Monday Poetry

You greedily sigh
as you slide in beside me
Your fingers trail
down the soft skin of my thigh
Your tongue tastes
the tender curve of my neck
Your limbs caress
mine as you move over me
Your touch excites
me as you slip into my heat
Your gentle stroke
becomes hard, pounding as we lose ourselves
Your body cradles
mine as we lay sated in one another

y, er
I think I need to work on this one a little, it could flow a whole lot better.

Available NOW!

Title: Tea for Three

ISBN: 978-1-59632-476-3

Author: Anne Douglas
Cover Artist: Croco Designs
Price: $5.99

Genre: Nontraditional Erotic Contemporary, BBW Heroine
Length: Novel

Straight, gay or in between, turning thirty is never easy.

Craig wonders just where his life's heading. His relationship with Jack is satisfying, to say the least. But deep down, he sometimes still craves the soft touches of a woman.

Something's bugging Craig, and Jack knows it. Some sort of pre midlife crisis that he just can't understand. The sex is hot and demanding. Their home life is comfortable without being too familiar. But he just can't help feeling he might be about to lose the love of his life.

Then they meet lovely, loyal and slightly broken Wren Browne. It doesn't take long to realize, they might have just have found the solution to both of their problems.

Love isn't tidy or simple; it doesn't come packaged in neat little boxes. And sometimes you have to set the table with tea for three.

Publisher's Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: m/m sex practices, m/m/f menage.

Catch up

No not Ketchup, catch up. Besides it's called tomato sauce anyway :)

I've not been blogging a whole lot this week as I've been working hard on my WIP ... along with actually doing the housework I've been putting off for far too long.

Accidentally Were is a 24k and climbing, I haven't got to the mystical woo-woo part yet so I'm thinking that I'm going to end up around 40-50k before I start editing and cutting and adding. Of course since I'm notorious for not using contractions, there's 1000 words that disappear right there. Tell me, in this little scene that I'm penning this afternoon, have I gone overboard with the euphemisms? (assuming I have that right, euphemism that is, and I have a feeling I am wrong.) :

(this is VERY much unedited at the moment folks)

When he pushed her back up against the side of his truck her little angry growls stopped and a low sexy rumble started up instead. “I wasn’t sure there for a second, but I think you were right, this is a damn good idea.”
Rex barely had time to brace himself before Pearl climbed her way up his body and wrapped her legs around his waist. As he wasn’t quite balanced they fell back against the truck with a panel-popping thud that pressed Pearl up against him like she was a stripper and he was the pole. Quite apt really considering his dick felt like a bloody steel bar.
Pearl’s hands were wound through his hair again; holding him tight as she fairly ate at his lips. Pearl made a cacophony of sound as she mewled and groaned as she rode his cock like a cowboy on a prize bull determined to make it to eight seconds. She tore her mouth away and shouted to the sky, “Yes! More, just like that!” and Rex had to wonder what the hell alien had taken over the woman who was usually so uptight and proper she’d make a Mongrel Mob member quake in his boots for being to loud in a library.

Tea for Three's release is a little over a week away now. We should be getting everything finalized this weekend, so it will be nice to get that out of the way until the Monday before release day when I'll sit up late obsessively refreshing the screen until the new releases are posted -- and don't think I wont!

I've got a release out, a sub being read (do you know hard it is to sit on your fingers and not email "Have you read it yet, whaddya think" to your editor?), and I've been trying to make a decision about a national print ad -- I'm not usually one to stress and obsess, but trying to break my caffeine addiction (I'm failing I might add), has me a little twitchy :).

BUT ... I put that twitchiness to good use and I now have clean floors. Eh, which reminds me I need to go finish off the bathroom, bugger!

Making Out is available now

I'm running a wee bit behind today. With the bathrooms finished bar the paint, we needed to get on with the last of the flooring, so I've dragged my aches and pains to the computer a lot later than I had planned!

All the links for Making Out will now take you to a fully functioning book listing at Loose Id so make sure to nip over and nab a copy!

Now me, my sore neck, my gimpy hip and aching hamstring are off to bed!

13 Titles to choose from

I still haven't been able to make a decision.

Here' a rough blurb on McCabes 2:

Finding a woman beaten and broken in a dark parking lot wasn't the way David McCabe expected his night to end. It wasn't the way Kate had expected her night to go, either - beaten by an angry, vicious husband of one of the women she had helped at Liberty Haven one of the areas Women's Refuge. She also didn't expect to wake up in the hospital with a stranger holding her daughter, telling her she had no option but to go with him - not after everything she'd fought to be free of.

