Category Archives: Contemporary Romance

November 14, 2015 · 2:24 pm

My Sexy Saturday #118 – Their Sexy Gaze…

Welcome to the 118^th week of My Sexy Saturday. Click here to visit other author websites participating in the MSS blog hop.

This week’s theme: Their Sexy Gaze

Have you ever seen a couple who look so adoringly at each other? Makes you wonder just what they are thinking about. Are they thinking about the last time they made love? Or how about the conversation they just had?

The point is that lovers have eyes only for each other. Sometimes the gaze is loving and sometimes not but you always know they are a couple destined to be together forever.

Sexy can be anything, such as romantic moments like walks on the beach, a home cooked meal or even in another galaxy. It could be two lovers here on Earth dreaming about the day where they go on a magical vacation to another planet. Or staying right here at one of those wonderful places we can find in our own world.

Sexy has nothing to do with looks or status or even wealth. It doesn’t demand perfection and it isn’t pretentious but it does make us want to read those books.

We know that everyone has their own idea of sexy and we all love sexy!

Here’s a little gaze action from my debut romance novel SKATER’S WALTZ.

Tiffany tried to pull back again, but Cole’s sturdy arms prevented her. “No. I want to feel you against me. This is a poor substitute for having you in bed, but it’ll have to do until we can beg off and leave. Which, I’m hoping, we can do soon. I can’t take much more of this. A few more minutes and I don’t know what I’ll do for relief.”

“Geez.” Tiffany shook her head against him. “A little sex and you get all super charged and demanding.”

This time Cole was the one to pull back. His eyes had turned hard and serious as he looked down at her. “Never say that again, Tiff. What we did together today, what we started, is more than just a little sex, and you know it as well as I do.”

Held prisoner by his stare, Tiffany swallowed the ball that had formed at the back of her throat.

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Filed under Alpha Hero, Author, Contemporary Romance, Family Saga, love, MacQuire Women, Romance, Romance Books, Skater's Waltz, Strong Women, The Wild Rose Press

Tagged as #MSS118, Contemporary romance, figure skating, My sexy Saturday, romance writer, Skater's Waltz, television journalism, The Wild Rose Press Author

November 13, 2015 · 10:17 am

Almost 2 weeks into NaNoWriMo…

and I’m still plugging away.

By the halfway mark, many writers fall into a plot hole abyss, wrestle with a character who wants to take over the story, or they come to the realization the story line isn’t really keeping their attention. And just for clarity’s sake, this happens to all writers whether they are doing the NaNo challenge or not. The difference in November is that you only have two weeks left in the challenge to fulfill that 50,000-word minimum and declare a win.

Pressure, much? Stress, maybe?

No worries.

The best thing about the NaNoWriMo challenge is the only person you are competing against is YOU. Now is not the time to start editing or switching POV, or changing the rudimentary goals, motivations and conflicts of your hero and heroine. Now is the time to freestyle and just write it all out. December ( and the rest of the new year )is for editing and refining. Tweaking and changing.

Now, the goal is to write – albeit you want it to be good writing, that goes without saying. But as long as you are pounding forward, getting those fingers on the laptop keys, or writing out long hand, you are winning.

The tagline for my website is Writing is my Oxygen, because I need to write in order to exist, just like I need to breathe in order to live. A day without writing something, anything, to me, is a wasted day. I approach NaNo the same way. As long as I am pushing forward on the story, I am in the positive column. And even if I get to 11:30 pm November 30 and still need 500 more words to get over the finish line, at least I know I got that far.

To me, partaking in the NaNoWriMo challenge IS the win. The 50k words are just the cherries on top.

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Filed under Author, Contemporary Romance, Life challenges, NaNoWriMo, NHRWA, Romance, Strong Women

Tagged as contemporary romance writer, NaNoWriMo 2015, NaNoWriMo challenge, romance writer, Romantic Fiction, The Wild Rose Press Author

November 9, 2015 · 10:11 am

Am I the only one who thinks this is funny?

I had a little epiphany the other day when I was banging away at my NaNoWriMo word count goal. I was in a particularly lighthearted scene and the descriptions the first person character narrator were giving had me laughing out loud in my attic. Truly, this was some fine comedic, descriptive writing. The epiphany came when I asked myself, “Am I the only one who might think this is funny?”

I admit freely my humor is a little skewered and all over the board at times. I laugh at the slapstick of Benny Hill, the snarkiness of Jerry Seinfeld, the crude bathroom jokes of the Red Neck Comics. I can laugh at my own witticisms as well, but I never know if what I am writing is as funny to the reader as it is to me. After all, we all think our children are the brightest, most intelligent and most beautiful kids in the world ( mine is, actually) so I think it’s the same with our words and humor.

