Haunting Melody St. Claire

Haunting Melody St. Claire. Impressive, no? Ladies and Gents my first EC release with Ditter Kellen is around the corner here! Available NOW from Ellora’s Cave!

Melody St. Claire doesn’t believe in ghosts. Until a fire destroys her whole world, forcing her into a beautiful haunted house and the territorial domain of one very real, incredibly mysterious resident spirit.

Sexy Travis Santiago haunts the walls of his family home. Resigned to being alone, he merely exists in a place between the living and the dead until the frustrating little brunette enters his life and his heart. He can give her what she needs, if she would just believe.

The passion he ignites threatens to consume her, heart and soul, but may not be enough to hold back the nightmares. And Melody can’t possibly hope to spend forever with a man who is already dead.

A Romantica® paranormal erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave

Sinfully Wicked Winner

Thank you to all the amazing comments on Tina Donahue’s Sizzling Post. I couldn’t have asked for a warmer welcome to our fantastic guest! Thanks to our random number generator, we have our winner!

** Amber, the VampedChik **

Congratulations, and I’m completely jealous of your prize. So many great options in the list!

Amber, please contact Tina at email: tina@tinadonahue.com to claim your prize!

Don’t forget to check out Tina’s sites, and her newest release, Sinfully Wicked. 

Website/blog: www.tinadonahue.com

Twitter: 
http://twitter.com/tinadonahue

Facebook: 
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000458023097

Tina, thank you for a wonderful post. I have loved getting to know some of your fans through their comments. You are a classy lady with wicked flavor. Can’t wait to see what happens next!

Muah!

To the writers out there…Keep Writing! Tina’s story proves that you never know where writing may take you. Stay tuned for more writing posts on what’s coming next.

Dawn

Sinfully Wicked with Tina Donahue

Today I have the lovely and vivacious Tina Donahue with me. Her books are scorching hot, and I do mean HAWT! So please give her a warm welcome!  (Did I mention she has a contest as well?) Enjoy!

xoxo,

Dawn

How I Got to be Sinfully Wicked

by Tina Donahue

I didn’t always write erotic romances.

When I first decided I wanted to write for a living, I tried my hand at thrillers. I’ve always been a huge fan of Lawrence Sanders. His Love Songs and Caper are two of the best novels I’ve ever read. My god, that man had style. I loved him. I wanted to be him.

I wrote a number of thrillers with two of them getting me New York agents that were eager to represent me. Unfortunately, none of that initial interest panned out. I thought I was doomed.

My current agent, who is much, much wiser than I am (thank goodness) suggested I try my hand at writing romances. After all, my thrillers had very moving love stories in them as integral parts of the plot.

I gulped at his suggestion. I may have even gasped at having to try a new genre, but I thought – why not. I love romances. Kathleen Woodiwiss has always been one of my favs. Not that I was about to commit to an historical. I wasn’t that assured.

I studied the market and started to write. My first effort wasn’t what I’d expected…a romantic comedy. My friends know I have an irreverent sense of humor and did it ever get a work out in my first title. However, I still wasn’t certain of how it would come off to my agent or an eventual publisher, so I wrote two more. When I finished the last of the three, I sent it off to my agent and four days later I had a contract not only for it but my brand new editor wanted to know if I had any more romantic comedies. I did…the other two I’d written but had been afraid to submit to my agent. In one week, I’d sold three novels. Wow.

And thus, my romance writing career was born. I stayed in romantic comedy for awhile, but then the erotic scene was exploding. My editor asked if I’d be willing to write something like that. Always game, I plunged right into the subgenre. My stories got hotter, my fantasies wilder, which brings me to where I am now – ménages

My first ménage SiNN was released last year by Ellora’s Cave. Sinfully Wicked, which just came out a few days ago (also from Ellora’s Cave) is my second contemporary ménage. And it’s even hotter than SiNN. :)

For me, it wasn’t easy to reconcile a woman loving two men equally or for the guys to be willing to share her. But my characters spoke up, told me what’s what and I listened to them. Glad I did.

Here’s the blurb.

