Start with incredible party site provided by The Romance Studio. Mix Authors and Books thoroughly. Add excerpts. Sprinkle with
giveaways and laughter. Simmer throughout the day. Randomly choose Gift
Certificate winners. Serve H-O-T.
Caution: Product WILL BE HOT and may produce
wetness in certain areas. For best results, serve with a bib or drool cloth.
Oh, I've got my ideas about an answer to Why Werewolves. Let's see what Cait has to say! Lucky you, Cait is giving away 5 print copies of
Hunter Moon and a $25 Amazon gift card. Enter at the end of the post!
As a paranormal
romance author, there are so many paranormal beings I could have chosen for my
books, I often get asked why I stuck with werewolves. In a genre where there
are mermaids, Fae, Greek and Roman gods, demons, etc. it’s a valid question why
I’d go with an oldie-but-goodie. My answer? I friggin’ love werewolves. But I
should add the caveat that I mainly love weres that shift at will and maintain
their mental faculties in both bodies. I’m not so much a fan of the mindless
killing machines that can’t stop being what they are.
But with my shifters,
what’s not to love? They’re stronger, faster and have keener senses than humans
in both shapes and mine are generally really, really ridiculously good looking.
Yes I just quoted Zoolander, deal with it. Wolves are graceful apex
predators, and werewolves have being an Alpha male down to a T, and there’s
nothing sexier than an Alpha male. Plus, having the added bonus of the shared
mental connection between pack mates just makes being a were that much cooler.
Who wouldn’t like a homing beacon in their head in case shit got real? And my
love of weres doesn’t just include wolves, but shifters of all species: Lion,
coyote, tiger and bear, oh my!
I suppose my
infatuation with werewolves started at an early age, watching Silver Bullet and American Werewolf in London as a kid, but I think it goes deeper
than that. It really boils down to the fact that I really wish I was one. How
freakin’ cool would that be? The hightened senses would be neat, and the speed
and strength, but I mainly would love to get all furry and run around. Maybe I
have issues. Be that as it may, I’ve written my weres to be everything I want;
Sexy, strong, loyal and they’re almost always the good guys. So I ask, what
more could you want?
HUNTER MOON Blurb
Bawling cattle
tore Shelby Flint from her bed. With lawyer fees to pay in her struggle to keep
her ranch from the clutches of her greedy cousins, she couldn’t afford the loss
of even one calf. When she sees a large wolf circling her cows, she aims and fires.
While the wolf escapes, Shelby can’t seem to get away from her troubles when a
marijuana grower sets up shop on her land, sabotaging her property and
eventually coming after her.
Adding to that,
a handsome game warden is poking his nose into her business and working his way
underneath her skin. Shelby will have to fight harder than she ever fought
before to keep from losing her heart and everything she ever loved.
Shelby Flint is
a self-sufficient cowgirl and cattle rancher, but when a wolf goes after her
calves, a man is murdered on her land and someone is sabotaging her property
she can’t do it by herself any longer. In walks a handsome game warden, poking
his nose in her business and working her way under her skin. Shelby will have
to fight harder than she ever has before to keep from losing her heart and
everything she ever loved.
Excerpt
“Hey, have you heard
anything about—wait, what? The fuzz is after me?” I sifted through my recent
actions, but couldn’t remember doing anything illegal that would put a cop on
my tail. “Wait, you’re not talking about Tyler, are you?”
One of her husband’s
favorite pastimes was making me pull over without cause. I was always tempted
to pull a stunt like I was on Cops
and lead him in a high speed pursuit. But since I’d gotten out of a few
speeding tickets by dropping his name, I guess it was a wash.
“What, Tyler? No, I wish
he was this hot.” She leered. “The game warden stopped by about five minutes
ago asking all about the girl who lives on the Flint ranch.” She waggled her
eyebrows at me.
It was Jesse’s mission
in life to set me up with a man. It was the bane of her existence that I’d
sworn off cowboys. A cowboy hadn’t worked out too well for my mom, and that was
pretty much all there was around Raymond. It was probably the only lesson I’d
learned from my mother.
“I have to say, Matt
Albert wasn’t a fan of Mr. Warden asking about you. Gave me one scary glare when I told the hottie where you
live.”
“Oh geez. You haven’t
told Matt I’d date him again did you? The guy’s dumber than a box of rocks!”