I can’t really get a gauge for the funny to others, so I’m going to put a few lines I’ve written here and hope if you read it, you will let me know if it is funny, falls flat, or makes you have to pee with glee.

Here goes:

#1 “Don’t worry, Frankie,” my Aunt Ursula said. “Joey’s a bull. He’ll make it.”“Yeah,” Aunt Gracie chimed in. “Remember when Uncle Vito had his coronary at the racetrack? Doc’s had to shock him four times, but he pulled through. Joey will, too. Our family’s made of strong stock.”

I kept my mouth shut because Uncle Vito was currently confined to a nursing home, an after effect of his massive coronary. He was pretty much brain fried, drooled constantly and had an annoying habit of playing flash the sausage with any female who entered his room, family members included.

#2 When my brother Gianni pointed out she was carrying Daddy’s baby, Mama went ballistic. It took the aunts, Gia and me to finally calm her down. Still fuming, we managed to get her upstairs, into her cotton nightgown and then with a large shot glass filled with Sambucca, into bed and settled. Aunt Gracie was going to spend the night and watch over her to make sure she didn’t go crazy and drive to Delphina’s condo and do something.

And by do something, I mean gut her like a fish.

# 3 My Uncle Sonny knew a guy, who knew a guy, who ran a talent agency, though. Unfortunately, all the out of work actors employed at Skippy Goldstein’s Star Emporium were booked for live appearances. Cupids poised to deliver candy grams; Little Devils set to bring naughty lingerie gifts and boxes of confections to wives, girlfriends and mistresses. Skippy told Uncle Sonny he should have booked way in advance to which, the family story goes, Uncle Sonny lifted Skippy out of his chair by his ugly skinny necktie and told him he’d better come up with a genie—and fast—or his relatives were going to have to dig through the Meadowlands marshes to recover his body.

Uncle Sonny’s an intense guy.

So….Laughing? Cringing? Peeing? What?…….Let’s discuss…..

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Filed under Author, Contemporary Romance, Family Saga, Life challenges, NaNoWriMo, Romance, Strong Women

Tagged as Benny Hill, Contemporary romance author, funny characters, Humorous romance, Jerry Seinfeld, Red Neck Comedy Tour

November 7, 2015 · 10:29 am

My Sexy Saturday #117 While you were sexy…

This week’s theme is a take on the movie, While You Were Sleeping, and can be fun, quirky or not. So many things can happen while you were sexy…things like falling in love with someone other than your boyfriend/girlfriend…or maybe taking a risk you wouldn’t normally take. That’s what the movie is all about…having a dream and risking for that dream…only to find it wasn’t what you really wanted or needed anyway. Our stories have lots of those type themes.

Love is a dream for some, a risk for others. Sometimes it’s fulfilled or sometimes it just isn’t what the characters imagined. Remember Scarlett O’Hara at the end of Gone With The Wind…she realized she never really loved Ashley to begin with…it was Rhett all along. We think you get the drift of what this week’s theme is. But we want more and we definitely want it hotter than ever before. So show us those sexy, hot characters in those sexy, hot stories.

Sexy has nothing to do with looks or status or even wealth. It doesn’t demand perfection and it isn’t pretentious but it does make us want to read those books.

click on this link to read the other authors in this weeks MSSBlogHop.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Here’s a little thought process from Pat Cleary. He’s beginning to realize Clarissa Rogers may just be what he’s needed in his hectic busy like.

He grabbed his cell phone from where it rested on his desk, and pressed the screen. He’d programmed one of the pictures he’d taken of him and Clarissa in the apple orchard as his screen display. He’d stared at it so many times since that day. Just seeing how happy and relaxed they both looked made him feel better no matter how busy or tiring his day was. He wanted to see her smile like that every day.

And at him.

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Filed under Alpha Hero, Author, Characters, Contemporary Romance, Family Saga, First Impressions, love, MacQuire Women, Romance, Strong Women

Tagged as #MSS117, First Impressions, My sexy Saturday, My Sexy Saturday Blog Hop, The MacQuire WOmen Series, The Wild Rose Press

November 5, 2015 · 10:06 am

Still NaNoWriMo-ing

Day 5 of NaNoWriMo and I’m way into my current WIP ( work in progress). Yes, I love a personal challenge. Yes, I adore a writing challenge. And yes yes yes I love to combine them both.

But I do have a life away from the laptop.

