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I’m done. With Ride the Lightning. Sent it off to my publisher last night. Yeah, there’s edits to be done (I used the phrase “like X spilling through a window” three effing times! You’d think I would have a better grasp of the English language, wouldn’t ya?), but I’m a good girl and spin through the edits pretty quickly. RTL will be out December 3.

With RTL Dave2 makes his literary debut, following in the footsteps of Karl (Karl with a K), Gooster (Corey Green), Marty (the Fairy Godfather), and Vahid who is the star of RTL. In this book, Dave2 is David Forrester, a powerful Magia (wizard) who runs a BDSM club called Far From Heaven. Dave is the best friend of the heroine, so he spends the length of the book wanting to kick Vahid’s ass. Unfortunately for Dave, Vahid is the one who gets to have all the sex in the book. In a gazebo, against the wall, in a bed, on the floor, in a shower, in a hay field (in shifted form), and in a BDSM dungeon.

Note for Jennifer Leeland: I think the wall sex scene in this one is hotter than the one in Hot Water.

Not as much humor in this book as there has been in previous books. Oh there’s a touch or two and there is my trademark of a running gag of some kind. In Hot Water, it was Eden’s pretty pink pussy. In Fire Season, it was Garret being a bean counter. In RTL, it’s the fact that Emily loves meat – steak mostly.

Now that I’m done with the novel (it’s longer than Fire Season) it’s time to move on to Christmas. I’ve got three holiday short stories to crank out, one of which will be FREE. I love that word.

On the personal front, I’ve been battling my damn arthritis and I think I’m starting to have hip issues. It sucks majorly. I’ve been able to manage my pain pretty well without having to suck down a lot of meds which are bad for my liver and stomach. Lately though, I’ve been eating Tylenol for dinner. Never a good thing.  Gonna have to put my thinking cap on and figure out how to better manage the pain. I don’t like sucking down meds.

For those of you who know Motley (aka Nikki), I’m not sure if I mentioned it but she and Tyler (her boyfriend of three years and her first real love) have broken up.  It wasn’t a bad breakup in the sense that they hate each other and all that shit, but it was a horrible breakup nonetheless. Distance did them in. He lives in Bakersfield now and we live in Orange County and the distance thing just doesn’t work. I think they were both heartbroken, but they just aren’t in the same place in their lives either.

Motley’s kind of lost these days and all she really does is draw on her tablet and play WoW. I figure she’ll come out of her tailspin eventually. We all did when we lost our first love. It’s hard to watch from the Mom-sidelines though, especially when I catch her crying.

As for me, things are… okay. Not great. Not bad. But okay. Bearable. Liveable.  Communication would make things better I think, but there’s a small percentage of me that says it wouldn’t, that it would blow everything the hell up, and that keeps me from pushing the issue. The little devil’s advocate inside me pokes me with his pitchfork and says, “But wouldn’t you rather KNOW?” while my brain tells him, “Fuck off. Half a loaf is better than none asshole.” So that’s where I am. Loverly, ain’t it?

So now I’m down to needing a very pretty Marcus this Monday. I picked four winners at the Breeder’s Cup this weekend (Goldikova, Conduit, Dancing with Silks, and Zenyatta) so between that and finishing Ride the Lighting, I feel like a bit of a celebration.

Isn’t that purdy? *sigh* Almost has a John Stamos look to him. Cept that Marcus has more muscle. HEH. Alrighty, I’m off to work. You all have yourselves a great Monday! MUAH!

In IT news… the damn board still isn’t moved. I keep getting errors. I need the SQL database god to come and snap his fingers and make it all magically move to where it’s supposed to go. I’m paying hosting on a site that isn’t up because I can’t move the damn thing. I may have to pay someone to do this. You’re wondering what this has to do with my title, aren’t ya? I’m trying to move an OLD message board to a NEW domain and hosting company. But the fucker isn’t cooperating. Or I’m just not smart enough to do this.

Moving on to other more pleasant subjects… My eyes are old. Officially that is. Yes, the doc gave me NEW reading glasses. Normally, the OLD part woulda depressed me. However, I was just happy to see clearly again and stop suffering from extreme exhaustion and major headaches. Anything within reach of my arms is a little out of focus for me now. Over the counter glasses from Walgreens helped, but I started feeling sick all the time especially the more I wore them. Turns out one eye is worse than the other so my prescription glasses address that and the lenses are different not the same. I worked all weekend on edits and Ride the Lightning and wow! What a difference!