Can two bruised hearts let go of the past and make a new future?


Here are the new front runners, what do y'all think? My Front runners are marked with an *

1. To Spite the Past **
2. Despite the Past
3. Chrysalis **
4. Telling Truths **
5. Surviving the Past
6. New Day
7. Tough Love
8. Just Breathe **
   
9. Bruised Pasts **
10. Bruised Pasts Collide
11. Learning to Breath
    
12. Future Song
13. Broken Pasts **

Sex and Marriage

I've noted that there's not a lot of marriage in romance. (Sorry we are not going to be discussing the sad state of my sex life lately)

'What land is she living in' you all say '99% of romance is about marriage'. Sure I won't disagree, 99% of Romance is about obtaining the state of being married. But so little of it about what happens after the big/small over-the-top/poignant everything-I-ever-wanted/OMGWTFBBQ-I'm-getting-married?? scenes play out?

I don't know about you, but marriages are damn hard work. Hell, I'm already onto the second one (we won't go into the shortest marriage in existence, where I was left for a younger woman when I was only 22!). Bitter much, me?? Not much after 10 years.

So, when so many of us read romance - of any genre, and especially erotic - why are there not more stories about marriages on the rocks and the ways the characters solve them. And no, I'm not talking about an Oprah and Doctor Phil special here - I'm talking hot, sexy stories, just like all the ones where people are single.

Genuine, sexy, my husband/wife doesn't find me sexy anymore, what went wrong and how do I fix it story lines about people with a kid or two, a dog, and a mortgage, stories.

Are us married folks with kids just too unsexy? Are we over the hill erotically? Is the idea of bits that don't look the way they did at 25 a turn off, even if the story is a wonderful journey?

And most importantly, if I was to write it, would people buy it?

I've had a number of hits with the term 'couples erotica', it sounds like an interesting term. I wonder if they are searching for stories that would appeal to husbands and wives (stroke flicks in effect), or containing husbands and wives in the plot line.

Give me some opinions people.

Erotic Romance and Faith

There is something that I've noticed when it comes to erotic romance, and its slightly more smutty sister, erotica - faith, or a visible lack thereof.

Oh, I'm not talking those highly involved fantasy, paranormal, and science fiction types of faith that an author might build a world around. I'm talking good old, everyday religion in a contemporary setting.

Are Sex and Faith mutually exclusive?

I've mentioned before that I enjoy reading Catherine Anderson. Her stories, more and more (just personal observance, she might not think so at all, and neither may you) are verging into inspirational, but I wonder if they will ever quite make it as she is just too frank with her language and pretty open with sex, too.

What appeals to me is not the sense of Faith running through her work, but the reality of her characters. They swear and fight, they have premarital sex - though often suffer for it in some manner - they have jobs they have to to before they can run willy nilly through the crabgrass and clover of their love lives. They are human.

But when I was sitting down staring into the ether at the Golden Trough on Sunday while scarfing my over sized plate of chicken, green beans, and spuds this is what popped into my brain. Why you ask? - the group of people who before seating themselves prayed over their table.

Now, I do live in a city that, religiously thinking, would love to name itself the reigning Baptist center of the world, so you might think I would see more of this type of behaviour. We don't really. A few quiet murmers, some dipped heads or clasped hands, but not a very public display. So Sex and Faith just jumped in there as an interesting blog topic.

Personally, I'm an agnostic. Yes, I'm one of those people who wants proof. I believe what I see, so Faith has little meaning for me on an intrinsic level in a story. But it does have a great deal of meaning for me for understanding a character though - their personality, their core beliefs etc. Does this translate over into romances hot-to-trot cousin, erotic romance?

I mentioned that there is no lack of faith or religion when applied to an imaginary world. After all it's a chance to be your own mini god, isn't it? Getting to make up the ins and outs of your own religion. The same with historicals - it's just a given that religion plays a big part in the mores and strictures of life. But what about in a contemporary setting?

BDSM and religion - now there's the mother of all debate topics. Submission, degradation, action and consequence, forgiveness, control of power, release - trust.

I think I understand the concepts behind BDSM, although it's not a hot trigger for me; still, the correlations between the two ring bells, big bells. Why then do I not see more content involving faith? Not the type of story line that involves someone ritually purging themselves through pain, but the kind where they trot off to Church on Sundays and make obvious dialogue about their religious beliefs. And I'm not talking "Oh my GOD, it's so huge!" That's finding religion of an entirely different genre.

