The roads in Africa

December 5, 2009

This one’s about Africa…specifically, the roads in Africa, since they play a role in HARD TO HOLD and TOO HOT TO HOLD.

See, road is a relative term. I remember we would drive for hours on dirt roads, then suddenly find ourselves on a strip of beautifully paved, smooth road – for maybe twenty feet. And then it would end. There was no rhyme or reason to it at all, and although we traveled after the rainy season, the roads were pretty well destroyed. Without four wheel drive vehicles, forget getting anywhere. Even with four wheel drive vehicles, it was, shall we say, 3229864836_989c5d5135 challenging.

But this is about the one road I remember most vividly. Late at night, we’d been driving toward Songea, to the mission where Zoo was born. We’d been on the road forever – like 12 hours at least and then the car came to a dead stop. And we all had to get out and investigate what our driver called the pothole.

There’s Zoo, standing in the tiny pothole in the road.

The driver decided that the pothole was not a problem at all.

So yeah, that’s us, in the pothole. I’m sitting in the middle seat in the back. With a box of wine.

If you drive anywhere in Africa, you will need several boxes of wine.

So when Sarah or Clutch or any of the characters talk about the roads in Africa, you’ll understand a little more.

From what I’m told, these roads were actually some of the better ones.

Hard to Hold Release Day!!!

November 24, 2009

I cannot believe this day is finally here – HARD TO HOLD is released!!!

JAKE IS HERE!!!!!

Maximum danger.
Maximum desire.
And holding on for dear life…

The Special Ops hero feared nothing
-until he met a woman too hot to hold…

Lt. Jake Hansen has survived some of the riskiest missions known to man. But now the wounded Navy SEAL faces his toughest job yet: Smuggling Dr. Isabelle Markham out of Africa without triggering an international incident. Not easy to do when the gorgeous hostage happens to be a senator’s daughter —and about as easy to resist as an oasis in the desert…

If it weren’t for Jake, Isabelle would still be halfway across the world, where rebel forces left her for dead. The Special Ops warrior may have saved her life, but she doesn’t need him to protect her now. Tell that to the ruggedly handsome hunk in full battle fatigues who’s just been assigned Isabelle’s personal bodyguard. Close quarters aside, Isabelle won’t let Jake anywhere near her heart — until danger throws them together again…and nothing in the jungles of wildest Africa could prepare them for a passion this wild. This crazy. This hot….

***

I am not here right now – as you’re reading this, I’m at the doctor with my daughter. Fitting, since I began this writing journey with my daughter and doctors, so hey. We’re getting there, but it’s been a long month.

But it’s all good because I’ve got a lot here for you to do AFTER you run out and by Jake’s book. I’ve added a ton of new info about HARD TO HOLD to the site – there’s a military glossary and a list of the characters you’ll meet in HARD TO HOLD, as well as maps of the places in the book.

Tonight, I’m chatting at Blog Talk radio – here’s the link for you to listen live, 8:30 PM EST. If you can’t make it, there will be a link to a podcast up later on. Jake’s being interviewed over at Greta’s blog – I Don’t Want To Wait, I Want the Book Now. I’m also being interviewed at Loves Romances and More and I”ll put up a link to that when it’s up.

There’s also a new, juicy excerpt of TOO HOT TO HOLD up as well, because now we get to start that countdown in earnest.

Dude, seriously, Jake is freakin’ here. And I’m just going to come home and hold my kid and stare at the book…and smile.

How to get a SEAL to help on release day

November 23, 2009

The hand on my shoulder makes me shriek – I whirl around and see Jake, who’s dripping water all over the floor. He’s barefoot, wearing camouflage shorts and no shirt, and he’s holding a gun. “You scared me – what’s that gun for?”

His eyes are dark gray and intense, boring into me. “You kept paging – I thought something was wrong.”

At the same moment, Nick skids in, a lethal looking knife strapped to his arm. Chris is right behind him, rifle slung around his chest.

“You’re getting the floors wet,” I point out and the three of them stare at me.

