if I’ll ever write a sequel to it and that makes me feel a little sad.

Extremely little known fact - I called my sister, Ashley, and my mother at least a hundred times while I was writing it. I kept emailing them copies of what I had written so far, while I waited anxiously on pins and needles as they read it and hopefully give me the green light to continue. I don’t think I would have finished the book if it wasn’t for them and their encouragement.

How did I get the idea for the book? - I came up with the story by envisioning one of my heroes, Ryan Jolly, in my mind. His sweet disposition and zest for life was something I thought was different about some of the heroes that are portrayed today. I have an internet friend that is always upbeat and happy. Although I have never met him, I pictured him being the type of person that was not only cute and adorable on the outside, but on the inside as well. That has always been attractive to me as a reader. So in many ways, Ryan was born and Got Mistletoe? was written because of him. Ryan’s sweetness was definitely suitable for a Christmas story. I really loved him.

If I could edit the book now, what would I change (if anything)? - If I could have changed anything about it, I would have made Ryan and Blake’s story a full length novel. I think they deserved that. In my mind, they definitely live happily ever after, and I hope that people who’ve read the book came away with thinking that too. I wish I had given myself more time to polish it better, but I didn’t. I’m still very proud of it and I will always love it.

Thank you, Ava, for asking me about my book. It’s been fun remembering and sharing the experience with you and all of your friends. As a newbie, it’s an honor to be recognized by a great friend and wonderful writer like you.

Emerging from The Cave

2010-07-15T01:06:00.007-04:00

I've been deep in the writing cave since this last weekend. I resisted the sparkle of the shiney internet, severely limited emails, and spent a lot of time in the garage with nothing but the cars and my laptop. And now I can officially say...

It's done!! I finished His Client tonight. *g*

I still need to give the book a final read through tomorrow and then I'll send it off to my editor. But the writing is done. The book came in just shy of 40,000 words, which makes it my longest Ava book to date. In comparison, Bound to Him used to be my longest at almost 30,000 words. After I hit send on the email to my editor tomorrow night, I plan to take a few days off, be lazy, read some books, and catch up with all the emails and posts I've missed, then get back to Bound Forever. Oliver and Vincent are getting impatient.

In other news, Andi Anderson will be by the blog on Monday with a Story Behind the Story post for Got Mistletoe?. Andi's a good friend and a talented author. She's also as sweet as can be. So don't forget to stop by on 7/19 if you have time to get the scoop on Ryan and Blake's book.

Shawn Lane is holding a couple contests on her blog for upcoming releases. One for Pieces and one for Only Forever, a paperback collection of her Only series. The Pieces contest runs till Saturday and the Only Forever contest runs until the book releases this month. Just follow the linkies to drop your name in the virtual hats to win copies of the books.

That's it for me for now. I'm off to go bask in the glory of typing 'the end'. :) I hope everyone's been having a great week so far!

His Client

2010-07-06T01:58:00.011-04:00

His Client, my current work in progress, has a home! *g* It's a m/m Regency-set erotic romance with some light D/s elements and some role playing, and it will be my longest Ava book to date. Should come in at short novel length. It will be published by Loose Id, release date TBD as I have yet to finish the book. Close to being done though, and I'm on track to meet my deadline of next week.

I was darn productive over the holiday weekend. Finished chapter 3 of Bound Forever, finished chapter 8 in His Client and got a good start on 9, made a 'coming soon' image for the blog, wrote long and short blurbs for the book, and did the cover art request form. *pats self on back* And since I've written the blurb, I'll share it with you. It's not the final-final one, but it's the one I'll turn in.

Mr. Jasper Reed has been working at Madame Delacroix’s for a decade. He’s saved enough to retire, yet he remains at the decadent London brothel. Retiring would mean leaving Nate and the hope perhaps someday the rugged gentleman would stop pining for his best friend and realize he loves Jasper, just as Jasper loves him.