Two brothers—one woman—unforgettable passion…

Years before Nikki fell in love with Mitch and Connor, betraying them as only a high school girl could. Now, she’s back and needs their help.

Powerful and commanding, Mitch has never stopped craving Nikki. Connor hungers for her as badly, but isn’t ready to forgive. If she needs some fast cash by working at their gentlemen’s club, she’ll have to audition by stripping for them.

Aroused by their shameless scrutiny, Nikki’s willing to do whatever it takes to be near them again…even being punished in the BDSM room or starring in one of Connor’s erotic films. Mitch won’t have it, unless he and Connor are the ones mounting and enjoying her.

On a sultry weekend, Nikki surrenders to their lust, dominance and exquisite discipline, reawakening their timeless bond and the beginning of forgiveness.

Buy Link (with excerpt):
http://www.jasminejade.com/p-9983-sinfully-wicked.aspx
 

Tina Donahue is an award-winning, bestselling novelist in erotic, paranormal, contemporary and historical romance for Ellora’s Cave, Samhain Publishing and Kensington. Booklist, Publisher’s Weekly, Romantic Times and numerous online sites have praised her work; she has reached finals and/or placed in numerous RWA–sponsored contests. Three of her erotic novels were named finalists in the 2011 EPIC competition. Sensual Stranger, her erotic romance, was chosen Book of the Year 2010 (erotic category) at the French review site, Blue Moon reviews. The Golden Nib Award at Miz Love Loves Books was created specifically for her erotic romance Lush Velvet Nights; and Deep, Dark, Delicious (erotic romance) recently received an Award of Merit in the RWA Holt Medallion competition (2011). Tina is featured in the 2012 Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market. She was the editor of an award–winning Midwestern newspaper and worked in Story Direction for a Hollywood production company.

Email: tina@tinadonahue.com

Website/blog: www.tinadonahue.com

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/tinadonahue

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000458023097

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000458023097

*** CONTEST ***

 

To celebrate the release of Sinfully Wicked, I’m offering a contest. One lucky commenter on this blog will have her choice of one of my following ebooks**:

1.  Adored – RWA award-winning; EPIC 2011 Finalist; 4 Stars RT 
2. Deep, Dark, Delicious – EPIC 2011 Finalist; Holt Medallion Award of Merit
3. Lush Velvet Nights – EPIC 2011 Finalist; Golden Nib Award
4. In His Arms – SIX 5 Star Reviews; 4 Stars RT
5.  Sensual Stranger – 2010 Book of the Year (erotic); 4 Stars RT
6.  The Yearning – Top Ten Bestseller
7. Take Me Away – #1 Pick, Miz Love Loves Books 
8. Unending Desire – Best Book Rating LASR

** Winner chosen at random on April 6.**

Whirlwind

Bwahahahaha. Despite Journey’s anthem, I’m going to have to stop believing…in a week without some near-catastrophic event that sends my family into a frenzy of panic. Some days I’m the center of the storm, trying to keep everyone calm. Other days I just want to curl up in a ball and wake up four months from now when this work to writing transition is finally complete.

Did I mention that I got a TON of writing done this week (despite the odds, I might add!)?

Sunday was a no-go writing-wise. We had to shop for new school supplies since our stuff had yet to arrive (shopping in a mega-mart on Superbowl Sunday? WHY did I think that was a good idea?). Monday was a ton of paperwork, and delays on getting the kids into school. Monday night I wrote until I couldn’t keep my eyes open. So far, so good, yeah?

Tuesday. Oh Tuesday, you’re becoming my Monday. I’m starting to hate you like I hate sesame seeds when they stick in my teeth. Three appointments for three different kids, only to find out that the school district was confused about how an out-of-state school transferred discharge paperwork (Anchorage ISD faxes discharge paperwork to the next location instead of allowing the parents to hand carry). But I digress. In the middle of this adventure, I get a phone call from the moving company. Our large house shipment is here (a BED! YES!). They want to deliver tomorrow (YAY!) but don’t know if they can do a split delivery (Uh Oh!). Some phone calls need to be made, etc.

Long story short…movers will be here tomorrow delivering ONLY the stuff we need and storing it for 90 days until we can have the large stuff (like the outdoor freezer, lawnmower, etc) put in our own storage (YAY!).

