Brenda Novak's in the Lair

We're thrilled to welcome back NY Times Best-selling Romantic Suspense author Brenda Novak! Drumroll please!!

Brenda's my long-time friend, mother of five, and wife to hottie Ted. And she's flat-out the nicest person I know. Oh, yeah, and the author of 32 books. She also sponsors a hugely successful Online Auction for Diabetes Research.

Brenda, I know the auction is a project near to your heart. Can you tell us a little about it?
Third Auction Coupon winner is our very own Bandita CAREN CRANE -- yay, Caren!!

Brenda: When my son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at five years old, I knew enough about the disease to realize he would require constant care, but the long list of side effects really threw me. I thought if we gave him insulin, and he suffered through the many fingertip pricks and shots, he'd be fine. Unfortunately, that isn't necessarily the case. Diabetes affects every major organ--your heart, your kidneys, your liver, your nerves, etc.

THE FIRST WINNER OF THE $25 COUPON FOR BRENDA'S ONLINE AUCTION IS . . . JANE!!! Congratulations.

Then I thought about the number of people facing the same risks and knew I had to fight back. I decided it might be smart to do an event on my web site so that my fans and publishing friends could participate--and the idea for my auction was born. This will be auction #5. Last year, we raised $252,300. This year we're shooting for $300,000.

We have over 2,000 fabulous items up for auction, many of which you can't get anywhere else. And this year we'll have something new--$1 "Buy it Now" opportunities for aspiring writers. This will enable them to get their work in front of some of the most prestigious agents and editors in publishing for only $1. I will randomly list these items throughout the auction--it could be in any category--and the first person to find such an item will be able to buy it for only $1! There will be other fun $1 "Buy it Now" auctions for those who are not writers.

Jo: Wow, Brenda! I love the new $1 “Buy It Now” opportunity! I've participated every year in the Auction since its beginning and love the excitement of bidding and the good feeling of knowing my money's going to a worthy cause. Can you tell us some of the items that are up for bid this year?

Brenda: One of my personal favorites is Anna DeStefano's Coach handbags. Who doesn't love a good handbag? LOL Or Dianne Despain's antique jewelry. I just got an antique cameo worth $600 from Kathryn Caskie. There are meet and greets with editors and agents, a fabulous painting from my all-time favorite artist Marilyn Sears Bourbon (I own three of her paintings and want more!), a whole list of fabulous offerings from Sherrilyn Kenyon, Dianna Love and Mary Buckham, a complete collection of Christine Feehan's wildly popular DARK series (all autographed), a stay in Nora Roberts' inn, opportunities for people to name a character in various authors' books (authors like legal thriller writer John Lescroart!), lunch with Barry Eisler in San Francisco, a handmade quilt from Anne Stuart, and over 100 autographed books from Booklovers Bookstore, including an autographed copy of one of the best books ever written--CLAN OF THE CAVEBEAR by Jean M. Auel.

The second winner of the $25 Auction Coupon is, ta da -- CrystalGB. Congratulations!
I could go on and on. There's SO much in this year's auction--something for everyone. And these items make unique gifts. You could immortalize your friend, sister or mother by buying the "name a character" item. How fun would it be to give that away?

Jo: You can find out more about the auction and the items for bid at Brenda's website --http://www.brendanovak.com/auction.shtml. Check it out! You don’t have to wait until May 1, when the auction officially starts to see what’s available and plan your strategy for bidding. The Romance Bandits have a basket up for Auction this year and we’d love one of our readers to win it!

Now, let's hear something about your new series, Brenda. I know the books are The Perfect Couple, The Perfect Liar, and The Perfect Murder. The titles are so intriguing. Tell us more about them.

Brenda: I'm excited about these books! They're all part of my Last Stand series that began last year with TRUST ME, STOP ME & WATCH ME, but they're only loosely connected, both to the series and to each other, so they also stand on their own.

In THE PERFECT COUPLE, Zoe Duncan’s thirteen-year-old daughter goes missing from her own backyard while home sick from school and private investigator Jonathan Stivers is called on to help find her. But he's never had fewer leads to work with--and is sure of only one thing: Sam was taken by someone close to the family. He has no idea how close until he realizes that the “perfect” couple next door is anything but...

Jo: Ooooh, I love the premise of that story! Additionally, anyone who buys a copy of THE PERFECT COUPLE in the first week it comes out and sends Brenda the receipt will have the opportunity to join her fan club and receive a Brenda Novak tote with goodies. See details at http://www.brendanovak.com/ THE PERFECT COUPLE comes out Tuesday, July 28 so you'll need to buy it between July 28 and August 5 to be eligible.

Brenda: THE PERFECT LIAR is about obsession. After air force captain Luke Trussell goes home with the wrong kind of woman, he's falsely accused of rape, putting his career and his reputation at stake. He didn't force his attentions on the woman who's been coming on to him for months, but she has the bruises--and the DNA evidence--to make her claim convincing. And Karina Harter is determined to have him, or make him pay.…

In THE PERFECT MURDER, investment banker Sebastian Costas is trying to unravel the truth behind the murder of his ex-wife and son. The evidence suggests a murder-suicide, but something he heard the week before the killings won't allow him to accept that. He believes her second husband, a cop, killed her and the boy, then faked his own death. But proving it isn't easy--or safe.

Jo: These books sound wonderful. Look for THE PERFECT COUPLE's release on July 28.

Okay, now for a quick personality test. Will the REAL Brenda Novak please weigh in with her answers?

1. Favorite food? Thai food--Yellow curry (spicy ) I also love pizza, but I know that would make me sound like too much of a kid, sort of like picking a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

2. Preferred sleeping wear? Comfortable underwear

Jo: No need to elaborate!

3. Hugh Jackman or Daniel Craig?

Hugh. I think he’s gorgeous, but I’m sort of mad at him right now. LOL I was planning on offering a day on the set and lunch with him as part of a promotion for my next book, and his publicist got involved AFTER I had it all lined up and screwed it all up. So sad…

Jo: Ah, now, that just breaks my heart. Hugh's quite popular in the Lair and as you can see, we're on a first name basis with him.

4. Favorite non-romance writer?

Wow--too many to pick just one. Margaret Mitchell is probably my all-time favorite. I think she’s as good as Charles Dickens at characterization. Someone who's still alive and writing? Philippa Gregory would be one. I read THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL while on a three-day drive to Cabo San Lucas with my entire family (yes, we drove!) and couldn’t put it down. Janet Evanovich is considered mystery, so I guess I can name her, too. :-)

5. Most romantic place in the world?

Prague. I visited the city last year and was captivated by its beauty. More than any other European city I’d seen on this particular trip (we drove through Germany, France, Italy, Monoco, and Austria, too) it felt we were stepping back to a far more romantic time and place. The famous Charles Bridge, which connects Old Town to Mala Strana was simply magnificent. And there seemed to be such an upbeat air to it all (whereas Venice had the feel of decay and ruin that made me depressed).

Thanks for joining us today in the Lair, Brenda.

Our final winner for a $25 Auction coupon goes to . . . wahooo!! RUTH C. Congrats, Ruth.

Brenda and I have some special prizes for our Bandita readers and friends.

First, throughout the day we’ll choose 4 random posters to win a $25 off coupon for Brenda’s Online Diabetes Auction. Check back often to see if you've won. Meanwhile check out the auction items at Brenda's website.

Second, at the end of the day one lucky poster will receive a free autographed copy of STOP ME, the book that was just nominated for a Rita.

Okay, readers, it’s your turn to weigh in. Ask Brenda anything you want to know about her career path, writing process, the auction, or her books.

Or, if you’d like to play the game, what are YOUR answers to the five questions above?

And don't forget to come back to see if you've won the $25 Auction Coupon!

Personal Grooming & Other Dangerous Hobbies

by Susan Sey

My curling iron exploded last week.

Okay, so maybe exploded isn't the right word as it implies flames & suchlike. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say my curling iron spontaneously disassembled itself. While I was using it.

It was a shock at the time. There I was, holding a tube of million-degree metal inches from my eyeball when one of the screws holding it all together shot across the room. I had just enough to time think, "What the hell was that?" when the other screw shot out, too, & the whole deal went SPROING (seriously, it made that noise) as the clampy bit that grabs your hair hurtled across the room at high velocity.

I wish I could say this came as a surprise but it didn't. Not really. For some time, I'd been contemplating putting the old girl out to pasture. It was at least a decade old. The plastic bit that keeps your thumb from roasting alive had disappeared years ago. The little foot that keeps it from melting your bathroom counter? Same thing.

But my inner eco-warrior kept saying, "Oh come on. You use it, what? Like once a quarter? You really want to toss this one in the landfill while it still adequately bends your hair?"

Well, yeah. Yeah I did. But I want lots of things I probably shouldn't have. Dessert for breakfast. An unlimited supply of paperback books. A reason (any reason, please lord) to skip the gym. And since my idea of personal grooming rarely extends beyond showering, brushing my teeth & using deodorant, could I really justify a new curling iron?

Clearly I could not.

Was I being frugal? Environmental? Stingy? Careless?

Nah. I think I just hate change. I liked my old curling iron. It had an on button, an off button & it curled the hell out of my hair. (No easy feat, that. Teflon only wishes it was my hair.) Now I have to go back to the dance & find a new partner, which a recent trip to the beauty aisle at Target has assured me will be complicated. Nano-ceramics will, apparently, be invovled. Jeesh.

Now some people like newness for newness' sake. I am not one of those people. I will wear underpants until they are nothing but a band of elastic. I once owned a car that required a set of instructions if anybody besides me drove it. ("The gas gauge doesn't work so you'll have to reset the trip tyche every time you fill up & calculate your mileage to see when you're due for a fill up. You also have to roll down the window & let yourself out the drivers' side door as the inside handle's broken. Speaking of the driver's side window...")

I think maybe it's not newness I dislike so much, but the choosing. I hate trying to pick out the best new thing from a whole bunch of other new things. It's so much pressure. What if I choose badly? What if I screw it up? What if it's an expensive mistake? What if the choosing process forces me to acknowledge unflattering truths about myself? (Underwear shopping is great for letting those unflattering truths out of the bag, by the way. I'll bet I'm not the only girl out there wearing her unders to shreds.)

Same goes for starting a new book. Is this the right hero? The right heroine? The right match up? What if this other guy's better? Is this the right tone? The right conflict? The right place to start? I have probably written more Chapter Ones than any person on the face of the planet. And it's all because I'm the kind of girl who holds onto her curling iron until it explodes on her.

So how about you? Do you hold onto stuff (or habits or theories or people) until they blow up on you? Or do you thrive on novelty? Does new give you a kick or a headache? What was the last thing you kept too long, from leftovers to an outgrown boy/girl friend?

Demon Booty!

We have booty to give away! Lisa Shearin is graciously giving a Raine Benares gift basket to one of the commenters on her guest day. The basket includes all three Raine Benares books and assorted other goodies!

The winner is (drumroll, please . . .) Suzana! Congratulations, Suzana.

Please email lisa@lisashearin.com and arrange to collect your winnings!

To everyone who didn't win, thanks for stopping by and better luck next time!

You Have Won ... Bandita Booty!!

Okay, no, it's not £1,500,000,000.00, but it's practically as fabulous!! :-)

The random winner of an autographed copy of Homicide in Hardcover is . . .

PISSENLIT!!!

Congratulations, Pissenlit! Please send your snail mail address to me at katecarlisle99@yahoo.com and I'll send you the book ASAP!

Thanks to all for a fun day of dreaming!!

Kate

Bandita Booty!!

by Anna Sugden
We have a winner!!

One lucky commenter has won her choice of either "Nutcase" or "What Looks Like Crazy" by Charlotte Hughes!

So, without further ado ... Congratulations to ...

M!

If you email me at anna@annasugden.com with you snail mail addy, I'll pass your info on to Charlotte.

A Trip To Station Five: Too Hot To Handle!

by Suzanne

Welcome Banditas and readers, please move to the back of the van and buckle up, because we're going on a field trip today. Actually, Jo Davis and I are going to take you with us on a trip out to Station Five to see how her team of sexy firefighters spend their day. Jo needed to do some on sight research, so as her trusty sidekick and handy photographer, I of course got an invite, too!

It's a long drive out there, but we have plenty to talk about, like how happy Howard and Kat are since their wedding. We also talk about the serial killer who nearly took the delicious "Six-pack" from his woman. Now that would've been a shame.

We pull up outside the firehouse, a modest brick building with two large bay style garage doors, both open for our arrival. As we all pile out of the van, who comes out to greet us, but the sexy, but surly Captain Sean Tanner, himself.

As the captain walks over, we notice two other hunks straighten from their task of waxing the engine to smile at us. Oh, my...it's Julian Salvatore and Zack Knight! Is it getting warmer out here?

Sean stops in front of us, over six feet of lean, rough-hewn male. He's in his early forties, dark brown hair just beginning to go silver at the temples. Though his smile is welcoming and transforms his face from hard to handsome, it doesn't quite reach cool green eyes that hint of terrible loss. But we don't have time to dwell on that as he puts us as ease.

Sean: Ladies, welcome. It's good to see you.
Jo: Great to see you guys again! How have you been?
Sean: All right, I suppose. Work has been busy, which is either good or bad depending on where you're sitting.
Suz: I know exactly what you mean. I'm a labor and delivery nurse, so I understand what it's like some to hang around some nights for hours with nothing to do. The second you wish there was something going on...
Sean (nodding): All hell breaks loose. Believe me, we know. (He turns to call to Julian and Zack) Are you two going to stand back there and gawk, or come and meet two pretty women?
Julian: Coming, Cap! Who am I to refuse such an invitation?
Zack (rolling his eyes): He's such a walking gland.
Julian (shooting him a grin): At least I can get a date-
Zack: Who probably needs a round of antibiotics afterward.
Sean: Boys! Good God, those two are hopeless.


Jo and I exchange a Look. Julian and Zack might be hopeless, but they make for darned fine eye candy. Both have black hair, but Julian's is cut a little longer, falling attractively over dark eyes. Zack's is shorter, and his eyes are laser blue behind his wire-rimmed glasses. Both are about the same height and build, though Zack is a little more lean. Julian's grin is completely unrepentant, while Zack's smile is shy.

Zack: Sorry about that, but Jules knows exactly what buttons to push.
Julian: Hey, it's not my fault you're as sensitive as a little girl.
Zack: I've got your girl right here-
Sean: Um, Zack? Why don't you give Jo and Suz a quick tour of the station. I think Jo needs a refresher on some of the procedures and such.
Zack: Great idea. This way, ladies!

Zack leads us into the bay where the big engine, called a quint because it has the big ladder on top, is sitting next to an ambulance. In one corner there's a boat used for water rescues, and there are other mysterious pieces of equipment lying around. Everything is neat and orderly. For a building full of men-plus one woman-that's saying something!


Zack: This is the quint-our single most important piece of equipment besides the ambulance. Not to mention a main attraction with the kids. The aerial ladder reaches 105 feet. The quint weighs 65,000 lbs, or 32.5 tons, and carries a price tag of nearly $200,000.
Suz (running my hands over the smooth, shining chrome): Cool!
Jo: Wow, that's expensive! How long does a quint stay in service?
Zack: It depends, but somewhere in the area of 12-14 years. Retired trucks are auctioned off by the city to volunteer departments. The last one auctioned fetched around $35,000. Ready to go inside and we'll see what Tommy is making for lunch?
Jo (dubious): Uh...Tommy's cooking?
Zack (smiling): Not to worry, Eve is helping him. I promise we won't poison you before we send you home.
Jo: Thank heavens!

Jo and I follow him inside, both of us noting how well his cute rear fills out his regulation navy pants. In the kitchen, an attractive, dark-haired woman who must be Eve is standing beside Tommy Skyler, instructing the blond Brad Pitt look-alike in making something tasty. Glancing up, both give us a smile and exchange hellos.