“So there’s no trouble here, then?” Nick asks.

“No.”

They look at each other and shrug. Jake mutters under his breath and I tell them, “I called because I need you to hand this stuff out.”

“What the hell is this?” Nick looks at the bookmarks as if he’s never seen one in his life.

“Bookmarks – for all of your books. Jake’s is out tomorrow and –“

“Wait a minute.” Jake holds up his hand, stares between me and the bookmark. “Why the fuck am I sharing a bookmark with these two?”

Those two are smirking at him. Suddenly, handing out the bookmarks won’t be such a problem, I heard Chris saying.

“Sorry – printing costs and everything. Besides, you’re a trilogy. Like, all for one and one for all,” I say to placate him, but it’s not working.

“I think I should get my own bookmark,” Nick says.

“Hey, your book owes me,” I tell Nick, a little too loudly and he takes a step back and holds up his hands like he’s surrendering. But there’s just enough of a smirk on his face for me to know he was difficult during the writing of his book on purpose.

“And mine is kind of like the crowning glory,” Chris says, those different color eyes giving him that crazy look, as usual. Except I know it’s not just a look.

“Dude, you don’t even have a review yet. And your cover’s pink,” Nick points out and Jake snorts.

“The entire cover’s not pink,” Chris says and Jake and Nick just look at him. “You couldn’t tell them not to use pink?” he asks me.

“Look, I tried. You’re all a lot of trouble and I’m exhausted.”

“She’s moved on. To Zane.” Jake rolls his eyes and shakes his head. “I’ll bet he gets his own bookmarks.”

“Look, just go to bookstores, walk around and give these out. Talk up the books. Make sure people by them.” I pause. “I mean, I know you all have powers of…um, persuasion. You know, because most of my readers are women.”

For a few moments there’s talk of all the persuading they’ve done, enough to make my cheeks redden. And that’s when the three women appear – Isabelle, Kaylee and Jamie.

“Uh-oh,” Nick says in a low voice.

“They didn’t hear anything,” Jake mutters.

“Hey baby,” Chris says to Jamie, who tells him, “We heard everything.”

“We were talking about like, you know, before you,” Jake says with a roll of his eyes.

“I just asked them to pass out bookmarks,” I tell the women with an innocent shrug and walk away. Because hey, my work here is done.

Hard to Hold FAQs

November 21, 2009

Here are a few questions I’ve gotten about the Hard to Hold trilogy – they’ll end up being a part of my FAQs page after this for future reference!

Is the trilogy stand-alone?

Yes…and no. Absolutely, you can pick up any of the books and get a complete reading experience that resolves the main hero / heroine relationship. However, I love my subplots, and they do continue – Hard To Hold continues a subplot into Too Hot To Hold, and then a new subplot in Too Hot To Hold continues in Hold On Tight. So, for the peak reading experience, I think it’s best to read the books in the order I wrote them. And, of course, you need to read all of them. And then buy multiple copies and give them as gifts to everyone you know. What? Books make great gifts…buy a book, save the world! Or a SEAL, as it may be.

Were any of these books harder to write than the others?

Too Hot To Hold was the most difficult for me to get a handle on. I’ve been told by my very patient editor that often the second book in a continuing trilogy is enough to make an author want to beat her head against the wall. Okay, she said it a lot nicer than that, but still.

Do you picture celebrities when you’re creating your characters? Real people you know?

Neither. Especially not the real people because, hi, that’s weird. It’s like when people want their names used as the main character in my books and no way, cannot do that. I can picture my characters clearly in my head, well enough to describe them to you, but with enough left to the imagination that you can create your own picture in your head.

Did you pick the titles for your trilogy?

Sort of, kind of one of the titles. Ish. How’s that for an answer? Not what you were looking for? Okay, here goes.

I’ve been obsessed with the title, Hard To Hold, for quite a while now. I think I titled two manuscripts that will never see the light of day that. In fact, when Sydney wrote her first proposal, Unleashing The Storm was actually called Hard To Hold. Of course, once it was written in the contract like that, no one ever referred to the book like that again and we came up with Unleashing The Beast very quickly (and Beast was quickly vetoed and replaced with Storm.) But I digress.