Are erotic romance readers people who embrace religion?

I know there are readers and authors alike who are Pagan, but what about the traditional churches - Catholic, Baptist, Methodist etc? What about Asian or Middle Eastern faiths? It's not too far a jump from some Pagan beliefs to paranormal, romance, and fantasy. After all, that's where it all started - Greek and Roman myths and legends coming to life; mother nature at her finest; Druids, Witches and Warlocks.

Can traditional religions make the leap and keep the sexy heat? Is religion in an erotic story a turn off - the guilt factor chiming in? Face it, most erotic romances do not involve a married couple (or triple, but then that's another big no-no for most religions). Is the reminder that premarital sex is supposed to be a big NO, the reason I don't seem to see religion as a part of the current erotic romance selections?

I know I don't write about it - don't practice, how can I preach it? Could this be the new big thing? Inspirational Erotic Romance? I think it could be done. I wonder if anyone has ever tried to tie BDSM up with a healthy religious aspect, rather than using it in a protaganistic manner?

No Midsummer Heat for me

Oh well, you have to be in to win, right?

I was however encouraged to expand the story and send it back. And they're right. Red Skirt, Cool Fountain really begged to be longer.

So I guess that's what I'll do. You know, I don't seem to be having much luck with shorter length stories. I think I might make a resolution - if its less than 25k, it doesn't go anywhere. (Well, other than the sequel I want to write for PV for next Xmas telling Nick's story, I don't think that's going to be a long one).

My trouble is that I can't plan for shit - well I can, but at the end, it's just not right. Instead, I sit down with a ghost of a story in my head and just start and see where it takes me. I guess that's organic writing, is it? I'm not exactly up with the play with all the writing jargon, I just write and figure it out as I go.

That wasn't what happened with McCabes2 - I planned it all out, and it didn't come off right. And instead of being on McCabes3 by now, I haven't sat back down to pick apart McCabes2 to send it back to B. But I will.

Hell I might do it this weekend while I'm away with the girls. It's supposed to be a scrapbooking weekend, but I usually take a book and the laptop (I'm a tech geek of course it goes with me! I don't do all that journaling by hand - are you kidding me?). But maybe I will conflab with the girls and get some inspiration.

Lucky there is no Internet at the cabin, there could be some wild and wacky blog posts come Sat night if there was - we usually have a daquari or colada or three. LOL, It sounds like I'm a rolling drunk, but seriously I'm not - I just appreciate that sometimes a good glass of wine or something enitely too fruity can be good for you :)

On a different note, I went all PC today and got one of these (it's a (PRODUCT) RED so part of the sales prices goes to fighting Aids in Africa) :

It's just a pity that the reason why I got this new piece of geekery was because of the little shits who stole my purdy green mini out of my bright orange Honda Element (aka The Pumpkin) - hrmm, I might wear black all the time but I like colour in my life, go figure! (the dayglow pink hair clashed a bit though).

They better watch out though, we are heartily sick and tired of the 'gift's' being left on our doorstep and front lawn, and the congregating on our driveway when we are out - we are getting spy cams. You bet your ass we are going to get the little fuckers.

Oops, ranting just a little bit wasn't I? Sorry 'bout that.

One of my sisters is a CP of mine (shes my 'average reader, this shit doesn't work for me' person). I had emailed Accidentally Were? off to her for an opinion. She IM'd me yesterday (or was it the day before, this week is a bit blurry - hence no TT 13 this week) and told me that she liked it - she hadn't finished what I had sent her yet, in fact she was only at chapter 3, but she was laughing so hard she had to stop reading so she didn't go to work looking like a racoon. That bodes well, because AW is supposed to be laugh out loud funny. Tell me what you think:

“Where are we going?” The small voice from the other side of the cab broke Rex from his reverie. “And why are we going there?” He was starting to smell her fear over the pervading scent of the woman’s heat.

“You are kidding me, aren’t you little Bitch. I’m taking you somewhere safe before the pack descends on you and you end up in the middle of a winner takes all orgy.”

It didn’t take any special were senses to feel or see her bristle with indignation.