Zack: Come on, let's leave them to it while I show you the living quarters. Down this hallway are the bunks-two beds in each room with a stand of lockers between the beds for semi-privacy.
Suz: Eve doesn't share a room with a male firefighter, does she?
Zack: No, but that's a good question. Our station is updated and set up so a woman doesn't have to share either bedroom or restroom/shower facilities. Many stations aren't so fortunate, and the women must bunk with the men, use the same showers, etc. Which can really cause unhappiness with some of the wives and significant others.
Jo: I can imagine! How do male firefighters really feel about having a female on the team? Be honest.
Zack: At our station, we're more than cool with having a woman. Some aren't, which is a shame. The physical agility test to become a firefighter is strenuous, so if she can pass, be a team player, she's earned her spot same as anyone else. Eve, in particular, is awesome. You couldn't ask for a better person to have at your back.

Zack gives us a peek into the rooms, which are amazingly small, especially given the size of some of these guys! And those beds don't look like they'd comfortably accommodate a growing teen much less a man!

Suz: I've seen college dorm rooms bigger than this.
Zack: Tiny, huh? You should see Six-Pack trying to move around in here. He's got it worse than any of us. Speaking of the devil...

Lieutenant Howard "Six-Pack" Paxton emerges from one of the rooms and strides toward us. Oh. My. Gawd. The man is six feet, six inches of pure, muscled testosterone. A woman could drown in those big brown peepers and his spiky brown hair bleached blond on the ends is just too fetching.


Six-Pack: Girls, enjoying your visit?
Jo: We are, thanks! Zack is treating us like royalty, and Tommy is making lunch.
Six-Pack (grimacing): Well, two out of three isn't bad. (He throws Zack a pitiful look) Isn't the bottle of Tums empty?
Zack: Eve bought a new one and brought it this morning. Extra-strength.
Six-Pack: Bless her.

A peek into the pantry and we see the LARGEST box of TUMS every! Which makes you wonder just how bad Tommy's cooking really is?

Zack: Say, I was just about to show the girls the locker room, maybe bunk them out in our gear. Want to help?
Six-Pack: Sure, that'll be fun. Ladies?

Our two hot guides lead us to the end of the hallway and through another door. In this long, skinny room are a row of open lockers with hooks in each. Zack explains that each man on each shift is assigned a locker where they store their equipment when off-duty. Sure enough, coats, pants, and hats, and boots are crowded into two thirds of them. The A-shift lockers are empty.

Suz: Where do you keep your gear when you're on-shift?
Six-Pack: Out in the bay, next to the quint. Saves time to have all the stuff out there, ready to go.
Suz: Ah! So that's why there were boots, coats, and things lying out there.
Zack: Exactly. Why don't we get you guys dressed so you can get a taste of how it really feels to be weighed down by all our gear?
Jo: Sounds like fun!

Zack and the lieutenant borrow two sets of gear from another shift in case they need theirs in a hurry. First, Jo and I step into fire pants and then boots several sizes too big. The boys help us pull up the pants and secure them with suspenders. Already, we feel like we're made of lead, but the heavy stuff is yet to come.

Next comes the coat, which is heavier than you could imagine! But the real kicker is the oxygen tank and face mask-a unit we learn is called the SCBA, or Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus. Jo doesn't like having the mask over her face one bit, and we laugh while she gives us a mock glare. Once the microphone is secured to our collars, the thermal imagine camera is last. Since there's only one of those, Zack hooks it to my right front strap. Now that I'm fully equipped, I feel like a slight shove could push me over-and I wouldn't be able to get up!



Jo: Lord, this is like being encased in cement! How much does all this equipment weigh?
Zack: Over 50 lbs. Comfy, huh?
Suz: Right! All the good citizens of Sugarland better be glad Jo and I will never be called out to save them dressed like this, because they'd be in real trouble!

Zack and Six-Pack have a good laugh, then undress us. (Just the uniforms, unfortunately!) After they put their colleagues equipment away, Zack gestures back the way we came.

Zack: So, are you brave souls ready to try Tommy's cuisine?
Jo: You bet!
Suz: Lead the way!

How bad can it be? After all, compared to what these guys have to do every day, the dangers they face, what's a little indigestion?

That's our trip to the firestation, (which Jo and I really did go to a firestation for her research and my personal desire to meet firefighters). And as you can see, Jo's second book about the Firefighters of Station Five, UNDER FIRE, is hitting the shelves May 5th! This is Zack, the sexy shy hero of the group and trust me, it will melt your panties off, again!!

So, do you like heroine driven books or hero driven books? And if you like hero-driven books, what are your favorite group of heros?

Jo is goin to give an autographed copy of UNDER FIRE to one lucky reader today! And if you want to see more of Jo's HOT firefighters, go to http://www.jodavis.net/

The Trouble With Books...

by Suzanne

This Romance Bandit gig is a very cool thing. One of the benefits, at least for me, is that when I do an interview with a guest, I get to read a new release about a month ahead of anyone else. (And being the restrained person that I am, I NEVER rub it in to friends that I got to read a favorite author before them...Yeah, RIGHT!) This is very necessary for me in order to pull out interesting questions, so you, our readers get to learn about the books, without giving away any twists.

So, in preparation for Lorraine Heath's return to the blog in June, I asked her to send me an ARC or a synopsis of the newest release, SURRENDER TO THE DEVIL, so she and I could get her blog post done ahead of time. Since I have a new grandson due around June 1st, I didn't want to get behind on things. (It's a grandma thing.)


Lorraine happily complied with my needs and sent me the book. Now here's where I made my mistake. I opened it. Sigh. Lorraine is what I call a beginning to end author for me. What you say is a beginning to end author? Well, here's my way of categorizing authors or books:





1. TRY AND SEE: Usually a debut author or someone who has been recommended to me by a friend as someone whose books I should try. I usually start these early in the afternoon or evening, or even during a slow period at work. If life or work interrupts, well that's okay, I don't mind. If it's pretty good I'll come back to the book. If it's not one that holds my interest, then I figure I haven't wasted too much time on it.

2. READ IN SPURTS: Anthologies and fairly good books that don't grab me and hold me deep in the story. Anthologies are good for this, because I can usually read one of the stories in about an hour. And in an anthology, usually two stories are good. (By the way have you ever noticed that in a 3-story anthology, usually one story is really good, one is pretty good and well, the other is meh?) So I can invest time in short bursts, still have time to get the ironing or cooking done and not feel guilty about mid-afternoon reading.

3. CRITIQUES: These are those lovely stories my critique partners, (Sandy Blair and Jo Davis), send me--usually in big chunks and across the computer. I try to read them as quickly as possible so I can get any changes or ideas back to them ASAP. Also, luckily for me I love their writing and characters, so this is not a hardship for me!

4. BEGINNING TO ENDERS: These are the auto buys. The favorites. Those authors who I know will deliver a story that takes me away to a world beyond my four walls, to lives and loves I know I'll be bereft over when they're finished. (Julie Garwood, JAK, SEP, Suzanne Brockmann, Sherrilyn Kenyon, JR Ward, and of course, Lorraine Heath.) These are the books I plan on spending the day or evening/night reading. They are my dirty little passions...and I do not want to be interrupted reading them.

So, the moment I opened Lorraine's newest book, I knew I was in trouble. I had to be up early for a chapter board meeting. I needed to sleep. Did I go to bed? Did I act responsibly? Nope, I indulged. AND I LOVED EVERY SECOND OF IT!! (I'd tell you more about SURRENDER TO THE DEVIL...but that's for June's blog...hehehe)

So, how do you categorize your books? Do you have BEGINNING TO ENDERS? Do you set aside a whole day or evening/night to read?

The Trouble with Demons

Today fantasy author Lisa Shearin joins us in the Lair. Lisa writes the popular Raine Benares series, which started with Magic Lost, Trouble Found. Her third book, The Trouble With Demons, is due out this Tuedsay. Welcome, Lisa!

Who is Raine Benares, and why is she in so much trouble?

Raine Benares is an elf and a seeker, a finder of things lost and people missing, kind of like a gumshoe/private detective with daggers—lots of daggers. Raine’s occupation is at odds with being a member of the notorious Benares crime family. Some of the things Raine’s hired to find are better off staying lost, and one of those is the Saghred, an ancient, soul-stealing stone of cataclysmic power. When the Saghred bonds with Raine and she can’t get rid of it, she suddenly finds herself with the kind of attention a girl can do without: the sadistic leader of a goblin secret society, the sexy but secretive commander of the Conclave Guardians, and a renegade goblin prince. And when attacks in back alleys fail to capture Raine, the goblins take the legal road. As Raine said, “I couldn’t be bonded to just any old stone of cataclysmic power. Mine had lawyers.” Oh, and by the way, at least once in every book something big gets blown up—warehouses, embassies, gates to Hell—just your fun, garden-variety pyromaniac targets.

Raine has interesting problems with the men in her life. Can you tell us a little about them?

Tamnais Nathrach is a goblin nightclub owner and a friend of Raine’s. He wants to be more than friends. Like most goblins, Tam wears his black hair long—and his fangs aren’t for decorative use only. If a fight gets dirty, a goblin won’t hesitate to use their fangs to lethal effect. Tam won’t hesitate to use his fangs to nibble on Raine’s neck or the tips of her pointed ears.

Mychael Eiliesor is an elf and the commander of the Conclave Guardians, the most elite magical fighting force in the seven kingdoms. At first he’s after Raine to keep the Saghred from falling into the wrong hands; later he wants to keep Raine from falling into anyone’s hands except his own.


Would you like to share an excerpt with us?

I heard the creak of leather as Tam came to stand directly behind me, the heat of his body warming me. Warm and nice. Except it wasn’t nice; it was dangerous. Don’t forget dangerous, Raine. Tam was dangerous to anyone who crossed his path, but mostly to me, especially now.
And I was dangerous to everyone, period.

Tam’s strong hands settled on my shoulders and gently pulled me back against him. I knew it was a bad idea, but I leaned into him anyway, my head resting on his chest. Just a minute or two wouldn’t do any harm. A little comforting never hurt anyone, and right now, I could use some.

Our reflections looked back at us out of the glass.

I watched Tam’s hands slide from my shoulders to my arms. His hands were deliciously warm. My numerous brushes with death today had left me shivering—and not just from cold.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. Those two words said everything, but told me nothing.

Tam could be sorry for any number of things: the bond that linked us, using me to cram that demon into a bottle, me being accused of practicing black magic, or even the crap heap my life had become thanks to the Saghred. But it didn’t tell me what I could do about any of them. The only thing I wanted more than to run was to do something, anything to find a way out of all of this.

Tam wrapped his arms around me, pulling me closer, his head bowed, hair falling in a silken curtain around us. The side of his face softly brushed against mine, like a cat—a big, dangerous cat. A shiver ran through me. This was about to go beyond comforting.

My heart sped up, and not just from Tam’s touch and his scent of fire-heated spices, of cinnamon and cloves. Getting within arms’ reach of Tam had always been risky; the kind of risk where your clothes somehow ended up on the floor. Now risk had turned to danger. Thanks to our bond, we were as intimate as two people could be and still keep their clothes on. The Saghred had forged our bond.

The rock never did anything without a reason—and no wards held it now.

I swallowed hard. “Tam, no.”

“Raine, I would never hurt you.” Tam’s voice was a husky whisper against my ear. It was the whisper of a man torn between what he wanted and the knowledge that what he wanted could ultimately destroy him. Tam wanted me. Tam’s black magic wanted the Saghred. Deep down, he knew it. He knew it and he didn’t care—or he couldn’t stop himself.

In one swift, smooth move, Tam turned me to face him. I didn’t fight him; I needed to see his eyes, to see if Tam was the only one home in there. I looked up into twin pools in a midnight forest. Not the solid black orbs that they’d been under the embassy, no black magic glittering there, just desire. A woman could drown in those pools. I could drown in those pools. But if did, I’d drag Tam under with me. It might not be tonight, but it would happen. The Saghred would see to it.

“No, Tam,” I said quietly. “I’m the one who would hurt you.”

His heart pounded beneath my hands as he pulled me tight against him, his body hard against mine, his breath warm against the tip of my ear. I expected his lips next, followed by a nibble of fang. Neither happened. We stood there, not moving, not speaking, not safe. Definitely not safe. And we both knew it.

Tam pulled back just enough to gaze down at me. “It won’t happen yet.” His denial was murmured on the barest breath. He bent his head, his lips poised above mine. “Not yet.”

I didn’t stop him, and I should have.

Tam’s kiss was a brush of featherlight silk, tentative, cautious; but his breathing had taken on a ragged edge—for me and for the power that had slowed to a soft pulse inside of me, anticipating, waiting. The touch of his lips quickened that pulse, and my breath along with it. Suddenly I was returning his kiss, my mouth pressing insistently against his, my tongue touching the smooth sharpness of his fangs. Tam shivered at the contact, and his breath came in a quick hiss as his long fingers gripped my hair, holding my head still as he kissed me hard and deep, devouring. His other hand left my waist to explore other places. I heard a soft groan; I think it was me. A slim slice of my consciousness knew it was more than me, more than Tam.

Stop this, Raine. Stop it now.

I couldn’t.

My hands took on a life of their own, sliding from Tam’s chest to his throat. I lingered there, my fingers resting against the vulnerable pulse point, feeling it quicken and throb at my touch. Tam’s arms tightened around me, and suddenly my feet weren’t touching the floor.

This was more than sensation, more than Tam and me. Magic curled in a sensuous swirl of heat through my belly and lower, along my skin and through my mind, and I saw Tam and I pressed together as if I were standing outside my body, a witness to passion that I had no control over. Tam’s magic answered mine, his power responding, transforming those swirls into living vines, touching, entangling.

Binding.

Heat flared in the center of my chest, awake and eager, and I came back to myself, passion turned to panic.

I wasn’t across the room; I was clenched tightly in Tam’s arms. Our lips parted and we froze, pressed together, breathing fast, our hearts beating faster. Inside of me, the Saghred’s burn went from an exultant blaze to a triumphant smolder.

The rock had just given Tam a sample of the ultimate fix and a taste of me along with it. For a recovering addict, it could be damnation. Tam might be willing to risk it; I wasn’t going to risk Tam or myself.

I got my hands between us and pushed hard against his chest. “Tam, let me go.”

I was panting, so was he. A shudder ran through his body and his hold on me loosened just enough that my feet touched the floor. I was ready to fight him if I had to, but Tam released me.

“I’m sorry,” he managed between breaths.

I pulled air into my lungs, trying to clear my head, and took two steps back. I’d have retreated further, but my back was against the glass wall. Tam made no move to come after me.

I exhaled and tried for some more air. “My fault. Shouldn’t have . . . let you get that close.”

Tam’s lips were parted, breathing softly. “I should have had more control.”

His dark eyes were still drowning pools, reflecting fear at what had happened, but desire at what we’d done. I looked away. I couldn’t drown if I didn’t go swimming again.

“Though control would be easier to come by if you didn’t feel so good.” There was still fear in Tam’s eyes, but his sly grin was sex itself. “And if you hadn’t tried to stick your tongue down my throat.”

“I didn’t try to—” Then memory collided with sensation. Oh yes, I did. Damn.

“Maybe next time we should just stand across the room and talk dirty to each other,” he suggested.

“There can’t be a next time.”

Tam didn’t answer. He might be a scoundrel, but he didn’t make promises he couldn’t keep.


You're an exhibition fencer. How did you become interested in that?

I took fencing and archery in college and the love of both never left me. My husband and I started taking lessons and jumped at the chance to become part of our fencing club’s Renaissance group, The Ship’s Company. We did fencing shows and demonstrations at movie premieres, Renaissance faires, museums and schools.

Since I’ve begun writing Raine’s adventures, unfortunately I haven’t had the time to get back into the fencing gym. But I have five years of fencing experience to fall back on (my Olympic weapons of choice are the foil and epee). And while I was working on the manuscript that would become Magic Lost, Trouble Found, I took private rapier and dagger lessons, and took a lot of notes for future book use. My fencing coach, Wes Caudill, helped me block out the fight scene in the first chapter of Magic Lost, Trouble Found, and is always available for any and all of my combat-related questions.