So when I sold the SEAL series, Book 1 was Harder To Breathe (because I love that song), book two was Hard to Handle and Book 3 was Hard To Hold. And then Shauna said that Harder To Breathe made her think of an asthma attack and well, yes, she’s right and so we went round and round trying on titles. Most of the ones I came up with were too suspensey and not enough of the romance angle. And then Shauna called me and said, Nita suggested these: Hard To Hold, Too Hot To Hold and Hold On Tight. And I loved them. And finally, I get to use, Hard To Hold as a real title.

Hold on Tight sneak peek up!

November 10, 2009

(Because who doesn’t love a list?)

1. Check out the brand new sneak peek for HOLD ON TIGHT (aka Chris’s book) which releases on January 26, 2010.

2. I am now following Chip Coffey on Twitter. Awesome!

3. Sons of Anarchy 90 minute episode tonight. (I also follow Kurt Sutter on Twitter)

4. HARD TO HOLD releases in 13 days!

5. I have a case of Diet Dr. Pepper. (it’s the little things)

6. For Nano-ish – I need 3K today. I need 5K but would take 3K. It’s been days of, working / writing all day only to have word count remain the same – this happens when I have to put the mess together, revise scenes / rewrite, etc. So in the end, it’ll be a stronger mess but I really like to see the word count piling up. That should start to happen now.

7. HARD TO HOLD releases in 13 days! (can’t say this one enough)

8. I was informed that the Hold trilogy sold to Germany! Gus is taking credit for this, since he is of German descent, as is Zoo.

9. This prompts my mother to ask why my 3rd Blaze has not sold to Italy yet when the first two did. Do you want me to call them, she asks. Um, no. Please. The episode where Marie (from Everybody Loves Raymond) calls the FBI about Robbie’s job springs to mind.

10. HARD TO HOLD. 13 days. Panic begins to set in…(did I tell you that when my mom offered to let a relative know when the book hit stores, the relative said, ah, it’s okay – we’re not big readers.) Dude, seriously, you cannot make this stuff up.

Tempting the Fire cover!

October 22, 2009

In case you haven’t seen it yet over at Writeminded and LIST, here’s Sydney Croft’s beautiful new cover!

TEMPT updated copy

TEMPTING THE FIRE
August 2010

EXTREME HEAT. EXTREME HUNGER.
A JUNGLE EDEN ABLAZE WITH TEMPTATION.

Shockwaves shoot through the Agency for Covert Rare Operatives (ACRO) when horrific video surfaces from the Brazilian rain forest. A team of Navy SEALs has been nearly wiped out by something sinister and superhuman. Now ACRO agents Sela Kahne and Marlena West head to the world’s most unforgiving jungle in pursuit of a mythical monstrosity with a taste for human blood. And the only path that will take them to the creature runs through two men, each hiding his own dark secret.

Sela is an expert on cryptozoology with a sideline skill that could prove invaluable: when she makes love to a man, she engulfs his innermost thoughts. Teamed with Marlena, Sela makes contact with the lone SEAL survivor, Chance McCormack. Meanwhile Logan Mills, the man who rescued Chance, leads his private company on a hunt that has nothing to do with saving lives. Soon, Sela will put her supernatural charms to work on Logan, determined to extract information about the creature they are seeking. But in this sweat-drenched realm of danger and deception, Logan is more than just a passive target. He has the power to lead a highly-trained seducer into a jungle without any rules, without any limits—and no end to the heat.

***

There’s also a brand new Sneak Peek up for TOO HOT TO HOLD!!!

Too Hot to Hold Sneak Peek #2

September 15, 2009

Middle of September? Seriously? *blows dust off blog*

Anyway, a new sneak peek from TOO HOT TO HOLD (aka Nick’s book) has just been posted!