Mr. Nathaniel Travers has been visiting the brothel for five years. On every visit, he requests the same man. Stunningly handsome and highly skilled, Jasper not only shares Nate’s fondness for wickedly erotic games and black leather corsets, but he has become a friend. Someone he can talk to. Someone he can share a supper with. And Jasper’s the only person who knows Nate secretly harbors a love for his old childhood friend, Peter Edmonton.

It takes Edmonton’s marriage for Jasper to realize he’s been just as blind as Nate. Stubbornly hoping for something that cannot be. Convinced a gentleman like Nate can never be more than his client, Jasper retires.

Life in the country may be lonely, but with no one to please but himself, it’s calm and peaceful…until Nate shows up on his doorstep.

I'll leave you with another cookie that provided some inspiration for His Client. There are no red skirts in the book, but it's the feel of the pic. A hard male body contrasted with soft, gauzy fabric. Oh, and thanks to Eyre for the cookie at the top of the post. I liked it so much, and thought it fit Jasper and Nate, that I snagged it from her blog a while back ;)

Wet Hottie, a Test, and a New Kitty

2010-07-02T11:40:00.009-04:00

Contrary to what the 'WIP'n Progress' shows, I have been productive this week. Really, honestly. ;) Wrote two synopses and am briefly back to working on Bound Forever. Even though I dread writing a synopsis, doing one for the book helped me to figure out a connecting scene I was struggling with. So that's good. And if all goes well today, I should be back to working on His Client by tomorrow. Oh, and I have news. *G* I'll share it next week, after I dot some i's and cross some t's.

Ever wonder what your ideal career should be? Well wonder no more. Simply take the Dewey Color System Test. It claims to be scientifically valid and very accurate. For me, it was scary accurate. It gives 5 career options based on your answer, and in those 5 options, it had my 2 current careers. I was sufficiently amazed. All you do is first pick your favorite color from yellow, blue and red. Then pick your fav from purple, green and orange. And viola! I'm blue-green = 'writer' and 'department manager'. It also listed accountant (and I love numbers like you wouldn't believe). So yeah, scary accurate. LOL

I saw a commercial for a new piece of exercise equipment and my first thought was...rather pervie. I bet over 1/2 the people who buy the Ab Circle use it for more than just excersing.

I came home from work Monday to a new addition to the family. Hubby got the kidlet a kitty. Her name's Georgette (the ladies at the rescue shelter named her) and she's cute as can be. She also has the added bonus of loving the kidlet's brand of over-affection. Kidlet played with her in the Barbie Cruise Ship last night and kitten just went along with it. Georgette also likes the kidlet's goldfishes.

The goldfish, however, don't appear too thrilled with the new addition to the family. Goldie #1 looks distinctly worried.

It's a holiday weekend here in the U.S. Anyone have any fun plans? Me, I'll be hanging at home with the hubby and kidlet, and writing. Yeah...I'm the height of excitement. And now, I'm ducking back into the writing cave. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Story Behind the Story - The Other Side by Shawn Lane

2010-06-30T00:00:00.004-04:00

Stats – Received contract in December 2008. Turned in manuscript December 2008. Published 02/07/09 by Amber Allure.

At that time in the history of Amber Quill, our fearless leader, Trace, asked for volunteers to write stories for certain Amber Pax collections (the method for Pax collections has changed). The theme for this one was opposites attract and the name of the collection was also Opposites Attract. The Pax was released in February 2009. The Other Side made the top 10 best seller list for Amber Quill in February. In fact, beginning in January of 2009 when At Long Last was number 1 on the best seller list for January, every book I’ve released at AQ has made the top 10 list.

Little known fact – I love the torso representing Nick in the story on my cover, especially the little badge pinned to his clothes, but the guy representing Ray looks too 1970s for me. He looks like he belongs as a teacher in Room 222 an old television show. Ray is supposed to be sophisticated, polished and well dressed. Definitely not my favorite cover.

Extremely little known fact – I never intended to continue the story after The Other Side. I did plan on a sequel/related story for Ray’s pain in the ass brother, Devon. But I planned to leave The Other Side as it was. Basically a strong Happy For Now ending. I got so many people commenting on how they never learned whether Ray got elected to the city council or whether Nick got his job back, and other details, that I gave further consideration to continuing their story.