On a side note about Ride the Lightning, there’s a character named Dave in this book. He’s a Dom who runs a BDSM club called Far From Heaven. He’s also Magia, one of the magical community in the Darkworld, so basically… he’s a wizard. He bears a superficial resemblance to my favorite Dave, but has no monkey sidekick. Maybe I should change that. I mean, every wizard has a familiar right? The book is starting to pick up speed and Vahid is now determined to save his self-destructive mate Emily. I’ll have to post a snippet when I’m a little deeper into the story.

Something happened recently and I didn’t blog about it in part because I usually don’t delve into my past a whole lot here. Anyway, more than twenty years ago, when I was pregnant with Motley, someone showed me what it means to truly be a friend. Kim Williams is ten years younger than me, but the woman has a heart of gold. I spent my pregnancy sick, broke, depressed, upset, freaked out, and just about any other emotion you could name. I literally had nothing. And I was so sick I ended up in the hospital the last six weeks of my pregnancy. It was one of the worst times of my life. I thought I was gonna die.

Through it all Kim was there. She took me to the doctor. She organized all her friends and my friends and took donations. She had the guys paint the used crib my roommate found at a yard sale. I mean, it was amazing. It went far beyond her making me eat and nagging me to take my vitamins. Just remembering what she did brings tears to my eyes. I felt so incredibly alone during that period and she made a major effort to show me that I wasn’t. There are very few people from my past that I love and admire more than Kim.

Sadly, we lost touch over the years. Mostly since I came to Southern California and more so when I moved to Orange County. My life with Rott has had a lot of ups and downs. Dealing with it on a daily basis didn’t leave much left over for anything else. A couple weeks ago Kim’s high school had a reunion. Somehow, and I sorta forget how, I had an old friend of hers on my Facebook. At the reunion, friends talked Kim into getting on Facebook and that is how we found each other again. I saw the notice of the reunion photos on her friend’s account and went to look at the photos. And there she was. Looking a lot like her mom these days but still with the long beautiful blonde hair and big eyes I remembered.

I don’t think I can find the words to say what it meant to me to find her again. I’m a sucky ass correspondent. I don’t write. I don’t call. Hell, lately since Rott’s been home, I don’t even Twitter and I miss it a lot but there are just not enough hours in the day at the moment. Something I’m hoping to rectify soon so I can have a better balance with things and have some time to enjoy chatting with friends and blogging more about the weird shit in my life.

At any rate, I’m a bonehead about keeping in touch with people I care about especially when I’m under pressure. I missed Karl’s birthday. Haven’t called Hilly like I promised. Keep forgetting to send Dave his prize… but I’m trying to make a more conscious effort to not let friendships – old and new – fall by the wayside. Finding Kim again is an important milestone. I really can’t afford to lose more people in my life. If you want to see the woman who singlehandedly kept me together and made it possible for Motley to be here today, you’ll find her on my Facebook. Kim Williams-Potts. One of my oldest, and even though I might not show it putz that I am, dearest, dearest friends.

So now for some Marcus. I need some this Monday. It’s month end at work and payroll so I’ve got tons of work to do and while I love my job, I hate being in the pressure cooker. I really need a Marcus to ease the stress.

That goofy little smile makes me laugh. Laughter is good for the soul I hear. So all of you have a chuckle at the expense of Marcus’ goofy smile and make your soul feel better. Have a great Monday!

So I have this guest blog post at a review site today. It’s title is Six With a Bullet. The reason for the title is that Fire Season is now #6 on All Romance eBook’s Top Ten List. This sort of equates to being the #6 most sold book at Barnes and Noble. ARe is one of the biggest distributors (e-bookstores) on the internet.

Because of riding this bullet up the bottom half of the top ten, I’ve been invited to be on ARe’s Blog Talk Radio show What’s Hot in Romance. It’s been awhile since I did any radio, but I’m sure I’ll remember how it works. I’ll prolly get a tad nervous because, after all, this isn’t Jester or Karl both of whom I’ve met and love. The show is on at 9:30 EST tonight.

I finished two novellas over the weekend thanks to the Word Wars ladies who kept cracking the whip. One is due tomorrow and I need to tweak on it some tonight. It’s not as polished as I would like it to be and it’s not going to get a crit either before it goes to the editor. I’m bummed. So many things have taken up my time and I’ve had some issues with this story. I think I need to break up my M/M writing sprees a bit. Doing a bunch of them in a row is very tough. It’s not an easy genre to write in the first place. You’re stuck saying he he him him his his name name name over and over again until you can’t figure out yourself whose arm, leg, lip, or dick you meant. I’ll be writing some good old fashioned BDSM when this over. It will be a welcome relief!

