Saturday, August 21, 2010

Sexy Saturday

Hello everyone!

Welcome to Sexy Saturday. Today we have the wonderful anthology, Violet Visions, which is currently available, though a few years old. Just look at what you get when you purchase this one! Eighteen wonderful stories from fifteen great authors! This is perfect for those wanted to add new authors to their TBR list!

I hope you enjoy!




Flame Rating: 4 Flames
Pages: 350
Category: Science Fiction/Paranormal/Fantasy/Romance/Gay/Menage a Trois
Cover Artist: Martine Jardin

Violet-of-the-Night by Astrid Cooper

Violet is Queen of the Netherworld, but when Vallejo invades her domain, succubus and vampire are captured by passion’s darkest desires.

Damson Rapture by Evelyn Starr

Dinner at ‘Tavern On The Green’ or ménage a trois? Did Twila ever really have any doubt which it would be?


Everscape - Dark Night of the Soul by K.A. M'Lady

Secrets lie in ancient bloodlines
Darkness awaits in the Lands of the Dead
Some journeys are better not taken alone

Grape and Gravity by Viola Grace

Held up as a prize for any fighter who would choose her, Tara is secure in her lack of attractive properties. Until Galeno fights through the alien horde to claim her as his own.

The Purple Heart by Madeleine Grant

Terrified of her fate at the hands of a lecherous King, Princess Vanessa has no choice but to submit to the king’s Chief Procurer, Derek Hanford. Derek initiates her into the pleasures of passion, but can he save her from the king’s clutches?

Lorelei by Astrid Cooper

When Lorelei lures Reilly with her siren’s song, he is more than willing to play her game. But when flesh meets flesh, songs are forgotten as passion burns brighter than a supernova.

Servicing the Sheika by Tianna Xander

A queen needs a child and sends out her priestesses to bring her a man to fulfill her every carnal need. Will he succumb to her demands, or will he force her submit to his every waking desire?

Loving the Sheika by Bonnie Rose Leigh

A woman from another world seeks a human for her mate. Will he let her leave him behind or will she choose to stay with him on Earth?

The Last Assignation by Sean MacReady

Azulema’s contract was explicit: She could not enter the tower with anything holding electrical current. The paranoia quotient for this assignation was one hundred percent.

Private Dancer by Lynn Crain

On her way to Araelus Prime, Aeryn first has to complete a temporary private dance assignment on Janus 345. But it turns into a hellish nightmare and she is trapped on Janus--until she and her dancer friend Diana become violently ill. They see the doctor who tells them they’ve been chosen and there is only one method to cure what ails them.

The Reliever by Jojo Brown

A world without intimacy. A world without touching. A world where The Reliever was truly needed!

Saloon on the Moon by Alexis Anthony

Sylvia Foster, winner of the Miss Nude Australia contest, now competes for the Miss Nude Galaxy. She finds a lot more on the moon than just the competition.

Star Of The Show by Stone Richards

Beneath the violet costume, the purple lipstick, and the lilac tinted powder, Jonni Marlow is all male.

Psiber by Viola Grace

Psiber - It's all in your head, and we bring it out.
In an exclusive environment, we invite you to Psiber. The ultimate way to live out your fantasies in a perfectly safe and contact free manner. Enter our facility, have your experience, and leave with a memory of the perfect sexual encounter, orchestrated by your own mind.Psiber - It's all in your head, and we bring it out.

Vylet Ultra by Astrid Cooper

Vylet rules by pleasure and when Gold is presented to her, she sees that he has a soul as dark as her own; but in their confrontation, who is captor and who is captive?

The Artists's Model by Fawn Lowery

The naked human body is the truest form of art. Can Gina seduce the hot artist she’s hired to paint her portrait?

Chaos by D. J. Manly

Gareth thinks he has blown a tire or ran over something with his truck. As he gets out to investigate, he is approached by a grubby young man who accuses Gareth of near killing him. The young man blackmails Gareth into giving him a ride to the next truck stop. Little does Gareth know what the gods have in store for him and his new companion.