You’d think this would trigger happiness. Contentment. Excitement? Nope. Complete domestic meltdown. Kids want to skip school (NO!) to stay home and (get this…) “help.”  Husband is acting like a loon b/c he has to take the kids to their schools tomorrow while I wait on the delivery peeps. The house has to be clean (come on guys! We are STILL living out of suitcases!).

Kids and husband are squabbling…and for what?

Nothing. No reason what-so-ever. Everyone is ready for this move to be over. No one more than I, I assure you. Throughout this process I’ve done my best to keep quiet. Not complaining about the folding chair and makeshift desk, or lying in sleeping bags on the floor, or the insane drive to and from Dallas for our car.

So tonight…I told them to be quiet. Stop worrying. I had it under control. They weren’t allowed to say another word about their stuff to parents or each other. There was some serious grumbling going on, but it died off after a few hours.

“After all,” I said, “It will all be over sooooon.”

With that cryptic remark, I gave a creepy, hollow laugh and stared at each of the boys, in turn. They then decided the stress had broken me, so I was left alone to write. Ah bliss.

So that leads me to my mid-week update for A Round of Words in 80 Days.

What have I worked on?

• I sent in my submission for Entangled Publishing’s pitch contest. Didn’t receive a confirmation email so I’m not sure if I should stress or not (Destitute and Undead ended at a little under 15k. Glad I rechecked the edits before hitting send. I was a little heavy handed with the commas).
• I’m 5200 words into book 1 of my WTF Dragon series (blame Kim Knox for this one. She said go crazy and let loose. It was a dare, and you know how I am about those!).
• Received my first reader review for Primal Hunger. So awesome! I got 5 stars out of 5 on the Ellora’s Cave site. So cool! Heidi said she was hoping Primal Hunger would become the start of a series. I get to say I got the green light on it, right?? LOL. So yeah, you’ll see more of the *Hunger-verse in the future.
• Tore apart A Familiar Kiss (yesterday’s post showed how that went down ). I should have that puppy to my editor by V-day.
• I’ve become a coffee time romance author! They’ve asked me to post on the blog, and I can’t wait! I’ll get all their widgets and stuff up on my site this weekend. I also set up my amazon author page. Love you guys for suggesting them for me last week!
• Final outline of Thief. I needed a different arc to make it more contemporary.

Goals for the rest of the week:

• Decompress
• Unpack
• Set up my office/bedroom
• Finish No Dragon, No Problem (WTF Dragon #1)
• Start Thief
• Try to ignore my stress over Destitute and Undead‘s submission. LOL!

I hope this post made you laugh (I know I was laughing). Reading it out loud to my family brought out some pretty awesome chuckles, so I think it’s a win with them too.

Dawn

This is a BLOG HOP! Check out some other authors HERE!

*Note: the Hunger-verse is a tongue-in-cheek series name. I call it the Sheon Wars, but that’s not as lighthearted.

Steady as she goes

Congratulations if you’ve made it this far in the Round of Words in 80 days challenge. We’re in month two of the marathon, and I have to tell you…this is the part where I start to lose a little steam. I’m not talking about the crazy move of January and all the hijinks that followed. This isn’t about writing full time or balancing work, family, and writing. This is about pacing yourself.

This is the perfect time to compare your output to your actual goals. Are you meeting them, exceeding them, barely hanging on, or not even in the ballpark close? If you’re exceeding or falling short on a consistent basis, maybe it’s time to reevaluate. Should you push yourself harder, or should you set more realistic expectations? That’s for you to decide. I’m just here to tell you what’s next on my writing journey.

---

Friday was a very special day for me. It was the release of my first sci fi romantica novel, Primal Hunger. It’s available for $5.95 at Ellora’s Cave and $6.00 on Amazon.com.

Warning, content is sizzling.

Azros del Mar hates the Sheon. Having suffered brutal abuse at their hands, he is left physically scarred and angry. An escape that nearly cost him his life results in a crash landing on a remote planet. There, surrounded by danger, he finds a woman who fires his blood, triggering a mating hunger so intense it sends him to the edge of sanity.