“What did you just call me?” Her shoulders were back, her spine ramrod straight and there was a furious red flush across her cheeks and Rex was finding it increasingly difficult to concentrate on the dirt road as it wound through the forest. “You need your eye’s checked mister! For one, I am obviously not little, and two, I am not a bitch! You can accuse me of being overly prim and proper, because I am, I can’t help it with my parents. But don’t you ever call me a bitch!”

She was winding up good and proper now, to really yell at him. It was a breath taking sight to behold, and Rex was no slouch at appreciating an attractive woman, even if she was more riled than a rattlesnake.

“I let loose for one night, one bloody night in thirty-one years, and wake up alone; ‘cause my one night stand obviously couldn’t leave fast enough, four hickeys; complete with bite marks.” The tall lace collar of her blouse was ripped down to expose two of the fore-mentioned love bites. “Then, every damned stray in town wants to hump my leg, and now, now I have been kidnapped by a huge, sexy, bear of a man, who calls me a bitch instead of asking my actual name.” When Rex took his eyes off the road, he half expected her to be frothing at the mouth with her hair standing on end, and her nails ready to take a fresh strip from his hide.

Rex smiled at the straight laced she devil beside him. She thinks I’m s-e-x-y. Obviously the smarmy grin wasn’t appreciated, as she gritted her teeth and a rumbling growl echoed across the cab. Alpha male or not, you don’t mess with a bitch in heat. Not if you want to find your balls right where you left them. There was no way Rex was going to try stare her into submission; he turned his eyes back to the road.

Well, off to re-download my emo/goth/popchick/newage whale snorts/old rocker playlist - I'm nothing if not eclectic!
(PS keep an eye out for The Wreckers, they were todays download for me...And I might go get the rest of Daughtry's album - he's pretty damn good)

EDIT: What do you know, there are 13 paragraphs of randomness! I did make a TT13 after all!

NINJA's!

Racy Li's first release has been tempting me for a while. I love watching the epic Chinese movies that have come out in recent years - you know, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon - and I'm a total squee fan girl of Marjorie Liu's Dirk and Steele series - all that Asian mysticisim and paranormal beings...mmmm! So Racy has a definite strike from me in the purchased column of the release day sales tally.

I have been hanging out to see what LI would come up with for her cover art. I was so hoping for no poser rigid eehhh yuck crap; maybe something by Anne Cain. OMG Christine Griffin pulled one out of the hat! Even if I didn't know Racy as a fellow author I would snatch this off the proverbial shelf with an oooooh and an aaaaahhhhh!

Take a gander:

Is that some hot Ninja tastiness or what? That's some Jet Li Hero hotness right there folks!

Is this inane?

I'm trying to work on something new that's on a submission deadline, but damn the words are coming slowly. I really don't know what it is about this little ditty, but damn, it's like trying to pull krill from a whales teeth (not that they really have teeth they have these....oops getting off topic there).

How important is the happy ending? Not that this doesn't have one, but its destined more for a happy for now ending. And even then, that's not a good description either. Lets just say it has an ending, and everyone is happy in it.

Okay so the premise is : Two best mates; ones gay, ones straight. That's all hunky dory. The straight guy has met his one and only and she's a total firecracker in the bedroom, even going so far as to use her toys on him (nudge nudge, wink wink, if ya know what I mean) and the straight guy thinks the straight and narrow line might be getting a bit blurry.

Meanwhile the gay guy, who hasn't ever been with any form of the female persuasion, is wondering if his gay rainbow is starting to look a little straighter than normal, cause his best mate and his girl seem to have rather a lot of fun. So with a little encouragement they decide to experiment.

Straight guy teaches gay guy, gay guy teaches girl, straight guy gets to experience real man sexing (versus the pink strap on kind). Straight guy and girl are in lurve (the HFN/HEA part), gay guy is definitely not (but hey I have a plan for him aka bk2). No-one is worse off for wear at the end; infact they have realised a few things about themselves.

So, after all that, is the premise behind the story just too hokey?

It's not an epic tale, more of a stroke flick for girls, more erotica than erotic romance. And I seriously think I need to work up the synopsis a bit better before I submit it...though I did get the point across ROFL!

Position Vacant isn't the redheaded stepchild...

The reviewers tell me so!

Check them out at my main site www.annedouglas.com

A new review...see if it makes you giggle...

TCM reviews just got back to me with their review of Persuading Jo.
At first I thought WTF? Then I re-read it a couple of times and started giggling. Lets see if you can come up with the same conclusion I have.

