Stirred Up is Now Available

I am thrilled to say that my new contemporary romance novel is available as of today at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords. Isn't the cover sexy? So is the story!

Here's the description:

The last thing Cheryl Munro expects her first day student teaching is the sexy English teacher standing at the front of the classroom. But no matter how charming her new boss is, nothing is going to distract her from her goal – becoming a full-fledged teacher so she can put her years stripping at the Pink Pussycat Gentlemen’s Club behind her.

From the moment Cheryl walks into Jason Shaw’s classroom he has to remind himself she’s off-limits, at least until the semester’s over. But there’s no rule about being friends, and soon the two of them are spending time together after hours, doing their best to ignore their off-the-charts chemistry. He’s a patient man, and some things are worth waiting for.

But Jason’s discovery of the one secret Cheryl was determined to keep shakes both of them and confirms Cheryl’s worst fears. Will Jason be able to win back her trust, or do some scars run too deep?

 

Stirred Up is a full-length contemporary romance novel. It’s the second book in the Sin City series but can be read alone as well.

Visit my website for more details.

Sin City: The Musical

Okay, so there is no musical, but there is a new book in the series. Almost.

Stirred Up, which I talked about in an earlier post, will be released on July 27th, and I'm really excited about it. There are a few things that make it a little different from Tempt Me and Set Loose. For one, it's a full-length novel, which meant I got to really dig into the hero and heroine and see what made them tick, and I got to develop their relationship over a period of time.

Secondly, I would characterize it as a steamy contemporary romance (as opposed to erotica). The characters and their situation all demanded that the hot action did not take place immediately, even though the attraction is there right off the bat. Personally, I like excruciating sexual tension that builds until you're dying for the characters to get it on. And trust me, once they do get it on, there is plenty of action.

You'll also see some faces from Set Loose (Cutter, Emily, and Lisa) and meet new characters who will be featured in the third book in the series.

So that's my big news. My other news is that I just read Eleanor & Park and so should everyone else on planet Earth. It's a beautiful, amazing, intense YA romance and it blew my mind.

To Tempt, or Not to Tempt. That is the question.

Ever since I released Tempt Me in January, 2012, people have asked, either in emails to me or in reviews, whether there will be a sequel. The answer is: maybe. The thing is, I didn't plan to write more about Ian and Nina. If I had, I would have written it pretty quickly after I published the first part. Actually, I would have just put it out as a longer book, since I don't love it when authors release multiple novellas instead of one novel.

I didn't plan on writing Tempt Me at all. I had just finished my historical romance novel, No Other Love, and had been working on another historical. This one took place a couple years after the Civil War and featured a spinster who heads to Nevada as a mail order bride. I had been working on it for a couple of months and was miserable. I'd completely psyched myself out and couldn't imagine ever finishing it, and writing was no longer fun. I was expressing my despair to my friend Abby one day, and she suggested I take a break and write a novella, something that would be fun to write and that didn't have to conform to any particular market or audience.

So I did, and it was fun. First of all, it was so much easier and quicker to write a contemporary romance because I wasn't slowed down by research. Secondly, writing something short took away any doubt that I'd be able to finish it.

Some readers like the story enough that they want more of it, and some seem to feel let down or even cheated that it's so short. Some are happy with it just as it is. It never occurred to me that anyone would feel let down, because I felt like it ended where it should, after they'd worked through the main stumbling blocks to being together and declared their love. I love romances because I get to experience all the uncertainties and thrills of early love and lust, so that is what I tried to deliver. When we leave them at the end, they are on their way a having a happily ever after.

That said, I get why people want more. One of the joys of reading a romance is sinking into a book and living with those characters. I love Ian and Nina and could definitely find more to say about them. My fear is that if I did, it wouldn't be as satisfying as what I wrote in the first part. I would only be doing it to make readers happy, which is a great reason, but if I'm not feeling it I'll let people down anyway.

So I'm going to hold off, but if the spirit moves me I'll write it, and you'll all be the first to know.

Coming Soon...

I finally have a title for Book Two in the Sin City series: Stirred Up. Not only that, I am nearly done writing it! I expect to release it in July and will report back when I have an exact date. This one is a full-length novel and features Cheryl, the red-headed stripper from Set Loose. I'll have a nice little description for it soon.

Book Three will come out early next year, but since I havent started it yet, I can't get more specific than that.

Stay tuned...

New Adult for the Not-So-New Adult

Recently I've read a few "New Adult" romances, a sub-genre I hadn't heard of until recently. It's pretty new but has taken off now and is growing. (Of course, I often think something is taking off right when I hear about it.) Featuring heroes and heroines between 17 and  20 (ish), they often (though not always) depict the characters in a high school or college setting.  The content tends to be more mature than Young Adult novels, and the main characters often have sex at some point in the book. In the ones I've read, the sex is treated as a serious thing and the characters don't engage in it until they have reached a true understanding of each other. Of course, some adult romances take this approach, too.

The first book I read in this category was Tamara Webber's Easy, and I absolutely loved it. So when I heard about another New Adult book by another author who was getting a lot of press, I decided to give it a try. It had hundreds of rave reviews on Amazon, so I was pretty sure the book (hereafter referred to as Book X) was going to be good. Unfortunately, not so much. It started off strong and had intriguing, appealing characters, but it went downhill about halfway though and I ended up skimming the second half, unable to finish it.