How did I get the idea for the book – I really couldn’t tell you. The Other Side is one of those stories I agreed to write when I had absolutely no clue what I was going to write. I just thought, well, I can write an opposite’s attract story. Piece of cake. Well, not exactly, no. I do know when I did start to write it I wanted Nick to be pretty damaged and kind of scruffy cute. I wrote it with no real plan, though, and just let the words flow. Not very helpful I know. But honest.

If I could edit the book now, what would I change (if anything)? – I hate to echo Ava, but I was actually happy with the book as-is. To me, whether Ray got elected or Nick got his job back didn’t matter. It seemed irrelevant to the story. Since then I’ve realized how it could be perceived as incomplete though. The other thing I didn’t notice as I wrote it, but I once saw someone mention was that in their opinion I overdid the opposite thing, because I had one rich, one poor, one white, one black, one liked wine, one liked beer. But you know I know real people who like wine or like beer and not both so as I wrote it I never considered that someone might view that as over the top. I guess it’s true you can’t please everyone! I also know Ray came across as too arrogant to some, but I liked Ray. I thought he was a real person who sometimes comes across as an ass. Not intentional. I like writing non-perfect people.

Will there be a sequel – Yes. It’s next up after the current WIP. Unlike, the original, I have a plan for this one. And yes there will be angst and maybe some dislike of Ray again, lol. But Ray thinks with his heart and the mistakes he’ll make in the sequel are from there and fear. It will all end quite well though. It IS a romance.

Misc stuff – Besides the sequel, I still plan to write, Tempted to Taste, which is Ray’s brother’s story. It wasn’t clear at all Devon was gay in The Other Side, but you’ll find out more about that in The Same Side. Devon owns a restaurant and if you recall he called Nick a “skanky little white boy” so it amuses me to give him a little white boy of his own. His hero will be blond, pretty and hot, and happen to be the new chef Devon’s business partner hires. Look for that in 2011. Hopefully early 2011.

An Interesting Sunday...a.k.a. Nekkid Princes & Video Rentals

2010-06-27T21:53:00.014-04:00

I got some writing done on His Client this weekend, but not as much as I wanted. So in order to motivate my a$$, I've added a little 'WIP'n Progress' feature to the right side bar. Maybe if my progress is out there for everyone to mock, then it will motivate me to move it along at something more than a snail's pace.

Today was an interesting day. First, I found Prince Phillip on the kitchen counter...naked. He was just laying there. Not sure why he was there, or what the kidlet had been doing with him. But he was just chillin' on the counter. Clearly he has no issues with nudity in pubic.
Of course, I then looked around for The Prince. Found him naked as well, in the bin of misc barbie stuff. Since the other barbies in the bin were clothed and only The Princes were naked, I'm assuming the boys weren't messing with the girls. In any case, it appears as if the Princes had been having some fun.

To add to my interesting day, I discovered the local family video store does not have something for everyone in the family. Hubby lured me to go with him and kidlet to return movies by telling me they had an Adult room in the back. I've never actually rented a pron movie. I'm more of a mail order or online subscription sort of gal. But I couldn't resist checking out the Adult room, so I tagged along. To my great disappointment, they didn't have any gay pron. Total bummer. I'm very tempted to volunteer my services to the family video store. They need a serious upgrade to their pron selection. They had m/f and of course f/f, but not even one token m/m movie. Not even a bi-curious one.

I snagged a couple m/f movies - I was there to get pron and I wasn't leaving without any. Hubby nudged me as we were waiting in line at the counter. "You should tell them they need to get some male/male movies." (yeah, he called them m/m...) I glanced to the squeeky clean, maybe 18 yr old boy behind the counter. "Um, no. Don't want to embarass the kid." As it was, when we got to the counter, the poor kid glanced at the movies -- Wubbzy Goes Green, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Lady Scarface & Island Fever 3. "Oh, well, then..." That was all he said before he quickly focused on checking out our odd selection of movies and getting us the hell out the store, with the kidlet in tow chattering about the gummy candy I wouldn't let her have.