Will & Grace has a lot to answer for - NOT, one hastens to add, that author Anne Douglas has anything to apologize for on that score, but the fact remains, any ménage a trios involving two gay men, a cute female roomie, and the not-so-nagging suspicion that one or both of them want to have their way with her, is bound to draw comparisons, no matter how much the reader tries to shut the mind to the ensuing images.

Jo, Matt and Brian met when all three were at college, and it swiftly became apparent, to the boys, anyway, that the trio was destined to be together forever. But fair’s fair; Jo had the right to determine her own life, so they let her be... and, for eight long, frustrating years, they watched as she made one bad choice after another, and was nowhere nearer to finding happiness than the day she first walked through their door, and almost caught them having sex. Brian stood up just in time, but she knew what he’d been doing down there, and they knew she knew, which sets the tale up perfectly for some delirious bouts of voyeurism, shot through with stolen fragments of the lovers’ conversation. So Jo knows the score as well. She just needs to be persuaded....

Persuading Jo is a quick and exhilarating read, its 91 pages a roller coaster ride on which every scene is either setting up for sex, coming down from it, or just going at it hammer and tongs. There is a subplot, involving Jo’s creepy cousin, but it doesn’t really go any place before fizzling out in a final chapter that winds things up a lot more abruptly than it ought to. The dialogue is a little cheap, too, with the boys, in particular, cursed with a vocabulary straight out of an early 80s porn flick. For all that, however, Douglas tells her tale with vivid verve, and the hiccups are certainly overwhelmed by the highs.

Actually he raises a valid point - does my fascination with multiple partners in a loving relationship (versus wham, bam, thank you sir & madam, sex) stem from a popular culture television show?

Will and Grace had so much pointedly unexplored sexual exploration opportunities. First there is Will and Grace - wasn't the running joke that Grace turned Will gay? Is she such a fag hag because she is hoping one day he will realise that unlike all his other lovers, shes the one who hung through thick and thin with a hope that she might turn him back?

Jack and Grace - the love to hate each other relationship - more than just the biting sarcasm between them and the blatant and constant fight for Will's attention, there was the constant wonder if Jack would take the final step of finding out why Grace fascinated Will so much, to find out why he, Jack, couldn't measure up. Of course everyone else but Jack knew Will would jump in front of a bus if he had to to save Jacks ass, even if he was treated like the annoying puppy that won't let go of your pants leg.

Jack and Will - the tortured unrequited love.

Karen - oh Karen we loved to hate you - the perfect foil for them all. Trying so hard to be a bitch, and succeeding of course; but when it came to the crunch she pulled out the goodies, even if she said it was for an ulterior motive. Karen, so sexually ambiguous, you didn't know who she might be going to come on to next. Such a refreshing hurricane to keep you guessing. Would she do Jack? Rosario? Grace? Her husband? The bellboy or the waitress? What better personality to upset the Will/Grace/Jack triangle so successfully?

Karen is the one who rang true for me.
Seriously, Grace was a whiny bitch, who was totally inept at keeping her life on track. Even with Will as her crutch she got it wrong. She wasn't just a chick-lit girl, she was the chick-lit girl - if a cow had invaded New York and plopped a nice big cowpat on the sidewalk Grace would have stepped in it, then tripped over her boyfriend and landed him in it face first while exposing her underwear to the general populace.
Karen? Karen, aside from her bisexual tendencies, was a woman who had a real life. A tough time growing up, then she had compromised to her need for security by marrying Stan only to end up loving him anyway. She didn't like her step kids most days and they didn't like her, and lets face it, how many trophy wives and step kids really do like each other? Though I always got the idea that she didn't like that so much - that she would have liked to have been move involved with their lives and to have them like her. After all, that's what it was all about, she hurt people before they hurt her - a facade to cover up how desperately she really did want everyones approval.

So, in the end, do I think in my instance I am playing out a hidden desire to rewrite Will and Grace the way I wanted it to play out? No, I don't think I am. While Will and Grace had an amazing cast dynamic with an intricately woven, twisty web to tie the characters up in I would never have saddled Will with both Grace and Jack - eh could you imagine the Sunday morning bickering, and the moaning and whining? Now Rosario, Will and Karen...that would be a different story altogether!

Authors of Erotic Romance

You may have seen a link on the side?

Well, we have moved on from just having a new release blog, to a fully fledged website. www.authorsoferoticromance.com

As my husband says - that's one long assed url, honey! But it is going to be oh so worth you sliding it onto your favourites tab, or adding it to you links lists.

