Erotica Reading Challenge

Because, you know, I never am doing quite enough stuff...

That being said, I want to support my writer friends and publishing sibs; and most of us seem to write erotica or erotic romance these days...

the challenge, should you chose to accept it

I'm going to go for a Level 1 challenge, because I have two novels to write, some short stories, a wedding to be in (not mine, and it will be over soon, but in the meanwhile, I've had two anxiety dreams about it now...) which is 12 erotic or erotic romance books in 2014...

I'll keep track either here, or on Goodreads, and write reviews when I finish them up, so keep an eye out!

Elodie Parkes; Forever Blue

Your author: So, I want to welcome back Elodie Parkes, one of my publishing sibs over at Hot Ink... she's here today with her most recent release, Forever Blue, so say hi and make her feel welcome!

‘Forever Blue,’ my December 20 release with Hot Ink Press, was inspired by the woodland near where I live. There’s a mysterious feel about the woods in autumn. It often feels as if something is watching. From the window of the room where I write, I can see across to nearby woods. I hear owls hoot at night. At dusk and dawn, there are strange mists that rise from the trees. It’s very lovely.

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Blurb

Claudie loves living in the countryside and close to the forests. She’s a film maker and works for the wildlife trust. One night she steps onto her patio and sees a man sheltering there. She confronts him and he runs away.

Jasper has watched Claudie for a year. He fell in love with her, but he has a secret, one that might mean he can never approach her.

Will love and fate find a way?

What secret must Jasper hide?

What’s the strange blue dust that turns up on Claudie’s patio?

18+ erotic paranormal romance

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Today the main characters from ‘Forever Blue,’ Jasper, and Claudie are visiting the blog to give their take on the story and each other.

So what’s hot about Forever Blue?

Jasper: The love scenes. The way Claudie responds to me. Her courage. The love story. It’s unusual and steamy.

Claudie: The love scenes are hot, but then so is Jasper, I mean just look at him. The story is sumptuous. It’s rich in description so that you feel as if you’re in the places described, although I’d rather you weren’t in the love scenes. (smiles)

Jasper tell us about Claudie: She’s a professional, and clever. She makes films. I think she’s beautiful and smokin’ hot. She cares about the environment and the creatures in the forest. (Laughs then and takes Claudie’s hand)

What about Jasper, Claudie, tell us about him: He’s tall. He has these gorgeous muscles, that’s from working in the forest I guess. He’s sexy, sensual, loving. His kisses are to die for.

Jasper leans across to her, “Only my kisses?”

They gaze at each other for a moment.

So in just one word can you describe the story?

Jasper: Sexy

Claudie: Delicious

Excerpt

Jasper sighed. It was lost in the wind that whipped around the fallen leaves on the lawn. He waited until he knew she was in the upstairs part of her house and then he went to the door and pressed his face against the glass. Inside was a big square cane armchair. It looked comfy. Alongside it, Claudie had placed a cane table with a glass top. He knew she sat there to read in the afternoon sun, when it shone. Recently the weather was always wet or cold and Claudie wore thick sweaters and tight jeans. Jasper watched her as she walked to the bottom of her garden and put seed on the bird table there. He liked the way her thighs looked in the jeans. He liked the way she walked, in graceful, sexy strides.

Copyright Elodie Parkes 2013

Buy the book

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Bio

Elodie Parkes is a British author writing romance, erotic, contemporary, and often with a twist of mystery, paranormal or suspense. Her books are always steamy, cool stories and hot love scenes.
Elodie lives in Canterbury with her two dogs. She works in an antique shop by day and writes at night, loving the cloak of silent darkness that descends on the rural countryside around her home.

Elodie writes for Hot Ink Press, Moon Rose Publishing, Eternal Press, and Evernight She has also released titles as an individual indie author.

Find Elodie online: Blog Tumblr Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest YouTube Amazon USA Amazon UK Smashwords Barnes and Noble ARe Bookstrand Evernight

Goals for the Upcoming Year and Some Reviews

I really don't like New Year's resolutions...

There's no particular reason to wait for a certain date to get something done, and I'm never really sure the intense pressure a lot of people feel about New Years does them any good at all...

Also, plans are what you make while life happens;

But, going forward:

First off, I plan to review every single book that I read. (I may or may not review books that I've previously read and am currently re-reading, since I do that a lot, too...)

Second, I have two novels to write this year; Blues, the sequel to Roll, and Howling Bitch, the sequel to Blood Sight. Since I did Blues as my NaNoWriMo project and I'm 54,000 words into the novel thus far, I plan to have it completed by the end of February. I'm guessing I have a little less than 10,000 words to go on the project, so it shouldn't take me that long.