Twisted Ice by Gabriella Bradley

When Nittya embarks on a boring mission to an unexplored galaxy, she runs into trouble. Her ship crashes on a frozen planet, and she’s sure her last hour has come. But…she wakes up naked, strapped to some sort of table and undergoes experimental exploration of her body, and…the ice planet’s silent alien population is quite perverted, as she’s soon about to find out.

Excerpt
Private Dancer
By Lynn Crain
© 2007



Letting out a big sigh, I wasn’t all that sure my bravado would hold out while I talked to Darren. The man could be damn convincing when he wanted to be. Knocking quietly on the door to the office, I remembered the last time I was here. I had spent most of the time evading Darren’s roving hands and mouth. This time I knew I didn’t have a chance if I wanted to take Di to the doctor.

“Who is it?” His deep voice could still send tingles of pleasure down my spine though his brand of sex was too kinky even for me.

“Aeryn.”

“Come in.”

Placing my hand on the door knob, I sucked in one last breathe, forcing myself to concentrate on the task at hand, not what Darren would want. “Hi, Darren.”

He sat behind a huge desk meant to intimidate anyone who came in. Thank god, I wasn’t intimidated by much. “What can I do for you? As you can see I’m really busy today and don’t have time to be dallying with the likes of you.”

And he was in a definitely foul mood today. It briefly crossed my mind that the new girl didn’t put out like expected. He’d been in a foul mood for weeks when I wouldn’t give into his desires a couple of years ago but even then I could sense something dark and sinister behind that pretty boy face. And pretty much vanilla sex was all he’d ever gotten from me even though I knew he had wanted more. “Diana is really sick and needs to go to the doctor.”

“You’re telling me this because?” Irritation flashed across his face.


“I’m getting what she has, so I’m taking her there. I don’t know when we’ll be back.”

A scowl flashed across his face. “I can’t spare both of you. There are plenty of reservations tonight for private dancers.”

“Would you rather us puke in their faces?”

Eyebrows went up and he sat back in the chair. “Is it really that bad?”

I sighed. “I think so. She looks like death-warmed-over and I’m starting to feel the same way.”

“You do look a little washed out.” Getting up from the chair, he walked toward me. I knew that whatever came my way, I’d just have to deal with it. “I’ll let you both go on one condition.”

I swallowed hard. “What’s the condition?”

“You have to fuck me right now.”

This time I was surprised. “Straight fucking, nothing kinky?” I questioned.

“Maybe a little anal but I don’t have time for anything else today.” He started to remove his tie as he knew that I would do anything to get out of dancing for a night. Especially if it involved Diana. “Lock the door.”

I swallowed hard and turned to lock the door. Anal might be a little tough as I hadn’t done it since we’d had our last encounter about eighteen months ago. Besides the man was huge and I was tight. Sliding his hand under my shirt, he tweaked my nipples until they were tight buds. The feeling flashed all the way to my groin and I knew I was in trouble. Not the bad kind but the really good kind.

“Is the privacy field on?” I managed to ask and reached around to hold Darren’s head as he began to kiss my neck. This was going to feel wonderful. When did I get so much into sex? Usually, I was the one who held back but suddenly I craved it.

“Always,” he murmured and continued to caress my boobs. Working his way down, he slid his hands inside my pants and spreading my vulva to caress my already hard nub. It had been a long time and I was dripping with need and anticipation. “Let’s get these things off.”

Slowly, he undressed me, caressing my body as he removed each piece of clothing. Even though he was kinky, he was a damn good lover when he wanted to be. Leaning down, he popped my nipple in his mouth, licking first one and then the other. Pushing me back into the closest chair, he went down on me, licking my slit with expert precision.

“You know I’m going to want the same,” he whispered as his hands reached up to pinch my nipples until they were pointy and hard.

“Not a problem,” I murmured between breaths. Pulling my ass closer to the edge of the chair, he put two fingers inside me, dragging the wetness up to saturate the area before thumbing my clit. I nearly flew out of the chair and began panting. My hips wiggled and arched more into his mouth as his tongue did me in the slowest, most sensual tongue fuck I’d ever had.