The Albert clan was huge
in Raymond. Half the population was related in some form or another, and Matt
had his eyes on me since grade school. I’d always chalked up his infatuation
with me to the fact we weren’t related. Kissing cousins were so Alabama.
Matt liked to get drunk
at the rodeo and pick fights. The one date I had gone with him I ended up with
four glasses of Coors on my shirt and a bruise on my cheek where the other guy had
elbowed me to get at Matt. That had been four years ago. He was either
tenacious to the extreme or stupid, and I leaned toward the latter.
“Of course not. Especially
if you’ve got Hunky McWarden in the wings!” I rolled my eyes at Jesse’s
outrageous nicknames. It was never a good sign when she waxed poetic.
“Why do you keep saying
that? I thought the game warden was an octogenarian?”
“Yeah, that was Bill
Freedman, and he retired last month. Officer
Hotstuff must be his replacement. Lucky for us! Lord knows we need an
infusion of new blood around here.”
While that was certainly
true, I wasn’t in the mood to play ‘The Dating Game’ with Jesse. “Oh quit it.
I’d better get home if there’s a popo waiting for me. Wish me luck!”
I walked back to my
truck and looked down at Reggie.
“Sorry, I forgot your
hot dog. I guess I owe you one.”
He hopped in the back,
forgiving as always and off we went. I wondered why the warden would be looking
for me. I hadn’t hunted or fished in years, not since grandpa’s health went
downhill. I hoped one of my cows didn’t get out. That could be a nightmare if
it ruined property or someone hit it with a car. Great, that’s all I needed right now.
I saw the warden’s
forest green Silverado when I pulled in, but no sign of the warden himself
anywhere. I lowered the tailgate of the Blazer to let Reggie down and he took
off toward the barn. I trusted his instincts and followed him and found an
image I could use to warm the lonely, cold nights. On the trailer of alfalfa
was a 6’4’ Adonis. The man, or god, who I assumed was the warden, had his shirt
off while he was unloading hay. His fantastic shoulders were bare and rippling
as he unloaded bale after bale of hay. His biceps flexed as he squatted to pick
up another and bless him, I had a front row seat to his fantastic rear.
The warden couldn’t have
been any older than late twenties or early thirties, and his golden skin just
added to the Greek god effect he had going. Something stirred in me while I
watched him work, something I had never felt before. Pure unadulterated lust. I wanted that man more than anyone in my
whole life.
Irritated with my
surging libido, I tamped down my unwelcome feelings as much as I could. I
definitely didn’t need that kind of complication in my life right now. He bent
over and picked up another bale and I had to bite the inside of my lip to keep
from moaning. No man should look that
delicious. I nodded my head in agreement with myself and continued to gawk.
His shoulders were nearly twice as wide as mine, and his broad chest narrowed
to flat, rippling abs and a trim waist.
In the ten minutes I
supposed he’d been there he had almost the whole trailer unloaded, and it
didn’t even look like he’d broken a sweat. If I’d unloaded that much I would
have been a puddle of exhausted goo. I stood there, staring at all his assets,
for a few minutes longer before I climbed on the trailer and started helping.
When I came up behind
him, he stopped working and stared at me. His nostrils flared wide, but he
didn’t seem surprised at my arrival. Unnerved a bit by his piercing gaze, I
picked up a bale. He just shrugged and resumed unloading, maintaining a silence
the whole time we worked. In between bales he brushed his dark brown hair off
his forehead to reveal two eyes the brilliant blue of sapphires.
He looked at me for a
moment, and then unloaded the last bale of alfalfa. I hopped off the trailer,
suddenly needing distance from his cobalt stare. Without the hay bales to
occupy my hands, they were itching to touch the ripples of all six of his abs. I
stared at the ground, shifting from foot to foot.
“Thanks. I really
appreciate the help. If I was by myself, this would have taken hours.” I handed
him his uniform shirt that was hanging off the side mirror of my truck and
glanced at the name tag. “Officer Newcomb.”
“It’s warden Newcomb,
but you can call me Cash.” He put his uniform back on and I couldn’t help
feeling a sense of loss. The fabric covered a spectacular chest with just a
judicial smattering of curly brown hair that drew together in a fuzzy line that
lead south. Talk about a happy trail.