Like Raine, I like to be creative in my fighting style. Though unlike Raine, I’ve never used a rose bush branch as an offhand weapon. I prefer the more traditional offhand weapons: a dagger, a second rapier (fighting with a pair of rapiers is also known as a “case” of rapiers or Florentine style), a dueling cloak (though I never quite got the hang of that), but what was just too much fun was a rapier and a bullwhip. Yep, you heard me right. Believe me, nothing distracts an opponent like a six-foot whip wrapping around their blade. Hmmm, a bullwhip. That sounds like a weapon Raine would like.

We love call stories here in the lair. Would you like to share yours?

I got "The Call" from Kristin Nelson offering to represent me, and "The Email" from Kristin telling me we had a two-book contract offer on the table.

"The Call" came during the day while I was at work (at the day job). When Kristin said she loved my book and wanted to represent me, I did a lot of silent "squeeing" and fumbling to find a pen and paper to take notes. That alone shows how completely befuddled and caught off guard I was—I'm an editor, writer and proofreader at an advertising agency; I've got pens and paper all over the place. I had two other agents who were also considering my book, but I really wanted to sign with Kristin. Why? Because she was so excited about my book and seemed to love my characters as much as I did. For me, that was a must-have for an agent.

The frustrating part of getting The Call at the office was that while my co-workers congratulated me, they had no clue how freaking huge and mammoth and humongous this moment was for me. It's definitely more fun to squee with people who know why they're squeeing with you.

As to The Email from Kristin saying that we had an offer of a two-book contract from Ace Books—that one came at home. I'd just gotten home from work and had been checking my email like crazy every day. When I saw the subject line "We have an offer," first I stopped breathing. Second, I let my breath out, took another one, and told myself to keep breathing. Then I opened the email.

And screamed.

Bear in mind that I was at home and so was my husband Derek. Now he understood how huge, mammoth, and humongous this news was, so when I burst into tears, I got the perfectly appropriate response of enthusiastic hugs and kisses (not that I wanted that from my co-workers). Our dogs (two retired racing greyhounds and a Jack Russell Terrier) were crowded around us and jumping up & down—they had no clue that mom had just scored a two-book deal, they just wanted to share in the excitement.

For more about Lisa and her work, check out her website. Lisa will be participating in a panel and signing at Barnes and Noble in Cary, NC, on June 23. For more information, click here.

What's your favorite love triangle? What do you like about swashbuckling adventure, and what's your favorite one? What criteria do you think a heroine should use when choosing between two hot guys?

Lisa is giving away a Raine Benares gift basket with copies of all three books and assorted other goodies to one commenter.

YOU HAVE WON £1,500,000,000.00

By Kate

*CONGRATULATIONS*

This was the message that greeted me when I opened my email account today. I was so excited! All I have to do to collect my winnings is to call Mr. Mark Williams and give him my name, address, phone, age, sex, occupation, driver's license and social security number. Once he has all that info, I'm sure Mr. Williams will rush my winnings to me by overnight mail. Right?

Sweet!

By the way, in case you didn't catch that number the first time, it's £1,500,000,000.00.

One. Billion. Five. Hundred. Million. Pounds.

That's over two billion dollars. Just so we're clear. I'm not sure how Mr. Mark Williams can afford to give me all that money, but I'm more than happy to take it off his hands.

In fact, I have a whole list of things I want to buy, starting with houses in all my favorite places. And I'll need a private jet, of course, so I can fly there whenever I want without having to take off most of my clothes in the security line at the airport. And of course I'll give tons of money to charities and organizations that provide food and medicine and animals and housing to people in need. We would all do that, right?

Now that I've told everybody I'm going to be immensely wealthy, I suppose I'll start getting emails and phone calls from everyone I know, asking me to loan them some money to buy a house or pay off a loan or whatever. That's okay. I've decided to be generous. Whatever you want, I'll give it to you. I want everyone to share in my joy!

Maybe I'll buy a publishing company. And a boat. Hmm. A personal trainer? I'd better make a list. It's going to be so much fun spending all this money!

So, play along with me. What's the first FUN thing you'd buy with your big winnings?

One thing you won't have to buy is a copy of Homicide in Hardcover, because one random commenter will win an autographed copy!

Gabi Stevens Climbing Mt. Everest

by KJ Howe

The publishing industry is a challenging one during the best of times. In this economy, finding a home for our books might parallel climbing Mt. Everest--a true test of nerves, an endurance event including the risk of life and limb, and a feat to truly admire. Today I'd like to welcome someone who has recently reached the summit! A warm welcome to Gabi Stevens who will tell her tale on the rocky path to publication:

Three weeks ago, my new agent sold my new paranormal series, Time of Transition, to Tor. The first book, THE WISH LIST, is due on bookshelves May 2010. I'd had publishing success in the past, but my career stalled when an editor left my publishing house. Despite having an agent, despite contest wins, good reviews, and a burning desire to succeed, my writing career was going nowhere. And then, as an added insult, I had to get a day job to pay tuitions for twins (yes, I know I was lucky before). When the first two years passed without any nibbles, I thought it was a fluke, but as the drought continued, it became harder and harder to keep going, to keep writing, not to quit. I started doubting my abilities, believing that I didn't have what it takes, that I'd never have another book published. I tried switching genres, switching critique groups, and going through many, many months of utter despair. So why didn't I quit? Here are...

The Top Ten Reasons I am Still in the Game:

10. I already owned the equipment — Computer...check; research books…check; paper...check. Are you kidding? I buy my paper by the case at my favorite office superstore.

9. The lovely fellow writers I have gotten to know over the years — They are a support group. They wouldn’t let me quit. They "get" me.

8. I couldn't turn off the voices in my head — If you're a writer, you know what I mean. Too many characters were demanding life, and every time I considered leaving them behind, they'd protest.

7. Nothing feels as good as typing "The End" — It’s a sense of accomplishment when you've finished a novel. And now I have three completed novels and three proposals that I can regale my agent with.

6. Time means nothing — Time exists, but the way we measure it is arbitrary. Why do we have a twenty-four hour day with sixty minute hours made up of sixty second minutes (I know, I know, the Babylonians)? I read a book once where the calendar was kept with a deck of cards. (Think about it: fifty-two weeks in a year, fifty-two cards in a deck; four suits times thirteen cards equals fifty two, and you have jokers for leap years.) And age is just a number. In my head I will forever be twenty. Only wiser than when I was actually twenty.

5. The importance of teaching my children that having a dream and pursuing it is (almost) as important as succeeding.

4. It's just cool to say you're a writer — the Muggle world...I mean the non-writing world...doesn’t "get" it anyway, but they're impressed.

3. I needed an excuse to keep my book buying habits — I read a lot. Too much. No, really. When I run out of books, I read my husband's robotics journals. I don't understand them, but I read them. I have no TBR pile. Actually I do right now, but it's only three books. Check back in a week.

2. I enjoy it — Yes, writing is hard, yes, it can be frustrating, but I like to play with language and words. I like looking up grammar rules and definitions. Diagramming sentences should be required for all students. It's fun.

And the number one reason I haven’t quit…

1. Embarrassment.

Yup. My prime motivator was not being able to face my family and friends. I couldn't tell them I failed. I try not to care about what others think about me, but this was different. I couldn't quit because I felt I made a liar of myself and disappointed those who believed in me. I wanted to be able to hold my head up, and I couldn’t have done that if I had quit. (Hey, this is about my reasons for not quitting.)

Wiser men than I have written about persistence, so I leave you with these words from Isaac Asimov: If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success—but only if you persist.

--Gabi

Thanks for sharing your story, Gabi. Your perseverence is inspiring and I can't wait to read your novels! If you're a writer, what are you willing to sacrifice to make your dreams come true? If you're a reader, do you like hearing "CALL" stories about your favorite authors? We'd love to hear your thoughts.

Gabi Stevens was born in California to Hungarian parents. They never understood how she could make up stories and entertain herself for hours at a time. She must not have understood that she was a storyteller either because she waited until her twins turned one and she feared her brain was turning into mush to write her first book.

An award winning author, Gabi now lives and writes in New Mexico where she lives with her robotics engineer husband, three daughters, and a neurotic dog. She loves to play games, has a wicked addiction to reading, and avoids housework and cooking whenever she can. She is the author of a new paranormal series, The Time of Transition, from Tor. The first book, The Wish List, appears in stores May 2010. You can follow her blog at http://www.gabistevens.blogspot.com/.

A special congrats to Bandita Donna MacMeans who is going to be up on stage tonight at the RT conference in Orlando accepting a special award. We're cheering you on, Donna! KJ

The Rooster Takes Orlando!

by Donna MacMeans

Hi - First wanted to announce the winner of Lisa Cooke's blog on Tuesday. MsHellion - you're the winner! Please contact Lisa at cooke57@yahoo.com with your information.

Second - BIG NEWS! Romantic Times announced the winners of their 2009 awards and yours truly won Best Historical Love and Laughter! I'll accept the award on Friday -- right before the Vampire Ball.

So that's where you'll find the GR and I - down here in sunny Orlando at the RT Convention.

We packed our bags and boarded the airplane. The GR insisted he could fly on his own but when I insisted he'd be too tired for the planned events, he relented and claimed the window seat.

We didn't even make it out of the Orlando airport when the GR tried to pick up chicks.


We arrived at the Wynham Hotel and the GR insisted on leading the way to the room.

He consulted Sheila Clover English of Circle of Seven about making a book trailer. The GR gives new meaning to the term "hunt and peck".

The GR checks out his competition in the arms of cover model CJ Hollenbach - you know, one "rooster" to another.



The cheeky bird flirts with Kensington author Delilah Marvelle



and inspires Linnea Sinclair to violence with her space blaster.



After spending the night in the bar sharing stories with romance reader Bud Rice (husband of Ellora's Cave author Dee Brice), but GR signed the bar bill to my room. Now how am I going to explain that $500 tab on my credit card???

Finally, Kensington author Sally MacKenzie reduced the GR to a pool of fur, feathers and alcohol.

I just wanted to leave you with this - the floor show of the Ellora's Cave models.

And so while the GR and I are out circulating among the fans of romance down here in Orlando, I can't promise that I'll be able to drop in frequently to answer questions and comments - but I promise I will read them. I'll send promo items gathered from RT (including a book) to two commentors from today's blog. In that spirit, tell me - what's your favorite kind of promo? Can't guarantee that I'll find it here on promotion lane, but I'll send the GR out to "peck" out the best.

Have a Laugh with Charlotte Hughes!

by Anna Sugden

How many authors can make you laugh out loud? For me, there are very few. One who manages to do so regularly, is our guest today, Charlotte Hughes.

Award winning author Charlotte Hughes began her writing career publishing newspaper and magazine articles before becoming a New York Times best selling author. Charlotte makes her home in Beaufort, S. C. Best known for her FULL series with Janet Evanovich, she has written over 40 books, ranging for the 3 mysteries she wrote for Avon to Mira’s HOT SHOT. Her newest release, NUTCASE centers on Atlanta psychologist Kate Holly and the humorous antics of her friends, family and patients. In the process she learns that the life of a psychologist is enough to drive anyone nuts. You can visit Charlotte online at http://www.readcharlottehughes.com/, where she also blogs.

I'm delighted to be able to welcome Charlotte, and promise not to be too much of a fan girl about her fabulously zany Kate Holly series (which also includes a sexy fireman!) - if you haven't had a chance to read What Looks Like Crazy or Nutcase yet, you must! You won't be disappointed!

We’re so pleased you could join us, Charlotte. Grab your favourite cabana boy, hockey hunk or gladiator and make yourself comfortable!

Thanks Anna, and Banditas. It's good to be here.

The Amazon pigeon finally brought my copy of the second book in your Crazy series, Nutcase - YAY! For those who haven’t read What Looks Like Crazy (why not?!), can you tell them a bit more about this fabulously funny series?

The series is about a female psychologist, Kate Holly, and her crazy family, friends, and patients. As I state on my website, it’s irreverent and politically incorrect, but it’s done in great fun. When I created Kate, I wanted her to have as many issues as her patients so I’ve had a lot of fun with her. The poor girl would love to have a “normal” life, but that is not likely to happen, what with the kooky cast of characters surrounding her. Each book stands alone but most of the characters are in all of them.

What (or who *g*) inspired you to write about a psychologist?

Not only have I been in therapy, but I married a clinical psychologist. Don’t ever marry a clinical psychologist – you’ll spend the rest of your life in analysis! I wish I’d married a plastic surgeon.

I’m sure many of us have read the awesome FULL series you wrote with Janet Evanovich. How did that come about and what can you tell us about working with Janet?

Janet and I have been friends for too many years to count. We both have the same wacky, over-the-top sense of humour so it was relatively easy to write the FULL series. The only problem we had was that I like men with hairy chests and Janet prefers them buff. She said the hero made her think of a Chia pet. So I had to make him less hairy. :)

I also discovered that you’ve written romantic suspense (adding them to my To Buy list). How different were they to write than your romantic comedies?

I really loved writing the three “dark” mysteries for Avon although I scared myself at times. I had to do a ton of research and learn about forensics and police procedure, etc., back before that was the rage, but it was fun and challenging. I’m very proud of the books; all three won awards. I guess I proved to myself that I am capable of writing different genres.

I’m so envious that you live in Beaufort. I love that whole area. If it wasn’t for the hurricanes, it would be perfect. What do you love about living in the south?

I’ve lived in Beaufort some 16-17 years. I fell in love with the area when my family chose to vacation here many years ago. There are more than 100 antebellum homes and churches that were untouched during the Civil War. The South, as most people think of it, has changed, in that a lot of people from northern locations choose to retire here. Living in Beaufort, the Lowcountry, is pretty laid back. Nobody seems to be in a big hurry. I love being surrounded by marsh and water. To me, it is one of the most beautiful places in the world so it’s no surprise that it is a tourist hotspot as well.

Now for some fun questions:
1. Leather or Lace: I much prefer a guy in leather than lace. As for me, I'm not a real girl-girl so I don't wear lace. I mostly wear unattractive pajamas guaranteed to send ice water through a man's loins.

2. Cowboy, Vampire, or Duke: Plastic surgeon.

3. Favorite food: Anything that I don't have to cook.

4. Favorite hunk: My FedEx guy.

5. Worst thing about being a writer: Having to write.

6. If you couldn't be a writer, what would you be? A princess.

Thanks, Charlotte! I know you're in the midst of revisions for your next book in the series (which I'm eagerly awaiting!), so it's great that you could take time to be with us today.

Now, it's over to our Bandita Buddies. One lucky commenter could win a signed copy of either Nutcase or What Looks Like Crazy. (you'll love either one!).

Do you have any crazy friends, family members, work colleagues, neighbours? Tell us about them - you can change the names to protect the not-so-innocent if you'd like *g*. If not ... do you prefer hairy or buff chests?

BulletProof Bandit Booty!

The winner of an autographed copy of Kay Thomas' BULLETPROOF TEXAS, is JoysAnn! CONGRATULATIONS, JoysAnn!!

Please e-mail your snail mail addy to me at swwelsh2001 AT yahoo DOT com (be sure there are 2 w's in that addy) and I'll see that Kay gets that prize to you!! CONGRATULATIONS, AGAIN!!

Debut author Lisa Cooke in the lair

sponsored by Donna MacMeans

I've known Lisa for several years and knew that if her everyday humor and charm were captured in a book - she'd have a hit on her hands. I didn't have long to wait. Lisa's debut book, TEXAS HOLD HIM, hit the bookshelves this month. Romantic Times Bookreviews says "It's a luscious, fast-paced adventure with appealing characters and great scenery." Luscious. I like that. Please join me in welcoming Lisa Cooke to the lair.

Thanks for inviting me to Romance Bandits today! I’m so excited to be here and to talk about my new release, TEXAS HOLD HIM. I love historical romances, and my favorites are definitely the ones that add humor to the mix. When I write a book, I always think about what types of personalities will give the best potential for a passionate romance and a giggle or two (or three or four).

The hero in TEXAS HOLD HIM is a Texan (of course) named Dyer Straights and a Southern belle who needs a sizable amount of money to pay a blackmailer so she can save her sick father from prison. Dyer is the best gambler on the Mississippi and Lottie agrees to give him a night in his bed in exchange for poker lessons. The ensuing scenes were a blast to write. Lottie had never handled cards in her life and her questioning of the logic of the game exasperates the hero to no end. Of course, there’s much more to the book than poker games, but the banter between my hero and heroine entertained me enormously as I tapped away at my keyboard.

