A WICKED LITTLE PARTY--RELEASE DAY!!

by Christine Wells

As if the Lair weren't rowdy enough on any given day, we're throwing a WICKED party for the release of my Berkley Regency historical, WICKED LITTLE GAME!!

The cabana boys are all dressed up as your favourite rakes and rogues from romance, and YOU, my dear ones, get to come along as any wicked character from history or fiction you care to name!

Despite the title, neither my hero, the Marquis of Vane, nor my heroine, Lady Sarah Cole, is particularly wicked in this book. The game to which the title refers is played by Sarah's husband, Brinsley Cole, a gorgeous, dissolute scoundrel. It begins when Cole offers Vane one night with Sarah in exchange for ten thousand pounds.

Vane has been obsessed with Lady Sarah for years, and the temptation Cole presents is almost too much for him to resist--

Vane sat on a gilt and white loveseat to yank off his boots. The operation required concentrated effort. That was a good thing. As long as he did not think, all would be well. He plunked the second boot on the floor, cursed and dropped his head in his hands.

He must be mad. Surely, he had never made such an ass of himself about a woman before. It had been years since that cold rebuff she dealt him. Years since he’d exchanged more than idle social chatter with her, and that had been infrequent enough. He didn’t even know her, not really. Yet she seeped into his thoughts when he wasn’t paying attention, curled under his skin in the darkest hours of the night.

There's something very enticing about being the sole focus of a man's passion, don't you think? As long as it doesn't seep over into stalker territory, of course! But where do you draw the line between obsession and true love?

Ah, obsession. I think as writers, we have to be obsessive to succeed. After all, it takes many, many hours to get a hundred thousand words onto the page.

I've always been a bit obsessive, even before I began writing fiction with a view to publication. When I was a child, there was a limit on how many library books one person could borrow from our local library, so I would borrow on all the cards of every member of my family. If there was a reading list from which we had to choose a book to review at school, I'd read the entire list. I used to devour all of my elder brother's required reading for his school as well as my own before the school year began. I would also read all my textbooks from cover to cover (except Maths, I hated Maths). Yes, I was a total geek but I'm hoping some of you will identify with this; that I'm not alone in my obsession with books.

I've had small obsessions about other things besides writing and reading, of course. Fashion, drama, antiques, milk chocolate Lindor balls, Spencer & Rutherford handbags, Richard Armitage... *g*

Are you obsessive about something, or unlucky enough to live with someone who is? And don't forget to tell me who you have decided to be at our party today, and what wicked character you've brought as your date!

I have not one but TWO signed copies of WICKED LITTLE GAME to give away!