Teaser Alert!! "Home Bound" Edition #2

Revisiting an old friend...

As an avid reader, I cannot even pick my all-time favorite book.  There have been so many that have touched me and made me laugh or cry that there is no way to narrow it down to just one being "the best".  Characters leap off the page and become real - their stories unfold all around me that it sometimes feels like I'm actually part of it!  Imagine how much more intense it becomes when I'm the writer of the story!

So now that I am with Sourcebooks, I have a bunch of new books to write and new characters to meet and get acquainted yet.  But...the really cool part is that we are going to be re-editing and re-releasing all of my back titles as well.  It's a daunting task but what I'm finding is that I am getting a chance to revisit some of the fun characters I created.

Trust me, it's fun.

This week I've been working on "The Christmas Cottage" and "Ever After".  It's only been a little over two years since I released them and yet I had forgotten so much about them!  I got caught up in the fairytale and myth of couples finding love if they spend the night in the sweet little cottage.  I laughed with my heroes and heroines and fell in love all over again.

Do you like to re-read some of your favorite books?  How often do you do it?  There are times where I'll still have hundreds (yes, hundreds) of titles on my Kindle that I haven't read but I'll go back to one that I have and read it again!  I want that feeling...the way that the story made me feel just one more time.  It's comfortable.  There are no surprises.  No chance of being let down.  You know how it's going to end but you still want to go back and visit.

Have you gone back and re-read any Samantha Chase books?  Any of them make you want to go back and visit?

Teaser Alert! "Home Bound" Edition

Cover Reveal!!

I'm sad to see this series coming to an end but here it is, the cover of our final book in the Protectors series - "Home Bound".

Here's a little blurb: 

The story of my life isn't pretty. I come from the wrong side of the tracks. I've been a criminal. I've been homeless. I almost killed my father, and I might be responsible for the death of my best friend.

I should not be wanting her.

Her life story is the stuff of dreams. She's America's sweetheart - beautiful, talented, and famous - and she doesn't want anything to do with me. I'll protect her from a stalker since it’s my job, but that's all I'm allowed. No touching, no lusting, no falling in love. I'm all wrong for her, and she's completely off-limits.

But I've never been good about following the rules.

Hopefully we'll have a pre-order link up and ready by the end of next week!  

It's all about the love...

So...it's February.  Valentine's Day.  You know...the love holiday.

I've been happily married for 25 years.  Love, love, LOVE my husband.  Do we celebrate Valentine's Day? 

No.

I don't know why.  No wait...I'm lying.  I DO know why.  Because my husband declared many, many years ago that it was a pointless holiday considering that he loves me every day and doesn't need a day to remind him to love me.

Awwww...

Um...no.  I saw that explanation as a way of him getting out of putting in an effort on Valentine's Day.  He denies it but I still have my suspicions.  Normally I try and throw in a little effort on the actual day - a nice candlelight dinner with special foods.  Even if the kids are home.  We've had some great surf and turf during those meals.  I've even bought myself flowers - and then used them for props for our candlelight dinner. 

I guess I kind of agree with him.  We love each other 365 days a year.  I won't go so far as to say that EVERY day is Valentine's Day.  Because that would make me a big, fat liar.  We may love each other every day, but believe me when I say that there are plenty of days where we just don't like each other very much.  We yell, we scream, we say stupid stuff.  But at the end of the day, we get over it, kiss each other goodnight and say "I love you". 

I write romances.  I write stories about people meeting and falling in love.  Their relationships aren't perfect - as a matter of fact, that's one of the things that I enjoy writing about.  The complicated side of being in love.  The days where things just don't go well.  That's reality.  But in the end, everyone gets their happily ever after.

And isn't that why most people read romances?  They want to read about the happily ever after!  Or I always thought so.  I got a review once where someone actually complained about my books always having a happy ending.  That one threw me for a loop.  I wasn't sure what else this reader was expecting - it's a romance, people fell in love, and they normally live happily ever after.  I know there are authors out there that don't follow that formula, but I do.  It's what I like to read so it's what I like to write.

And I'm fortunate enough that it's what I get to live. 

Happy sigh.

So what's your take on Valentine's Day?  Love it?  Hate it?  Wish there was a little less pressure and commercialism associated with it?

What's your story?

My Playlist

I'm a complete dork.

I won't even try to deny it.  It's there for all the world to see.  One son reacts with eye rolls and indifference while the other will flat out call me a loser.  Why?  My choice of music.

I'm an 80's girl.  And we all know that 80's music is still big and all that but that doesn't mean that it was all good.  I have satellite radio and there is an 80's station and yes, I listen to it.  The other day my 15 year old and I were in the car and a Def Leppard song came on that I had never heard before.  I was like..."WHAT???"  He started to laugh at me.  You know, the usual response.  So when I tried to explain about why I was so perplexed, he stopped me.  Then he turned to me and said, "You know, you have a LOT of stories about the songs that we listen to."

Really?  I hadn't noticed.

And yes.  That was sarcasm.

I can't help it.  I love music.  I love to have music playing around me.  I sing really badly in car - and really loud too.  I would definitely say that my life has a soundtrack but the music would be all over the place.  Even though my first love is music of the 80's, I still have a rather eclectic playlist on my iPod.

Like what, you ask?  (Insert smile here)

Taylor Swift.  Only her new stuff.  I can't help it.  It's catchy and I can't stop singing it.  To my sons:  Haters gonna hate...

Sad songs.  Oh.  My.  God.  I do enjoy a good sad song.  You know the kind - songs of lost love, breakups and fear of dying alone.  It doesn't matter who's singing it or why...I just want to hear it.  All of Chicago's songs in the 80's?  Sad.  Power ballads by metal bands?  Sad.  Even when they are kind of lovesong-ish?  They're still sad!!  But what makes it worse is that singing a sad song, kind of makes me happy.  And sometimes it's really good inspiration for a new book.  Everybody sing!

70's music.  No, not the cool stuff.  I'm talking really random, one-hit wonders type of stuff.  "It Never Rains in California", "Beach Baby" - I list the title because no one knows who sang these songs.  Then I round that decade off with some Bay City Rollers, Abba and random disco.

The Osmonds.  Don't judge.  If you're a woman in your 40's, you probably had a Donny Osmond crush or know the words to "Puppy Love" or "One Bad Apple."  Don't lie.  I watched the Donny and Marie Show, I had the dolls and when my older son got his braces off, I referred to his smile as being like Donny's.  I also have a greatest hits CD as part of my playlist - for nostalgia. 

The Jackson Five.  How can you NOT smile when J5 is singing???  There have been times - and I completely own this - that I will "dance" (and I use that term loosely) while I'm driving and "I want you back" comes on. Give me some bell bottoms and a fringed vest and I could have totally been a backup dancer here.

Donna Summer.  Enough said.

If they had big hair and had a song in the 80's, they're on my iPod. 

I can go from banging my head, to shaking it off, to crying my eyes out, to being a dancing queen.  Bottom line?  Music makes me happy.

What's on your playlist??