Pounding his fingers in and out of me, he licked my clit, pulling and teasing my body toward orgasm. Pulling back, he continued to caress me with the big pad on his thumb. “Let’s get on the floor and do a sixy-nine.” His beautiful smile enticed me to do things I wouldn’t normally do.

“Sure, as long as you’re not pumping that big dick of yours into my mouth from the top. I need to breath, you know.”

I felt his chuckle on my abdomen. “Have it your way.” Pulling me onto the floor, he hovered over me. “Undress me the rest of the way and make it good.”

Licking my lips, I looked at him and ran my hands up his chest to caress his already hard nipples. With one hand, I unbuttoned each button and placed my lips on him, kissing all the way up. Laving his neck with my tongue, he rewarded me with a sigh of satisfaction. Taking his mouth with mine, I kissed him long and deep, allowing my tongue to war with his as I caressed the inside of his mouth.

Purchase your copy today!

Thanks for joining me for Sexy Saturday! See you all next week!

Lynn

Friday, August 20, 2010

This & That Friday


Glad to see you all back for another rousing This & That Friday!

Today’s links run the gamut of interesting writing tidbits, other industry news and some downright wacky things!

Now here’s the story behind the numbers and poll mentioned last week.

http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2010/ebook-vs-hardcover-beyond-the-headlines/  

Now we know that blogs are subject to shut down. Not that I don’t believe it was a good thing, I just think things could have been handled differently.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10692501  

Interesting article about your stuff.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200906/what-your-stuff-reveals-about-you  

Things you never knew about Star Trek.

http://blastr.com/2010/07/14-things-you-might-not-k.php?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter  

Some great, sexy Scotsmen! Now go drool! LOL!

http://www.celticqueens.blogspot.com/  

Lots of great articles for the writer.

http://hollylisle.com/fm/  

An interesting ploy from Sourcebooks.

http://www.idealog.com/blog/the-sourcebooks-experiment-with-bran-hambric-publishers-in-the-early-establishment-stage-of-ebook-adoption

Article on ebook royalties.

http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2010/07/15/ebook-royalties/

Always love to hear anything from Jennifer Ashley.

http://jenniferonwriting.blogspot.com/

Twitter to the rescue!

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-08-03-twitterrescue03_st_N.htm?csp=usat.me

More interesting ebook news.

http://straightfromhel.blogspot.com/2010/08/changing-e-book.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

See you all next week for another This & That Friday!

Lynn

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Guest Author Thursday

Hope everyone is having a great Thursday. I’m here today with the multi-talented Autumn Dawn author of the steampunk eBook, Iron and Hemlock. Please help me in welcoming her to XtraOrdinary Romance!

Welcome, Autumn!





Iron and Hemlock
Ebook Price: $1.99 USD. 13220 words. Fiction by Autumn Dawn on July 27, 2010

BLURB: Life can change in the blink of an eye. It was just an ordinary day when lightning struck and sent Jordan spinning back in time. Trapped in Victorian England, practical Jordan will have to abandon her disbelief in magic. Pursued by a sexy golden griffin and a dark fae who wants her blood, she just might rediscover the thrill of falling in love.

Thanks for letting me hang out on your blog. I thought I’d discuss how Iron & Hemlock came to be on Smashwords and Amazon.com.

It all started with an RWA Pan post. Someone was excited because they’d gotten their out of print stuff set up with Smashwords. Then they quoted a guy named Joe Konrath. What was the deal? Why would anyone want to self-publish? Ever curious, I looked up Konrath and discovered he’s a guy making buckets of money publishing on Kindle.

How nice for him, I thought. As he pointed out, it’s not like that’ll work for everyone. And um, wouldn’t that make me look kind of cheesy?

After some thought, I decided that no one should have to worry about looking cheesy after 35. What’s the worst that could happen? Will the popular girls laugh at my corduroy pants? Survived that already.

Besides, I’m too curious for my own good. I decided to see what happened. I figured I might not sell any books, but it would be fun.