So that was my exciting Sunday. Anyone else have an interesting day?

UPDATE: Check back on Wednesday, 6/30. Shawn Lane is going to do a Story Behind the Story post for The Other Side. *g*

Story Behind the Story - Convincing Arthur

2010-06-21T00:30:00.006-04:00

Stats – Received contract 2/23/09. Turned in manuscript 5/8/09. Published 7/21/09 by Loose Id.

I was asked if I would be interested in writing a historical for Loose Id’s Past, Present and Future promotion for July 2009. I already had the idea for Convincing Arthur and had planned to write it after I finished Bound to Him. So it worked out quite nicely.

Little known fact – Convincing Arthur is my only book cover with fully clothed men. All my other covers feature nekkid guys. Well, Object of His Desire has Underwear Guy in breeches, but he doesn’t count as fully clothed since he’s showing off his abs.

Extremely little known fact – In the original outline for the book, Leopold’s first name was Sylvester. Yeah…Sylvester Thornton. Why did I ever think that was a good idea? The name Leopold actually came from a secondary character in my first Evangeline m/f book. I loved that character, but my editor thought the character would work better as a woman (she was right – it did end up working better with a female cousin instead of a male one in those scenes). So when I decided my bad boy wasn’t a ‘Sylvester’, I gave him the name Leopold. He’s nothing like the other Leopold, and I love him even more than that other guy.

How did I get the idea for the book – Leopold was the catalyst for the book. I loved the idea of an utter bad boy who is desperately, hopelessly in love. And I didn’t want him to be a typical rake you’d see in a m/f historical. He didn’t have a horrid childhood, he isn’t poor. He has everything that should make one happy, except he doesn’t have the man he loves. Since Leopold’s not a strong soul (he falls easily into vice and is rather emotionally volatile), not having Arthur takes a heavy toll on him.

If I could edit the book now, what would I change (if anything)? - I’m actually happy with the book as-is. Well, it could maybe do with a couple more paragraphs right before the last smex scene. As it stands, it goes from super angst to red-hot lust in the space of a paragraph. Could have lingered over the kiss a bit longer before Leopold asks Arthur if he locked the study door.

Will there be a sequel – Yes, that’s the plan. Current title is Convincing Leopold and it will take place 3 months after Convincing Arthur, with Arthur and Leopold in London. The chapter outline is done and it’s in the To-Be-Written queue. I plan to work on it this winter…that is, if my schedule doesn’t get wacked.

Misc stuff – The scene toward the end where Leopold chases after Arthur in the rain is one of my favorite scenes of all the books I’ve written thus far. I find it just so…romantic. *sigh* And I think Leopold’s my only hero who could have pulled off such a scene.

I often model the exterior of a character’s country house after an actual country estate in England or Scotland. Ramsey House (Leopold’s country house) is modeled after Farnborough Hall in Oxfordshire. Here’s a pic of it -

That's the Story Behind the Story for Convincing Arthur. If you have any questions, ask away!

Necessities

2010-06-19T14:31:00.004-04:00

Strong storms blew thru here last night and as a result, I have no power. According to the power company, it’s supposed to be up later tonight (fingers crossed). Hubby’s got his gas powered generator going (he was really tweaked he could finally use it – we’ve had it for over a year) and I have 5 critical things plugged into it. The fridge, rechargeable camping lantern, Pretty, my iPhone, and the fish tank. The fish tank was hubby’s doing – apparently the kidlet’s 2 goldfish (Goldie #1 and Goldie #2) outrank the TV or a fan. It’s supposed to hit 90 degrees here today, so soon the fish are going to have to do without their little waterfall filter.

In addition to having the forethought to purchase a gas powered generator, hubby earned even more BJ points today by surrendering his wireless card to me. *g* Who needs power from the power company? I have my laptop, my phone, a wireless connection, and cold cans of diet coke. Oh, and he took the kidlet to my mom’s house for the day (she has power). He’s so awesome! I will admit, I keep turning on switches in the house. And yes, I have that ½ second of ‘huh? Why isn't the garbage disposal working?’ before I remember – yep, the power is out.

