Virginia Cavanaugh's "Magical Kiss"

Today’s Guest is my friend and Cave-Sister, Virginia Cavanaugh. Virginia’s new Ellora’s Cave Quickie “Magical Kiss” will be released this Friday, January 11^th. Here’s a taste.

Blurb:

Being a carnal magic user doesn’t make Breeze Hawthorne “easy”. In fact, she’s tired of the nasty names her kind tends to get labeled with. So when she finds herself paired with sexy water user Chehon McFlint, she’s determined to keep things professional, no matter how bad her body burns for him.

A horrid beast is about to break loose from an underwater prison and Breeze is running low on juice. When she fails to get hold of her usual service partner, she’s faced with a decision that could cost her emotionally. Chehon seems ready, willing and able to handle the job of recharging her, but Breeze isn’t so sure he’ll leave her heart intact when the job is over.

--

“This better be important.” Breeze Hawthorne pulled off her helmet, running one hand through her black-and-purple short hair. It had already been a long night, but she couldn’t ignore the last-minute text from her superior telling her she was needed ASAP. Working for Magical and Mystic Security had its days—well, mostly nights—that totally made her want to get out of the witch business for good. But one would have to have a choice to be able to get out and things don’t work that way in the magic business. The magic chose the person, not the other way around. Once you had it, you had it. Then you could only decide what to do with it.

Sure she could open up a little shop and don the bright-colored dress and head covering, peddling potions and fortunes, but what would be the fun in that? Most nights she loved her job. Making other magical creatures quake in fear had its perks. And there was that whole saving humanity part that was cool too. But nights like tonight, when she had already needed to stop and shower off preternatural goo twice… Well, yeah, you get the picture.

Shadows danced in the dimly lit alleyway as a cat screeched and landed on a tin trash can with a metallic rumble. The man standing in the shadows pushed away from the cinderblock wall and began a slow cocky pace toward her. She knew that walk. It had been months since they’d been paired together. Chehon McFlint. A sexy warlock with nasty power. He drew his powers from the element water. And damn if he didn’t have the body of an Olympic swimmer.

He strode forward, and as he walked under the soft, yellow glow of a security light she could see his mischievous smile. His dirty-blond hair hung in waves that skimmed his strong shoulders. The baby-blue tank top he wore did little to hide his expansive sun-kissed chest. Smooth skin stretched tight over superb muscles. Damn if she wouldn’t mind having a bite of that. White cargo shorts hung low on his lean hips. The light waft of air brought his scent into her nose. Salt. Sea. Man.

Magical Kiss will be available from Ellora’s Cave January 11^th

Virginia Cavanaugh

The Fire Inside available 9/12/12 from Ellora's Cave

Just for Tonight available 10/10/12 from Ellora's Cave

Seductive Reunion now available from Ellora's Cave

Mixing Business with Pleasure now available from Ellora's Cave

website

blog

Best Wishes Virginia!

XXOO Kat

Climb Aboard Rea Thomas' Pleasure Express!

Today I want to introduce everyone to my talented new friend from Belfast Ireland, Rea Thomas.

Rea writes for Ellora’s Cave and just released a very steamy Quickie for the new EC For Men Line.

Hush… Don’t tell anyone but EC For Men is fun reading for women too!

Rea Thomas has never really been sure about anything in life. She doesn't have much of an opinion on religion or politics (until she drinks a few vodkas, and then maybe you'd wish you hadn't asked!). But one thing she's always been certain of was that she loved telling stories and wanted to be a writer. 

She's fortunate to live in a country filled with myths, legends and very green fields - and Northern Ireland constantly fuels her imagination. 

Aside from writing, Rea loves photography, languages (particularly Indian ones), culture, foreign film (particularly Indian ones... do you sense a theme?), cricket and books. 

I love Rea and I know you will too. By the way when Rea says she “likes” Indian languages and film she really means she loves this:

And this…

And this…

Bollywood gorgeous!  Can you blame her?

Blurb for Pleasure Express:

Marty, a workaholic whose personal life has taken a backseat, rides on the last train home every night. It’s on this train that he meets the ultimate fantasy woman—sexy, beautiful and naughty, and she seems to enjoy toying with him.

It starts out innocently enough, but before long Marty is bearing witness to the nameless woman’s far naughtier side—a little cleavage, the uncrossing of her legs and then mutual masturbation that guarantees Marty will never miss the train again.

He’s pretty certain nothing more could ever develop between them; after all, he’s far too reserved to approach her and he suspects she enjoys the voyeuristic side to their wicked games. Then one night, she admits it’s her last trip onboard the train. She’s leaving town—and wants to give Marty the ride of his life before she goes.

Excerpt for Pleasure Express:

“Hi,” the woman said gently, her voice as smooth and syrupy as honey. “I’m leaving town tomorrow.” My eyes flickered to the cardboard box filled with personal desk belongings, then back to her. She was still smiling.

“I’m… sorry to hear that?” I tried. I was hopeless with women, always had been. They mystified me, left me feeling mentally drained as though I had been puzzling over a Rubick’s cube for hours. I couldn’t work out their motives, their mindset, or anything really. It explained why the entire female species had given up on me.