Also, I’ve just been told that the release date has shifted a week, so instead of being available December 29th, it’ll be pubbed on January 5, 2010. So really, much easier than trying to ship out over New Years. If you pre-ordered it from Amazon, you’ll have to go in and approve the order again since the date did change.

So far, the official release date for HOLD ON TIGHT (aka Chris’s book) has remained January 26, 2010, but that could shift. If it doesn’t, well, then you get books 2 and 3 very close together, which is nice.

For now, I’m busy working on book 5 – Zane’s book which still has no title, but hey, the proposal was accepted by my editor, so that’s cool. And I’m editing Sydney’s next, Tempting The Fire, which has an August 2010 release date last time I looked. And then Larissa and I dive right into writing Stryker’s book (book 6)…so this fall will be busy.

Again, mid-September? Really?

Oh, and this post from author Saundra Mitchell cracked me up. This paragraph, especially, on what happens when your first book is finally published:

…your grandmother is in tears because she didn’t see it at Wal-Mart. Not that she was going to buy it- everybody even remotely, genetically connected to you expects you to give them a copy- you’d think they’d take pity on you because of your non-Twilight advance and buy one. Or two. Come on, people, some pity- I didn’t send my book to Oprah, I’m doomed!

See, and most of my family doesn’t plan on buying it, but they don’t want copies from me either…(don’t worry – for some reason this just makes me laugh…) But, of course, that means you’ll all have to make up for the non-familial buying and grab yourselves some extra copies…what?

Hold on Tight Sneak Peek!

August 11, 2009

So now that you’ve gotten a sneak peek at TOO HOT TO HOLD, it’s time for one from HOLD ON TIGHT. This is Chris’s book and in the sneak peek, you’ll meet our heroine, Jamie. She and Chris have a nice subplot in Nick’s book (Too Hot) and they meet up again in HOLD ON TIGHT when Jamie is forced to launch an investigation against Chris.

I’m excited because I finished the galleys / page proofs for HOLD ON TIGHT and sent them on their merry express mail way yesterday. That means the trilogy is finally almost put to bed. Amazing how long it actually takes to finish a book in its entirety.

My editor and I are currently on the great title search for books 4 & 5. Since they’re connected and they might be out close together, we need titles that go together but not necessarily match. And it’s hard to find the right ones that actually mean something to the book, that aren’t too close to anything that’s been used recently by others and something that conveys that the books are more on the romance side of romantic suspense.

We have until Friday. I’ve also got revisions and the proposal for the yet untitled book 5. Stayed up until 2AM writing on it – so much fun. Nothing is better than those first three chapters. Everything’s shiny and pretty and new – any plot holes can be easily fixed without ruining an entire book.

Now, to drag myself back to the revisions. Definitely not as pretty and shiny, but getting there. The last 40 pages. Plus the subplot in book 4 becomes the plot for new characters in book 5, so everything hinges on everything else. Like a giant puzzle.

I swore my next books after the trilogy would be stand-alones. I suck at keeping promises to myself.

Too Hot to Hold – 1st Sneak Peek!

July 29, 2009

At the beginning of the month, you got an exclusive sneak peek from Hard to Hold here.

Now, let me point you in the direction of a brand new sneak peek for Book 2 in the SEAL trilogy, Too Hot to Hold. You’ll meet Kaylee, the heroine, thinking on her first meeting with Nick, our SEAL hero.

To recap, Hard to Hold releases November 24th, 2009, Too Hot to Hold releases December 29th, 2009 and Hold on Tight releases January 26th, 2010 -and I do believe you’ll get a sneak peek from Chris’s book soon!

Check back for more sneak peeks from the trilogy – I think we’re running them about every three weeks until the first release from this point forward, which is exciting.

I’m currently listening to the Black Hawk Down soundtrack (excellent music for the proposal I’m working on) while taking a short break from Sydney revisions and Cam revisions (the next book after Hold on Tight.) They’re both due August 1st. And I will need A LOT of coffee over the coming days. And Diet Coke. And cookies…and…well, you get the idea.