Since I have a quiet house for the next few hours, I’m going to work on His Client. Later tonight or tomorrow, I’ll get the post up for Convincing Arthur. I had planned to write it last night, but got distracted by the whole power being out thing.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

The Magic Touch

2010-06-17T22:54:00.007-04:00

As it turns out, I didn't need hubby to pull files off my old laptop's hard drive. All I needed was one bored kidlet. I had set the old laptop on the couch in the basement (serving as a sort of visual reminder to hubby that I needed him to work on it) and it drew the kidlet's attention today. As she peppered me with questions ('Can I have it?' 'No. It's broken.' 'What's wrong with it?' 'It died'....), she opened the lid and started messing with it (i.e. randomly pushing buttons).

And the damn thing powered up. I could not believe it. It was completely and utterly dead 3 weeks ago. I had tried everything to revive it and nothing worked. Even had IT Dude hubby look at it and he declared something had 'blown' inside it. I don't know if something inside got shifted during shipment from Florida, or if the kidlet has the magic touch. But it works now.

See - here's proof. The old laptop lives again! :) ...and yes, that's the pic of the Princes on their date. They looked so cute I had used them as a desktop background.

Not that I have any plans to abandon Pretty. I don't trust the old laptop anymore, and Pretty and I are getting along wonderfully. But I was more than happy to be able to access the un-backed up files on it. Now I have all my cover art and photoshop files, along with the 'research' folder that was much too large to fit on a backup CD, safely saved on Pretty.

That was my excitement for the day. How was your day?

One Step Closer

2010-06-15T01:59:00.010-04:00

I just finished writing chapter 7 of His Client (go me!!). It had lots of kissing and other fun stuff in it, so I thought the above cookie would be fitting. Other than being one more chapter closer to finishing the book, I don't have much to report. The next few weekends should be pretty uneventful for me (with the exception of Father's Day this Sunday - must celebrate the wonderful hubby *g*). So hopefully I'll be able to get a lot of writing done and get Jasper and Nate's book done by the end of the month. And sometime later this week (likely Friday night or Saturday afternoon), I plan to do a Story Behind the Story post for Convincing Arthur.

In other news, Shawn Lane is holding a contest over on her blog. Pop on by and comment if you want to be entered to win a copy of His One and Only, the final book in her Only Forever series.

I shall leave you with Marco, because...I couldn't resist. I'll admit, I'm rather fond of him. He's damn hot. *g*

...yes, today was pron star cookie day. I'm well aware of that. ;)

Story Behind the Story - Most Likely to Succeed by Shawn Lane

2010-06-12T00:04:00.010-04:00

Stats: submitted to Amber Quill 0n 02/04/09. AQ is different but contract was processed on 02/19/09. Published 04/11/09.

Originally, Most Likely to Succeed was supposed to be part of an Amber Pax collection with the theme of Business Matters, but not enough authors signed up for the theme to create a Pax. Fortunately, Amber Quill used my story anyway, because for a long time it was my best seller there and on All Romance eBooks. It was the number one best seller for the month of April 2009.

Little known fact: I don’t think this is all that unknown but one of my two heroes has a kink I share somewhat. Well, at least one I would like to share. (clears throat) LOL.

Extremely little known fact: I briefly considered writing two other books from characters in this story. Tommy’s friend and former boyfriend, Matt and how he got together with his fireman boyfriend, Josh, and a story with the guy who broke Clark’s heart by being a sleaze, Aaron. There was something about Aaron, who I know was a prick in the book, that made me want to redeem him in his own story. A reformed asshole (no pun intended there) appeals to me.

How did I get the idea for the book? I got the idea for this “Business Matters” story from watching gay porn on Men At Play. The “stories” there always involve two guys in a suit and it’s pretty blasted hot. Thus where I began to think of my two hot suited guys.

If I could edit the book now, what would I change? I’d probably find a better way for Thomas to find out what Aaron did to Clark then have his secretary tell him. I might have explored Clark’s sister’s abusive relationship with her husband more.