Kendra is a warrior in hiding. The last thing she needs is a hot-bodied, feral Valorian upsetting her mission…no matter how sexy or tempting the broad-shouldered tiger-mix may be. But when her body begins to show signs of feral heat, she realizes the one man who can soothe the hunger could easily destroy everything she’s worked for.

With war on the horizon, they must fight to stay alive. And together.

---

What else happened this week?

Travel. Travel. Travel. The whole house caught a head cold. I got a lot of writing and plotting done for the next few months of work. Scored another non-fiction writing gig. Downshifted from super excited about full-time writing (with sporadic output) to a nice steady pace I can rely on.

All this traveling is breaking me down. My husband bought me a folding chair and a portable desk so I could write wherever we ended up this past week. The car made it from Alaska in one piece. Our furniture still isn’t here so we’ve resorted to thin cots on the floor.

Saturday was a break for me. I played games, relaxed with the kids, wrote when I couldn’t help it (love those moments), and sketched my daily artist trading card. Looking back on every day is amazing. I can’t believe how much has happened since the 16th of January.

Anyway, no changes in goals for this week. Monday will be a no-go writing-wise as I’ll have to get the kids in school, and do all the other fun stuff that follows.

I received a wonderful blog award this past week, and will be sharing it with you on a scheduled post for Monday.

I hope everyone is doing well. For now, it’s time for me to turn in. I have sleep to catch up on.

Keep Writing!

Dawn

This is a BLOG HOP!

Check out other writers HERE.

Primal Hunger is OUT

Hey all! I know it’s been a minute since I chatted up on twitter and facebook. The run up to Dallas and back was pretty exhausting. Over twelve hours in the car in less than 24 hours. Not fun.

Today is an awesome day!

Primal Hunger, my debut Ellora’s Cave novel is out (and a bargain at only $5.95)!

Azros del Mar hates the Sheon. Having suffered brutal abuse at their hands, he is left physically scarred and angry. An escape that nearly cost him his life results in a crash landing on a remote planet. There, surrounded by danger, he finds a woman who fires his blood, triggering a mating hunger so intense it sends him to the edge of sanity.

Kendra is a warrior in hiding. The last thing she needs is a hot-bodied, feral Valorian upsetting her mission…no matter how sexy or tempting the broad-shouldered tiger-mix may be. But when her body begins to show signs of feral heat, she realizes the one man who can soothe the hunger could easily destroy everything she’s worked for.

With war on the horizon, they must fight to stay alive. And together.

  – Buy Now -

In the meantime I’m writing up a storm on some fairytale wickedness that is sure to make some of you blush.

Keep Writing!

Keep Reading!

Dawn

Another day older…

So yesterday was my birthday. YAY! I ate at one of my favorite restaurants and got an apartment! Woohooo!!!! No more living out of our bags. Soon-ish anyway. Can’t get in there until next week, but we’ll be good.

On the writing front:

• Plotted 2nd Hunger book (due to new publishing schedule, it got pushed up from March).
• Started my Beauty and the Beast (Thief)
• Entered an online pitch
• Sketched out a Kitchen Witch story (Back by popular demand)

Found out that my first novel will be out February 3rd! Awesome. Ebook first. Print a year or so later. Love it!

Checking out Sunday’s goals:

• Found a house! WOOHOO!
• 5 hours of writing per day: Nope. I’ll be honest, stress over the house searching thing made Tuesday almost useless.
• Finish up my final outprocessing for January tomorrow…more to follow in February
• Cook dinner four times this week…tonight starts my cooking schedule.

Due to tons of questions, I posted my Work Day Schedule HERE. So far, I’ve hit those goals every day but Tuesday.

I spent Monday and Tuesday nights at Writerschat for Changeling Press and Ellora’s Cave. So much fun! Didn’t promo a single thing, just hung out with some pretty awesome authors. Had a great time.

This is a Blog Hop! Check out other writers HERE.

Starting a New Project

There’s something about a new story that thrills and terrifies this writer. So many ideas flow through my head. A Familiar Kiss is sitting on my harddrive screaming at me to finish it, but I am dying to write a tattoo story for EC’s theme request.