Hard to Hold Sneak Peek

July 16, 2009

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’re probably familiar with Jake, the SEAL whose been visiting me for as long as I can remember – he and his brothers were regular visitors on mine and other blogs, until I seriously started writing their stories and then, well, I kept them too busy to play.

Anyway, this special sneak peek from Hard to Hold, which releases November 24th, 2009, focuses on the three brothers the trilogy centers on – Jake, Nick and Chris, and also introduces their father, Kenny. It’s told from Nick’s point of view, which always seems to include…sex, whether it’s talking about it or thinking about it or…well, you know. But some of my favorite scenes to write focus on the three brothers, something my editor knows and indulges me on, to a point

Sneak Peek Excerpt from Hard to Hold – a scene from Chapter Three

Nick hadn’t been with a woman since he’d gotten back on U.S. soil from Afghanistan, which was some kind of record he never wanted to have to beat. It had been nearly forty-eight hours, thanks to Jake’s gunshot wound and the subsequent paperwork that needed to be handed in immediately, plus the debriefings and the physicals and right now Nick craved the kind of release only hot sex – or a good demolition – could bring.

Of course, being out with the man you called Dad could put a severe cramp in both those options.

“I didn’t want to come here to watch the battle of the fucking bands in the first place,” Jake was complaining to Chris.

“I need to get laid,” Nick told his brothers.

“Go for it,” Chris said, then downed another shot.

“It’s not like I can leave with someone – not with Dad here,” Nick said.

“Like he didn’t know about all the other times, starting with freshman year in high school,” Chris said and Jake and Nick groaned in unison at that image.

“Freshman year wasn’t my first time,” Nick said at the same time Jake asked, “Are you trying to make sure I can never have sex again?”

“Dad probably gets more ass than any of us combined,” Chris said, and Nick and Jake groaned again. Chris just laughed. Tonight, he wore a white T-shirt, which made the fact that his eyes were two different colors stand out even more. One was bright blue, the other an intense green and they gave him an unbalanced, slightly crazed look. Once people got to know him, they realized that it wasn’t just a look.

“He’s got to stop with the mind-reading bullshit,” Nick muttered.

“Just don’t start a fight tonight,” Jake warned and Nick immediately figured that a good, old-fashioned fight could work to distract him for a while, since the band about to take the stage looked like Motley Crue gone wrong. Until he felt the tap on his shoulder and turned to see Kenny Waldron, the man he’d called Dad since he’d been fourteen, staring all of them down.

“I’m here to show off the new band, not my sons’ excellence at bar fights,” he said.

All three men held up their hands in silent surrender. Like they were being put under house arrest.

“Hey, we don’t start them,” Chris protested, and that much at least was true. There were guys who knew they were SEALs and who wanted to pick fights with them just because of that. Sometimes it was because other men’s girlfriends looked at them a little too long, and hey, they couldn’t help that either.

Kenny rolled his eyes at them, and then his stare stayed on Jake for a few minutes too long. He opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but the band started in and he got distracted.

Score one for Jake. And speaking of score, Jake should be chomping at the bit, worse than Nick was. Jake was definitely tense, but he appeared off the market tonight – not looking around for any kind of action the way he normally would. Which could only mean that Jake was already in some kind of major trouble.

He looked around and his eye caught on one woman who looked familiar. It took him a minute, but he was finally able to place her. “Hey – Dr. Markham’s here.”

“Who’s that?” Kenny asked.

“The woman Jake pissed off today,” Chris said and Jake shot him a look, which he ignored.

“You saw her today?” Nick asked.

“It’s a long story,” Jake mumbled and Nick knew there was more to it than that. A lot more. But he was content to let Jake shrug it off if he wanted. He’d get the full story from Chris later on.

“Were you rude?” Kenny asked.

“I was the way I always am,” Jake said. Chris choked on his beer, Kenny started lecturing Jake in Cajun French and Nick figured that this was a perfect time to slip away.

***

Want more? Read an excerpt from the prologue of Hard To Hold here!