After putting myself through the Smashwords and Kindle formatting ordeal, I’ve decided I have a warped sense of fun. Of course, most people don’t make a cover and place their books with both publishers in one day. That might have something to do with my crossed eyes and stiff forearms. Who knew a mouse could be an instrument of torture?

So here it is. Originally a short story for the Mammoth Book of Time Travel Romance with Trisha Telep, I present you with Iron & Hemlock.. Let me know what you think, readers.

Autumn’s Bio: I'm a stay at home mom with three kids, a dog and an active imagination. I spent the first 34 years of my life in Alaska, land of the midnight sun, but these days I'm located in Washington, and am enjoying a much warmer sun :) I'm married to my high school sweetheart, John, who is known to bring me flowers "just because".

My leisure time is filled with gardening, crochet, knitting, sewing, art and reading.

Hope you all enjoyed this little bit into Autumn’s world. You can find her at the following places:

Website: http://www.autumndawnbooks.com

Blog: http://authorautumndawn.blogspot.com/

See you all tomorrow for This & That Friday!

Lynn

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Wednesday's Classroom


Adding Steam to Your Love Scenes - Lesson #3
© 2010 Lynn Crain

Here we are, back again with the third lesson in my Adding Steam to Your Love Scenes class. I do hope you are enjoying this as I haven’t gotten much feedback so far. But what I’m seeing is allowing me to make this class better!

Please enjoy this lesson!

Lesson 3

Add love scenes when the characters want to make love, not when you want them to make love.

This is one of the hardest things that an author has to do and that’s called pacing. Again, I relate it back to your own experiences. What happened when you rushed something? Did it work out well? Chances are it didn’t. It’s like rushing a cake; if you take it out too soon, it’s not done, too late and it can be burnt to a crisp.

Everything has a pace, be it fast or slow. When you truly listen to your characters, they will tell you when they need to make love and when they need to argue. Part of adding steam is to know when things are right for the characters, not when a ‘formula’ tells you a love or sex scene needs to be added.

I’m a pantser and all of my stories are character driven.

Some of you may have heard of this term and some of you may not. When I started my writing career, I was anal about planning. I had charts on characters, charts on plots, I played the ‘what if’ game and twenty questions for each of my chapters. I would plan every detail to the nth degree because I wanted things as perfect as I could make them.

Now days, I write by the seat of my pants most of the time because I work things out in my head and follow that plan but not so stringently because I’ve learned to listen to my characters. I know more about them sometimes than I do my own kids. I write what the characters want me to write, which is their story. Nothing more, nothing less.

It is true, however, that there are some stories I still plan to the nth degree and those would be my heavy fantasy or futuristic stories. Those are just as much about the world building as they are about the characters or the plot for that matter. If you don’t plan those, you can get caught in your own plot pitfalls because you haven’t done your planning.

What is right for the characters needs to be right for you as the writer.

There are times when your characters might ask you to write something controversial or not right for you to write. I know it sounds strange but if your characters need to do something that you find objectionable, then maybe their story needs to be written by some one else.

Now this isn’t the same as you being embarrassed over a love scene or something of that nature. When first learning to write love scenes, they can be very disconcerting if you’ve never done that before. I know that the very first time I wrote a BDSM scene, I would get up, walk away from the computer and mutter, ‘I can’t believe I just wrote that’ and mean it. It wasn’t until I had been writing the story for a month that I felt comfortable with it.

Part of the reason that I could continue to write their story was that I didn’t feel bad about writing something done in an adult consensual situation. Adults can and do make their own decisions. My characters were adults. They had adult minds and adult thoughts. They could handle what was going to happen to them. True, you say they were just characters but to me they weren’t and it’s all about perspective.

Listen to your characters as they will tell you what they need.

This is just as important as any other issue talked about here. Characters will tell you what is important to them. In the story I mentioned above, the heroine needed to have a deep, dark fantasy fulfilled to fall in love with the one man she could. I gave her that situation and what happened in it was fulfilling for her.

Your characters need to be as satisfied with the outcome of your story as you are. Sometimes it won’t be a happily ever after but it will always be satisfying.