My next book is a story about an 1890’s Appalachian midwife who suddenly finds herself with three fiancés. A MIDWIFE CRISIS will be released in February of 2010 with Leisure historicals. And yes, it’s got a few giggles in it as well, or did you already figure that out by the title?

Luckily, I found an editor who loves humor as much as I do. When Leah Hultenschmidt of Dorchester Publishing called me this summer, I almost fainted. I remember looking at the caller ID and seeing “Dorchester” and thinking, they must have the wrong number. When she told me she wanted TEXAS HOLD HIM, I could have swallowed my tongue. I’ll never forget her telling me that I had impressed her and Alicia Condon (senior editor). Then she added, “Well, actually, you’ve impressed quite a few people here.” What a cool thing to hear on a hot summer day. She said she laughed out loud at the poker lesson scenes. When I heard that, I knew I’d found my editor
match from Heaven.

So, how about you? Do you enjoy a good chuckle when you read, or do you prefer serious stories? Is it something that changes according to your mood or do you pretty much stick to one type of book?

Leave a comment and you might win a copy of TEXAS HOLD HIM for yourself. Anyone up for a few lessons from a sexy riverboat gambler?
Thanks for stopping by and happy reading!

Hey - if any of you are headed for the Romantic Times Convention in Orlando, Florida this week, be sure to stop by and visit Lisa, Christie, and I. To read more about TEXAS HOLD HIM, visit Lisa's website at www.lisahistoricals.com

SO....what about those Bears?!

by Jeanne Adams
Have you ever been in one of those awkward situations? You know the kind, like John Candy and Steve Martin in Planes, Trains and Automobiles. You're whistling along, minding your business, when either you or someone in the conversation says something REALLY stupid.

Or risque. Or just plain offensive.

Or worse, you let a secret out that you thought EVERYONE knew, but really, they didn't? (And they weren't supposed to?)

Very recently, I ended up in one of Those situations. Everyone in the room knew, but me, that we weren't discussing someone's recent divorce. Uh-huh. You guessed it. I stuck my foot in my mouth, big time.

Now I'm a shoot-straight-from the hip kind of gal. Those of you who know me well know I do my best to be polite - hey, no excuse for rudeness, evah! - but I also don't dance around something too much. That said, I'm also a good secret keeper, to borrow a phrase from Harry Potter. If you tell me it's not for public discussion, then it ain't. If I deem it too personal, from MY perspective, I don't share.

This person, however had told everyone and an English village that her no-good-cheatin-spouse was shacked up with his no-good-salesperson-of-the-month. The Couple had been seperated on and off for the last two years and now she, The Angered Spouse, was calling it quits because he - Cheating Spouse - had been caught in flagrante dilectco with the Other Woman.

Divorce proceedings insued, joint custody, etc. The Angered Spouse got alimony, support and a lot of sympathy from her social circle and the world at large.

All good, right?

Wrong. She got what she said she wanted, but turns out she really loves the no-good-cheatin'-now-ex spouse. I'm not even going to ask the obvious...WHY? I'll just say that now, post divorce, she had decided to get rawther upset if anyone dissed Ex-Cheatin'-Spouse any harsher than to say it was "...a shame he'd been so short-sighted as to cheat on (Angered Spouse)"

Everyone knew but me. Now, in my defense, I was NOT dissing the Cheatin' Spouse. Nope. I just wondered, (alas) out loud, why everyone was avoiding the topic when everyone was apparently dying to talk about it. Sort of like that "big pink elephant in the middle of the room" syndrome where everyone avoids mentioning the obvious.

See? NOT a diss. NOT a direct hit, though I'm perfectly capable of it. Just an innocent (catalytic) remark.

You'd have thought I'd opened the floodgates. To a person, everyone began to discuss it. Me? Well hell, I clammed up, not expecting this avalanche of a reaction.

Then....(drum roll please)...in walks the Divorced Angered Spouse, into the middle of the maelstrom. So what does the crowd of discussers do?

Yep. You bet they did. Everyone shuts up and looks at ME. Talk about getting thrown under the bus.

ME??? What did I do? *looking innocent and aggrieved*

Now, you can probably visualize this scene with me. The aftermath was NOT pretty, but I couldn't have written this scene and gotten away with it. Seriously, truth IS stranger than fiction. It was all melodrama and sheer Soap Opera Digest pathos.

Part of me was (painfully) involved in the scenario, and the writer part of me was busily taking notes in case I could use this in a book.

I reviewed said mental notes later, after discussing this with the Patient, Loving Spouse (Mine!), as I peeled out of the outfit I'd been wearing - soaked by Angered Spouse and her lethal rasberry martini - and set it aside to go IMMEDIATELY to the dry cleaners.

I realized that no one, I mean NO One, would see that scene as anything but pure cheesiness, complete with tossed martini's and the dramatic Storming Out of the Divorced Angered Spouse.

(As a side note, it's hard to get martini out of wool)


So, what about you? Any of those Pure Cheese scenes ever happen to you?

What about the Stranger than Fiction stuff?


Or have you just been in one of those full-body-shudder, John Candy, Eeeeeeeewwwwwww! moments?

C'mon....tell all.....

Armed and Fabulous

by Nancy

A friend of mine once said that the two types of garments most flattering to almost every man were the tuxedo and the military uniform. I think she had a point. Uniforms and tuxedos square the shoulders and frame the body as other garments just don't quite. Even the less dynamically built characters on shows like JAG or China Beach looked good in a uniform. And proficiency with weapons is another plus. So for today, we'll leave the tuxedos to the spies and focus on warrior heroes (in and out of uniform). For the writers among us, we'll also touch on resources for creating and equipping these guys.

Vikings seem to be enjoying a resurgence lately. My favorite Viking film, which I discovered because Gerri Russell assured me I'd love it, is The 13th Warrior, starring Antonio Banderas. It's the role in which I like him best because of the challenges his character faces and the ways he grows as a result. He isn't a Viking, but he's surrounded by them. They're the other twelve warriors. This film has noble purpose and lots of swordplay. Banderas' character isn't a warrior hero at the start of the film, but he is at the end.

If you're writing a Viking hero, how do you know what he wears or carries? Or what his world is like? There are a lot of terrific books out there about Vikings and their culture. My favorite source for information about warriors of all eras is Osprey publishing. Click on the appropriate country, and prices will appear in your currency. The books are not cheap, but they're aimed at military history buffs, so they contain fabulous details that can be hard to find elsewhere. When I needed to know how much a medieval archer earned, I found the information in an Osprey book.

Moving forward, there's the medieval period with its knights and dragons and derring-do. I'm seriously biased in this regard, but I don't think you can beat the Plantagenets for pure flash and dash in the whole spectrum of British history. Medievals also seem to be having a resurgence, especially ones featuring Knights Templar. Claudia Dain's The Marriage Bed and Christina Dodd's Candle in the Window (a medieval, not a Regency, despite what the cover implies) are wonderful medievals. So are all of Gerri Russell's Scottish medievals, which start with The Warrior Trainer.

Equipping the medieval hero is easier than it is for warriors of other eras. There are many, many medieval histories available, and there are probably enough books in print about castles to built one out of them. Dorling-Kindersley's children's books about medieval life and about knights can be a great resource to get a feel for the era. Osprey, of course, has terrific resources for various medieval periods. Some of these books are available in libraries, though not all. It's always worth checking since books can become a huge expense.

The American Revolution doesn't seem like a very popular period, but the Regency, with its popular veterans of the Napoleonic Wars makes, up for that. I've always wished there were more naval heroes in Regencies. It's hard to set a Regency on a ship, of course. You'd lose lots of the period's fun conventions. Major Lucas Winter, in Sabrina Jeffries' wonderful Never Seduce A Scoundrel (School for Heiresses series), is an American Marine, a veteran of the campaign against the Barbary Pirates, and a wonderful character and one of the few American military heroes I've seen from this period. While Victorians seem to have a strong market presence, I haven't seen any Crimean War heroes. Maybe someone can recommend one.

I'm hoping World War I and World War II begin to gain market share because I love those stories. The Vietnam war doesn't seem to have produced many romance heroes, either. Maybe it's too recent to be historical and too remote to be contemporary. I do love all the current and former SEALs who keep turning up as heroes. My parents were in the Navy, so I'm naturally biased. I loved the TV show JAG, even though the primary weapons utilized were legal briefs. Veterans from all service branches seem to be appearing in a lot of romances, and I enjoy that.

Cassondra tipped me off that YouTube can be a gret resource for video of weapons in use, so I've been consulting that site from time to time. Osprey has great contemporary source material, including several books on Special Forces, and there are many, many excellent memoirs out there. The U.S. Navy website has a special section on SEALs with video of their training and interviews with trainees. The conflicts in Iraq and Iran have produced excellent memoirs by soldiers, such as Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell with Patrick Robinson (SEALs), Chasing Ghosts by Paul Reickhoff (infantry in urban warfare), and The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell by John Crawford (National Guard in various settings).

Who's your favorite military hero in books or on film? Why does this particular hero appeal to you? If you're a writer, what are your favorite sources?

"Never Tell Me The Odds!"

by Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy

I'm sure you recognize the title of this post. It is one of my favorite movie quotes and is from the original Star Wars (now called Episode 4). C3PO has just told Han Solo the statistical probability of successfully navigating through an asteroid belt (a truly astronomical number) and Han snarls in reply, "Never tell me the odds!"

In my previous career, I toiled as an analyst for the State of California. I played with numbers and statistics every day and got to do fun things like budget change proposals and cost benefit analyses. Ah yes, Aunty loved to 'run those numbers' and make them yield answers!

Then I entered the crazy world of writing for publication, and numbers ceased to be my friends or even my friendly tools. The numbers I discovered in my pursuit of publication were not the answers I wanted to hear. "Never tell me the odds!" became my rallying cry!

If I had stopped to think about the odds, I probably would have never entered the Golden Heart. Only 70 entries were selected as finalists out of 1000. My manuscript had to be judged in the top 7%. YIKES! And yet all 20 of us Banditas beat those odds and went on to final in the Golden Heart in 2006!

A few days ago, our talented Bandita (and my wonderful CP) Jo Robertson beat some very significant odds and became a semi-finalist in Amazon's Break Out Novel contest. Jo's historical manuscript Frail Blood became one of only 100 entries out of 10,000 to be selected. Yes, Jo's manuscript is in the top 1%! I remember when we discussed whether or not she should enter the contest. Since there was no entry fee and the entries were electronic, I remember telling her, "What do you have to lose?" We did not discuss the odds!

But Jo's recent success and the many other successes we Banditas have had since 2006 led me to start thinking about the odds. I found some very interesting "food for thought" and I'd like to share a little hypothetical situation and the resultant numbers:

Let's pretend that there are 1 million people who decide they are going to write a romance novel for the very first time. (Yes, the number is probably much higher but play along with me for now.) Based on what Aunty has seen and read over the years, out of those 1,000,000 only 10% (or probably much less) will ever finish writing that novel. (It's a lot more work than most people think!)

So in our imaginary sample, we now have 100,000 finished (at least in the first draft) romance novels. Probably only 25% of those will ever be submitted anywhere. I'm not talking queries or partials here, but full manuscripts. And out of those 25,000 only half or 50% will be submitted to someone who even publishes romances (sad but true, I've read this on many editors' blogs)! Or if they do publish romance, they don't accept the sub-genre of romance the writer has written.

We are now left with 12,500 novels that have even a glimmer of a chance of being published out of our original 1 million hopefuls. Or slightly over 1%! Only 1 out of 100. So now you know, if you have ever finished writing a manuscript and submitted it somewhere, you are very special indeed!

But if you think those numbers are depressing, consider this. There were slightly over 8,000 romance novels published in 2007 (according to the ROMStat report in the Sept. 08 RWR). Now before you tell Aunty that 12,500 books vying for 8,000 slots doesn't sound that bad... REMEMBER: these are first time novelists. The vast majority of the 8,000 romances publishers will buy are written by existing authors. Someone with a 'track record.' Someone with a 'readership base.'

Aunty's best guess is that only about 5% of those 8,000 books published will actually be by first time authors. Those 12,500 hopefuls are vying for 400 slots. Yes, dear readers, only about 1/3 of 1% of those 12,500 writers will ever see their book published! But in the spirit of Han Solo, some new writers will fill those 400 slots. Someone will beat those odds!

Writing is definitely not for the 'faint of heart!' Nor is it for those who are intimidated by long odds. After all, 1/3 of 1% might be an abysmally small number, but it is still better than the probability of successfully negotiating an asteroid belt!

Have you ever done something even though your chances of success were extremely small? Run some numbers by us. Dazzle Aunty and the rest of the Banditas and BBs with your daring exploits!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

by Christie Kelley

It’s that time again. The annual trek to the Romantic Times convention. Last year it was held in Pittsburgh and the only plus to that was the fact that I could drive there. This year it is in sunny, warm Orlando, Florida! After the cold winter and very cool spring we’ve had in Maryland, I can’t wait to get there.

So Monday morning, I’m getting on the plane and heading south. My 81-year-old mother is coming with me. She is a Disney fanatic so she is meeting me at the airport. We will spend two days at a Disney resort before heading over to the convention hotel. I have a feeling she will wear me out in the parks. My mother has more energy than most 50 year olds. After raising nine kids, I would think she’d want to rest, but not her.

The conference officially starts on Wednesday, although RT has good beginning and advanced writer classes that are held on Monday and Tuesday. I found a few good workshops that I want to attend on Wednesday and Friday. Thursday evening, Kensington is having a cocktail party for its authors, which is always fun. I’m looking forward to seeing some of my author friends. Saturday is the big author signing.

I know for certain, I won’t be the only bandita there either. Donna will be there and hopefully a few others. I will certainly be at the award luncheon cheering on our very own Donna and Jeanne who are both up for Reviewer Choice awards.

This blog will be short today as I still have laundry, packing, dinners to cook and then freeze, and notes to write so my boys (including the big boy) know what has to be done and when. It’s exhausting just getting ready to be away from them for a week.

So, it you’re planning to attend the conference, please let me know. And please stop by and see me at the book signing. New authors are very needy. If not, have you attended a readers or writers conference? What did you love/hate about it? When is the next conference you plan to attend? If you haven’t been to a conference, what would make you want to go?

Late Bandit Booty!

So sorry I'm late posting this! The winner of a copy of A Not-So-Perfect Past from my launch party post is...

PinkPeony!! Congrats!! Please send me your info at: beth@bethandrews.net

And thanks to everyone for stopping by my launch party :-)

Kay Thomas is BULLETPROOF in the Lair!

by Suzanne
Oh hey, y'all! Give me a second to finish putting on my Kevlar vest. There! Now I'm ready to sit and chat with my good friend, Kay Thomas, who once again has brought us another intriguing book with bullets flying.

Suz: Kay, welcome back to the Lair. BULLETPROOF TEXAS is your second novel for Harlequin Intrigue and this is set, of course, in the Hill Country of Texas. Tell us a little bit about this book.

Kay, eyeing the vest: Sure, Suz. Thanks so much to you and the Banditas for having me back in "the Lair" today.

The bulletproof action continues when a pharmaceutical research scientist and a brooding caving guide are forced to work together extracting cancer-eating bacteria from a flooding Texas Hill Country cave. As the sparks fly and passions rise, so do the dangers when a competitor decides this potential cure shouldn't see the light of day--and is willing to kill anyone who gets in the way.

Suz: Can you tell us how you came up with the idea for BULLETPROOF TEXAS?

Kay: My family and I were in Carlsbad Caverns a couple of years ago for Spring break. I was listening to an audio tour that talked about cancer-eating bacteria found in Lechuguilla, another nearby cave. This bacteria is showing promise for cancer treatment in the research world. From the moment I heard the details of the discovery, I was fascinated with the idea of setting a romantic suspense novel against a cavern backdrop. I'd just finished a manuscript with a biomedical edge and a pharmaceutical company's machinations as part of the plot that would later be my debut novel, BETTER THAN BULLETPROOF (Harlequin Intrigue, January 2009). This new idea seemed the perfect fit for a sequel.