AOER started because a group of us newbie writers didn't want to look like dumb clucks as we waded through the mire of being published for the first time. We figured that we weren't the only ones, so we are all writing a variety of articles that are designed to let other aspiring authors in on whats coming. The web site is building, so bear with us as we put articles as they are done into their placeholder slots.

We also plan to have a weekly (or bi weekly we are seeing how we go) writing task. I provide a photo/image and post it, then we all have to write a short story (approx 500-1000wds) and post it for ya'll to read. Since we all vary in our preferred genres from historical to contemporary, paranormal to scifi, same sex to group sex, it should be an interesting group of stories. Expect anything, from a 'awwww' moment to a short, sharp, hotter than hades, sex scene.

Come visit - we have some of the hottest new authors out, there's alot of talent mixing it up in here, lots of new voices for you to find out about. www.authorsoferoticromance.com

Three new reviews

I have been waiting with baited breath for the first Position Vacant review. I have been hoping its short story status wouldn't send it to the bottom of the pile - thank you to Amanda the FAR reviewer who made my day (especially since she gave it 5 angels)!

This is pure romantic fun. Ms. Douglas does a wonderful job making this story come alive with all the novelty, characters, and antics of the North Pole. She does it with such humor and candor that it never strays into a clichéd holiday story. Santa’s helpers lend authenticity to the setting and fun to the story while still staying distinctly in the background. The relationship between Nick, Simon, and Bea takes center stage. These three are realistic characters readers can’t help but like. Even as Simon and Bea are drawn to each other, they don’t want to hurt Nick. Yet their attraction to each other is unmistakable and culminates in passionate, heartfelt love scenes. The erotic connection between Simon and Bea is well written and I love the balance between passion and caring. The ending has this reader hoping another trip to the North Pole is not far away.

FAR also reviewed Persuading Jo (with another 5 angels!)...

The McCabes: Persuading Jo is a tantalizing story that will have your blood pressure soaring as you join these two sexy men in their pursuit of Jo. This tale has been very well written and contains detailed sexual encounters, although not for everyone, I found these scenes to be very alluring and highly erotic. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the love and devotion between these characters and felt that Jo was a lucky woman. Anne Douglas has created a fantastic story with The McCabes: Persuading Jo and earned herself a new fan in the process. 5 Angels!!

Joyfully Reviewed just posted their review of Persuading Jo...

Anne always does a great job of portraying the emotional aspects of a story, but I was still surprised by the intensity of the emotions in this story on all sides. The sex was hot and extremely well-written, but above all, Persuading Jo is a reminder that love takes many forms and not always what you expect. I’m really hoping for another from Anne in this vein

Phew!

Having you been keeping up with Kissmas?

Loose Id has been running a twelve days of Kissmas promotion that you can catch up on at my main website www.annedouglas.com.

There are lots of goodies, like discounts on LGBT and Polyamorous romances (If you wanted a discount on a copy of Persuading Jo, here you go!), and you get a link for free amorous art by some of the great LI cover artists!

Print books are on sale as well, along with a discounted rate for next years VIP Club. If you purchase a lot of ebooks, and a number of them from LI, this is well worth it! I can save 25-50c/book!

LI also have some short story stocking stuffers for you from some wonderful LI authors. And if you join the IdBits newsletter you can also get a daily Kiss from Loowis!

How's this for a nice Xmas Pressie?

A Contract for Tea for Three!

Yup, hopefully in the earlier half of 2007 you will be seeing my new menage story, set in NZ available at Loose Id.

Wren, Jack, and Craig have been alot of fun to write, hopefully ya'll are going to find them as interesting to read.

Hers a little excerpt of the first time all three of them meet. This is unedited so may differ than the final product, and please forgive typos and grammar mistakes:

Agh! How did she let herself be convinced to go to these things?
Wren watched as her girlfriends gyrated on the postage stamp sized dance floor, with a group of men more likely to puke on their expensive high heels than be able to solve world peace -- let alone manage to get themselves into a cab at the end of the night.
Yet again she was left watching the party, not joining in. All things considered, maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing -- how reliable could it be to meet a drunk guy in a bar? It’s not as if they are trying to find Miss Right to settle down with, more like Miss Are You Multi-orgasmic because you may as well enjoy it while I fuck myself senseless then skip out at the crack of dawn.
Not that she was bitter or anything. But it would be nice to be asked to dance just once, even if she had to turn the invitation down.
She swirled the straw in the lemon, lime and bitters that rested on the bar in front of her -- at least she had graduated from peeling the labels off of beer bottles in college. Now she just watched the ice-cubes clank against each other.
“Can I buy you another?” Wren looked up, surprised by the warm, smooth voice that sounded in her ear. Deep in her musings she hadn’t noticed the empty bar stool beside her had been filled by a rather attractive, stocky, dark-haired man with warm, dark Godiva chocolate eyes that matched his deep voice.
“It’s okay; you don’t need to do that. I was just heading home anyway.” Putting down the glass she had been idly twisting in her hand, she made a move to push her stool away from the bar when a large warm hand over her own stopped her.
“Please don’t rush away, I’d really like some company for a while. I’ve been entertaining out of town clients all night, and I would love to spend a little time chatting with someone a lot more interesting than they are.” Catching the bartender’s eye he indicated to refill their glasses. “Let me get another drink for both of us.”
Wow. Talk about smooth. While asserting control over the situation, he indicated he was no threat, asked her to take pity on him, and then just plain negated her plans with his own. Wren didn’t know if she should feel offended for being walked over, or if she kind of liked his brand of charm.
It wouldn’t hurt to spend a few minutes chatting before heading home. After all there wasn’t anything urgent to rush away for, now was there?
Letting a smile bloom she held out her hand. “I’m Wren.” He returned her smile and grasped her hand firmly, but delicately, treating her equally, but also respectfully. His mum had obviously taught him well.
“My name’s Craig. Craig Hunter.” Indicating over his shoulder, he gestured towards the dance floor. “And I’ve been officially dumped for the unofficial portion of the evening.” Looking over his shoulder, Wren realized he was gesturing at the gaggle of men around her girlfriends.
“Ahhh...the catch of the evening.” Craig looked back, eyebrows raised quizzically. “I came with my girlfriends -- the ones in the middle of your pack of piranhas.”
“Poor men, if only they knew.” She shook her head in pity. “Those girls are sharks -- they will eat them up as a snack and go looking for more.”
Craig looked back over his shoulder again, and laughed.

Looking back to the woman beside him Craig decided she looked prettier close up; she was quick and witty, too. He had been watching her from across the room for about an hour -- she had been sitting at the bar the whole time, nursing her drink. He thought she looked...appealing, possibly someone with an intriguing story to tell. Someone, that he thought might be interesting to get to know further, more than just a chat, at a bar, in a crowded pub. Jack would like this straight forward woman too; he just had to figure out how to ask her out -- without making it look as if he was hitting on her.
They chatted about nothing much for about ten minutes, until the barman remembered to serve their drinks. He laid down a twenty to pay for them, halting her movement towards her wallet.
“Thanks.” She smiled shyly as she picked up her glass; almost like this was the first time someone else had ever brought her a drink. Surely not? Swallowing, she gulped down a good quarter of the glass in one hit.

“Whoa, go slow there Wren. There’s no hurry, it’ll go to your head.” Wren looked at him oddly and shrugged.
“The most it will do will give me the hiccups. There’s no alcohol in it.”
“Oh.” Craig had the grace to look chagrined at having lectured her.
“I don’t drink when I am out... alcohol that is, unless it’s used in cooking.” She could tell he was curious as to why she was sitting in a bar not drinking, but was being polite too polite to ask.
“The girls drag me out every now and then; they think I’m missing out on something by not hitting the pubs and bars three nights a week.” Answering Craig’s unasked question.
“They drag you out to leave you sitting alone --” The rest of his sentence was cut off as a man, whose hair was blond like a ray of sunshine and reeked of the outdoors, stepped in between them, his back to Wren, firmly interrupting their conversation.
The newcomer put a hand on the bar to brace himself as he leaned in and kissed Craig heartily on the lips. “Evening, lover. How is the schmoozing going?”
Oh, well then. That explains it -- He’s gay. Figures. At least Craig had livened her evening up some with good conversation. All the good ones are taken or gay. She sighed silently, and gathered up her things -- time to leave the partying to those with someone to party with.

Now THIS is my kind of Christmas card!

Send thanks to Amanda Young for leaving this little beauty at myspace.

Give me some ideas

I was checking out publisher submission requests this morning (I have been caught up with these house renovations and haven't done so for a while), and spied the Midsummer Night's Steam submission requests -

They want Red Hot, steamy, sexy, erotic, girls , boys (and any combo thereof), sun sand, surf...sex.