Yesterday, I started writing a 3 am ( chronic insomnia, folks) and went strong until 9 when I realized I couldn’t feel my a**. So, I got washed up and went off to the gym for a few hours to pump and cardio myself into a clear head ( and a smaller a**).

Back home I banged out another 1200 words before I stopped for lunch, then another couple hundred more before I called it a day.

A day for writing that is. When I closed my WP program, I did three loads of laundry, ironed it all and put it way, vacuumed the four floors in my house – yes folks – 4 FLOORS – dusted, put various stuff away and a took care of paying the monthly bills.

Then I started dinner.

After dinner I worked on two courses I am taking online, wrote this blog and stashed another one away for a future release. I am reading two books on kinesthetics, so I delved into those for a while.Tomorrow the car has to go in for service, so I will bring my laptop with me and NaNo while I wait ( like the way I made the challenge a verb, there?)

For those lucky people who can sit all day long and create ( and not have their a**es grow and spread) power to you. I am jealous. I am envious. I am filled with angst.

But not really, because…I do have another life.

So, if you are NaNo-ing, are you an all day typer, or do you take breaks? Let’s discuss

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Filed under Author, Contemporary Romance, First Impressions, Life challenges, NaNoWriMo, Romance, Strong Women

Tagged as Author, contemporary romance writer, NANOWRIMO, NANOWRIMO15, pantser, plotter, TWRP author.

November 4, 2015 · 10:36 am

What a conference can REALLY teach you

I recently attended the New Jersey Romance Conference and took a master class with Margie Lawson. Who, you ask? Well, if you don’t now who she is, you really are missing out. Margie Lawson is a woman who wears many metaphorical hats. She’s a psychotherapist, an editor, and a very smart, savvy woman, just to mention three. The master class I took was all about Empowering Character Emotion and it was the best 3 hours and the wisest money I ever spent on a day course.

Seriously.

In fact, I learned so much in that short 3 hours, I knew there had to be more to learn, and boy was there! When I clicked on her site I found she has on line instruction classes and packets and I purchased two right at the conference. I’ve been editing away ever since in my current contracted novel. You can see the efforts in the picture I’ve included. Now, Margie’s stuff is proprietary so I’m not going to tell you what she suggests doing, but I highly recommend you go to her site and click around.

I can say with all honesty my writing and editing skills have improved significantly since I started following her suggestions. She helps you hone in on places where you can add punch to character emotions and scenes where you can dial up the conflict from easy to complex with just a rephrasing of a few words, or the addition of a power word or two. She helps you see where you may have too much of one thing – like exposition, which makes readers skim the page – and not enough of another – like conflict, and we all know romance writers need conflict between their characters.

If you are determined to get that first book published or if you are a multi-published author already, Margie can literally take your writing skills to the next level and maybe even 3 or 4 more beyond that.

Just saying.

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Filed under Author, Contemporary Romance, First Impressions, Life challenges, love, MacQuire Women, NaNoWriMo, New Hampshire, Romance, Romance Books, RWA, Strong Women

Tagged as Editing, Margie Lawson, NJRWA COnference, romance writer, romance writing, Writing skills

November 2, 2015 · 5:31 pm

NaNoWriMo time again

The first of November is a day that I circle on the calendar whenever I get a brand new one for the upcoming year. 11/1 represents the beginning of not only another month, a countdown to Thanksgiving and Christmas, but the beginning of the yearly NaNoWriMo challenge for writers across the globe.

For those of you in the know ( and those of you who aren’t) NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, The challenge is to compose a 50,000 word novel ( or greater than 50,000 words if you are so inclined) from 11/1- until 11/30. You catalog your daily word count on the NaNo site and complete tasks for “badges” of honor along the way. Once the end of the month comes, your total is tallied and if you reach the 50,000 word, you “Win” the challenge.

People who know me know I love an individual challenge. I’m not into team sports, don’t like to compete with others for anything. I would be one of those who would be eaten during the zombie apocalypse because I wouldn’t fight back! But when the challenge is just between me and myself, well, then I say, “bring it on!” I lovelovelove a challenge myself with writing and NaNo is one of the best ways to do that.

Prior to the challenge, I usually think about what I’m going to write, plot out a few key points, put together rough sketches of my characters and then start, raring to go, on day 1. For the past 2 years, the nano books I’ve done have been sequels, so I knew where I was going with the plot, had already met the characters, a had a defined path. This year is no different. I am penning the 5th book in my MacQuire Women series. This will be Serena MacQuire’s story and it is a tear jerker in my imagination. Hope I can get that emotion on the page for the reader to jive with.