Suz: Your hero in BULLETPROOF TEXAS, Zach Douglas is a Park Ranger with a fascinating background. Can you tell us how you used it in the book?

Kay: Zach is the twin brother of Tammy Douglas from BETTER THAN BULLETPROOF. In the opening scene of BULLETPROOF TEXAS he makes the discovery of a lifetime (Devil's Hollow Cavern) and gets the news of Tammy's murder, both within moments of each other. The next scene takes place three months later. He's quit his job with the park service and is now a free-lance caving guide for the heroine, Maxine (Max) O'Neil.

Suz: Maxine O'Neil isn't your typical research scientist. How has she had to prove herself in her field and why?

Kay: Max is a woman with the body of a "Hooter's girl" and the brain of a rocket scientist. On the surface she appears to have it all. But her success has come at a huge price and her personal life is a wreck. She's just left her unfaithful fiance' at home in New York.

As a top pharmaceutical researcher in her field, her looks have been a handicap and she isn't always taken seriously in this "boys club" because of her stunning appearance. Over the years she's developed a very "hard case" personna. From the moment she and Zach first interact, there are fireworks.

Suz: The relationship between Max and Zach sizzles on the pages, are you finding it harder or easier to pack both steamy romance and plot into the category size books?

Kay: In this case it was easier to write because these characters just couldn't keep their hands off each other. Their relationship is more intense from the beginning and their personalities dictate a more physical relationship from the start.

Zach is angry with himself that he's attracted to a woman who infuriates, yet fascinates him at the same time. What he feels for Max breaks through the wall he has put up since his sister's death.

Max is drawn to Zach despite all her best intentions to keep him at arm's length. She's very aware of her responsibilities on this project and being in charge at Devil's Hollow, plus she's just broken off her engagement. She doesn't feel she's in a good place for a relationship or a casual fling because of how it would look to the others on her research team. But all those objections fall away once she and Zach start spending time together. Their chemistry is unstoppable.

Suz, grinning at Kay: Okay, since we're good friends, I know you did some interesting research for BULLETPROOF TEXAS. Want to tell our readers how far you went to be authentic in your story?

Kay, rolling her eyes at Suz: Oooh, I knew you were going to ask me this. : )

Much of the book's action takes place in a cave and since I'm too claustrophobic and too chicken to try actual "on-my-belly-in-the-mud" caving, my husband and I went to a rock climbing gym for the climbing part of the research. I was determined to feel my rear end in the rappelling gear-to feel the exhilaration of sliding down that rope and to get great pictures for my website. (For the record, my agent begged me not to do this! She thought I might get hurt. I assured her I would be fine! Note to self. Always listen to your agent.)

After the initial stomach churning experience of climbing to the top of the thirty-foot wall, (Did I mention I have this thing about heights, too?), I was having a fabulous time. Once I got over the nausea and rappelled down a couple of times, I was feeling very proud of myself...quite accomplished. What had I ever been afraid of? My husband was "on belay." He does lots of this kind of stuff a lot, so I wasn't worried.

A few minutes later, on my last climb of the afternoon we had a major "equipment malfunction." I was about twelve feet from the ground and my rope kinked. The ascender thingie (that keeps you from falling) jammed and I plummeted straight down. Flat on my back. The earth moved. Some of you may have felt it there in Australia. I scared those teenagers running the place half to death. Not to mention my sweetheart. It wasn't pretty.

After an MRI and multiple hours on a massage therapist's table, the doctor decided I did not have a compression fracture and cleared me to travel. For a month I had been planning (and packing) for a big writers' conference in San Francisco that started a few days after my umm...tumble. The doctor gave me a raft of muscle relaxers, anti-inflammatories and pain-killers to get me through RWA National. This conference is always a wonderful and wild time, but a backache in high heels, even when you haven't fallen on your rear the week before.

Suz glances over the rim of her glasses in that omnipotent way of hers: And what did you ultimately learn from this adventure?

Kay, laughs: Well, this could be a whole other blog post about how I learned not to be stupid while researching.

Number one. About my agent.
Always listen to your agent. After I fell, the first thing that ran through my head (as I was lying flat on my back and trying to breath again) was: "My agent told me not to do this. I should've listened."

Number two. About my research.
Always, always in these kinds of situations rent the "how to DVD" and
interview the hot athlete. Have your picture made with him for your website (The photo of my behind in that sling is something that will never see the light of day!)

Number three. About my husband.
When I've had an MRI because my husband thinks he dropped me, I can buy as many pairs of shoes as I want and he won't say a word. In fact, he may ask if I want to buy a purse to go with them! However, I do not recommend this as a path to Jimmy Choo.

Number four. About myself.
I am a writer. I do not necessarily have to experience things to write about them. (I know, not exactly an epiphany, but apparently I need to be reminded of this "truth" from time to time!)

Suz: BULLETPROOF TEXAS is Kay Thomas's second novel from Harlequin Intrigue and is on US store shelves this week. Romantic Times gave BULLETPROOF TEXAS 4 stars calling it "taut, tricky and worth the read." Cataromance gave it 4 ½ stars calling it "non-stop action, nail-biting suspense and fiery passion." Her debut novel BETTER THAN BULLETPROOF was released in the US in January and in Australia in March. For excerpts, to enter Kay's April contest, and more please visit www.KayThomas.net.

Kay: So, readers, what’s the silliest thing you’ve ever done against good advice? Or if you really don’t want to share that particular experience ‘cause trust me, I know we’ve all had some “never-want-to-think-about-it-again” adventures. What’s the best thing you ever did against good advice?

You’ve already heard about one of my sillier moments. Now for the best thing I ever did against good advice….I got married! I’d only known my husband seven weeks when he proposed. Some friends thought we’d lost our minds. But I knew this was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Twenty-one years later—we’re still together and ridiculously happy. Not listening to those friends was the best thing I ever did against good advice!

So…your turn…best thing you’ve done against good advice or silliest mistake made against good advice? One random commenter will get a copy of my new Harlequin Intrigue, BULLETPROOF TEXAS.

MORE BANDIT BOOTY!

Sorry I'm late with it, but the winners of the Jodi Thomas book & tote bag give aways are: Keira!!! and Ann Marie!!!

MEGA CONTGRATULATIONS, Ladies!!

E-mail me your snail-mail addy's to swwelsh2001 AT yahoo DOT com (be sure there are two W's in that e-mail address), and I'll see that Jodi gets you your prizes!!!

Today's book winner

Thanks to everyone who came by to post a comment(s) today and for making my YA launch party such a fun, successful event! It's time to pick the winner of the free copy of Heartbreak River and it is...

Angelia Almos

Congrats, Angelia! E-mail me at trishmilburn AT yahoo DOT com with your mailing address, and I'll get the book out to you.

Partying, YA Style!

Ack! I'm late to my own launch party. How sad is that? But that's what happens when you work late on revisions and decide to sleep in the next morning. You wake up suddenly with the thought, "Crap! I forgot to post my Romance Bandits blog!"

But never fear, I'm here and we're going to talk...teenage heartthrobs. Why? Because tomorrow is the launch day for my first young adult novel, Heartbreak River, written under the name Tricia Mills. I'm hooking my launch party caboose onto Tawny's party train from yesterday so we can keep the fun going. And for the purposes of this post, I'm going to expand the definition of teenage heartthrob a bit to define those actors/musicians/celebrities of any sort for whom we all held crushes when we were teenagers. The ones who made us buy those goofy teen magazines like Tiger Beat. Well, maybe p226 didn't buy those. :)

I went through my Duran Duran and Bon Jovi phases (okay, I still like them both).

And I went through phases where it was all about whoever was cute on the popular TV show of the time -- like The Young Riders. Loved that show since it was about young people and was a western set along the Pony Express routes. A young Josh Brolin was one of the stars.

And when I was even younger, I totally loved Harrison Ford. See, at that time, I didn't realize he was old enough to be my dad. So, I loved him as Han Solo and Indiana Jones.


Oh, and John Schneider, who played Bo Duke on the Dukes of Hazzard. Have to say he's still easy to watch, as he played Jonathon Kent, Clark's dad, on Smallville. And speaking of Smallville, Tom Welling, who plays Clark Kent, is totally a heartthrob. And yes, he's younger than me. :)


Yesterday, over at the Geek Girls blog, Tawny asked me who would play the leads, Alexandra and Sean, in Heartbreak River if it was made into a movie. I had to think for a few minutes, but I came up with the lovely Emma Roberts (niece of Julia, daughter of Eric) and Taylor Kitsch from Friday Night Lights and the upcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

So here are my questions for you:

1. Who were the heartthrobs you swooned over when you were a teen?

2. If you're a writer and could cast the leads in a movie based on your book, who would they be.

Some lucky commenter will win a copy of Heartbreak River.

And the Performance Prize goes to...

Thank you everyone for making my launch such a wildly fun party!!! I'm in awe of the fabulous talent (both on and off stage) you all brought to the celebration!!

And the Golden Rooster, quite tuckered out after his wildly fun day, pecked... I mean, picked his fave performance! HouseMouse88, who performed with our Kirsten to ABBA's Mama Mia (and I'm hoping she wore the boots!!). The rooster loved your rendition of Dancing Queen! HouseMouse, if you'll drop me an email at tawny@tawnyweber.com with your shipping info, I'll get COMING ON STRONG and GOING DOWN HARD right out to you ;-)

And again -thank you so much to EVERYONE!!!! You all rock *g*

Let's Par-Tay!!!!

by Tawny Weber

*whistling* Yo, Cabana Boys. Over here! Delivery? Oh, the chocolate fountain. Right over there next to the margarita machine, please. And the tootie horns, party hats and...whats that? A riding crop? Oh, that goes to Auntie Cindy. I have no idea how it got in that Cabana Boy's pocket.

Welcome to the Party! I'm so excited to celebrate the releases of not one, but two books. COMING ON STRONG is out in April, GOING DOWN HARD is out in a couple weeks, in May! Woohoooo.

Its like double the fun, right? So we have to have double the wildness at this party... just sayin'. I was ecstatic when my editor told me I'd have back to back releases with these books. They are about two best friends, Belle and Sierra, whose party planning business -Eventfully Yours - brings them not only a fabulous living, but the loves of their lives.

Like any two best friends, Belle and Sierra have a ton in common. But, they are also opposites in many ways. Belle was a daddy's girl, Sierra an orphan. Belle has a thing for CEO's, Sierra falls for a sexy cowboy. Belle's a flirt, Sierra's direct. Belle avoids conflict, Sierra revels in it. And yet, they are both fab friends, and more important for our celebration today - top of the line party planners!! So I asked them to consult on making this a party to remember... here's how it went:

Belle: Hmmm, hot books, wild party. Lets do a sex theme.
Sierra: Oh please, thats all you have on your mind these days. Ever since you did that sex theme for Mitch's resort, you want to integrate condom bouquets into every event.
Belle: Not every. Just the hot ones.
Sierra: Well, from what I've heard, the gals in the (consults clipboard) Lair, they call it, they're about as wild as they come.
Belle: Then maybe glow in the dark...
Sierra interrupts: Okay, you handle the decorations. I'll take care of the buffet. Chocolate for sure, maybe a three tier cake and some petite fours? I'll bring in fresh fruit and cream, too. They want margaritas, champagne and a male dancer on bar, I mean, serving behind the bar. Oh, and cowboy hats. We'll want a lot of cowboy hats.
Belle: You and your cowboy. Tell me, does Reece wear his hat when you... you know?
Sierra grins a naughty grin and laughs
Belle: Cowboy hats it is, then. Although we need some other form of entertainment than the kind of thing you usually get up to with a cowboy hat.
Sierra: Entertainment? Uh oh. That Tawny chick gave me a budget, but she insisted on the chocolate fountain, the open bar, all the Chippendale servers and the fun decorations. The budget just doesn't cover almost-naked guys and entertainment.
Belle: But. But. There has to be entertainment. Let me think.
Sierra: What if...
Belle: What if...
Sierra and Belle together: The Bandita Buddies!!!
Belle: Perfect! We'll ask the Bandits and their Bandita Buddies to perform. Call it Karaoke without limits.
Sierra: Excellent. I've heard there's tremendous talent hanging out in this blog.

So what do you say?

If you were going to get up on stage at this little party and perform, what would you do? You're welcome to bring in props and friends (altho Johnny's staying here at my side). If you're signing, you can bring the band. If you're dancing, you can bring backup dancers. Whatever form of entertainment you'd like, the sky is the limit!!

The Golden Rooster will be stopping in at the end of the day to peck, I mean, pick his favorite performance to win a copy of both books! (and if you already have both, hugs, kisses and another round of margaritas- then you can pick any of my backlist instead)

Kristan Higgins-Too Good to Be True

The Banditas are thrilled to welcome Kristan Higgins back to the Lair!

How are you doing Kristan?

Oh, I'm fine, Joan! Very happy to be back with the Banditas!

I am such a fan of your books. Tell us, what spurred you to write such wonderful, witty stories?

I take it we're saving the hardball questions for later...Glad you like them...and thanks for calling them wonderful and witty. I think the reason I chose to write my particular style of rom-com was, in a nutshell, that's what I liked to read. There's something really wonderful about reading a book with a big, memorable love story and thinking that's the kind of thing that could happen to you. Sure, it's fun to picture us being a billionaire or an Oscar winner or shagging...er, dating an NFL superstar...I like to read that type too, for a nice bit of escapism. But I felt that us normal gals deserved a big love story, too.

Many of us do write what we love which is sometimes the harder road to take. What are your thoughts on writing to the market?

Welp, let's see...I don't know. Just after I sold my first book, a first-person romantic comedy, I learned that first person was a cardinal sin and romantic comedy was dead. My beloved publisher has offered me contracts for a total of six ro-cos (all in first person, mind you), so I don't really know what to say about the market. We writer folk have to keep in mind that what's in the bookstores now was bought two or more years ago. I think writers have to write what they're good at, what speaks to them, what they can best convey. And what they love, because if you don't love your story, it's gonna show.

Ok, I’m going to step off the beaten writer’s path for your next question. Some of the Banditas {looks quizzically around the Lair} are crazy for “Dancing with the Stars”. Which dance are you most like?

Passe doble, baby! Remember that movie, Strictly Ballroom? Gawd, I loved that flick! Also, the one with Antonio Banderas...well, anything with Antonio Banderas. The truth is, I don't watch Dancin' with the Stars regularly, but Joan emailed me the other night, saying she was rooting for Gilles, and I clicked on it. Gilles just happened to be dancing, and I froze, quivering with lust. Am now considering having his name tattooed somewhere on my person.

LOL. I liked Antonio Banderas as “Puss…in boots” 

So aside from “I Heart Gilles”, what type of tattoo would you get, if….yanno….you wanted one. Would you get one of Buttercup? 

I've thought about getting an NY tattoo in honor of my beloved Yankees...or maybe just "2" for dear Derek Jeter, bless his brawny heart. But the truth is, having something permanently stained into my skin...I don't think I can do it. Say I got a butterfly...what would that poor bug look like in 40 years, all wrinkly and stretched out? So I'll have to pass. Sorry, Derek.

My favorite Shrek moment...some gorgeous creature says to Puss, "Are you Shrek?" and he looks up from licking himself and says, "I could be." I just about fell out of my chair on that one.

Hmmmm….Derek Jeter. Not to shabby on the hero image side.

To steer this back to the writing life, what things besides cheering on the Yankees and watching animated movies helps to stir the creative juices?

I like to visit the settings of my books. Taking walks helps me a lot, as does driving in the car. But the truth is that writing books is hard! Most of my work is churned out in front of the computer. There's no muse floating down with a cappuccino and whispering advice. Unfortunately. This is the toughest job I've ever had. And the best!

Our guests get many questions so how about we turn the tables. What would you, Kristan Higgins like to ask the Banditas and BB’s?

My question for you lovely Banditas is...What makes a great story for you? Do you like the unexpected or boundary-pushing books, or are you more satisfied with the perfect delivery of a "classic" type of story? Is is the characters or the set-up? What are some books that just struck you as damn near perfect?

