Monday’s eye candy for your viewing pleasure.

Woo!!! I made it to Friday. It’s been a hellaciously busy week and I am so pleased to see Friday arrive. Of course I’ll be running around like a chicken with my head cut off tonight as I get ready to drive to the beach in the morning.

Thank God for slave labor, I mean kids who can do laundry while I’m at work. :D

You know I was thinking about TGIF and wondered when it started to be used, so of course I looked in Wikipedia. Veddy interesting… there was actually a movie with Donna Summer (disco queen!) called Thank God It’s Friday. It must have been too racy for my little ears because I was 11 when it came out.

Anyhoo, writing is still going well (whew) and I am already gearing up for a summer full of kick-ass book writing and reading. Yes, just to answer the question, I am bringing my laptop, because I WILL finish Zeke’s story by the end of the day Monday. Oh yeah, totally going to crank it out.

I’ve already got Janette Kenny’s One Real Man in my bag (I’m 50 pages into it – love it Jan!!!). I’ve got to have a backup to take with me though… my TBR pile is so huge, it’s hard to pick. Any suggestions on ebooks? I can download to my phone and read this weekend too.

And I’m so glad to see it arrive. This weekend is a three day beach getaway and it’s drawing ever closer… I can almost see it.

The writing is kicking along, thank God, and while I’m not nearly where I should be, I’m at least not as far behind as I was. LOL.

Today’s post is about the naked cowboy. You know who I’m talking about, right? The dude who’s walked around Time Square for the last 10 years in his tightie-whities and cowboy hat strumming a guitar. Not particularly appealing to me – I think it’s more about what you can’t see than seeing too much.

Anyhoo, apparently he’s suing M&Ms. Yep, can you believe it? They put up a billboard with a blue M&M in a pair of tightie-whities, cowboy hat, strumming a guitar. Familiar, right?

The court thinks so and they’ve approved him suing M&Ms. Unbelievable as far as I’m concerned. If you’re crazy enough to walk around in your underwear every day in front of millions of New Yorkers, then you have no right to sue a candy maker for a billboard.

The interesting thing is he’s trademarked himself, or at least his look. This dude takes the prize for being odd, that’s for sure. I mean, he doesn’t want anyone to think he endorses M&Ms right? It’s sugared treats for God’s sake, what is he, crazy?

Ah, at least it’s not Monday still, right? It’s a beautiful morning here in NC, low humidity, high-sixties. Nice weather. Too bad I’m stuck in my gray cubicle most of the day. LOL.

How’s everybody doing? I’m doing okay – on the home stretch to finish Zeke’s story (yes, I know I’m late, but I’m close, soooo close) and diving into Micah’s. He’s turning out to be quite a complex man – invading my dreams, too. That’s when I know a book is singing, when the characters appear in my dreams. Hooyah!

I’m writing my fingers to the bone this week, I WILL be finished with Zeke before the 30th. I’m off to the beach for a few days this weekend and yes, I will hit my daily goal each day. Game. Face. On.

What’s going on in my world? Let’s see, Hell for Leather hit the MBAM’s Top 10 list. Woot! Thanks to everyone who bought a copy. :) I’ve got my first website review from none other than Brenda Talley at TRS – she’s such a doll. You can read her review here. Of course, sweet Blanche posted a review on MBAM, too – thank you sweetie!

On a more somber note… I was really sat to see George Carlin died on Sunday. He was by far my favorite comedian. When I was in Vegas last year, I wanted to see him perform, but he wasn’t there the weekend we were, and now I’ll never get to see him live. *sigh* Who can forget his routine on the seven dirty words? Or on “stuff”? He’ll be sorely missed.

If you want to read a good article, check out this one from Publisher’s Weekly on “The New E in Erotica” with a quote from my Kensington editor Kate Duffy (woot!). Good reading. :D

Hope everyone has a marvelous Tuesday!

Monday’s eye candy for your viewing pleasure.

Okay, coming down off the two day high after the release of Hell for Leather. *big stupid grin* I’m so jazzed to get Kincaid’s story out there!!

I realized it’s my 20th ebook release available (I’m not counting Madeline’s story because it’s now heading for print and no longer in ebook). Isn’t that just staggering? Twenty ebooks. Wow, just wow. How did I do that in 4 years? LOL! Because it’s what I love! Which leads me to my next topic…

This information has been going around the web and I wanted to mention it here. MSNBC did a piece on Danielle Steele – not my cup of tea in terms of romance novels, but hey, she’s doing her thing and she’s a romance writer sister, right? Anyhoo, they’re doing a poll on whether or not you read romance novels.

GO VOTE.

Right now YES is at 46% – even if they use the term “bodice rippers” which annoys the crap out of me. Let’s show them how much we love romance novels!!

I’m proud to announce today is the release day for the ebook version of Hell for Leather! I knew I had to write Kincaid’s story after he appeared in my mind while writing The Gift.

You may have hated him then for being a hired gun, and yet he redeemed himself, didn’t he?

In The Tribute, it became clear Kincaid was much more than what he appeared to be. Lonely, witty, devoted to his one and only friend, Brett, he intrigued me…

Then I knew I had to write his story. A man with a broken heart deserved a happily ever after in my world and so comes Hell for Leather…

Exile…or love. Life…or death. His demons will force him to choose.

