Romance B(u)y The Book!

March 5, 2008

(Please don’t forget to check out this post to take the author / agent surveys!)

Sydney’s Unleashing The Storm is featured this week on Michelle Buonfiglio’s Romance: B(u)y the Book!!! There’s an interview with Larissa and me and we’ll be blogging there on March 7th, so please stop by and see us (You’ll have to do a quick registration to comment!)

Michelle also reviewed Unleashing – she says,

“Unleashing the Storm” is emotionally satisfying, as well as fiercely erotic. The sexual tension is urgent and driving; it refuses to subside. That’s because the writing duo that is Sydney Croft (Larissa Ione and Stephanie Tyler) shows Kira’s need in an aching, frantic way sensual women understand. Then they gift us with Ender, who delivers high-emotion sexual fantasy even we veteran erotic romance fans find refreshing.

You can read the full review here!

Steph T.

RT Reviews!

January 29, 2008

I had to share two new reviews from March’s Romantic Times!

BEYOND HIS CONTROL
March 2008

RT Rating: 4.5 stars!!!

Beyond His Control (4.5), by Stephanie Tyler, is wonderful. The tension and love between Ava and Justin is perfectly depicted, and the almost nonstop adventure makes the story heart-stoppingly exciting.
â€”Page Traynor

UNLEASHING THE STORM by Sydney Croft
February 26, 2008
Bantam Dell

RT Rating: 4 Stars!!!!

This erotic romance delves deep into the paranormal world of ghosts and humans with special abilities. Croft’s current heroine is an animal psychic with a few animal tendencies of her own. The duo writing as Croft moves this story along by building on and expanding relationships from their previous novel, Riding the Storm. Each page is filled with attitude, danger and sex that heats up fast and goes well beyond the norm…
â€”Jennifer Madsen

And a special shout out to two friends who got TOP PICKS for their March books- Maya Banks for Sweet Surrender and HelenKay Dimon for Right Here, Right Now!!! Congrats, ladies!!!

Steph T.

good reading…

November 23, 2007

I love this post from Tess Gerritsen. Just love it.

Now I’ve got to hit the treadmill. For hours. Because yesterday was a complete eating frenzy, as it should be. And then I have to write. For hours. And hours. And hours…

Steph T.

Beyond His Control cover

November 12, 2007

I’m SO happy with this cover!!!

BEYOND HIS CONTROL
Available March 2008 from Harlequin Blaze

A Navy SEAL with the mission of a Lifetimeâ€¦

Sheâ€™s always been beyond his controlâ€¦

Assistant District Attorney Ava Turkowski knows about leading a dangerous life â€“ her father was a risk taker who died in the line of duty and her beloved brother is taking just as many chances. Now a high profile case has landed Ava herself in the crosshairs â€“ and the only man standing between her and certain death is the one she canâ€™t forget.

Justin Brandt was Avaâ€™s brotherâ€™s best friend, her protector during her wild-child teenage yearsâ€¦and the object of her hottest fantasies. Now heâ€™s a highly trained Navy SEAL with a body to die for and heâ€™s been tasked with keeping Ava alive. Which means keeping her close â€“ the closer the betterâ€¦
***

What so you think?!

Steph T.

Riding The Storm releases today!!!

August 28, 2007

Release day is FINALLY here!!!!

(click cover to see bigger copy;)

The storm is over.
But the seduction is just beginningâ€¦

A stormâ€™s rage. A womanâ€™s desire.

A man with the power to set them both free.

He can summon lightning at will. Emerge unscathed from the center of a tornado. Strip a woman down to her barest defenses through the sheer force of his sexuality. Heâ€™s gorgeous, dangerous and the target of parameteorolgist Haley Holmesâ€™s latest mission. Haley has been dispatched to the Louisiana bayou to investigate the phenomenon known as Remy Begnaud â€“ a man with a gift he never wanted: the ability to control a stormâ€™s fury. But even a woman trained in bizarre weather phenomenon has no defense against the electrifying power of the ex-Navy SEALâ€¦a power his enemies would kill to control.