Kristan will be selecting one lucky commenter to win an autographed copy of her latest HQN title "Too Good to be True"

Easter Egg Hunt--Bandita Style!

Happy Easter everyone!

Easter. A celebration of spring, a celebration of faith, a chance to test our BB's and Banditas.

I'm sticking with the traditional vision of the Easter Bunny. Poor boy is plum worn out from traveling the world despositing Peeps, Reese Peanut Butter Cups and Baby Binks on everyone's hips...er, in their Easter baskets. And he hasn't forgotten the eggs. He's hidden them out and about. But they are not your run of the mill Paas colored eggs. Nope, our bunny has an eggs for Banditas, BB's and Lair guests. Your job is to collect as many as you can. Tell me who the egg belongs to, where you found it and what it looked like.

Banditas, as per the Lair house rules, you may guess but are ineligible for the prize. You can "egg" our visitors with cheers and additional hints or...you may find one the bunny forgot but the Golden Egg is for the player with the most correct eggs. Now...for the first batch.

This egg's owner can tell us "The ABC's of Kissing Boys."

Didn't win a Golden "Egg" in San Francisco last year...but a Golden Heart instead.

Hosted a Bandit Raid on this popular romance website.

This egg is "Better than Bulletproof"






Could read about how to dye eggs in a rare book...if she could get past the dead bodies.

This egg would be fearless...after riding 100 mph on a motorcycle, going through survival training and visiting the target range.

Chocolate eggs are nice for this one...but turtles are her specialty!

Easter eggs are nice but this person would prefer doughnuts.

These Irish twin brothers might serve pickled Easter eggs in their pub in Cornwall

This egg will meet a RITA this year

Ok...now scamper off. Don't mess up your Easter clothes. Search high and low and ....NO Tawny...they are not hidden in the cabana boy's pockets!

Ahem, there will be more eggs as the day goes on. The bunny will keep a tally of correct answers. Only the FIRST answers by the first people will be counted i.e. if someone guesses correct, they get an egg in their basket and another one will be hidden. The basket with the most correct ones by 10 pm wins a $10 Borders gift card (HINT: They sell Dove eggs there). In the case of a tie, the GR has the final vote.

Adding to the TBR Pile!

Wow, what a great day I had finding about everyone's reading tastes! Thanks, guys, for playing with such gusto.

Because of the great response, I've decided to give away TWO books.

A signed copy of CLAIMING THE COURTESAN goes to:

AVONLADYJERRICA!

A signed copy of TEMPT THE DEVIL goes to:

MAGOLLA!

Congratulations, girls. Please email me on anna@annacampbell.info with your snail mail details and I'll get your books off to you pronto. We can't have those TBR piles languishing, can we?

Happy Easter, everyone!

Scent of a Woman--Win an ARC of WICKED LITTLE GAME!

by Christine Wells

As you'll know if you've read the teaser in the back of THE DANGEROUS DUKE, Lady Sarah Cole, the heroine in my July release, WICKED LITTLE GAME, makes and sells perfume to try to supplement her scoundrel husband's erratic income. Scent plays a large role in the story.

Our sense of smell can be the most evocative of the senses, reminding us viscerally of certain experiences. Who can forget the whiff of stale sweaty socks and chalk dust of school days or the powdery softness of a newborn baby? The salty tang of the ocean, the fresh, green whiff of crushed pine needles, the pungent bush scent of eucalypt?

How did you choose the perfume you use? Was it given to you, or did you go out and test hundreds before deciding on a signature fragrance? Do you use a particular scent all the time, or different ones for different occasions? Do you use scent because you feel a certain way, or because you want to feel a certain way? When I worked as a solicitor, I had a small bottle of Clinique's Happy in my purse. Guess why? *VBG*

My favourite perfume of the moment is Chanel's Mademoiselle. I don't know whether it's the name, the branding, or just the way the sophisticated yet youthful scent makes me feel when I put it on. My parents gave it to me and they got it exactly right--I love it.

Does perfume or some other scent evoke memories for you? I can't ever smell Georgio's Red without thinking of the ratfink boyfriend who gave it to me. It was a huge bottle and it was still half-full when we parted ways. I coined my own little advertising slogan for that perfume:

Red. The fragrance that lingers longer than he does.

Ha.

So as our little Saturday game, I'd like you to come up with a fun advertising slogan for your favourite (or your most hated) smell. It can be perfume, it can be your son's sweaty socks, it can be mouldy cheese, whatever takes your fancy.

My favourite answer will win an ARC of WICKED LITTLE GAME!!

I forgot to announce a winner for last month's chocolate--the appeasement of Sven! DEB MARLOWE who suggested that Sven be the prize for the last person to comment on a particular day. Woohoo!

Oh, and here's a sneak peek of the trailer I made for WICKED LITTLE GAME. Enjoy!

The TBR Pile Game!

by Anna Campbell

Apparently romance novels are proving recession-proof. Or at least so far.

Did you all see that great article in the New York Times, no less, about how romance sales are going through the roof? Here's the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/books/08roma.html?_r=1&ref=books

Very heartening, isn't it?

Mind you, I was thinking about the Great Depression and what was popular with audiences then. Glamour and escapism immediately spring to mind.

Think of those wonderful Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers films with their elegant and luxurious settings. There's two quotes I love about F.A. and G.R. One is something like "Everybody talks about what a great dancer Fred Astaire was. Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything he did, except backwards and in high heels." The other is Katharine Hepburn's "He gave her class and she gave him sex appeal."


Actually if you want to see just how magical these two were together, here's a clip from You Tube of Night and Day.

My book buying doesn't seem to have slowed at all, in spite of all the doom and gloom in the news. In fact, I'm just back from a visit to Sydney for a wedding and have added to my TBR pile until it's now tottering up towards the ceiling.

I know I'm not Robinson Crusoe here!

We're all addicted to books! We all have towering TBR piles.

I thought it might be fun to ask you all to pull the top five books off your TBR piles and report on them here. I bet we get some interesting selections! No cheating! Just whatever comes off first.


First off my pile is Miranda Neville's NEVER RESIST TEMPTATION. Miranda sent this to me as a thank you after she visited the Banditas recently and she received such a tumultuous welcome from the Banditas and Buddies. I'm actually putting off reading this one, even if it is on top of the pile. I'm trying to write a book of my own at the moment and I know once I start this, I won't be able to put it down. It's a book about a girl disguised as a boy who gets a job as a chef in the hero's kitchen. Sex and food? What else could an avid reader want?


Next off the pile is one of my Sydney purchases. PARIS: THE SECRET HISTORY by Andrew Hussey. I really hit the nonfiction shelves hard down there as I'd run out of interesting factual books. When I'm working on a book of my own, I love to read nonfiction. It's like a sorbet - cleanses the palate! This Paris book sounds like a hoot. The review from the Independent in the U.K. says it's full of "sinister trivia and captivating alternative histories." Sounds right up my (dark and sinister) alley.

Next is THE ARISTOCRAT AND THE SINGLE MUM by Michelle Douglas, a wonderful newish Aussie romance writer who my critique partner Annie West introduced me to. I've since had the great pleasure of meeting Michelle a couple of times and she's great, really straight down the line and smart. I'm looking forward to reading this story - as yet, I haven't picked up one of her books. They've been lurking in the TBR pile but haven't made it to the top. That situation is about to change!

I always have a lot of category romance on my TBR pile. I find they're great for when I want a quick fix of romance without losing myself for hours in a longer book. Not only that, but some of the best writers around publish with Harlequin. Think of our own Banditas who are published in shorter romantic fiction!

Jane Porter is one of my favorite writers. She writes sparkling single title books like FLIRTING WITH FORTY and ODD MOM OUT. But she cut her teeth writing for Harlequin Presents and she does an amazingly good sheikh, millionaire, prince - you know the drill, those wonderful alphas who have propelled the Harlequin Presents line to the top of the tree.


The last of my five books is a doorstopper of a murder mystery by Elizabeth George called IN PURSUIT OF THE PROPER SINNER. As I'm sure I've said before, I discovered the Inspector Lynley mysteries on my visit to Sydney in November, thanks to a recommendation from the fabulous Christine Wells. I was looking for a book to read in a not particularly well-stocked bookshop and the first Inspector Lynley book was there so I bought it. This is now my tenth in the series! Given a lot of them weigh in at over the 700-page mark, this has taken up a serious chunk of my reading time in the last few months.

Anyway, the last one, DECEPTION ON HIS MIND, ended on a huge cliffhanger with my favorite character, the delightfully rough-as-guts Barbara Havers, suspended for trying to shoot her superior officer. I'm itching to pick this one up - but as I said before, I've got a book to write so at the moment, I'm being strong.

That's my five books! What are yours?

And just to encourage you to play, I'm offering a choice of one of my books, CLAIMING THE COURTESAN, UNTOUCHED or TEMPT THE DEVIL, my most recent release, to one lucky poster whose list takes my fancy. I need to keep your TBR piles fed, after all!

Just mention in your comment WHICH book you'd like and you'll go into the draw! Good luck!

Sheikhish Delight!

Thanks, everyone, for an amazing day in the lair yesterday when Annie West visited to talk about her latest release THE DESERT KING'S PREGNANT BRIDE. Annie's chosen her winners, who will receive a signed copy of TDKPB and Turkish delight to give them a sugar fix while they read this great story.

And they are...

KIRRALEE AND LUV2READDEB!

Congratulations, Kirralee and Deb! Please email Annie on annie@annie-west.com with your snail mail details and she'll get your prizes out to you!

El Diablo Conejo

You've Come A Long Way, Bunny

by Cassondra Murray

See this guy on the right? The fuzzy one with the big ears?

Kinda cute, isn't he? Soft and cuddly. Check out those big blue eyes, the calming, pastel-pink fluff in his ears and on his chest, the friendly, glad-to-see-you lilt of his gaping maw....uh...cute little mouth and buck teeth.

Harmless. Or so he'd like us to think.

I, for one, know better. I don't think he's harmless at all. There's increasing evidence to support my position, and after a quick bit of internet research and the extremely scientific polling of friends (Fellow Bandita, Jeanne), I've come to the conclusion that I'm not the only one who's caught onto his vile plan.

"What plan," you ask?

The Easter Bunny. This time of year, just like Santa at Christmas, the bunny is everywhere. But I think he's hiding his true identity and luring us in because the cuteness is a farce.

In truth, he's El Diablo Conejo. The Devil Rabbit.

Go ahead, just...go ahead. Laugh at my paranoia. But in the photo on the left, you might get a glimpse of the truth behind the cute, fuzzy facade. And although I can't prove that the photo on the left is pristine or un-retouched, this little toddler's reaction--well-- I think it says it all. I mean, have you ever looked--really LOOKED-- at The Easter Bunny? I have.

I was, unfortunately, at the mall today. I don't like malls, with their artificially-generated environments. But the only place I can buy my shampoo is at the mall. So there I was, minding my own business, strolling into the mall, when I saw him. He was sitting smack in the middle of the mall's center court, on a throne-like chair. And a looooooong string of worshipers......oh, sorry......parents.... were restraining their screaming children, who were, with all their tiny mights, trying to get far, far away from The Easter Bunny.

They know. You've heard what they say about dogs and small children, haven't you? If your dog doesn't like it, or your little kid doesn't like it, it's probably got an evil soul. Well, I can verify that most kids don't wanna go anywhere near this guy. And is it any wonder? Somehow, over the years, using his plushness, the Bambi-fying of the animal kingdom by Disney, and the massive marketing tool that is Hallmark (I think they're all in cahoots) he's lulled the adult population into a false sense of security.

I came to this conclusion years ago.

When I was in my early twenties, I had to do a feature story on the Easter Bunny. I went to his lair-- the mall. I interviewed him. I helped the photographer set up shots. I saw him from all angles. I got down on my knees to check out a low-angle shot, and that's when I figured it out. But at that time I was a young woman. I know it was weak of me, but I was afraid to say what I really thought, so I did a feel-good fluff piece on what it was like to be the Easter Bunny, how much work it was to sit for hours, entertaining the swarms of chocolate-egg-drugged and hypnotized....uh...adoring crowds who flocked to see him, surrounded him, and let him feed on their childr.....uh...set their kids in his lap for cute pictures to send to the grandparents.

Oh, SURE, the kids always came back to the parents. But trust me, they were NOT the same.

Here's a picture of what should be a normal human child, but look what's happened. I'd lay money on the table that before this little one was even a glimmer in the eye, his grandparents took their daughter or son to see...yep, that's right...El Diablo Conejo.

What is the basis of this urge anyway? Why do we, as adults, have some irrational need to shove our kids onto the laps of strangers in gigantic fuzzy suits and take pictures?

As a kid, I colored eggs with vigor. I hunted eggs. I waited for my Easter basket every year, with

its goodies wrapped in cellophane and nestled on a bed of fake paper-and-plastic grass. But I knew my mom fixed it up for me. We were far from wealthy, and my Easter basket hung on the back of the basement door, wrapped securely in a big paper bag, and got filled again each year with some different, and some the same, goodies. It was purple. I loved it. I loved Easter.

And I never went to visit the "Easter Bunny."

Now, each time I go through my old photo albums, I smile over the pics of me as a kid, playing with my dog, or half-buried in a pile of leaves, or perched on the edge of the wagon-load of corn, with my dad on the tractor ahead of me, or holding a big armload of chrysanthemums from my mom's flower garden. I even have a picture of me with my purple Easter basket. Not once have I ever shed a tear, or even had a passing thought of mourning because there was no picture of me in the clutches of a giant, buck-toothed, two-legged Easter Creature.

I know what you're thinking. You think I had to look hard to find these evil-looking Easter Bunnies. But alas, just the opposite is true. I actually had to look hard to find the cute one at the top of the blog. I think maybe the true nature of the beast comes out once El Diablo Conejo has a child in its lap, but the parents are so brainwashed that they just don't see it. They focus on the child. This little girl is old enough, you see, to hide her true feelings and "be good" for the photo.

The thing is, that cute fuzzy guy at the top of the page? That picture was taken by an adult, at adult eye level. If you'd get down on your knees or even a little lower--at two-year-old level--and take a look at that dude with the big ears, you'd see an entirely different picture.

Put yourself in the kid's position for just a minute.

Enormous paws clutch at you, a big, gaping mouth looms above you, with gargantuan teeth jutting out, and down, at YOU, the small child he's about to devour. Giant, pointy eyes, bug out at the sight of his prey. And including the ears, he's nearly seven feet tall. The ears bounce over you as the head nods forward. And, oh yes, speaking of the head. It's the size of a small car. And scream though you may, you cannot get your parents to see the danger. Finally, after years of this torture, you figure out that if you shut up and smile, you might get out alive.

Yeah, kids might be scared of Santa's beard, but hey, they're not stupid. Would you want to be thrust into the clutches of a monster like this? What the heck are we doing? Why do we have this need to force our kids, often kicking and screaming, into the arms of their worst nightmares?

Please don't misunderstand. I like bunnies. REAL bunnies. I go to great lengths to fence them out of my veggie patch so we can coexist peacefully. Each year several regular bunnies, just like the one in the picture below, build nests and raise bunny families in my yard. I even mow around the nests until the babies are weaned, to make sure they're not harmed. As far as I can tell, the little guy in this picture, in spite of the ears, has no actual genetic relationship to El Diablo Conejo. Still...one can never quite tell. There exists, in some archives, filmed evidence that even the most innocent-looking of the species could succumb to repressed violent urges. Here's an image captured from one such documentary film. Look at the carnage around this gentle-looking specimen.

It's my understanding that Easter started out as a pagan holiday, a celebration of spring and the equinox, and later morphed into a Christian celebration of the Resurrection of Christ. As symbols go, there are a few available. I've figured out that the cross, which is actually a symbol of the crucifixion, is beautifully simple in design, though horrific in meaning, and is much more practical to create as a piece of jewelry, than is, say, a tiny golden cave with an even tinier stone rolled away from the opening--perhaps the only real visual symbol of the resurrection as told in the Bible. From the pagan side of things, flowers and, yes, eggs, are probably a good fit.

