A New Review

The first review for GDTB has arrived! 

Isis, at Sizzling Hot Book Reviews said:

"I enjoyed this office romance. I loved the dynamic between Tadd and Mariel. It was fun to watch Mariel blossom when she finally realizes her hottest and wildest fantasies." 

http://www.sizzlinghotbooks.net/2012/04/getting-down-to-business-by-tess.html

Have a wonderful weekend!

Tessie

www.tessiebradford.com

Reviews and News!

It’s been another busy week, but a great one. I’m still writing away on the new book series co-written with Amber Skyze. We did get some good news from Loose Id earlier this week. The first book in our paranormal series will be released July 17^th!  That’s a lot earlier than I expected.

We are thrilled to have a summer release with Loose Id this year! I can’t wait to finish the other books in the series and start sharing them with readers.

“Something Wicked This Way Comes Volume 2” will be released next Tuesday May 1^st on Amazon and Barnes & Noble and May 2^nd through Ellora’s Cave. The first review for SWTWC V2 from Night Owl Reviews was a good one!

Please check it out:

http://www.nightowlreviews.com/nor/Reviews/Chris-reviews-Something-Wicked-This-Way-Comes-2-EC.aspx

I am so excited about this anthology. The other authors in this series are so good and their stories are so much fun! Give this an anthology a try.

Have a wonderful week.

XXOO Kat

Preparing for the NEC Conference

I wish I planned a post for today. I'm busy getting my promo stuff ready and packing for my trip to Salem MA this weekend where I'll be taking part in the NEC RWA Conference. I'll be signing books on Saturday at the Hawthorne Hotel with a group of fantastic authors.
I'm excited to meet our very own Julia, who will also be there signing. :o)

http://necrwa.org/blog1/conference/

Hopefully I'll have fun stories next week.

Enjoy the little things in life...

Like this 14" tall mini foal...

I find myself making big deals of small stuff a lot lately.  I have agonized over stuff that shouldn't amount to a hill of beans.  I have worried myself sick over stuff that should be just an "Eh..so?" in my daily existence.  I find that when I worry less, things seem to happen in their proper order...and sometimes they even surprise me.

It's time for me to just "get over it" and move along.  Don't sweat the small stuff, because all you do is trip over it on your road to the rest of your life.  Take the little horse above.  He can't get much done on his own, but you put a few dozen of those little babies in front of a cart and they can drag things forward a few feet.  So, you still get where you are going...just a bit slower.

I have been busy revising and resubmitting some of my previously-published novels now that I have my rights back.  I will sub them to my favorite publisher...and if they aren't accepted, then hey...I go to Kindle to self-pub them.  No sweat.  New covers...new spiffy titles...and voila!  I refuse to give up.

Take care, my dear friends...hugs and happy weekend!

Fran Lee

http://www.franleeromance.com 

Is My Memory Really So Bad?

As I glance up at my credenza here in my author's cave, I count 11 hanging paper reminders of passwords and phone numbers, along with two 8 1/2 x11 sheets of paper on my desk to the left of my laptop with friend's upcoming release dates and notes regarding my current wip. At least one scrap of paper is paper clipped to the strap of my purse most days. I email myself regarding things to be done. I write appointments, birthdays, anniversaries, and other important events on multiple different calendars. My dog's medicine schedule is taped to a kitchen cupboard. The other day, afraid I was going to forget an important lunch meeting, I called my work voice mail from my cell phone on the drive home from the office and left myself a message!!??

I work in the recycling industry - extreme paper usage is not looked upon fondly! I swear I'm not freaky busy; actually my life is way, way less complicated than it was when the kids were young, hubby and I were establishing our careers, etc. The psycho-ness of this behavior is intensified by the fact that I rarely forget things! Is it the act of obsessing about forgetting which causes me not to forget??

Other Issues On My Mind This Week:
1)  Humans need to be mindful that when you're handling your business outside, in the middle of the night, your neighbors next door are being affected!
2)  Despite paying top dollar, utter crap is available on cable TV during the day.
3)  Eventually, no matter the size of one's home, it is impossible to keep everything you want to.
4)  Isn't it the best when animal buddies snuggle with us?

Have a great weekend!
Tessie
www.tessiebradford.com

The Lure Of Summer Movies

Believe it or not the “summer” movie season starts in less than two weeks! I remember when the summer movies came out in summer, Memorial Day at the earliest. The trend has steadily moved toward releasing a big budget but possibly questionable movie, earlier and earlier to catch people off guard.

You know the ones I’m talking about. The people who avoided going to the movies since Christmas Day. The folks who don’t know a single new movie star’s name and never read popular fiction (My husband.)