About Cait Lavender
Cait Lavender is a twenty five
year old wife and stay at home mother of one in Central California. Living on a
cattle ranch and raising her daughter doesn’t afford her much leisure time, but
when she has a spare minute or two she loves riding horses, baking and reading
everything she can get her hands on. She grew up loving the written word and
creative writing and finally decided to work on her dream of becoming a
published author.
She has a short story, Cowboy
Moon, and a full-length novel, Hunter Moon, both available on Smashwords,
Amazon and Barnes & Noble. She’d love to hear from you on her Facebook author page, @caitlavender
on Twitter or on her blog, www.caitlavender.com
Yay! So happy to host today's guest, Kerry Adrienne. We met at RWA Nationals at the FF&P party in 2011, and discovered that we were kindred spirits. Of course, I appreciate her naughty side. That is, if she'll admit to it!
Well, I
didn’t think I did, but apparently, I do. Write erotic romance, that is. Since
the release of Senator, Mine this month, I’ve had many nods and smirks from
friends saying “Oh, yes, you do.”
But I
thought erotic romance was, you know, the non-vanilla stuff. The cool stuff.
Things other than just m/f doing regular things. Uh. I guess I was wrong.
Being a classics minor, I know that “erotic” came from “Eros”
(I know, I didn’t need a degree to figure that out), and the definition of
erotic is “of, devoted to, or tending to arouse sexual love or desire” (Mirriam
Webster). Okay, I agree with that, too. So, maybe my problem is not with being
told that my story is erotic romance—it is with the giggles and looks that
invariably go along with being told that I write “IT”. My new stance: So what?
People read recipe books and grocery store lists and get
hungry and no one laughs at them…how is that any different?
Shrug. I’ll wear the label proudly. I had another story that
I wanted to write that I definitely considered erotic romance anyway. So there.
Thanks for
hosting me, Louisa. I am thrilled to be in such awesome company.
Kerry
Adrienne
Senator,
Mine is the first 1Night Stand in the “All Mine” series from Decadent
Publishing.Druid, Mine will be
out in June.
Senator, Mine Kerry Adrienne
Blurb:
Eleanor’s
dream of a romantic tour of Italy shatters when her long-time boyfriend breaks
up with her in Pompeii. Determined to enjoy the once in a lifetime vacation,
she enlists the 1NS service. She continues her trip, stopping to buy a small
golden signet in a mysterious antiquities shop in Rome.
Darius, a
hard-working Senator in Ancient Rome, is puzzled by the Sibyl’s words: You will not find love in your lifetime. Hoping
to find a measure of happiness, he agrees to the Sibyl’s quest. In the olive
grove, he spots Eleanor, a barbarian wearing his stolen senator’s ring.
A night
spent together may be just what they both need to break down the columns of
time that stand between them.
Excerpt:
“What is it?” She moved closer to
examine the object he held.
“A senator’s
ring from the time of Augustus.” He waved the item with a flourish. “A rare and
beautiful find, for a deserving young woman.”
The golden
circle sparkled in the half-light like the wedding band that shone in her
dreams. She tried to control her sharp intake of breath.
“A rather
personal memento, wouldn’t you say?”
“It’s
beautiful.”
“Indeed.”
“Which
senator?” Gorgeous. What a find. Was
it legal to take it out of the country? Surely it held historical significance.
“Yes, it can
be exported,” the shopkeeper said. “We don’t know who owned the signet, as many
records of the Senate at that time were lost, but it has been cleared by the
Antiquities Commission.”
She hadn’t
mentioned exporting it aloud. Had he read her mind? No, that wasn’t possible.
She squirmed. Nothing about the shop or its contents felt normal. One thing was
certain. The ring was amazing. And perfect.
“What does
the engraving say?” she asked.
“Darius.”
She drew in
a quick breath, as a gasp of warm air breezed across her neck, making the hairs
stand. She shuddered. I’ve been watching
too many old movies.
“As common
as the name was at the time, no senators named Darius are on any rolls.” The
shopkeeper pushed it closer to her face. “And Madame Eve recommends it. What do
you say?”
“How much?”
Eleanor whispered.
“Ah.” The
shopkeeper grinned. “What price would you pay for a little ring that will
change your life forever?”
Gearing up for another great workshop, and I can't wait to see what the writers come up with through RWA's special interest chapter FF&P (that's Future, Fantasy and Paranormal).
May 14-June 10
For more information and to register, visit my guest-post on FF&P.