Anyway, off I go. Day 2 is looming. Day one was a corker with over 3500 words down. Now I have 46,500 left to go…

So, do you NaNo? Let’s discuss…

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Filed under Author, Contemporary Romance, MacQuire Women, NaNoWriMo, Romance, Romance Books, Uncategorized

Tagged as Contemporary romance, NANOWRIMO15, romance writing, The MacQuire Women, Writing, Zombie apocalypse

November 1, 2015 · 1:00 am

Persevering thru Panic…with Susan A. Wall

One of my favorite things about being a writer is the other writers I meet who come to mean something more to me than simply the fact that they are writers, too. When I joined my local chapter of NHRWA, I was introduced to many talented, exceptional women who write various genres of romance. One of those writers was Susan A. Wall. This is her third visit on the blog with me and each time she’s here there’s a fun story to read, today no exception. She’s got a new release out soon and you’re lucky enough to hear about it early. So sit back as Susan discusses part of her writing process – a very necessary part!

A Lesson in Perseverance over Panic

It started early on a Sunday morning. I was the only one up, the laptop humming with anticipation as Maddie and Darren beckoned. Candles burned with a sweet fragrance to cover the offending skunk odor from an unexpected Saturday night, and the water in the kettle boiled.

I didn’t care that the kitchen was in need of a good cleaning. I didn’t even care that the laundry situation was even more desperate. I needed to write and to get the words flowing early on a Sunday morning, I needed a cup of tea.

And I needed it in my Tell Me a Story mug – my current designated writing day mug.

That’s when my plans came to a grinding halt.

The mug wasn’t in the cupboard. It wasn’t in the dishwasher. It wasn’t in the sink. It wasn’t on the counter. It wasn’t on the table. It wasn’t in my office in the basement.

IT WASN’T ANYWHERE!

I thought long and hard about the last time I used the mug. The only memory I could conjure was drinking out of it in the mini-van. So I traipsed outside in the damp morning air only to come back in empty-handed.

Now this mug is not my only mug. It’s one of many favorites (each with its own story), but it is my go to on a Sunday morning when I’m determined to spend the day writing.

I could have spent the entire day searching for and obsessing over the whereabouts of my mug, I instead engaged in some inner self-talk, encouraging myself to go for Plan B. Because I almost always have a Plan B.

So on this Sunday morning, with my hero and heroine desperate to enjoy their first kiss, I grabbed my “think happy. be happy” mug because with my “Story” mug MIA, I needed the happy message.

Fiction often imitates truth, so you can bet a missing mug and the ensuing anxiety is going to pop up in a future story. As it is, the heroine of my next release, THE SOUND OF CIRCUMSTANCE, is a bit of a tea drinker just as I am. Stacie likes different teas for different occasions, but she doesn’t obsess over what to drink it out of the way I do. What Stacie does obsess about in this new story are the results of the six pregnancy tests she takes in a single day. You’ll have to read the book, available for pre-order now, to know the results of those tests!!

So tell me, do you have a favorite mug?

By the way, the “happy” mug did get me to my word count goal and that first kiss. The “story” was found when Hero Husband cleaned the kitchen while I made dinner.

Pre-order links:

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1jA1sXU

Barnes and Noble: http://bit.ly/1j5yGPa

iTunes: http://apple.co/1jA1pvo

Kobo: http://bit.ly/1O4RZ6k

Social media:

www.susanannwall.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/susanannwall.author – Contest going on until October 31

Twitter: https://twitter.com/@susanannwall

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/susanannwall

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Susan-Ann-Wall/e/B007NZU7X0

Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/susanannwall

Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/nQ7wH

Bio:

Big dreamer and certifiable overachiever Susan Ann Wall embraces life at full speed and volume. She’s a beer and tea snob, can be bribed with dark chocolate, and the #1 thing on her bucket list is to be the center of a Bon Jovi flash mob.

Susan is a nationally bestselling, multi-genre author of racy, rule-breaking romance and women’s fiction. Her bragging rights include nine books in three different series, three perfect children, adopting an amazing rescue dog, and a happily ever after that started while serving in the U.S. Army and has spanned nearly two decades (which is crazy since she’s not a day over 29).

In her next life, Susan plans to be a 5 foot 10, size 8 rock star married to a chiropractor and will not be terrified of large bridges, spiders, or quiet people (shiver).

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Filed under Contemporary Romance, NHRWA, Romance, RWA

Tagged as Contemporary romance, Contemporary romance author, Puget Sound, Romantic Fiction, Series fiction, Sound of Circumstance, Susan A. Wall, WOmen's fiction

October 25, 2015 · 5:37 pm

Snarkology Halloween Hop – Pumpkins Everywhere!