What would you like to see in a short story read thats summer themed?

A Friday teaser

I have been trying out my shapeshifter wings :

The scent was sweeter than any fruit; soaking his senses, calling to him. He shoved his nose into the damp crevice where the glorious smell was strongest. Tasting the treat before him with his nose and his tongue, he edged his way slowly closer to the female that tantalized him so with her perfume.

She was what he had been seeking all these years. None of the other females had felt right, they hadn’t smelt right, but this one…this one was he had been waiting for. He wanted to dip his tongue into the delicious honey, wallow in her fragrance and mark her as his own.

“What the fuck?” Rex fell back onto his ass, pinching at his nose trying to stem the flow of blood as another clenched fist in front of a damn good right hook smashed into his cheek. “What the hell do you think you’re doing lady?”

He managed to get a hold of her wrist before she wound up for another strike and pulled her forward into his chest, landing them both on the floor with an “oomph”. Pearl landed perfectly nestled between his legs and across his chest. Rex flipped them over, his powerful and naked thighs falling either side of her hips holding her hands above her head as she struggled to get free.

“Get off me, you brute!” You brute? The woman was such a contradiction, Miss Manners one moment, then modern attitude and vernacular the next.

“ME? I’m a brute? Lady, I’m the one with a bleeding nose.” It didn’t matter that part of his dual nature was the ability to heal a lot fast than a normal human and his nose was now a slow ooze, not the gushing river it had been when he was shocked into changing back from his bear form. “What did I do to you to make you lash out like that? I might not have been Mr. Congeniality the way I bundled you up here - but I apologized - and I even changed just like you asked, why were you smacking me over the snout?”

Pulling one hand away, he poked at the cartilage running along the ridge of his nose, grimacing in one particularly sore spot. “I don’t think you broke it.”

The struggles had stopped, drawing his attention away from his injury and back to the woman lying supine beneath him. Her face was pale, but bursts of color brushed her cheeks and she panted shallowly. Following her gaze Rex realized he had transformed back sans clothing and now straddled her buck naked with a raging hard on.

“You’re...” Pearl cleared her throat making her breasts jiggle as well as heave from her panting. “…ah…you’re naked.” And turned on went unsaid, but acknowledged anyway.

“Yes, it does seem that way doesn’t it.” Quite an enviable state considering the circumstances, Rex thought to himself.

Pearl’s skirt rode up around her waist and she had lost a couple of buttons in the scuffle from that very puritan blouse she wore. His cock now rested, larger than it had ever been in its life, nestled into the V of Pearl’s legs and hips, framed by pretty blue lace hipster panties.

He wasn’t inclined to make haste and move off the lovely plump bundle who was struggling again. Rubbing her mons up along his dick as she tried to buck him loose, straining the remaining buttons of her blouse until another popped and the bra matching the panties lay exposed.

Like a bear to honey, Rex couldn’t hold back any longer. In both forms she was like nectar, and he wasn’t on any sort of diet. Leaning down he ran the slightly stubbly edge of his cheek along the now exposed nape of her neck, scenting her, marking her with his own. He nipped at the bruise on her shoulder with his canines extended drawing a heated gasp as he ground down with his hips giving pleasure with the pain of the bite.

Despite his brain feebly telling him to stop, nature took a hold, pushing logical thought to the side, letting the instinct to mate with a suitable female prowl his consciousness. The smell of fear was easily overridden as he felt moisture seep through the lace, dampening his skin.

Laving the bite mark he heard small whimpers of pleasure from Pearl, the woman his beast recognized as his mate, the woman who would bear his cubs and be his to protect. Unable to suppress a groan he took her mouth roughly with his kiss. The smooth heat of her lips slid over his as she opened to him, caressing his thrusting tongue with her own as she invited him into her body, mimicking the thrusts of his hips against hers.

We have a winner!

And no, I'm not saying that in that snarky "winna" tone of voice.

Joyce, come on down...! Hrmm...I don't know I will be adding wheel of fortune to my list of day jobs.

Joyce is the winner of the Lemax Ornament giveaway and a copy of Position Vacant, if she doesn't have one already.

Toni. H. is the surprise recipient of a free copy of either Persuading Jo or Position Vacant. It's Christmas, ya'll, I'm feeling all season'y and stuff! (Season'ee not seasoned!)

Congratulations ladies, and thank you to everyone who was in to win!