Exercise

1. Give me a scenario where a love scene would be appropriate for your characters.

2. Give me a scenario where a love scene would be inappropriate for your characters.

3. What type of writer do you want to be and why? (Pantser or planner)

4. Why do you think it’s appropriate to listen to your characters?

5. When wouldn’t it be appropriate to listen to your characters?

See you all next week for Lesson #4 in Wednesday’s Classroom!

Lynn

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Looking 2 The Future


Welcome to Tuesday and my input for the day. Notice the 2 instead of the word to...yes...in many ways I’ll be going totally digital. I believe I told you all about the new phone I’ve gotten, which is the most kick-ass item I’ve had in a long time. Once I get Twitter loaded on it, I will start using it almost exclusively for those posts with very little time on this computer. And since I’ve learned to abbreviate things to the max, I might just use it here. LOL!

What does that mean for this blog? Not much. The blog and most everything will stay the same but what will happen is that I will be doing business here first thing in the morning and then go to a non-internet computer to do my writing. IMHO, I am on this machine way too much and it does take a lot away from my writing time. And right now, I’m behind on my personal word count. But mail always has to be answered from this very spot as this is where my Outlook resides, another program I just can’t do without.

True, August is a happening place around here with the DH being gone and me helping the youngest get ready for college. This is a first for me because the oldest took a totally different route since he really didn’t know what he wanted to do. He took one semester in college then decided it wasn’t for him. He continued to do roofing with my brother then one day woke up and decided he wanted to do something else. Freaked out me and my brother immensely but he knew himself. For a while, he did sales and then got the offer of a lifetime for him. The Surveyors union was looking for apprentices and one of his high school buddy’s Dad who owned a surveying company asked him to apply.

That one phone call took him on a journey he’s loved. The union paid for all his training resulting in a AA in Surveying and continues to pay for his classes. Even though the job market in the Las Vegas area is way down, he knows he’ll find work as he was the Apprentice of the Year as well as one of the two graduate surveyors to pass the national certification from his class. I think he hopes one day to teach the trade but doesn’t know when that will or can happen.

Now the younger one has a completely different path charted out for himself. Along the way through high school he discovered math then physics. Heaven help me but he wants to be a physicist. I hate physics but love Math where as my DH loves physics but could take or leave math. He has declared his major as Physics and we’ll find out on Thursday just what classes they are going to put him in for the first semester. I think he’s looking forward to the adventure with a lot of trepidation. He’s never been a real go-getter and tends to be very shy when with new people. College will be good for him but a bit traumatic at times I’m sure. We’ll see.

As for myself, I want to take some classes this year but have decided that the MFA at the local college isn’t the one for me. Unless I want to do a Gaelic translation of something. LOL! The interesting thing about the program is it has an international component to the offerings. Students can actually go into the Peace Corp and use that experience to get some class credit. But I’m a genre writer and will need to find a different program to actually look into before I commit.

The only class I know I’ll be taking so far is one for my phone. Yup, can you believe it? Verizon actually has a free class in regards to this phone I just purchased. The Droid is very cool and I hope to get really savvy at it so I can show off in a variety of places. LOL!

What all are you guys doing to prepare for the coming school year? Do any of you have children that need to get ready? And how about yourselves...any of you considering classes to take?

I’d be really interested in knowing what you all are thinking about during this very eventful part of the year. See you all tomorrow for Wednesday’s Classroom!

Lynn

Monday, August 16, 2010

It’s Monday...again!


Heavens! It’s Monday again and already, I’m having a week. The youngest and two of my animals are ill today, which means survival is the key. LOL!

Now, the youngest, I can understand as he’s diabetic and gets frequent mornings where he’s not functioning well. Most of the time, these incidents are over by the middle of the day and he’s perfectly capable of functioning normal on his own by early afternoon.

The cat and dog who are ill are another matter. Now I have to figure out why and as we all know, animals are hard. I am just so hoping they will be feeling much better soon. Especially because they nip and fight each other constantly when they are in a bad mood. This makes my day even more tense.