So here’s the part of Monday everyone but the straight men like. It’s that Marcus part. Here’s one of my all time favorite Marcus images. I just need this today. He can do my laundry anytime.

If you get a chance stop by Socially Dead. I bought Motley a tablet with my royalties and she’s put up some awesome new artwork. Hope you all have a spectacular Monday!

I has winnahs. Many winnahs. This was soooo much fun. Louie was asleep so he couldn’t pick a winner like last time.

Last year for Blog Reader Appreciation Week, Motley drew a name out of a Dooney bag. This year, she just picked numbers and I looked to see whose comment was that number.

So here are this year’s Blog Reader Appreciation Week winners!

Winner of the Goodie Bag is Comment #22 DEBBY!

Winner of the Snarkcoaster is Comment #33 KIMMY L!

Winners of a book are Comments:

# 25 – Del

#1 – Maurya

#15 – Christina Engels

#2 – Trinity

#6 – Val Pearson

#16 – RachieG

#38 – Debbie Tsikuris

#19 – Bunny

Last, but never least, is the Sex Toy mug. The winner of this prize is no stranger to you. Somehow, I could not persuade Motley to accompany a package of Blogography cards to the great Northwest unless the Dave Monument was complete. Still, she did call out #11 last which makes Dave2 the winner of the SexToy mug.

Winners need to contact me at winter at winterheart dot com before the next Marcus Monday is posted. So if you know a winner, pass the word along! If you won a book, you need to include the title of the book you wish to receive. If you won the goodie bag, snarkcoaster, or mug I need a mailing address to send the prize to.

I know Maurya is taking a copy of Fire Season. However there are 8 books in all to choose from. Just please be aware that The Pixie Prince is out July 3, Fire Season on July 9, and Runaways on July 14 or 21. I don’t have ARCs for any of them yet, but if you choose one of these, I’ll send it as soon as I have it. If you didn’t win a book and wanted to, you will have other chances! Check out the SPOTS page at LexValentine.com for more info. Also, when I participate in Karl’s Summer of Love, you could win a book there too!

Here’s the book blurbs to help you choose:

Underwear model Max Fever has a problem. He’s just become the Pixie Prince and his inheritance includes big golden wings that won’t let him sleep on his back. Max has to find a soft mattress or spend the rest of his days with a bruised behind. An enigmatic waiter named Marty takes Max to club Carpe Noctem to meet a vampire who has a space foam mattress. Max falls in love with the mattress and its owner, vampire Bliss Wilde. Will the tragic pasts of Bliss’ brother and Max’s best friend become a roadblock to their bonding?

As the pack Alpha, Roul Verlaine always looked out for his twin brother Ranulf. Now, Ran’s mated and run off to New York City. Deciding to check up on his twin, Roul hires the Watcher Agency to follow Ran and his new mate. But when Roul arrives at Watcher, the owner is not what he expected. Morgan Kale is a rare white werewolf, a lone wolf. She’s not looking for a mate so when Roul walks into her office and her senses start pinging, she’s not exactly happy about it. With Roul only in New York for three days, Morgan has to decide whether to tell him they are mates… or let him walk out of her life forever.

Werewolf Ranulf Verlaine meets vampire Dante Allerton on a train bound for Paris. Overwhelmed by desire, the couple let their senses take over and before the train ride is through, they’ve become mates. Ranulf must break free of the pack that his twin brother rules while Dante cuts the controlling ties of her two older brothers. The two must quickly deal with the burdens of their pasts in order to run toward the promise of a future together.

Vampire Elysia Granville gets more than she bargained for when she attends the Undertaker’s Ball on Halloween. She’s looking for a one night stand, but the man she chooses is Declan Antaeus, a home and hearth black dragon who has had a secret crush on her for years. Can the powerful dragon make the commitment shy vampire extend one night into forever?

Black dragon Eden Antaeus is a bad girl. Or so her brother Sean would have her believe. When Sean tells Eden she’s the Queen of Kink, someone who can’t get off on normal sex, Eden runs straight to the vampire club Carpe Noctem to find someone to have vanilla sex with. What Eden finds is Colin Granville, her brother Declan’s new brother in law. Desire burns hot between them despite the lack of surnames and after one night together, they both want more. Getting past the discovery that their siblings are married, Colin teaches Eden that she’s not the Queen of Kink and Eden finds a love, and a life, she never expected to have.