Howling Bitch is going to be about the same length, so if I start writing it in March, I'd like to aim to have it done by the end of August. Mostly because I don't intend to try another NaNoWriMo-type-push... guestimating about ~700 words a day, four days a week, I should finish in six months... seems reasonable, right?

Third; Liz and I are finally finished writing and editing our collection of short stories, which underwent a project title change recently, and is no longer "Promptly" but now "Whetting the Appetite" which might be better if I could spell Appetite correctly the first time. Which I cannot. So, we're going to wait a week or so, then both do another complete read through it, make sure we didn't miss any typos and then submit it by mid-January... wish us luck.

Fourth; I also have several other side projects I want to work on. My friend Jonah's working on a collection called Local Magic and I'm hoping to get this ghost project together by January 15th for him. I also have several shorts I want to write and submit for some other collections. I have a ton of story ideas that got abandoned for other projects. Alive and Kicking, Leaving her Marke, one of these days I'm going to write the Wormwood Trade, a steampunk romance that I've had brewing for a while. (Amazing how I seem to only have one front burner, but 500 "back burners".)

I wrote a couple of reviews today, kicking off that particular goal....

Four Stars All I want for Christmas - V.L. Locey

 Let's start off with the fact that I love Locey; she's funny and sweet and her stories are intensely emotional. if I am ever disappointed in a Locey book, it'll be because I went off my medication.

Alex and Cooper are another mis-match to start, attracted to each other but each with preconceived notions that turn out all wrong. One surly painter, one optimistic do-gooder and a pair of quirky cats turn their worlds upside down.

Again, bravo!

Five Stars The Wicked - Thea Harrison

Great add on piece

I love the Elder Races, and this one was pretty fun! Great supplement to the main stories... hot grouchy alpha male, puzzled, exasperated intelligent female. Good mix.

Five Stars Dragos Takes a Holiday - Thea Harrison

More Dragos, More Pia,  and a little bit of Peanut on the side...

Cute story and every bit as fun as the rest of the series; I love the Elder Races...

Five Stars Kinked - Thea Harrison

Best one yet! I've been reading the Elder Races since the beginning, but I really liked this one a lot. Clears up some old mysteries left over from Dragon Bound and brings new life to side characters that have gotten very little attention up til this point. Also, continues to answer questions about the world, tying all the stories together. Marvelous!

Four Stars - No Good Duke Goes Unpunished - Sarah MacLean

Emotional Rollercoaster of a novel

I admit the premise is a bit weak; I spent a LOT of the book going "oh, COME ON... really?" but the love story is good, the sex is hot, and the characters are fairly typical of MacLean, which is to say tough women and tougher men.

(Note: I have not read the other books in this "series" so maybe I would have liked it more if I knew the side characters better...)

25 Days of CHBB, What Does the Fox Say version

UPDATE!

I have decided to go ahead and give this ornament away! If you want it, please comment here, "like" my facebook page, or follow me on Twitter. I will give bonus three entries if you go to Amazon, buy Pistols & Guns, (my cowboy short story) and email me your order number... (If you've already ordered, liked, followed and are otherwise adorable and wonderful, just let me know in an email and we'll get you some entries for being FAN-tastic.)  

25 Days of CHBB

Hi, everyone!

So yeah, the fox doesn't have anything to do with anything, but I like the picture... Also, I've been making these diorama ornaments for the last several days, which is fun, kinda artsy and involves no actual talent on my part whatsoever. Last year I thought I'd try to teach myself to crochet this year... yeah, like that happened. I did ACTUALLY go to a class and sort of maybe a little bit learned how to crochet a straight line, but that was totally it. Also, I found it insanely boring.... further, my best friend - recently divorced, so had all the sudden a LOT of free time on her hands - took up crocheting again... she already knew how to do it, and was just applying it to weird-geeky-art... after seeing this

that I decided Flying Spaghetti Monster did NOT want me to learn to crochet, because I would only embarrass myself.

So, I've been making these little dioramas, and really, really enjoying it.

(Also, yes, I have a weird "thing" for the What Does the Fox Say song. Don't ask... I really don't understand it myself.)

And in between all that, I've been busting my buns to finish my novel, Blues, which is the sequel to my upcoming Torquere publication, Roll, available end of February 2014. And writing a short story for another friend's multimedia publishing endeavor. Once I'm done with those two projects, I'll start work on Howling Bitch, the sequel to my upcoming Vamptasy novel, Blood Sight, available in March 2014.

Aaaaand I have a bunch of short stories that I want to do for next year. Aaaaand I have formatting to do on the collection of short stories I'm co-authoring with Elizabeth L. Brooks... (she of the somewhat disturbing crochetted elder gods)

Busy writer is busy. 