Misc Stuff: Clark is still one of my favorite heroes, probably because of his naughty side yet he’s also got a soft vulnerability. I’ve always liked the name Clark since my younger days of watching Christopher Reeve play Clark Kent in Superman and then later Dean Cain (yum). I also love Clark Griswold in the Vacation movies. Clark shares the same last name as my bff.

The last name for Thomas came from the silly song, H, A, Double R, I, G, A, N, spells Harrigan…um, anyway, I was watching a Mash episode and Colonel Potter was singing that song. Check out the lyrics if you’ve never heard of it.

Updates and Bloggy Plans

2010-06-10T22:51:00.013-04:00

I'm happy to report the begging worked. *g* Shawn Lane is going to do a Story Behind the Story post on Most Likely To Succeed sometime this weekend. Be sure to check back in the next couple of days to get the scoop on Thomas and Clark's book. Devon Rhodes and Stephani Hecht also agreed to do posts. Not sure which books yet or when (I left it up to them), but definitely in the near future. Somewhere in there I'll do posts for Convincing Arthur and Object of His Desire. So that's the very vague schedule for upcoming Story Behind the Story posts.

Tomorrow (Friday) I'll be over at Brita Addams's blog. She's a new author who writes m/f erotic Regency romance, and maybe perhaps in the future, m/m as well. *g* Anyway, she interviewed me for her blog recently and will post the interview tomorrow, and I'm also giving away a copy of From Afar. So pop on by if you feel so inclined.

As for writing, I'm slowly but surely working my way through chapter 7 of His Client. It's not going as quickly as I'd like, but it's a pivotal chapter so it's taking me some time to get it where I want it. It's also been a busy week at the EDJ, and I was out of town last weekend for a wedding and I have another wedding to go to this weekend. Must be the month for weddings. I'm still targeting end of June to finish the book. We'll see how it goes. It's only the 10th of June, so I have 20 days to write 3 chapters. At about 3000 words a chapter, that means 9000 words in 20 days. About an average of 500 words a day (given there will be a couple days I'm sure I'll piss away). So that means...I better get to work!

I started the post with a hottie, and I'll end it with a pretty. Well, I think he's more beautiful than pretty, but regardless, he's yummy. *g*

Story Behind the Story - Bound by Deception

2010-06-06T12:50:00.017-04:00

I was mulling over ideas for blog posts the other day and decided to start a new topic - Story Behind the Story. The idea is to share background information on specific books. Little known facts, pre-publication stuff, how a book came to be written, etc, and also answer any questions from readers. I'm thinking nothing long or extensive. Just snippets of info people might find interesting. I'm planning to invite author friends to come visit and do posts on their own books. So it won't be just me, babbling about my books *g* And I don't plan it to be a regular weekly post sort of thing, more every now and then.

I'm going to start it off with Bound by Deception.

Stats: submitted to Loose Id on 7/28/08. Received offer 8/9/08. Published 9/16/08. Yeah, it was really fast. Loose Id had an unexpected opening in their schedule and they thought the book would fit in the slot, so they fast tracked the book. Of course, I was happy. I'm not a very patient person.

BBD was my first contracted Ava book, and my first published book overall. It's my best selling Ava book to date. It also has the distinction of being the first m/m Regency book released by Loose Id.

Little known fact: originally titled 'The Switch'. Loose Id asked that I come up with a new title, since the old one was kind of misleading, especially considering the book is a m/m with BDSM elements. Neither guy is a switch and a switch isn't used in the book. They gave me the nudge toward something with 'deception' in the title, and I came up with Bound by Deception. I suck at titles, but this one is one of my favs.

Extremely little known fact: I very briefly toyed with the idea of Vincent being a sub. Of him shocking the hell out of Oliver in the 1st scene at the brothel, and expecting Oliver to tie him up. When plotting a book, I'll explore alternative paths and see where they take me. Sometimes they work out, and like in this case, sometimes not. When mulling the idea, I could get Vincent to take off his clothes but that was it. Couldn't even get him to make the request of Oliver or even hint at it. I took that as a sign it was something he would never do, so I quickly abandoned the idea.

