For the booklover

I'm in the throes of Christmas planning, and I thought I had all my gift shopping done when NPR ran a piece this morning on eye-catching reads for the book lover on your list.

Guess who's going to Barnes & Noble this morning?

Six Sentence Sunday

Welcome to my SSS! For the next two months, I'm featuring my RT Award Nominee, the het paranormal/time travel-ish erotic romance, Two Lives in Waltz Time. Maddy and Cash have been sucked into a 1940s private club milieu where Maddy's a dancer, Cash is the bouncer, and the whole world thinks they're engaged. Cash and Maddy are trying to make the best of a bad situation.

Maddy and Cash had sex, but when Cash fell asleep afterward, he had a nightmare about his past. Maddy woke him out of it, but he refused to talk about it. Instead, he coaxes her into the shower, where she takes control.

“It would kill me if something happened to you and I knew I could've stopped it,” he whispered.

“I know.”

Her mouth dotted kisses along his spine, while her hands continued lathering his chest. Cash lowered his head to protect his body from the shower's torrent, and for what seemed forever, the world vanished, leaving behind only the close quarters of the steam shrouding them in its dusky caress. Tenderness fused them together, his body singing with heat, his mind clearing of the detritus of his nightmare.

And then it was no longer enough.

To check out all the other six sentence contributions, head over to the official website.

Tell me a story...

Short post today, because I want everybody to go read this article on the science of storytelling. It explains why people remember things better when they're told stories as opposed to seeing bullet points.

I'd guess most writers already knew that, though I still find the science behind it fascinating. :)

PBS remixes Reading Rainbow

I was already a teenager when it launched, but any show, children's or otherwise, that promotes books and imagination is a winner in my book. Reading Rainbow was on the air for 23 years, inspiring children and adults alike, and PBS just did one of their infamous remixes with it.

Watch. I dare you not to smile.

Iron Eyes

I have writing progress news! My story for the upcoming steampunk pax at Amber Allure is now in and accounted for, so I can spread the news on what it's about.

My story is called Iron Eyes, and is a 35k m/m erotic romance set in 1922. My return to writing is hallmarked by a lot of nostalgic contemporary fiction, lol. I have one in the 20s, one in the 30s, and one in the 50s, all coming out in a two-month period.

Here's the blurb:

For three years, Cap Kaufman has been trying to make amends to his war buddy’s orphaned daughter. Building her a safe home. Finding her the best nanny. Now, he’s kidnapped the man her doctor says is her best bet for fixing her blindness.

When Hector Lanza wakes up on a boat in the middle of nowhere, he’s confronted by a man determined to get his own way. He has no choice but to play along and wait for his chance to escape. What he doesn’t count on is learning to respect the man who uprooted him from everything he knew, all for the love of a child.

For Hector, it’s a challenge. For Cap, it’s penance. For both of them…a chance for love. All it takes is opening their eyes to see what’s right in front of them.

Six Sentence Sunday

Welcome to my SSS! For the next two months, I'm featuring my RT Award Nominee, the het paranormal/time travel-ish erotic romance, Two Lives in Waltz Time. Maddy and Cash have been sucked into a 1940s private club milieu where Maddy's a dancer, Cash is the bouncer, and the whole world thinks they're engaged. Cash and Maddy are trying to make the best of a bad situation.

Since it's taken so long to get Maddy and Cash together, the six today is from the same scene as last week's. Just...later on, after Cash's words have worked their magic on her.

...He pressed her back down into the mattress, his strokes becoming increasingly insistent, but when he unexpectedly let go of her wrists, Maddy hesitated.

“Touch me,” Cash ordered.

It was what she had wanted since they'd walked into the room. Pushing past the red haze that seemed to be slowing her movements, Maddy raked her nails up his arms, to his shoulders, careful to avoid his injury from the previous night as she found the nape of his neck. He shuddered, trembled, moaned as he returned to her mouth.

“You wondrous woman,” he whispered.

To check out all the other six sentence contributions, head over to the official website.

Joss speaks out

I've decided I am never going to recover from that session with that trainer. All my aching muscles seem to be affecting my brain, because I was struggling with writing all day.

The perfect day to read Joss Whedon's 10 tips on writing, then. Sure, he's talking about screenplays, but a lot of what he says holds true for other media, too. Go take a look at it. It's totally worth it.

And I don't just say that because Joss is my god, lol.