Black dragon Holden Antaeus isn’t looking for a mate. His life is filled with family, work, and dating. Women adore him and he’s never short of offers for sex, but a relationship isn’t something he’s interested in. When Holden’s brother Sean hires a new executive for Antaeus International, Holden’s whole world, and everything he’s ever believed about himself, is blown to bits. Garret Renquist is a green dragon, intelligent, witty, bi-sexual, and hot for Holden. Despite the fact that Holden is positive he’s heterosexual, the moment he meets Garret, something happens inside him. What follows is a journey through stereotypes and ingrained beliefs as Holden struggles with the fact that his destined mate is a man.

Suffering from the loss of the only man she’d ever loved, Maris tries to fill her life with other things, only to find that it doesn’t work. Even after 15 years, she misses the man she left behind. Aching with despair and loneliness, she leaves all the online communities she belongs to. Alex suffers from the loss of a woman he let walk away. Determined not to let that happen again, he sends Maris an email asking her not to leave the forum. A flurry of escalating emails leads to a meeting where both Maris and Alex receive the surprise of their lives… and a past love is rediscovered.

Randall Wise is the quintessential good guy. However, all of his friends are married and he’s still single. Rand is positive that good guys finish last at love and decides he needs to change if he’s ever going to find the woman for him. Brenna Thorne is a klutzy but cute would be witch who moves in next door to Rand. Men always think of Brenna like a sister. They never see her as girlfriend or mate material. Brenna longs for a man of her own who sees her sexy side and all the love she has to give. A little magic from Rand’s godparents, a familiar who isn’t a familiar, and a host of well meaning, but surprising friends help Rand and Brenna see that all you need to find your mate is a heart that is open to love.

Congratulations to the winners and thank you all for reading Sunlight Sucks!

This weekend Motley turned 20. No longer a teen yet still my baby. We celebrated with some Claim Jumper yummies delivered to our door including a slice of The Motherlode. Have you ever seen this thing? It is a chocolate explosion. An overdose. I think I could only eat about 3 bites of it today after having had one layer of the slice yesterday. Man. What a way to turn 20, overdosing on chocolate.

I talked about giving birth to Motley over on the Flirty Author Bitches blog, explaining that I’d been in the hospital for over a month. I’d been really sick and once they induced labor I got seriously cranky. I think I might have stayed that way which is probably why Motley doesn’t always think she’s hit the motherlode when it comes to mothers. I did post a video over at FAB. It’s the video that was playing on MTV when Motley arrived. I about took the nurse’s head off when she tried to turn off MTV. It was the only thing distracting me from the pain. I don’t let Motley forget that she arrived during an Aerosmith video. LOL

Apparently, the term motherlode extends to creativity and book covers too this past week. I was on a roll. After I did Fire Season’s cover I got an idea for the covers of the next two books. I think they turned out quite well. After that, I made a couple of sig tag banners for people. What do you think? Was my creative genius at work or am I tooting my own horn for no reason?

I think I did okay on the graphics front. This week I’m leaving on Friday to pick up Rott in Mammoth. I have a long boring drive ahead of me and a lot of stress. Actually, I’m already stressing. I may have to start work on my next project without a breather because I need the distraction. Well, actually, I have some trailers to do. Hopefully, my creative motherlode holds for a few more days.

Before I go I’ve got to post a Monday motherlode of Marcus! I cannot have a Monday without him anymore. And I really love this photo. Tres hawt. Tidey whities never looked so good. Well, cept maybe for the ones on Travis Fimmel. HEH. Gah. No contest. I’d still take Marcus over Travis, but it would be a tough decision.

If you get the chance, stop by Motley’s blog Socially Dead and wish her a happy you’re no longer a teenager birthday. Hope you have a great Monday!

As most of you know, Motley has been playing WoW. She has a guild called Questicles so I made her a forum for it. My new hosting company has auto install of phpbb boards so I had her up and running in less than an hour. She’s been enjoying herself playing both horde and alliance characters. Then early this morning, she and a friend came upon a quest that made her – and me – sad. She had to find Hilary’s Necklace.