With her agency monitoring their every move, Haleyâ€™s job is to seduce Remy, gain his trust â€“ and help him harness his extraordinary gift. But who will protect her from this voracious lover whoâ€™s introducing her to a new world of erotic thrills â€“ a man who grows increasingly insatiable with each new weather event? Haley knows a big storm is approaching â€“ and with it will come unexpected delights. But, so, too, will the storm unleash her greatest fears: An enemy bent on destroying Remy. And her worst fear of allâ€¦falling in love with this magnificent man, then having to betray himâ€¦

Larissa and I have been getting some awesome reviews for Remy and Haley’s story:

â€œ…a deft combination of erotic heat and page-turning story.â€
â€”Jenna Black, author of Watchers in the Night

â€œIn this action-packed, inventive tale, each characterâ€™s strengths and weaknesses are more fantastic than the next. The various plots and characters ebb and flow together seamlesslyâ€¦Croft redefines sizzle and spark with weather-driven passion. â€
â€”Romantic Times BOOKclub Magazine, 4 STARS!

â€œA a fury of electrifying passion and exciting action. RIDING THE STORM by Sydney Croft is a definite keeper for the readers of erotic romance.â€
â€”TOP PICK – Romance Reader At Heart

â€œAbsolutely fabulous!! RIDING THE STORM has the perfect balance of action/adventure and hot, steamy sex.â€
â€”Fresh Fiction

You can find out more about this and Syd’s future releases, plus read Chapter One of RTS at www.SydneyCroft.com!

Today is also the start of the big, 2 week long party at WriteMinded, with tons of guests and giveaways – so Sydney’s kicking off the party over there today!

Steph T.

and so it begins…

July 8, 2007

(btw, if you haven’t signed up for the challenge yet, you have until July 13th to do so – remember, we built in a 5 day window because of the RWA Conference…more details are in this post, as well as the code so you can get the Sven sweating button for your blog sidebar!)

Thanks so much for the kind responses to my post below. The thing is, even though I still feel very new and just starting out myself, I’m always reminded of how writers like PBW and Holly Lisle and Alison herself talk about paying it forward and how they walk the walk when it comes to helping out new writers. And I’d always promised myself I’d do that for new writers whenever I could.

I just think it’s so cool to not only see names on the challenge list who are contracted (because like I said, I remember them when we were all just starting out and struggling to get that first break) but what really made me smile were all the new faces, the ones who said things like, this will be my first book, or this is the first time I’m going to finish a book. Look around at those people if you’re a newbie, because that’s your group – your thisclose club. Whether or not you become friends with them, they’re still your grouping, the ones you rise through the ranks with.

You’ll end up with writer friends who are farther ahead than you as well…I remember back in 2003 or so when Alison had this huge sidebar of links with a message that said, want to be added? Email me…and I was this just starting out writer and she was ALISON KENT (well, she still is to me *g*) and I had her books on my shelf and I was like, maybe she won’t accept my blog link?

But she did. And now look, she can’t get rid of me.

:smoke:

Okay, I’m off to continue the neverending packing that’s happening around here in preparation for RWA. And then it’s time to get going on my pages.

Here’s to a productive Sunday for everyone!

Steph T.

wanting it

July 7, 2007

Zoo and I get a lot of this from people in reference to our daughter, whoâ€™s special needs and the most awesome kid ever: I donâ€™t know how you guys do it / handle itâ€¦I could never do what you do â€“ I could never handle it, which is why God gave her to you.

If youâ€™re anything like me, youâ€™re already kind of rolling your eyes and thinking, are you kidding me? First of all, everyone has their own deal, their own obstacles, their own pressures. Second, I donâ€™t think in terms of handling it when it comes to my kid, because sheâ€™s my kid. Sheâ€™s happy. Sheâ€™s funny. We adore her. Weâ€™ll do anything she needs, end of story. Which is the way is should be when it comes to parenting a child.

Is it hard sometimes? Sure. Iâ€™m a full writer and Iâ€™m home with my daughter full-time – sheâ€™s on home therapies, which means upwards of five people in and out of the house all day (which is not, contrary to popular belief, a break for me in any sense of the word, even though her therapists are wonderful) Sheâ€™s pretty much totally dependant on me (while still managing to get into everything and anything) â€“ she goes for major operations a few times a year, out of state, and Zoo travels quite a bit for his job.