There’s also a very fun project for Changeling that I want to get done. A fairy tale book (YAY!). I spent most of today in edit-brain (creativity stomped into a tiny box while my internal editor goes crazy. A common result for me after intense editing sessions. My oldest son calls it my “mushy brain” stage.).

I’m sitting in a hotel room with three kids, one food blog chef husband, and minimal supplies (did I mention no car until Feb 9th?). Editing (and rewriting a great deal of the product) is killing me on this tiny screen. I’ve got my laptop, but no printer (yet…hurry up and get here!!!) so A Familiar Kiss is going to have to wait until I can print it out.

So now it’s between the fairy tale story and the tattoo one. How do I pick? Well, I pick based on fairness. EC just got a book so it’s time to turn one in to Changeling. This isn’t a play to either publishing company (I LOVE both publishers and my awesome editors), but a shout out to my loyal readers.

Some of you are loyal to one company or the other. If it wasn’t for you guys, I wouldn’t be living my dream in the middle of beautiful San Antonio. I owe it to you all to make sure I’m giving you the best I can every time. Times are hard, so the last thing I want is to have anyone waste money on a product I phoned in.

A Familiar Kiss was originally intended for Changeling, and if I don’t tighten up the manuscript and cut the chaff, I won’t make it under CP’s wordcount limit (three characters have already faced the chopping block, and I shudder to think what else will have to go). Sometimes it really is easier to start from scratch than to rewrite a book. The fairy tale story will take AFK’s place as my next delivery.

So here’s my choice…my new work in progress is Thief, a modern Beauty and the Beast tale of lust and love.

If you’ve read this far you deserve a lollipop, and a long break from my rambling. Go forth and read something wicked.

Here are a few in my queue:

Note: All links are to the publisher websites. They are not affiliate links, and these books are ones I’ve either read (and want to read again) or will soon be reading. This isn’t a ploy to get you to buy books. I’m simply showing you what I’m going to be reading this weekend.

Magnetism by Kim Knox (the entire series is fascinating! a matchmaking planet )

Ty the Sexy Dragon by Lexxie Couper (I got to beta read this one. OMG hawt! This weekend I’ll get to read the finished version. So cool!)

Leashed by Jet Mykles (I LOVE the leashed series)

I autobuy anything by Laurann Dohner (So far everything she’s written has rocked me!)

Edits are done

First round of edits completed for Primal Hunger. Edits in a novel are a bit rougher than I’m used to. There’s definitely a formatting learning curve for EC. I’m adapting and taking notes.

Now it’s time to work on another book.

Which one? Ah, now that’s the question. I think it’ll be tearing apart A Familiar Kiss and getting it ready for my other editor.

Keep Writing!

Dawn

Day 2, and I’m home…

Writing this post a day early so I can spend tomorrow writing without internet. I have about 15 pages of handwritten notes to transcribe. Edits for Primal Hunger have dropped in my lap. Reading the book again was such a treat. Azros is hawt.

My list for January is simple:

* Primal Hunger edits *

*Finish A Familiar Kiss rewrites and submit to editor*

* Finish and polish Enraptured for submission *

Now onto other news. We’ve done it. We’ve moved from Alaska to Texas. I’ll be working my butt off to get more books out there for you guys. Thank you for the awesome comments, emails, and instant messages I’ve received. You guys are amazing.

To answer a few questions…

Yes, there will be more Kitchen Witch books. No dates yet, I’m afraid.

I won’t revisit the Bound universe. It was one of my first walks into paranormal, and I didn’t like the limits I put on the universe.

There’s been a lot of interest in a possible Hellhound series. Just wanted to let you know I’ve heard ya!  I’ve got several books planned for this year, so I’ll have to put it on the backburner for 2013.

There are several titles that used to be available through the now-closed publisher, Aspen Mountain Press. I have no interest in resubmitting them to a new publisher, but the plan is to edit and expand the stories to release as free reads on my website.

Keep the questions coming. I’ll answer them as soon as I can.

Keep Writing!

Dawn

This is a blog hop! Check out more writers HERE.