Needing validation for my reading experience, I then went to Amazon to see if anyone else felt like I did. Reading through the two and three star reviews, I did find other readers who felt as I did, but they identified as adult women, thirty years old and up. The younger readers didn't seem to have a problem with how melodramatic and over-the-top the book got.

It got me thinking about what it means to read a book targeted at girls in their late teens when you are far beyond that yourself. I am not the target audience, so is it fair of me to criticize?  These books, like all romances, are fantasies, and in New Adult books, they're fantasies for girls decades younger than me. Who am I to judge?

Of course I do. A good book is a good book and this one could have been written better. A good editor would have done the trick. And there are some books that completely do it for me, regardless of their target age.  If I hear that something is good I want to try it, and it's a let down when the book isn't so great. I no longer trust Amazon reviews, since I so often don't agree with all the raves I read, but they are useful for judging which ones are worth taking the time to sample.

In any case, I'm still on the lookout for New Adult books. It's a time of life we all remember, and love at that time can feel even more poignant. People are just starting to understand themselves and become independent. These feelings are all new and wild and sometimes out of control. It's fun to read about it, and remember that time in your own life, even if nothing nearly so momentous or sexy happened during it.

When I was that age, I was reading long, over-the-top historical romances and loving it. Maybe I would have loved the melodrama of Book X at that age, too. It doesn't have to be great literature to hit you right where it counts.

I'm Your Number One Fan

This past Friday I headed off to Burlington, Massachusetts for the annual conference of the New England Chapter of the Romance Writers of America (NECRWA). After meeting my friend Abby (see previous post for more on her) for lunch we headed off to the master class on dialogue led by Julia Quinn, who looks and sounds like Mary Louise Parker at her West Wing sassiest. That class, and the other workshops on craft, are one of the best things about the meeting. While you're sitting there you get these "aha" moments where you suddenly think of something great to do with your story, and you leave actually knowing more.

Then there's meeting authors you've been reading or hearing about for years, like Marie Force and Judith Arnold, and discovering new authors and contacts. These meetings are basically hundreds of generous women hanging out together talking about romances. What could be more awesome?

Here's who else I saw there: Cara McKenna. If you follow my reviews on Goodreads, you know how I feel about Cara McKenna. So when I saw her walk by my table before dinner Friday night, I jumped up, ran over, interrupted a conversation she was having and told her how much I love her books. Hopefully I didn't scare her. I'm kind of tall and I felt like I was sort of looming over her like a crazed fan. But she thanked me and I left her alone to eat her dinner, having accomplished one of my goals for the meeting.

I drove home Saturday afternoon energized and ready to make the second book in the Sin City series totally awesome. I also may have a title for it: Set Free. Get it, Set Loose and then Set Free? But if I did that, what would I name the third book?

If anyone has an opinion about this, please feel free to comment.

I also thought up an idea for a new series based on a Maine town where my husband and I have gone on vacation. So I'm psyched about that. And to top it all off, this morning I dressed up in my best business casual and went to court to fight a ticket I got back in February (to the tune of $100), and it went in my favor. Now I have the rest of the day left to write, watch the last "New Girl" and "Mindy Project" episodes and meet my husband for sushi. No complaints today.

Keepin' It Real

I was in DC last week when a book by one of my favorite authors – one I had pre-ordered so long ago I had forgotten when to expect it – was delivered to my Kindle. I was aglow with delight, since I had all kinds of time in my hotel room at night, not to mention on the plane, to read it.

But alas, within the first chapter I knew it was not going to live up to her other books. The whole thing was flat, the conflict felt forced. It was, in a word, boring. I was sorely disappointed, seeing as how this particular author only releases one book a year.

When I got back from my trip I talked to Abby, my friend and critique partner, and told her what I thought of it. Now, she hadn't been happy with the author's last book, whereas I loved it. But because Abby loved her other books, she had still planned to buy the next one. And in fact, after we talked she even bought the one I had just condemned, because she had to see for herself. So, after talking about all the ways in which it was lame, we agreed we'd still buy her next book.

Below are the brilliant insights that came out of these discussions:

1) If you love an author enough, you will give her multiple chances. One not-so-great book isn't the end of the love affair.  This is a very reassuring thing if you are an author, since not everyone is going to love each book you publish.

2) It's possible to become too comfortable with what you are writing and lose the very thing that romance readers count on you for. Many romance authors, ones I love, succumb to this at one time or another. Whether they write too many books in one series, write too often about the same sorts of characters and stories, or are just pressured to publish too many books, it's easy to see how it can happen, especially over a long career. Abby and I made a pact that we will not let each other publish anything sub-par. We don't want to ever phone it in or not be excited about what we're writing, and we also want to have long writing careers that stand the test of time.

3) To keep things fresh, writers need to challenge themselves, step out of their comfort zones, and try new things. This is perhaps especially true with writers who produce books very often. It's no easy thing to maintain freshness and originality when writing one or more books every year. We re-committed ourselves to writing books in different romance genres and/or writing about people or situations that are challenging, scary or not usually done.

4) If, come a certain age, we are no longer interested in writing about sex (God forbid), we'll be honest with ourselves and each other and move on.

How do I plan to keep it fresh, you ask? I think after I finish the Sin City series I may try my hand at another historical. Some time ago I began one that takes place in and around Reno and Genoa, Nevada (where I spent my honeymoon) shortly after the Civil War. It features a spinster mail-order bride (I love a good spinster romance) and a jaded, wandering ex-US Marshall (Timothy Olyphant anyone?), and I have always meant to get back to it. After that, who knows. Paranormal. steampunk, new adult? I'm up for anything.