But The Easter Bunny? What religion is this?

While I have not done a study on the origins of El Diablo Conejo, I did find photographic evidence of a cult of fanatical worshipers. Check out the living monument on the right. He's come a long way from Beatrix Potter and Mr. McGregor's garden.

All those years ago, when I wrote that feature, I knew the truth. But it's taken me until now to get up the nerve to go public . If you're thinking about taking your kids to visit The Easter Bunny, you should be aware. When your kid starts screaming, don't say I didn't warn you.

Looks like it's already too late for this young gentleman on the left. He has no clue that he's in the grasp of death disguised as cutesy-pie. And yet, his smile does look a bit fake, doesn't it?

And in case you're wondering, yes, even I have some unfortunate leanings toward the religion of El Diablo Canejo. No, I did NOT sit on his lap, and as far as I know, he's never touched me directly. Even on that life-changing day when I went to interview him, I was careful to maintain my distance. But no amount of precaution was enough. Now I recognize that he has other ways of injecting an unwary population with his seductive, addictive venom.

So this year, if you haven't already exposed your little ones, please, think twice. Things are not always what they seem.

Tell me, Banditas and friends, has his venom spread to where you are? Is El Diablo Conejo out and about in your city--or your country?

Did you ever visit the Easter Bunny? Did you sit on his lap and have your picture taken? Have you been...dare I say it...assimilated?

Do you take your kids to see him?

Do they cry, or is it too late for them already?

Have you fallen victim to his chocolate Graven Images? Or have you been able to resist?

What are your fondest Easter memories?

Do you still color eggs at your house?

And one last question. When you're facing down El Diablo Conejo, do you bite off the ears first?

Annie West and the Chic Sheikh!

by Anna Campbell

It's my enormous pleasure to welcome back a favorite in the lair, my dear friend and critique partner, not to mention fantabulous Harlequin Presents writer, Annie West.

Annie's been a busy bee since she last popped in to see us! And don't forget, it you want to know more about Annie and her wonderful books, check out her website.

Annie, welcome back. We love to have you visit although the cabana boys always need a break after you’ve chased them all day. Your latest U.S. release is THE DESERT KING’S PREGNANT BRIDE which is out in April 2009. Can you tell us about this story?

Anna, thanks so much for inviting me back to the lair. You girls have gone from strength to strength. Whenever I pop in there are great blogs to read and you’re all having a rip roaring time! Congratulations too on the terrific successes the Banditas have been having. This really is the place for good news and camaraderie.

As for Khalid and Maggie’s book, it’s a Cinderella story with a marriage of convenience just to spice things up. To me it seems very spicy (G). Maggie is a hard-working country girl who doesn’t believe she’s got a seductive bone in her body. (She’s wrong!). Khalid is a powerful, duty-driven man from the other side of the world who’s haunted by the past and definitely isn’t looking for love. Each lets their guard down one memorable night and the consequences change their lives forever.


Soon Maggie finds herself in the Kingdom of Shajehar, plucked from the racing stables and straight into a royal marriage. She expects a marriage in name only but finds Khalid has other things on his mind:

‘Come.’ Beside her Khalid rose, tall and imposing in his fine embroidered robes.

As she looked up at him a hush fell over the crowd. He held out his hand and she had no option but to place hers in his. It closed warm and vital around hers, drawing her inexorably from her seat till she stood before him. She trembled as his heat curled around her, inviting her to lean close to his strong, perfect body. Instead she stood ramrod straight, her gaze fixed on his broad chest, rather than meet those dark eyes that she suspected saw too much.

He turned and led her from the raised dais. As he did so, pandemonium broke out. Cheers and laughter and music.

Maggie faltered and looked questioningly at him.

‘What’s going on?’

She couldn’t read his expression. It was set in severe lines yet even with his back to the lights she sensed his intense regard. His eyes glittered like black diamonds.

‘They’re encouraging me.’ His lips quirked up then in what should have been a smile. ‘They approve of the fact that I’m finally going to bed my new bride.’

I did enjoy finding out what came next, right till the end of the book! It was one of those stories where the characters were so vivid in my mind they set off at a cracking pace and I struggled to keep up (oh, boy, did I struggle!).

Yummy excerpt, Annie. What else have you been up to since you last visited us?

My big news is that I’ve just sold my 10th book to Harlequin. YAY! I’m into double digits. Does that make me a troublesome teenager? (Editor's note, YES!!!) I took a moment to enjoy the feeling and then dived into the next story. And, on another exciting note, I attended the first ever Australian Romance Readers’ Convention in Melbourne which was a huge success and lots of fun. On a non-writing note I just have to share, we finally have our new oven after the old one died. I hadn’t realised how much we’d miss it. Now we’re making up for time cooking luscious goodies. Which means, I suppose, more visits to the gym!


Annie, huge congratulations on your latest sale! What’s next for Annie West?

Sleep! A week dozing and getting up only to read fiction would be wonderful. I wish! But there are some really exciting things on the horizon. BLACKMAILED BRIDE, INNOCENT WIFE is a U.K. release in May. I adored working on that book, ever since the opening came to me, where poor Alissa turns up ready to marry, despite her misgivings, only to find the wedding’s been sabotaged and a big, sexy Sicilian demands she marry him instead!

In June THE GREEK'S CONVENIENT MISTRESS is finally on sale in North America. I say finally because this was my second book for Harlequin but it got bumped off the publication list by my first two sheikhs (I love those guys, but really!). So to see Sophie and Costas hitting the shelves in the U.S. and Canada is a real thrill. I received my U.S. copies the other day. It was lovely to open the book and find I was just as enthusiastic about it as I was when I wrote it (whew!). Take one determined (but definitely hunky) Greek who’ll stop at nothing to save his family, and put him toe to toe with a Greek/Australian girl with a severe distrust of powerful men, and Greek ones in particular, and watch the sparks fly… Plus I’ve just made preparations to attend the RWAus conference in August and the RWNZ conference (a first for me) in Auckland. Can’t wait. I love writers’ conferences.

For anyone who wants to read BLACKMAILED BRIDE, INNOCENT WIFE, you can get it sent post free to anywhere in the world from the Book Depository in the U.K.

Annie, I know you’re not long back from an amazing trip to the U.K. and Europe. Will your recent travels inspire future stories?

Anna, you read my mind. How do you do that (G)? Could it be your own delight in travel for research purposes? (Snork) Definitely you’ll read about places I saw or ones very like them in future books.

I’m busy constructing a fictitious alpine kingdom that owes a lot to the towns and villages of Austria and southern Germany. We had a magnificent horse-drawn sleigh ride in the Alps which was pure magic. If I shut my eyes I can hear the bells and the soft shushing of the sleigh in deep powder snow, smell the pine trees and feel the icy wind on my cheeks. The experience was THAT good. I feel sure one of my heroines deserves to enjoy it too. It was like something out of a fairytale.

Plus we visited castles that will definitely feed into these books. There was a tiny baroque chapel in a privately owned castle where we attended a very special Christmas concert. We visited another private palace (yes, really, it was a palace and enormous!) for a Christmas market, and even stayed in a medieval castle overlooking the Rhine. That was sooo fantastic.

I posted some pictures of it on my website and still sigh when I think about it. I just hope I can inject the magic of those places into my books. I’ll have fun trying, especially since I’ve got ideas on how to give my characters a hard time despite their lovely surroundings. What me, cruel? And for something completely different a stopover on the Arabian Peninsula was great research for another sheikh story. Watch this space…

If you could do your dream trip, where would you go?

No fair. I can’t choose just one. That’s one of the great things about writing. Whenever I start a new book I visit somewhere new and exciting and live there, off and on for the months it takes me to finish the story. I can tell you there’s talk in this house about a couple more dream trips to Europe starting in a few years time, including taking a canal boat on some French waterways, another to Sicily, the Amalfi Coast and Venice. Another taking a slow walk for a week beside a river stopping in lovely wine-growing villages. Then there are vague plans for Morocco, Mexico, St. Petersburg, and would you believe, Samarkand?

Wow, that's some travel plan! Do you have anything you want to ask our Bandita Buddies to get the conversation rolling?

April is change of season weather here in eastern Australia where we start to feel the autumn nip in the air and start thinking about cosy slippers in the early morning. Changes of season are also when I find myself tackling life with renewed vigour, whether it's a spring clean, an autumn tidy up ready for the cool winter months, or planning to tackle projects that I've put off for a while. At the moment I'm working with my new oven to plan some great meals, while I tackle a brand new book, reduce my tbr pile and organise the jungle that is my garden. My dh is planning our next trip. Fantastic!

What are your favorite change of season activities? Do you have plans for the approaching seasons? Are you having your cabana boy tidy up the cocktail cabinet? Planning trips? Writing a book you'd always wanted to write? Tidying? Creating or just dreaming?

Annie has very generously offered two signed copies of her latest American release, THE DESERT KING'S PREGNANT BRIDE with bonus TURKISH DELIGHT, as prizes today. Good luck, everyone! You'll love this story - believe me!

Just Friends

by Beth

It's time for another Launch Day Party in the Lair! My second release for Harlequin Superromance, A NOT-SO-PERFECT PAST, is out this month and I couldn't be more excited :-)

A NOT-SO-PERFECT PAST is a follow-up to my debut, NOT WITHOUT HER FAMILY and I've had quite a few readers tell me they are really looking forward to Dillon's book (yay!)

I've also had quite a few readers tell me they're surprised I didn't pair Dillon with Allie Martin, another secondary character in NOT WITHOUT HER FAMILY. Even my editor remarked that she thought Dillon and Allie would get together.

I have to admit, I just can't see it. From the moment I first wrote about Dillon, I knew he was meant to be with Nina Carlson and I worked hard to make sure the scenes between him and Allie, while showing a close-knit friendship, lacked substantial attraction and sexual tension on either of their part. I knew they couldn't get together because...well...to be honest, they like each other too much. There's no conflict, nothing to warrant an entire story.

Nothing that will have the reader asking: How on earth will these two ever get together?

But, pair Dillon (an ex-convict with a huge chip on his shoulder) with Nina (a good girl, single mother with serious trust issues) and people wonder, not only how they'll get together, but how their relationship will help each character grow and change to become the people they are meant to be :-)

In other words, putting Dillon and Allie together would've been too easy - on my characters! I do so like to make them work for their Happily-Ever-Afters *g*

What about you? Were there two characters (in a book, TV show or movie) you felt were certain belonged together only to have them end up with someone else? Did the new pairing work or not? And for those who read Not Without Her Family, did you think Dillon and Allie would pair up? To celebrate my launch party, I'll pick one commenter to win a copy of A NOT-SO-PERFECT PAST!

Here's the back cover blurb for A NOT-SO-PERFECT PAST:

He’s the most dangerous man she’s ever met…

Nina Carlson knows all about Dillon Ward. Knows he served time in prison. Knows nobody pulled out the welcome mat when he moved to Serenity Springs. But that doesn’t stop her from renting him a place to live. And when someone crashes into her bakery, he’s just the man to fix the damage.

And Nina isn’t the only one who thinks Dillon’s the perfect man for the job: her two kids have taken a shine to him. Still, she can’t afford to get close to Dillon, even if he is tempting her to toss out her good girl shoes. Because it’s not that she doesn’t trust him. It’s that she doesn’t trust herself.

For excerpts of my books, you can check out my website, http://www.bethandrews.net/ If you sign up for my newsletter, you'll automatically be entered in my monthly contests. This month I'm giving away a signed copy of Tawny's COMING ON STRONG. And check out my contest page for information on Tawny's and my BFF Bonanza contest!

Girl Moments

by Nancy Northcott

There are all sorts of things that qualify as "girl moments." Talking about guys, discussing our unique physiology, and tearing up over sentimental movies all qualify. The girl moments I remember most, though, were the ones that shifted my perspective on women and their roles. These were the moments when "the girl" or a girl, showed that women could do things I hadn't thought we could or didn't grow up being told we could. As women's roles have changed, so have men's, of course, but that's a subject for another blog.

I was inspired to write this by the recent rerun of The Return of the King . Those of you who've read the books that make up The Lord of the Rings know that there aren't very many girl moments in there. Arwen, for all of her steadfastness, is a pretty traditional female on the page. She comes across in that general mold in the movie--except during the race to the ford of Bruinen, a sequence that isn't even in the book. Though I was initially offended, since I prefer that movie adaptations stick close to the books, even when that would make the movies day-long affairs, that sequence has become one of my favorites. The elven woman outraces the forces of darkness. How cool is that?

Then there's the even cooler moment when the Nazghul is about to kill Eowyn and informs her that "no man" can kill him. Whereupon she informs him, "I am no man" and stabs her sword directly into his invisible face. Eowyn truly shone in the battle sequence, like the shieldmaiden she was supposed to be. Theoden wanted to park her at home in Edoras, but she found a horse, grabbed some armor, and came along to do her part. That's a major-league, serious girl moment. She wasn't going to tend the home fires because that wasn't her thing (though it is for plenty of people, and doing it well is important), so she didn't let Theoden define her.

Then there's Wonder Woman, of course. The women's movement adopted her as its emblem, and the Amazon creed of not relying on men certainly made her a good choice in that regard. Unfortunately, Wonder Woman tended to rely on Steve Trevor to rescue her fairly often. The concern over the lesbian overtones perceived in the character during the comic book witch hunts of the 1950s probably led the writers and artists to tread on eggshells in that regard, in part making sure WW didn't come across as too strong. Theirs was an era of far less tolerance. Issues of Wonder Woman still provided girl moments, but not as much so as the adventures of her less publicized, more independent colleague, Elasti-Girl.

Elasti-Girl was part of the Doom Patrol, who endured for about 120 issues or so before meeting their own doom on the wrong end of circulation figures. Rita Farr had been a movie star but had acquired, through one of the freak accidents so popular in 1960s comic books, super-powers. She could stretch and grow and so called herself Elast-Girl. I don't remember now whether she could shrink, too. She was married to "the world's 5th-richest man," Steve Dayton, who wanted her to stay home and be decorative. Decorative wasn't really in Rita's lexicon. She much preferred going out to kick butt with the boys on the Doom Patrol. For me, growing up in a society where the things women weren't supposed to do far outnumbered the things we were, she was a shining light.

Then there was Batgirl, the ultimate butt-kicking geek girl. Librarian Barbara Gordon, possessed of a black belt in karate, was on her way to a costume party dressed as Batgirl (female form of a Batman costume, as she envisioned it) when she stumbled across a crime and decided to intervene. Thus was Batgirl born. On the TV show, she was only allowed to kick people, but the comic book version of the character took her villain-whomping duties seriously, and every one of them was a girl moment for me.

On movie screens before Eowyn and Arwen came Sarah Connor, the waitress who survived mechanical mayhem to become the mother of the future. She fell in love with the man sent back to save her (Michael Biehn--what's not to love?). When he was killed as they tried to escape the Terminator, she kept going. The Terminator was about to grab her when she crushed it in the machinery of a manufacturing plant and told it "You're terminated." Serious girl moment, that was!

Finally, there was the biggest girl moment in my life. I was watching on television when Sandra Day O'Connor was sworn in as an associate justice of the United State Supreme Court. Women had made a lot of advances by then, compared to when the period when I was growing up. I thought it was a great thing, of course, but I was surprised to find my eyes stinging with tears as she took the oath. When a thick, ancient, plate-glass ceiling shatters, I guess the vibrations travel pretty far.

So those are my "girl moments" for today. Do you have a girl moment or a "aha" moment or realization of change you'd like to share? Are there books or movies you think exemplify such moments?

Financial WHOAs!

by Caren Crane

These days, pretty much every news report, newspaper article, comedy sketch or blog post has something to do with the "financial crisis". People are more concerned about money - or their lack of it - than they are about anything else these days and with good reason. I live in North Carolina, where we currently have the fourth-highest unemployment rate in the nation (behind Oregon, South Carolina and Michigan). One county's unemployment rate is 17.8%! Numbers like those are something to be concerned about, for sure.