How did I get the idea for the book? I enjoy reading books with BDSM elements (but not hard core stuff), and wanted to try my hand at writing something of my own with some D/s. The research was fun, too. ;) JT's Stockroom is a great source for inspiration. In fact, here's the suspension bar Oliver and Vincent used in the 1st smex scene - suspension bar - though it's not black, but plain steel in the book (had to make some adjustments to fit the regency time period).

If I could edit the book now, what would I change? Lengthen the scene where Vincent decides he wants more than a friendship with Oliver. Not sure how I'd do it, though. I wouldn't want him to leave Oliver's apartments, and it's not like he could have sat on the couch for hours. But he could have done with more than 5 minutes to make that decision.

Misc Stuff: Oliver is my favorite type of hero to write. I think it's pretty obvious - I loved all over him in the book *g* The theme in the book is also a fav - unrequited love with friends turned lovers. Oliver and Vincent are also my favorite couple. Again, kind of obvious, as I wrote them a sequel and a short freebie, and have a 3rd book in the works.

That's the story behind the story for Bound by Deception. Got any questions about the book or characters? If so, ask away!

Since this is my first story post, let me know if there are any other questions you think I should have added to my little 'interview'. I tried to think of standard stuff that could apply to any book, but if I missed something you would find interesting, let me know.

If there is a specific book you're curious about, again, let me know. I plan to beg a few author friends (Shawn, Devon and Andi, of course, and since Stephani Hecht is my bud from my local RWA chapter, I'm gonna beg her, too). But if there is anyone else, let me know and I'll see what I can do. No promises, but I'll try.

A Productive Vacation

2010-05-31T22:33:00.006-04:00

I'm back from vacation and rockin' the house wireless connection. I love you internet! I shall never take a strong connection for granted again. I've got Pretty all loaded with my backup files. The backup CDs included my ebooks file - yeah! - but didn't include my cover art/photoshop file :( The inlaws are shipping the dead laptop to me since I didn't want to lug it on the plane or pay to check it at the airport. So it will be a few days before I find out if hubby can pull my data off the old hard drive. Fingers are currently crossed!

The vacation was wonderfully relaxing and amazingly productive. Finished chapter 5, wrote chapter 6 and started chapter 7 of His Client. I'm astounded by my own productivity. LOL. The current plan is to finish His Client by the end of June. Should be doable, but I have 2 out of town weddings to attend in June, so we shall see. I do want to get it done so I can turn back to Bound Forever and have that one finished by the end of July/early August. After that....well, right now I know what book I want to write (already have it outlined, too), but I know better than to try to plan more than 2 books in advance. Things tend to come up to throw a wrench in my plans. Not always bad things. Sometimes good things. But the schedule gets wreched nonetheless. So for now, I'm focusing on His Client followed by Oliver and Vincent's last book. Oh, and I want to write a short freebie for Arsen and Henry from Object of His Desire sometime this summer.

And since I'm so happy to be home, here's another cookie. ;) Happy Monday, and hopefully most of you only have a 4 day work week this week.

Meet Pretty

2010-05-28T22:21:00.004-04:00

Meet Pretty! He's my shiny new laptop. I will admit, he wasn't a 'planned' addition to the family. My other laptop died today. One minute I was typing away on chapter 6 of His Client (finished chapter 5 last night - go me!), and the next...nothing. Seriously. Just died in mid-sentence. Went completely black. No power, no blue-screen-of-death. Nothing. Hubby thinks something 'blew' in it (yeah, he's an IT guy and he used that oh, so technical term). No amout of removing the battery, unplugging, re-plugging, praying and threatening worked to revive the old laptop. Needless to say, within an hour, we were leaving to go to the store to get a new one. No way in hell could I survive without one, especially since we're on vacation in Florida visiting the in-laws and I had planned to get a lot of writing done. Well, I could have survived, but I'd have driven hubby nuts. He's such a good hubby - he just nodded and drove me to the store. He knew he wouldn't get a moment of peace until I was happy again. LOL.