Gunslinger Kincaid has traded his black clothes and pistols for a homespun shirt and trousers. Now he’s Cade Brody, a man with dark hair, dark eyes and an even darker past. The blood money he’s earned bought him a small piece of property in New Mexico territory, at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. But it can’t buy him peace.

Sabrina Edmonds, a tough, non-nonsense widow, runs the post office and store in the small town of Eustace. She’s made her way in life with an independent streak a mile wide. Sabrina doesn’t want to get involved with Cade, but she finds herself drawn to the dark stranger who hides in his mountain retreat.

Cade wants nothing more than to be left alone, but an elusive wild child who delights in tormenting him, and a town full of people determined to befriend him, conspire to intrude upon his self-imposed exile. Then there’s Sabrina, who should be afraid of him—but isn’t.

Not even when the deadly demons of his past catch up with him.

***

Available today from Samhain Publishing! Woooooooooohooooooooooooooo!!!

Monday’s eye candy for your viewing pleasure.

No, not in Vegas – at the orthodontist.

Yep, my 12 YO got his braces yesterday and I walked out in shellshock after forking over $4960 to cover the next 2 years for treatment.

Ye gods. Orthodontists surely make a buttload of money. Then again, I don’t think I’d want to be responsible for making people’s teeth straight. What happens if they end up looking like Bugs Bunny? Nah, I’ll stick with writing.

I know I’ve been offline a lot this week, sorry about that. My DH’s birthday, the orthodontist visit and just life in general have made me mucho busy.

How’s everybody doing? Any special weekend/Father’s Day plans? We’re having a nice lunch for my DH, my dad and BIL – rib-eye steaks, baked potatoes, fresh broccoli and shrimp with brownie sundaes for dessert. Yum.

Of course this means I have to clean my house.

*rolls eyes and smacks forehead*

I need to write, write, write. Send me good vibes to get a lot of writing done this weekend… it would be nice to actually reacquaint myself with my DH too. :D

Hope you’re having a wonderfully fabulous Friday! Stay tuned for next Tuesday when Hell for Leather comes to an ebook shelf near you!!

Yep, I’m back from Lori Foster’s get together in Cincinnati and trying to catch my breath. It was a fun, relaxed weekend and I’m looking forward to my sophomore visit next year.

Okay, let me see if my brain cells will function so I can recap the weekend…

Friday I arrived at the airport around 2:00, got the rental car and hit the road by 2:45, then promptly slowed down in terrible traffic. Luckily the rental car had Sirius satellite radio, and it was migh-tee fine listening pleasure, let me tell ya. It took me over an hour to get to the hotel, but it’s okay, I survived.

However, I was sweaty and yucky so after checking in I immediately took a shower and freshened myself up. Feeling 200% better I went downstairs and ran into Maggie Casper, Lena Matthews, Eve Vaughn and Liz Andrews. Love those four – they’re awesome women. After that hugfest, I got on line to register and discovered the adorable Carolan Ivey. She and I chatted as we waited to register and get our name badges.

While standing on line, I finally get Deb S.! What a fantastic lady – it was so awesome to say hello in person instead of on Yahoo IM. LOL! I also saw my agent Laura Bradford and got a hello hug from her.

The Friday night festivities commenced by me having dinner with Carolan and the one and only J.C. Wilder (they were serving pizza in the ballroom, which of course, I can’t eat). A constant stream of friends, new and old, went by the table for hellos and hugs. After filling my belly, I felt much, much better. We went back into the ballroom and after a promo panel, there was a fun trivia game.

Led by Lauren Dane, Megan Hart, J.C. Wilder, Anya Bast and J.C. Wilder, about 75 folks played the trivia game and lots of prizes were given out. I guarded them (with my glowers) while the questions flew around the room. After the games, Billie Jo from Romance Junkies led some line dancing while there was Greek dancing and baklava going on in the other corner.

Saturday started with a fun breakfast with folks and half of the basket raffle. Geez louise, people, there were over 100 baskets. Amazing! They raised over $4,000 for the literacy charity in Cincinnati. Woohoo!!

All through the day, folks came by with books to sign, to say hello and generally had such a fun time. I met so many people including Karen, Tamberlynn, Yuvonne, Sandy, Rhonda, Jennifer, DeNita, Betty, Kathy, and Donna – I know I’m forgetting so many names, so please forgive my sleep-deprived brain. Of course I also saw many authors I knew and met others I didn’t. They’re all such amazing people! Diane Whiteside and her mom Margot were lovely Starbucks companions. :)

By the time the book signing came around, I had signed almost all the books. LOL! At the table with Lauren Dane, Megan Hart, Anya Bast and Rhianna Samuals, we got to to sit with Michelle Buonfiglio on Saturday during the signing. She supplied us with Dove chocolate and was a real sweetie.

And then it was over. :( Gads, I went to dinner Saturday night and thought, geez, it went by so fast! Anyway, Sunday morning after a nice buffet breakfast at the hotel, I headed back to the airport (don’t get me started on the fools at Continental who screwed up my flights – they had me on three). With the help of a lovely Delta ticket agent, I was on my way back to Raleigh.

Unfortunately I didn’t bring my camera. I know, I know, DUH. I’ve been looking for pictures on the Internet and so far, I’ve found Anya Bast’s blog has a few.