Of course, all of this always happens when the DH is off on one of his trips. It never fails. When he’s home, everyone is always well, happy and generally get along. I don’t know what it is but the kids disagree, the animals are ill and I got hives. Lots of stress on all fronts if you ask me. LOL!

So today, I took off and just slounged around the house after my shower. I finished a book I was reading and started a new one. Is there no better way to get back into the swing of things except by reading? I love reading almost as much as I love creating these new and different worlds. Both are necessary to me.

I was recently asked what I had in my bookshelves and I had to laugh. In the bookshelves, I only put books where I would read again or those used as reference. The question to ask me would be ‘How high is your to be read pile?’ or something of that nature. That pile is huge and many times I will get after the cats as they knock it down. Then I have to reorganize the books in their relative position, usually by when I purchased it.

I don’t pick and choose from the stack, I actually read or attempt to read every book in that pile. Sure, there have been some real stinkers but most of all every book in that stack is enjoyable. And just because an author has a stinker, it doesn’t mean I won’t ever purchase something by that author. What it means, is that I will be a little more cautious than normal when picking up their next book.

Some are automatic adds. I can just see an author’s name and know I need to get that book to put into my TBR pile. On the flip side, there are others which I will never read again. Mainly those are books which have heroines that are TSTL. In all my years of reading, there has only been one author in this category which I gave a second chance and purchased another book. The second book was not as bad as the first but the author did not get on my automatic buy list.

So, how do you all add books to your TBR pile? Are they ones you’ve chosen yourself or recommended by others? Let me know and I’ll give you more entries.

See you all tomorrow!


Lynn



Sunday, August 15, 2010

A Working Sunday


Well, today has turned out to be a working Sunday. Most of the time, I reserve Sunday for reading or lazing about. Not so today. Today I have to edit and prep manuscripts for submission. I actually feel lucky to do this. Not many people work in a job they love.

For years, my husband was the only person who loved their jobs. I mean what’s not to love...LOL! My DH works outside of the country a lot and has visited some very beautiful places in the world. Right now, he’s in Vienna and I’m extremely jealous. I was supposed to be on this trip and am quite sad. But there was no way I would pay over $1000 for a ticket and that was the crux of the problem. Tickets were expensive and I couldn’t bring myself to pay that much as I’ve never paid more than $500 to go overseas. Even my DH had trouble with his tickets, as he wanted a specific airline, which cost too much for even the government. LOL!

Which brings me right back to being here, at home and preparing to do things I don’t normally want to do. Sigh. There are days I love editing and there are those times where I hate it. Right now, I’m in a hate mode so I just want to get it all done. It will probably take me better than a week to get it all together and sent off. Then again, maybe I’ll surprise myself as I have some other stories I need to finish pronto.

How many of you put off items that you really need to do? Sometimes I do and most times, I don’t. There are a few times where I’ve just been pigheaded and didn’t want to do anything. I would much rather play with my new phone or surf the internet or who knows? LOL!

Yeah, that’s right...I now have a phone, which sounds like a cylon...and it’s so very, very cool. My youngest got one too but he’s not sure what to think of it. Well, the first thing I did was download Google Sky Map so that I can look at the stars and know what one I am looking at in the sky. Next, I got a bunch of games, registered my QuickOffice so I can write ideas and my stories there. After this, I slowed down a bit since I felt I would overwhelm the poor thing.

I have yet to decide what ebook reader I’m going to download. You heard me...I get to choose between the Kindle reader or the Nook reader or I think anything I want...yeah! This phone will be my first true ebook reader. I’ve had a Pocket PC before but it was hard to sync and load all the stories on it. And to be honest, I really loved Microsoft’s Lit Reader as far as software. The library feature was fantastic and to this day, I had it on my computer and have tons of ebooks in that format.

I am still shooting for an iPad and can’t wait to get one very soon.

What is your favorite format for reading ebooks? How do you purchase those ebooks...straight from the publisher or a third party distributor? Again, more entries for those who answer!

See you all tomorrow!

Lynn