I also have chronic migraine, which means Iâ€™m in pain for more or less 15 days out of every month. And still, I write. At this moment in time, I have a million deadlines but I wrote like this before I had a million deadlines. I do it because I can, because I love it, because I canâ€™t stop. I do it because itâ€™s fun and itâ€™s hard and itâ€™s my passion and my escape and my joy. Itâ€™s the dream career for me.

And Iâ€™ve been asked by a lot of people over the years how Iâ€™ve accomplished what I have, writing-wise, with everything else going on in my life. How I have the time.

The answer is really simple â€“ I want it.

Continue reading →

weekend stuff

June 16, 2007

Just a general question…for those of you who don’t panic on a regular basis, do you find you’ve got a lot of extra time in your day?

Zoo claims no, and then he thought for a second and then realized it’s because he spends all day dealing with other people’s panics. He didn’t name me specifically as one of those people who panics, but I know he was thinking it.

Then again, we have two different styles. His, for example, is to say something like, hey, the dryer’s not working all that well. I’ll take a look at the vent this weekend. (FYI, this is Monday morning)

Mine is like, OMG, do you think the painters did something to it I’ll call the repairman this second?!?!

*shrugs* How much extra time could I really gain, anyway?

Anyway, so my editor likes the new beginning part of Linger (aka the book that wants to kill me)…I shipped the second part off to her at 3am Friday morning and wondered why I was so tired all day yesterday. Zoo came home early and I took a nap and when I woke up there was a package next to me and I was all, YAY!, because it was this:

Hunting The Demon comes out the same month as Sydney’s first book (September) and I’m all excited for my ARC. Now, if someone would hurry and get me the advanced copy of Tegan’s book, I’d be all set.

So, this weekend will see the finishing of Linger (unless it kills me, in which case, Larissa will kill me.) and working on the Sydney novella and working on the copy edit stuff for Unleashing The Beast that Larissa so kindly offered to take the brunt of so I could finish the book that will kill me. Fun stuff.

Hopefully, the dryer will be working.

Steph T.

Cool Sydney Croft news!

June 8, 2007

Sydney got some wonderful news yesterday from her amazing editor (and yes, I am feeling slightly split-personalitied talking about Sydney in the 3rd person) â€“ it seems that Riding The Storm will be a Featured Alternate selection in Doubleday Book Club and Rhapsody Book Club for September / October!!!

Now all Sydney needs to do is finish up her website, the third book in the Storm Trilogy and her novella.

Sydney really needs to get moving. < —–sometimes this 3rd person thing works a little too well…

Steph T.

Unleashing The Storm

June 5, 2007

Sydney’s got a new cover and backcover copy too!!!!! Larissa and I are in LOVE with both!!!

UNLEASHING THE STORM – coming March 2008 from Bantam Dell

Beyond desire. Beyond seduction.
Into the eye of the stormâ€¦

Feel the heat. Hear the roar.
The fever has begunâ€¦

Thereâ€™s a storm rising. Electricity crackles in the air. For Kira Donovan, itâ€™s that time of year again: when the need floods her flesh, when almost any manâ€”the bigger and the stronger the betterâ€”will do. For Kira, an animal psychic, the heat is a matter of life and death, and this year it has come at just the right time. Tom Knight, a natural born predator, has arrived at her isolated Idaho farmâ€”for reasons all his ownâ€¦

At first Kira isnâ€™t interested in Knightâ€™s motives. She only needs himâ€”his body, his hands, his scent. But soon, through a daze of desire and distrust, Kira discovers Knightâ€™s worldâ€”the world of a covert operative, one man among dozens of secret agents waging an astonishing global war. Knightâ€™s mission is to bring Kira–kicking and screaming if necessary–into the Agency for Covert Rare Operatives and harness her extraordinary gift. He never expected the powerful emotions she would ignite in him, or the fierce desire to keep her safe from harm. For as darkness gathers around them, Kira is feeling the heat once again, leading them both on a wild ride of delicious thrillsâ€¦and terror beyond imagining.

What do you think?!?

Steph T.