These are the same people who don’t make entertainment decisions and just quietly climb into the car without asking enough questions and allow someone else to choose the movie for them. Those folks will get dragged to a lot of movies they may or may not enjoy. This year the studios are ready and waiting with a very early harvest of summer movies.

My poor dad is one of those people who walks into a theater not knowing what the movie is about. He sees every movie out there but he has no idea in advance what my stepmom is taking him to see. He’s always astonished. He’ll sit through anything from the most obscure foreign film to a good old blockbuster. I love hearing his movie reviews because they’re genuinely innocent and bizarre.

I love summer movies and I can’t wait for this year’s crop to reach theaters.

I just realized last night that Marvel’s all-star “Avengers” is coming out May 4, and possibly as early as April 27th in select 3D theaters. It looks great, so does the early release date mean the studio is worried about it? Or does it mean Marvel expects the Avengers to kick ass and suck all the oxygen out of the air and leave nothing for the next movies to feed off?

We’ll soon find out.

By the way who’s sexier, clean cut Captain America, Thor with his mighty hammer and flowing golden locks, or bad boy Ironman Tony Stark?

XXOO Kat

Switching Gears

This post originally appeared on Raine Delight's blog on April 6th, but I felt the need to share it here with my Scribes and reaers of this blog. :o)

When I started writing romance I wrote mostly behind closed doors sex scenes. Then I discovered erotica and learned to be more detailed with the bedroom scenes. Overall, my stories always had romance at the core of them.


I didn’t like for my characters to hop into bed within the first thirty seconds of meeting. This mainly comes from the fact that I could never do that, so how could I justify my heroine? I wrote six or seven books where the couple grew into the sex. I published a few and sales were pretty good. Then I was offered a contract with a bigger publisher. They wanted my book! Yay! I was so excited. This was the goal I strived for during my two years writing erotica.

Then came the revision letter. Could you add a sex scene a little earlier? A few of my writer friends and I joke about this being the “please have sex by page 3” syndrome. Hmmm, I wasn’t sure about this, even though my heroine and hero had known each other for a long time. In the end I did it and I liked the way the story turned out.

Now I’m writing a contemporary romance and having trouble switching gears again. It took a long time to learn how to spice things up…now I have to re-train my brain to tame things down. It makes me wonder how authors can write in so many different genres. I’m almost 50k into this book and I’ve kept the sex scenes to kissing…eventually I’ll have to go back and fill in the blanks. :o)

When having lunch with a few writers last week I discussed my issue with taming it down and as I spoke about it the answer came to me. Write the way I normally do and during editing tone down the hotness. For me it’s easier to take out than add to. Now I can write the scenes without the pressures.

In the meantime I have a new/old book I’ve self-published. One Tasty Night was with a former publisher of mine, but now available on Amazon, B&N and Smashwords.

http://www.amazon.com/One-Tasty-Night-ebook/dp/B007NNE7U6/ref=sr_1_17?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1333633282&sr=1-17

Been sick for a week or so...

Feel a bit like roadkill...

No...the kitteh above is just zoned out on catnip...still alive, but looks a lot like I feel. Waiting for my editor to get back to me on two submissions. She likes the short story (sorta a Quickie length) but has not commented on the full length novel yet.  Cross yer fingers for me, pleeeze?  Hope I feel human before next week...

This totally sucks.  Blech.  Have gone through enough tissues to build a snow fort with...had to make a WalMart run for 12 more boxes.

Too weak and tired to write more.  Love you all.

Hugs,

Fran

http://www.franleeromance.com

I'm "Dragon" Myself Toward The Finish line

Amber and I are still very busy this week and waiting for two contracts to be finalized. Taking the co-authoring route has been a great learning experience on so many levels. Just doing something as simple as filing a join contract can become a new challenge. We live on opposite sides of the country, so it’s not possible for us to witness each other’s signatures.  We had to round robin everything in the mail a couple of times to get it all right.

I love what we are working on. I’m adding about 2k each day in additions to the second book in the series. These books are turning into big, juicy adventure stories with a lot of action. I can’t wait to talk about them, but for now I’ll let that picture above give you a little hint about what the second story is about…

Also this week I want to wish Happy Birthday to one of Seven Sexy Scribes original scribes Julia R Barrette! Her actual birthday is Friday the 13ht so please drop by her terrific blog and say hello.

http://juliarachelbarrett.net/

Julia’s been very busy. She has so many recent book releases I can’t keep up. Look at this gorgeous book cover for “In The Flesh”.