Just looking at the two little cartoon kids fishing made me sad because I know that my friend is sad. In my head I heard that famous line from Casablanca, “We’ll always have Paris”, but in my mind I changed it to “We’ll always have Hilary’s Necklace.” And although Motley and I were saddened by the quest, we know our friend is headed out on a new quest, in a new land, with every chance to be happy once more.

In a short time, Rott will be home and I wonder if this is my chance to be happy once more or if history will repeat itself. It will be a new quest for us and it will be especially hard for Rott. But I worry all the time that everything will just go back to the way it was and I will have to walk away. It’s a very stressful time in my house right now as we prepare for his homecoming in May.

All stress and sadness and questicles aside… since it’s Monday it’s time for a Marcus. I’ve been hunting for new Marcus photos and haven’t come up with any I don’t already have. I’m gonna have to start posting photos I’ve posted before! That’s not much of a hardship though for me. I can look at him for hours. Heh.

Those shorts are way tacky but I’d be more than happy to help him take them off. *wink*

Have a great Monday everyone!

They’re here! Yes, the first two books in the Tales of the Darkworld series came out last Thursday the 5th. I didn’t blog about it because I have been in OT hell. The day job was ruthless last week and I’m still exhausted. Deadline on top of deadline just wrung every ounce of energy from me. I’m still not done with month end functions and I’m truly crossed eyed with exhaustion.  When the alarm went off this morning at 6 – and I went to bed at an hour that is early for me – I just wanted to roll over and sleep for 4 more hours.

I’m currently sitting in my towel, wet from the shower, and eyes drooping. I could nod off right here in my chair. Seriously. I may have to go home early because I already feel the telltale pressure of a king size sinus headache building behind my face. That should guarantee some sleep though.

So, Tales of the Darkworld are about shifters. In the case of the first two books, the shifters are black dragons. Book One Shifting Winds is the story of black dragon Declan Antaeus and a vampire he’s had a crush on for years, Elysia Granville.  It contains sex in the cemetery on Halloween while 6′4″ Declan is dressed as the Grim Reaper with a real scythe and Elysia is dressed as Elvira.  No TVC here. Only TDC – throbbing dragon cock. It’s probably all pretty similar to Dave.

In Book Two Hot Water, Bad Monkey will get his fill of TVC because the hero of the story is Elysia’s brother Colin who is, of course, a vampire. The heroine is Declan’s black sheep of the family sister Eden.  This story contains sex in an infinity pool that is set to boiling by Eden’s dragonfire.  This story has a lot more layers to it than Shifting Winds. It also has two scenes featuring the snarky elf Karl with a K, the very amusing gay wildling Corey Green, and one scene with the mesmerizing black dragon Vahid Delrey. You know these characters as Karl Erikson, Gooster, and Iron Fist.

Hot Water is dedicated to those three for allowing me to morph them into immortals (Vahid needs to email me so I can send him a copy) and to Jennifer McKenzie (ie Jennifer Leeland) who is better at pushing than an electric cattle prod. Jen also had a really great Thursday Thirteen on my release day with 13 reasons to buy Hot Water. Apparently, Jen really liked Gooster too because his character was the #9 reason to buy the book! Go Gooster!

I haven’t promo’d the books much and I still haven’t gotten around to submitting The Wise Guy for reviews. As soon as I’m not so groggy I’ll get on that. But speaking of reviews, I read the funniest thing ever yesterday. If you need a good belly laugh, a spew your soda onto the monitor laugh, you MUST read this. It’s truly hilarious. No TVC but there are things ever so much funnier. Ladyfingers. You HAVE to read it to understand. You’ll never look at those cookies the same way again. Go HERE.

Now, a taste of Marcus on this Monday. I posted some of my favorite photos of him at my release party over the weekend. Ummmm ummmm. He is just delicious! Here’s a really nice image of him to brighten the beginning of the week. Bad Monkey should be pleased.

Since I had two new releases those who post comments for the next two weeks will be entered in a drawing to win copies of the Tales of the Darkworld.

A couple of last items and then I guess I’d better drag my ass to work. First, if you want to BUY my books you can go to Pink Petal Books where they are currently on the front page. Second, if you play WoW and you’re in Blackwing Lair (I think that’s the right server) keep an eye on the mailbox. (But don’t ask me where the mailbox is because I don’t know. I’d have to ask Motley.) Apparently, Motley’s hot character iPanties gets up on the mailbox and dances… while taking her clothes off. Yep. That’s my kid.

Have a great Monday!