Fortunately, we haven't been impacted by job loss, home foreclosure or Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. Nothing, in essence, has changed in my family's financial picture, but in my house we have had cause to keep a close eye on our spending since September. A series of events caused us to put on the financial brakes and really scrutinize what we were spending our money on. After six months of this, I know exactly where every penny of our money was going. Mostly, we ate it!

Like many people born in the 60s, my husband and I had little money growing up. At times, my family had none. Both of us knew from watching our parents how to pinch a penny and squeeze a dollar. When we were dating in college, we had very little money. I vividly recall a "date" where we sat on the porch of his single-side mobile home and listened to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert that was playing down the highway at the new amphitheater. Cheap beer and 'Free Bird', now that is college romance! With our histories, we knew about economizing because we'd had plenty of experience with it. So what happened to us over the past 19 years?

Well, for one thing we started making more money when we graduated from college and got married. A lot more money. We were blessed with medical, dental and prescription benefits, automatic investments for each 401k (with matching interest up to a certain percentage), automatic deposit of payroll, automatic payment for the mortagage and electricity and phone...you get the picture. Mix enough "automatic debits" with enough "automatic credits" and it's easy to lose focus of exactly what is going where. Add in two full time jobs, three children and a full roster of afterschool, church and volunteer activities and we were two very busy people managing barely-controlled chaos. And not paying enough attention to our bottom line.

A shocking amount of our money was spent on eating out (oh, the convenience!) and on entertainment (I do love a movie!). Another place we spent too much was at the grocery store. Those fancy jarred pasta sauces, organic chicken broth and free-range eggs really add up! So do the lattes before guitar lessons and after church on Sunday. My husband's downfall was those convenient two-packs of Krispy Kreme doughnuts and a couple of diet Dr. Peppers picked up at the convenience store each morning. Add up all those little things and you can see where my financial WHOAs came from. As in "Whoa, Nelly!"

Being busy is nothing but an excuse, it's true; however, I think ours is a fairly common situation. Like many couples, we were shortsighted and more concerned with our own ease and convenience than with fiscal responsibility. We should have been paying more attention and been better stewards of our resources. Fortunately, with a lot of attention and a good bit of planning, it was easy to get us back on track. The great part is, we have no debt (except our mortgage), enough money to cover our bills and enough left to set money aside for our emergency fund every month. The bad part is, we really have to watch our discretionary spending. The worst part is, books are part of discretionary spending! Therein lies the real tragedy, dear reader. As a result of my own personal "financial crisis", I have had to (temporarily) put the brakes on my book purchases. Except for the must haves, of course. For those, I wait until Borders sends me one of those 30% off any item coupons, then I count my pennies and run out and buy it!

Has a "financial crisis" (either national or personal) impacted you? What, if anything, are you cutting back on these days? Are you in the sad situation that I am regarding book purchases? And do you really know how much you spend on your delightful beverage of choice in a month?

Dreaming of Summer

By Kirsten Scott

By the time you read this, I'll be on an airplane, headed to Miami.

That's right, baby. I'm going south. I've packed my bathing suit, my strappy sandals, and a few tank tops. Oh, and a suit or two. Because I'm going to a conference with the day job.

This is one of those times I send up a little prayer of thanks for the day job. :-)

It's been a long, cold winter. We've had lot of snow -- more than we should have in the Pacific NW -- and lots of cold rain. My bones are cold. My skin is pasty white. I'm crabby, a little plumper than I should be, and I've been eating a lot of bread. In short, I need summer.

Everything seems more romantic in summer, doesn't it? You can walk on the beach with your sweetheart, hand in hand. You can share licks of an ice cream cone. You can taunt your man with tiny tanks and short skirts. Your skin gains that golden glow that only the sun can bring. For me, the summer also bring memories of stolen kisses and moonlit nights. Summer is for inappropriate relationships and silly flings that you know won't last.

Summer lovin' anyone?

Didn't we all love Grease because it took the best of all summer flings -- one with a bad boy you'd never date during a more reputable season, like fall -- and made it permanent? What a perfect fantasy. Dirty Dancing is the same story, isn't it? And what about Mystic Pizza? I never had a fling with a boy named Danny who rode a motorcycle, but I did have a summer affair with a boy in a vacation town I knew I'd never see again. And I love the memory of that boy, and wonder sometime what happened to him. But I also enjoy the fact that I'll never really know. 

So while I'm flying to Miami, I wonder if you'll share some of your dreams of summer with me. What are you looking forward to the most? When you remember summers from the past, what do you remember? Garden-ripe tomatoes you can eat off the vine, frosty drinks in an outside bar, or maybe just sitting out under the stars? Ever have a summer fling with a bad boy? Tell all -- and let us fantasize about summer!!

Website Design From a Personal Branding Perspective

by Caren Crane

'Tis Spring, when a writer's fancy turns to her website! Whether it's flaunting a Big Contest Final, a Monumental Contest Win or announcing the Hot New Release, when the grass grows tall writers itch to start, revamp or completely overhaul their websites. Fortunately, we Banditas are a resourceful lot. We have two savvy website and personal branding professionals with us today to kindle your spark of a website idea into a towering inferno of internet marketing goodness.

Jenn Stark brings a practical, accessible approach to branding to help authors at every level present themselves for maximum impact. A former vice president of marketing and communications with sixteen years' experience and a published freelance business writer, Jenn has served as president and publicity director of the Ohio Valley Romance Writers of America, and was the 2007 winner of the RWA Golden Heart in paranormal romance. She is an invited speaker and instructor on branding and public relations topics around the country and enjoys working with authors one-on-one to help develop their branding and publicity materials. Visit her online at www.jennstark.com.

Liz Bemis has worked in the Graphic Design and Information Technology fields for more than fifteen years. She brings her passion for unique designs and customer-driven site personalities to her work as the Owner and Creative Director of Bemis Promotions. As a four-time Golden Heart finalist (www.elizabethbemis.com) and regular speaker to authors nationwide, Liz provides the perfect combination of business savvy, author branding, and promotional experience to her clients.

Welcome, Jenn and Liz! Pull up a hammock, grab an umbrella drink and tell us a story. How about the one where you and Liz created your website, Jenn? It's my favorite website design story ever! Pretty please?

* * * * * * * * * * *

Jenn: As a Personal Branding expert who’s spoken to hundreds of authors about how to maximize their Brand in person and online, you’d think I’d have a truly easy time creating my perfect personal website the first time out.

Liz: (giggles to self)... They ALL think it’s gonna be a snap!

Jenn: Well… not so much (as Liz Bemis, my uber patient web designer will agree!) But the process that I took to create my site proved very instructive, and is hopefully one that can help you as well as you prepare to create—or update—your own website.

Essentially, my site development experience came down to three key steps: The Idea, The First Cut, and the Big Finish:

The Idea

This by far is the most important stage in the process—where YOU decide what YOU want in your website, and then communicate that to your designer. I can’t stress the decision element enough. I’ve had the pleasure of working on four different site designs with Liz. Two of them I said “just put something together that makes sense for me, maybe with a dragon… or something swirly…” and I got exactly what I asked for, which wasn’t at all what I wanted once I saw it. Why? Because I didn’t go into the process with a clear and focused image of what I REALLY wanted to do.

 
 
 


The many phases of jennstark.com

Liz: Those first two site designs were years ago... I now pretty much require that all of my clients come up with five sites that they truly love (and what they love about each site), and five sites that are professionally developed that just aren't for them (and what they don't like about each site). I would recommend having this kind of list no matter who you work with.

Jenn: The other two design processes—which resulted in my first site and then my upgrade—were much different. I followed Liz’s recommendation of finding sites that had the ‘look’ I was seeking, I planned out exactly what I wanted to convey image-wise with each site, and I had reasons for each of the early changes I made. In addition, I worked with Liz on formatting issues—how often did I want to update my site? Did I want to handle this myself or have Liz do it? Making these decisions up front cut down Liz’s design time by at least 50%--and while I was a bit more of a pain because I was so much more specific, I ended up with a First Cut that was dramatically closer to my dream site.

KEY TAKEAWAY: Take the time to go through your designer’s pre-planning process, and be as specific as possible in your design requests. Your designer doesn’t start until you say go—so use her time wisely by being as prepared as possible up front.

The First Cut

While Liz had already been hard at work for days at this point, I really started my portion of the work once she gave me her initial site design. At this stage I got to see her first execution of my vision—and make decisions about whether or not that execution would work. In my case, I knew immediately what I loved, and what wasn’t for me. But knowing wasn’t enough. I needed to then communicate my preferences as clearly as possible to Liz, and see where she could then take my ideas. Remember, your designer wants you to LOVE your site. They don’t want you to “settle” if your site isn’t absolutely perfect. So when it comes to giving feedback, don’t just say “this doesn’t work,” offer suggestions to your designer that are as concrete as you can make them. In my case, I was on a deadline to get the site up—and I recommend this to anyone developing a site. Don’t give yourself too much time to obsess over it, or you will never get it done!

KEY TAKEAWAY: Be prepared to give fast, thorough feedback, with a timeline for implementation. Deliver your changes all at once, versus forcing your designer to change one thing on the first iteration, and another thing on the second iteration, etc.

Liz: That's really great advice. First, piecemeal input will drive your designer to Bedlam very quickly. Second, you'll get a much better sense of the changes if they all happen at once!

The Big Finish

Jenn: Once we went through a few rounds of design changes, we were almost ready to launch my new site. I wanted my site to “live” in its current version for at least 6 months, hopefully much longer, so it was important to ensure that everything in the site was where I wanted it to be. This was the time to sweat the small details and keep the lines of communication open! In my case, I tested the site out with a number of friends, getting their feedback and making incidental changes for clarity. This is also when I tested all of the cool features Liz incorporated into my site—the self-editing features, the blog, the contest, etc. We didn’t launch until I was sure I could manage the day-to-day updating with a minimum of difficulty, and then we launched with a bang, as I included a contest and promoted the site to all of my various groups and list-servs.

KEY TAKEAWAY: Test-drive your site with others, incorporating their feedback to ensure your site is as “perfect” as possible before launch. And don’t launch until you’re ready to start the maintenance for your site or blog, whether you handle the updating or your designer does.

And that’s what the site process looked like to me! Liz’s experience, however, may be a little different…

* * * * * * * * * * *

Thank you, ladies. That's one of my favorite website stories ever, complete with a Happy Ever After! And so, gentle readers, you see how much sweat and lather goes into the seemingly effortless and lovely designs of your favorite author websites. If you're itching to pull a site together (you know you should already have one!) or have questions about where to start, when to stop or what you should fill up all that blank space with, ask away! Both our experts will be popping in today to answer your website and branding-related questions.

Seduction in the Lair

By Donna MacMeans

Anna has lit the strategically-placed scented candles.
Cassondra is pouring ample quantities of wine and spirits.

Tawny brought massage oils and Cindy has her crop (and assorted leather goods). We’ve stocked the lair for a launch party of major proportions and this party has a theme:

SEDUCTION!

Although April 7th is the official release date of THE SEDUCTION OF A DUKE, reports have that it's on the shelves so we're celebrating the release - and maybe sharing a few tips to bring that party home.

You see in this book, the sequel to THE EDUCATION OF MRS. BRIMLEY, my heroine has a unique problem. Francesca Winthrop, America's richest heiress, believes she's in love but not with the man her mother has arranged for her to marry - the penniless arrogant new Duke of Bedford (who you may recognize as William Chambers, Nicholas's older brother.) Francesca has no desire to marry a stranger and she certainly doesn't wish to leave her home and move to live overseas. Her mother hastily speeds the nuptials in anticipation of Francesca's attempts to escape. She's trapped, but she learns her father negotiated a loophole in the wedding contract. She can return home with her children, but of course, that means she first must become pregnant.

William believes the lightning - fast wedding suggests his fiancee is carrying another's baby and is need of a husband. He can't really complain. He's securing enough money through this wedding to pay his father's debts and keep his family from financial ruin and humiliation. But he'd like to know if he truly is the father of his firstborn - so he decides to hold off consummation of their vows until he knows for sure. But then he never anticipated the extreme measures Francesca will take in her mission to seduce a duke.

Is it getting hot in here?

Fortunately, Francesca has a courtesan's journal to guide her in her efforts - but how about you?

What tips can you give my poor heroine to bring the arrogant duke to his knees?

In Newport, Rhode Island, Francesca kept bees as a hobby. So in that spirit, I'm offering four prizes to be awarded throughout the day: A sampler of Burt's Bees products, a copy of THE
EDUCATION OF MRS. BRIMLEY, and two copies of THE SEDUCTION OF A DUKE for either your best seduction tip (which can be demonstrated on any of the available cabana boys) or sharing your opinion of the best seduction scene you've ever read in a romance. Let's talk seduction!

Coming Attractions

Welcome to April!

Birds are singing, flowers are blooming, and the Lair is JUMPING!

April 2 - Lots of great things happening this month, but perhaps most exciting of all…is the release of The Seduction of a Duke by our own fabulous Donna MacMeans! Check back in to the Lair tomorrow to party all day long with Donna on the release of her latest witty and delightful historical romance.


April 3 - Following closely on Donna’s heels will be a treat for all you writers and anyone interested in web design and marketing. Four-time Golden Heart finalist and professional web designer Liz Bemis teams with Golden Heart winner and public relations and marketing professional Jenn Stark to talk about determining and establishing your personal "brand" and how it affects your website design and promotional efforts. You can learn more about this dynamic marketing team at: www.bemispromotions.com, or come “meet” them in the Lair.

On April 8 - Our Anna Campbell will be hosting Harlequin Presents Extra author -- and friend of the Lair -- Annie West. Annie will be talking about her latest release, The Desert King’s Pregnant Bride. Nothing like a sexy Sheik to raise your blood pressure (in all the right ways, of course!).






Before you've even recovered from Annie's visit, award winning author Kristan Higgins returns to the lair to talk writing and her new HQN title Too Good To Be True.






April 14, Tawny Weber will be holding a party in the lair to celebrate the release of her latest Blaze, Coming On Strong! Stop by for chocolate, hunks and hilarity, all wrapped up in fun, sexy book-talk!!







April 15, We'll follow Tawny's release party by having another the next day for Trish Milburn, whose alter-ego, Tricia Mills, debuts with the YA novel Heartbreak River, which has already gotten great reviews from Booklist and School Library Journal. Yay!








April 16 - The guests continue when we host Kay Thomas. She’ll give us lots of juicy secrets about her April release from Harlequin Intrigue, Bulletproof Texas. Hopefully, she’ll tell us how sexy a spelunker can really be, and exactly what goes on in a dark cave when the head-lamps go out. ;-)








Look out next for guest author Lisa Shearin, author of the Raine Benares series. She’ll be here to talk about The Trouble with Demons, her April release, an exciting paranormal romance and love triangle with a dark mage and a white knight. Whew! Sounds exciting!









April 20 - Beth Andrews will celebrate the launch of A Not-So-Perfect Past, her latest SuperRomance release! Join the fun and bring your tootie horns, its gonna be a party!!!






April 22 - Get ready for fun and laughs as New York Times best-selling author Charlotte Hughes joins us in the Lair! We'll be helping her celebrate the release of the second book in her hilarious series about psychologist, Kate Holly - Nut Case! And if that's not enough to tempt you, there is Kate's sexy fire-fighter ex-husband to drool over!



April 21 - Debut author Lisa Cooke visits the Lair. She’ll be telling us all about her historical romance, Texas Hold Him, which features a sexy cardsharp from New Orleans. I can hear that Cajun accent coming out already!








April 28 - And we have a very special returning guest – or should I say, a whole bunch of returning guests. We're planning a virtual field trip for all of our Banditas and Bandita Buddies to the fire station to "chat" with Jo Davis and her firefighters about Zack's story...Under Fire. I’m sure you all remember Jo’s boys from her last visit – and if you missed it, you’ve got a real treat in store!



April 30 - Finally, we have NY Times best-selling author Brenda Novak visiting with us to launch her annual online Juvenile Diabetes Auction which begins May 1. There'll be prizes and giveaways that day, as well as a grand prize, so be sure to stop by!

Its a month filled with lots of prizes and fun – hope you’ll join us!