Good thing I did a backup before I left for vacation, and I email my working manuscript to myself every night. So all I lost was the couple of pages I had written this afternoon. And I might get those back when I get home - hubby thinks the hard drive is OK, so he should be able to pull it out of the old laptop and transfer all the files to the new laptop.

So now after today's drama, I have Pretty. And he is really pretty and shiny, and he likes to be petted. I even got him a new pink wireless mouse. :)

Speaking of my vacation, I spotted a gator yesterday evening as hubby and I were taking a tour about the island in the inlaws golf cart. The inlaws live on a little island that's just a big golf course and houses. Very nice and peaceful, but seriously, in the middle of f-ing nowhere. Takes 10 minutes to get to the gas station. And the wi-fi access bites. So slow it's painful. But on the upside, I'm writing more than playing on the internet since the internet is so slow.

That's the gator's head. He wasn't as far away as he looks, but the iphone camera doesn't have a zoom feature.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, and for those in the US, I hope you have a great holiday weekend!

And now I'll leave you with another kind of pretty. *g*

Rockin' the Tutu

2010-05-23T15:18:00.012-04:00

It's an absolutely beautiful day here - 80 degrees and sunny. Another bonus feature of my 'office' (besides the fact it's very peaceful and quiet) is that I can open the garage door on days like today. So nice to be able to sit and write with a lovely breeze.

Writing-wise it hasn't been terribly productive. It's only Sunday afternoon, so there's still hope I can make some nice progress before the weekend is officially over. I got bit by Devon's plot bunnies yesterday afternoon as I was cleaning the house, so I spent a couple hours typing up notes for a possible new book idea. Then Eyre had to go and review Duty and Devotion by Tere Michaels, which got me thinking about how the book was sitting on my hard drive....and I ended up reading it last night. So productive weekend as far as cleaning and reading goes, not so much yet on the writing front.

Congrats goes out to Shawn Lane on the release of Only His Heart, the third book in her Only Forever series. Fabulous book, for anyone in the mood for a great read.

What else is new? Romance in the Backseat has a new m/m review site going live on Monday - Naughty Boys in the Backseat. Terry Kate, who runs the sites, is super nice and she's looking for guest bloggers for the new blog. Any topic. So if any m/m authors out there are interested, give her a holler. She's on FB and GR as Terry Kate or you can drop me a line and I'll get you in touch with her.

Josh Lanyon had an awesome post on the Loose Ends blog this past week on how writing doesn't come easy. For me, it gets harder with every book I write. When I was a newbie, unpubbed author, ignorance really was bliss. I 'like' but don't love books as I'm writing them. I love the ideas when I'm fleshing them out, but when I start to actually write a book, that love turns to like. And with every new book I work on, I wonder if it will be as good as my other books. Okay, not 'wonder'...I worry. So it was great to read Josh's post and see I'm not the only author who struggles with writing sometimes.

Oh, and I just had to share this pic. I went into the kidlet's playroom today and she had her barbies out. I can only surmise that since it's so warm and sunny today, she decided it was too warm for the Princes to wear pants. I will say, the outfits kind of match - pink/purple and Prince Phillip's shorts have the same blue as his tunic (kidlet found the tunic from his original outfit, but the leggings and boots are still MIA). Personally, I think the Prince is rockin' the tutu ;)

Inspiration

2010-05-17T01:21:00.007-04:00

I've been a busy writer this weekend. Finished up a chapter in His Client last night, and jumped ahead to the last chapter and did some work on it. Smex scenes are the hardest for me to write. I just finished a chapter that is one long smex scene, took me almost a week to write it, and what did I decide to work on tonight? More smex. Odd, the way I get inspired to write smex when I don't need to do it right at that moment. I didn't argue with the muse, though. ;)

Speaking of smex and inspiration, I thought I'd share a couple of cookies that served as inspiration for smex scene #2 in the book, the one I spent almost a week writing.

Okay, so the pics give off two distinctly different moods, but if you read the book when it comes out, they'll make sense. They really do go together, at least in my head and hopefully you all will think so, too. Oh, and the corset's not white. It's black in the book. I did say the guys were kinda kinky. *g*

I hope everyone had a great weekend!