Here’s a little taste:

In the Flesh:  Lightning in the middle of a blizzard? Dr. Sydney Blake has read about it, but this is the first time in all her life she’s experienced it. Has her truck been struck? Blinded by the flash, she slams on the brakes and dives from the driver’s seat, right into a snow drift. 
As a shivering Syd gropes to her feet, she keeps her eyes shut tight, praying she didn’t actually see what she thinks she saw in that flash of light… a golden giant standing smack dab in the middle of the road. No way. Not possible. Or is it? In The Flesh is the sequel to Incorporeal, a paranormal romance by Julia Barrett.

Happy Birthday Julia!

XXOO Kat

Cover Joy: I saw, I bought, I wrote the story.

Cover joy is what many authors live for.
To see your text concept interpreted by a graphic designer is one of the many moments in any author's life when he or she leaps in delight. (Or, okay, falls on their sword.) But most often in this business, we are gratified and humbled by the artistic rendering used to sell our books.
I put this new cover of mine up here today because this art inspired a story. Yes. Backwards! But hey, life happens and you have to go with it. Right? Especially when the creative juices flow!
This art took my breath away. I had no story for it. I only knew I wanted it. Wanted it!
And the first words that came to mind were: IS THAT A GUN IN YOUR POCKET?
And are you happy to see me?
Mae West.
Yes, indeed.
This art, done by Book Graphics, is a piece I saw one day on Facebook. The artist was selling it as a pre-made for a very reasonable price.
I went, I asked, she answered, I bought.
And so soon, I will have out my new contemporary Western erotic romance, IS THAT A GUN IN YOUR  POCKET? and here is the concept:
West Farraday ~ A sheriff who’s hard on the ladies, hard in the sack, hard on the outlaws who dare enter his town
Mae Montaine ~ A woman who’s easy on the eyes, tough on men’s egos…especially West’s.
Their Lone Star love affair?
Too hot to handle and too wild to ignore…
Especially when one bad coyote tears up West’s town and demands Mae pay prices West decides are much too high!

Chuckling as I wave goodbye!  This just lights my fire.

Hope you will read and it will light yours, too!

Coming May 30th

Naked Running Cowboy, my next Resplendence Erotic Gem,  releases May 30th!!!

Blurb:

Lara has an active imagination but the dreams starring her sexy new neighbor are getting downright ridiculous! Jason appearing as a cop and pirate make sense but where in the hell did naked running cowboy come from? She’s waited long enough to find out if he’s as talented in real life as he is in her fantasies. 

The process for creating this book was a new experience - the cover came first! The guy, his impressive attributes and obvious physical fitness all spoke to me; I definitely needed to write his story. 

The stumbling block? I don't write westerns (love reading them, though)! What to do, what to do? "Draw from what you know", the tiny voice in my head shouted. 

No, I've never experienced a naked running cowboy on any level, but I do have lots of experience with freaky, ridiculous sex dreams! And a friend of mine had a relationship with a neighbor that went very wrong, causing much drama. And I totally share Lara's gardening-phobia....

Here's hoping NRC is as much fun to read as it was to write!!

Have a great weekend~

Tessie

www.tessiebradford.com

Asterion Book Trailer and New Loose Id Contracts!

This is my new book trailer for “Asterion”, which is part of Ellora’s Cave upcoming anthology “Something Wicked This Way Comes Volume 2”. The anthology will be released May 1^st, through Amazon and Barnes & Nobel, and May 2^nd through Ellora’s Cave Publishing. I absolutely love that this book will be released near Beltane, one of my favorite Pagan Celtic holidays!

In an upcoming blog I want to talk a little more about the mythology behind “Asterion”. It’s very interesting and I promise to do that.

The last few days have been really great and super busy! As Amber Skyze mentioned yesterday at 7SS we received our first co-authored contract from Loose Id. I’m so thrilled to be working with Amber and Loose Id and very grateful Amber helped open a door for me. Thank you Amber!

 Amber is just about the hardest working and most professional author I know. That lady juggles a lot and she does it so well.

Monday, Amber and I got our second contract from Loosed Id for a planned four book co-authored series. These are bigger, edgier category length books with a lot of adventure packed into them. I’m so proud of what we’ve written together and I can’t wait to start sharing it with readers!

I have several new projects headed Ellora’s Cave way as well. I’m determined to publish more books this year and so far 2012 is looking like the best year ever!

XXOO Kat

Lots to Share

Happy Tuesday Everyone!

I'm excited to announce Kat and I signed a contract for Dragons in Jael's Mist, with Loose Id. This is my first paranormal and I had so much fun writing it. Kat is busy adding mythology to the story, among other things. We don't have a release date yet, but this M/M/F book is scorning hot.
More details as they become available. Oh and do check back tomorrow because Kat is going to dish some more dirt! ;)

In other news I'm about to self-publish my 5th book from Aspen Mountain Press. The book Heat Waves. Here is the new cover. A special thanks to Valerie Tibbs of Tibbs Designs!