WELCOME to the 2015 Snarkology Halloween Hop. From now until October 31 ( Halloween, anyone?!) click here to Follow the hop for more fun, great books, and awesome prizes plus, visit almost 70 authors, all with a Halloween story to tell. And don’t forget to enter for a chance at a rafflecopter prize. Just click the highlighted rafflecopter word in the previous sentence to be entered.

FALL is my absolute favorite time of the year, bar none. I live in New England, home of Leaf Peeping Season, re-enactments of the Salem Witch Trials, and apple picking – just to name a very few.

There’s nothing better to me than apple picking at a local farm once the fruit is ripe and ready, or carving a series of Halloween pumpkins into gruesome and scary faces. I live in a town that has the distinction of being the Guinness World record holder for a number of years for the most lit jack-o-lanterns at one time, an event we natives call “The Pumpkin Festival.”

My daughter was just 5 when we attended our very first Pumpkin Festival. We met tourists from all over the United States, who’d come in for the three-day weekend/event to help us crack the Guinness Record. And we did. And then went on for several more years to hold- and increase-the record.

During one Presidential political campaign year, George Bush ( 43) came with a carved pumpkin and added it to our count. On the dozens of towers set about our downtown you could find any sort of carving from intricate, professionally artist-carved ones to kindergartener simplistic ones with happy triangular cut-outs. At twilight, all the pumpkins were lit with votive candles, and then the official count was done by the Guinness representatives. As these pictures show, 30,000+ lit jack-o-lanterns is an amazing sight to behold.

The Pumpkin festival was a source of unending pride for our little ‘burg because it united all of us from every political party, religious persuasion, age, ethnic background, and economic class in an event that not only increased our tourism rate by the thousandth-fold, but also served as a beacon for all our citizens, and a source of civic self-respect. My town truly became a unified community for those three days in October.

As I said, I love the fall and I love New England, so for those reasons, I set my newest book FIRST IMPRESSIONS in the autumn season. There’s apple picking, pie making, and even a Red Sox game depicted in the novel. The cover art is simply the best illustration of this season for me: Two lovers, kissing, in an apple orchard in September. If that isn’t swoon-worthy, I don’t know what is!

Autumn in the North East…does it get any better???

SNARKOLOGY HALLOWEEN HOP

Buy Links for FIRST IMPRESSIONS:

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Filed under Author, Contemporary Romance, Family Saga, First Impressions, love, MacQuire Women, New Hampshire, Romance, Strong Women

Tagged as First Impressions, Guinness World record Holder, Halloween, jack-0-lnterns, Keene Pumpkin Festival, Pumpkins, Romance, RWA, Snarkology Halloween Hop, The Wild Rose Press

October 24, 2015 · 8:29 am

Something About Sexy

Welcome to the 115^th week of My Sexy Saturday.

This week’s theme: Something About Sexy

This week’s theme can be anything from fun and quirky to dark and serious. We as authors all know that there is just something about writing these sexy books. We can’t put our finger on it, sometimes we can’t even define it but we know we wouldn’t do anything else. We write our sexy characters because we love to do so. We love our characters, we love that sexy can be what we define and we love to bring that idea of sexy to our readers. We love sexy and it shows. Still, these books have hot characters and an even hotter love story and we’d love for you to share your sexy snippet with us.

Sexy has nothing to do with looks or status or even wealth. It doesn’t demand perfection and it isn’t pretentious but it does make us want to read those books.

We know that everyone has their own idea of sexy and we all love sexy!

Here’s a little sexy sumthin’ sumthin‘ from my newest release FIRST IMPRESSIONS. Quentin has been dying to get his hands on Moira all day. The cramped confines of his truck don’t prevent him from giving in to his desire.

Before starting the car, Quentin turned to her, took her in his arms, and gave her a quick, hard kiss that set them both back on their heels.

“I’ve been wanting to do that for hours,” he told her, smiling against her lips. He touched them again, this time softer, but no less potently. His hands slid around her neck, pulling her across the cab. Roomy as it was, Moira hit the steering wheel.

“Ouch.” She pulled back, laughing. “I think we’re a little too old and you’re a little too big to be making out in the front seat of a truck, Q.”

Grinning, he kissed her once more and said, “I’ll argue the first point, but not the second.” He turned the key and started the engine. “I’ll try to keep my hands to myself until we get home.”

Moira nestled next to him in the spacious cab, took his right arm and crossed it over her shoulders so she could snuggle closer to him. “Here. How’s this?”

He planted a swift kiss on her temple, his eyes never leaving the road, and said, “As good as it gets.”

Buy Links for FIRST IMPRESSIONS

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