Which would be part of the reason why I'm getting Boston Market to do my Christmas dinner this year....

I'll be here all day; why not talk to me about what you're doing for Christmas (if you celebrate it, religiously, secularly, or if you're Grinching it up, or not Christian - or American, since it seems like as an American, you get kinda inundated with Christmas regardless... personally, I'm a Gravitational Absolutist...)

(If you really like my silly fox ornament and enough people ask, maaaaaybe I'll give one away.... say "What does the fox want for Christmas" in the comments...)

Wordle...

Gingerbread Palace, a Review

Honestly, I shouldn't have bought this book. (Before you recoil in horror from that comment, allow me to explain....)

It's two weeks until Christmas, and I'm firmly in what my family refers to as my No-Buy zone, where I'm not supposed to buy anything for myself. Also, I'm on a fairly strict book budget... so, I wasn't supposed to buy the book. That being said, I managed to pull in some extra cash to my paypal account, and this was the first thing I bought with it.

So, enough about me;

The Book.

First off, I love firemen. My grandfather, my uncle, and two of my cousins are firemen, and I am both pleased at having them represented and impressed with the amount of research that went into the story.

Second, I'm a big fan of cooking and baking, so we have two of my favorite professions in the same story... also awesome.

And then there's the enemy to lover trope which is one of my favorite things, too...

Well done back stories. Enough details to keep us sympathetic without the rubbing-it-in-your-face sort of descriptions that seem a little too present in a lot of "abused kids" stories...

The writing was elegant and provocative, sweeping me into the story right away and continued to live up to an excellent start. If you're an easy crier (I am) prep a tissue ready for the last two chapters...

Buy Link

Description:

A Novella in the Delectable Series

A week before Christmas, Alex Bancroft’s bakery goes up in flames. When he runs back inside after a dog, firefighter Kevin Flint has to rescue Alex—and Quincy—from the smoldering building, endangering them and inflaming Kevin’s resentment.

Now Alex can’t create the elaborate gingerbread house he donates to a foster-kids charity each year. Fire Station 7 again comes to his rescue, offering their kitchen and their manpower.

Everyone but Kevin Flint, that is. A third-generation firefighter, he’s fearful of stepping too far out of the closet. So when his powerful physical attraction for Alex ends in a sizzling secret encounter in the firehouse, Kevin can’t push Alex far enough away, and Alex returns the cold shoulder.

After a change of heart, Kevin risks his life to prove he’s worthy of Alex’s affection, but without a Christmas miracle, their chances at sweet romance might go up in smoke.

Guest Post, A.R. Moler: A Foodie Writes

Say hi to one of my coffee-girls... There does seem to be quite a few of us m/m writers in the Tidewater area... I wonder if that says something about the area, or if it's just that Torquere seems to get a lot of word-of-mouth advertising. We got together just before Thanksgiving for a coffee and chat, which was great. I love her kids (and our children get on well, even if I will probably always call her son by the wrong name)...

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When I was writing Coming to Terms I used a little of my food shopping tendencies to structure the initial scene. I admit, I'm a foodie. I'm also married to guy who's parents are British and travel extensively. We travel a lot too. I guess you could say that impacts my grocery habits. Saturday started with a trip to the local Brit shop so we could get bangers, pickled onions and digestives, along with couple of candy bars my kids adore that aren't made in this country (Aero and Flake). Then we went to an international food market and picked up nori, rice vinegar, wasabi and green tea frozen mochi as well as some pot noodles (I have no idea what flavor because I don't read Korean) and Ramune soda. Dinner was at a Turkish doner kebab place we'd been meaning to try for weeks. This is actually a fairly average Saturday for us.

This morning I rode my motorcycle over to a high end grocery store to get sashimi grade tuna because dinner tonight is going to involve trying out the new sushi roll light saber I bought a few weeks back. Okay, it's not really a light saber... think sushi roll extruder, kind of like the playdoh pasta squisher. Fingers crossed it'll work without making a mess.

Coming To Terms When Aidan Sterling has been to hell and back doing his duty to his country, who will help him come to terms with what happened?

Sometimes, inevitably, life hits a snag. What if love turns up at the same time? Aidan Sterling's life has hit one of those moments-the times when things might just change whether he wants it to or not. Outside of the inherent paranoia of his active career in covert ops, he's recovering from some serious physical and emotional trauma from a mission gone disastrously wrong. His bosses aren't sure if he's up to returning to active fieldwork---and neither is he. And Kris Jameson is the kind of guy who'll take the time to understand and care about Aiden. He's a regular guy with a large heart. Kris is a carpenter and a part-time bouncer, easy going and hardworking. But not all danger can be found overseas, and nice guys aren't always safe even here at home.

Buy Links: http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?book=ALRTERMS