“Yeah,” the stranger said, lifting a perfectly manicured hand to sweep away the strand of hair. She looked divine, a vision of perfection in her tight skirt and near-sheer blouse. “We’ve been taking this train together every night now for months,” she continued with firm command. “I expected you might introduce yourself, ask me out, even say ‘hello’ – but it seems you’re one of those guys.” Her bluish eyes took time to roll in despair, as though she were bemoaning how utterly useless I was. “So I thought maybe we could skip those preliminaries and you could just fuck me now.”

It had happened to me before that I would lose myself in a lurid sexual fantasy while talking to a woman. Like the pixie-haired blonde at the deli-counter who made my tuna salad bagels at lunchtime. When she said to me ‘that’s two pounds ten, please’ I imagined she was saying ‘I want to suck your dick, Marty.’. Her lips were moving but the words I heard were wholly different to the ones she was actually saying. For a moment I thought the same thing was happening here.

“P-pardon?” I spluttered, anything but smooth.

“Look,” she said evenly, a finely tapered eyebrow rising as though she were talking to a particularly dim-witted child. “You’ve been staring at me for months now.” Her head gestured to the seat she regularly occupied. “So, had you found the courage to ask me out we would have gone to dinner, chatted inanely about things neither of us are interested in, discovering information about one and other that just taints the sexual attraction.” Her mouth was speaking the most beautiful words, as though I were dreaming the best dream ever. I was speechless, which was perfectly all right as it seemed she had plenty to say. “I’m saving you money, saving me time and best of all, saving us from the mind-numbing tedium of having to pretend we actually give a shit about all those petty details.”

She braced her arm on the chair, leaning close enough for me to smell her perfume, something fruity and summery. Her blouse revealed cleavage, her tits pressed together, tantalizing me. I couldn’t look away and my cock was rigid.

Her fingers toyed with the pointed end of my tie, her eyes locked on my face. She didn’t make any attempt to slap me when I refused to draw my gaze away from her tits. I’d learned from experience that women didn’t like that – but this woman seemed to almost get a kick out of my helplessness.

“T-the conductor might come at any minute,” I spluttered, dragging my rounded eyes to her face. She looked like a school mistress, displeased at my incompetence.

“When was the last time we saw a conductor at this time?” she asked patiently. My eyes flittered to the door between compartments, trying to remember if I ever had seen a conductor on this train. She and I were almost always alone – two solitary people in the last compartment. When I glanced back she had deftly popped one button on her blouse, revealing the lacy trim on her white bra. I found my throat was dry, my tongue sticking ineffectively to the roof of my mouth.

Rea Thomas "Pleasure Express"

Ellora's Cave For Men. Available now! 

http://www.ellorascave.com/pleasure-express.html

Happy New Year, thank you for dropping by!

XXOO Kat

Another Self-Publishing Blog

I’m watching all my friends self-publish their books and having so much success. I’m jealous. I won’t deny it. I’m also lazy. I could be one of them. I’m just too lazy to put in all the effort – right now. I have plans, though. I have a goal for the end of the year. I don’t like to set goals because the procrastinator in me always sabotages those goals.
At the end of this year I’ll be getting the rights back to one of my favorite books. I know this book will good if I self-pub it. That’s my plan when I get it back. I’ll give it a once over, see if it needs any editing or if I should add to it. I’ll find a cover artist and I WILL self-pub it.
There’s also one other book that I plan to work on to self-publish. I’m not going to overwhelm myself. I have two wips that are close to done. Once they’re done and off to my editors I’ll work on the full-length. The book is technically written, but needs a LOT of editing. I have a lot of research to do too.
So I don’t have plans for a bunch of books published the second half of this year, but it’s not about the quantity. I want to produce something special to ME. :o)
How about you? Any plans for self-publishing in the future? Do you have the desire to at least try it once?

PS...This is my new cover for my next release from Ellora's Cave coming this Friday, June 10th.

Quickie 101

Today I want to expand on the topic Amber Skyzes brought up yesterday about “Quickies”.

“Quickie” is the term Ellora’s Cave uses for short form fiction that runs between 7-15 K or approximately 25-50 pages. A Quickie is a whole other art form away from a novel. The structure, the pacing and reader expectations must be adjusted accordingly. Think of a Quickie as a beautifully prepared hor d'oeuvre meant to deliver a burst of flavor-it's NOT a four-course meal. It’s an opportunity to sample a new genre or author at little cost or investment of time.

As the market for ebooks booms more new readers from the paperback world arrive everyday. Many bring their familiar reading standards and expectations with them. They expect big stories that need 400 pages to play out. There’s nothing wrong with that but readers do need to have realistic expectations. Few authors can deliver a big plot, character development and sensual scenes with a fully realized happy ending in only 7-15K. We can only give readers a taste, make hints and hopefully make a few vivid impressions.

I read a book review several days ago where the reviewer said she loved the Quickie and that it was beautifully written, but she gave it 3 out of 5 simply BECAUSE it was a Quickie! I thought it was very unfair and ignorant of the reviewer to diminish the author’s value. Short fiction should be judged as short fiction-it’s a separate format as different as television is from film.

I’ve also been saddened to receive low marks on a Quickie not because the reader didn't like it but because it was a “short read”. One woman said she loved “Adult Education” but gave it one star because it was “too short”. She did take the time to write me and apologize “for having to do that”. She has no idea how hard I worked to trim words and struggled to fit a full experience into only 15K. I actually came within 30 words of my limit and had to leave a little wiggle room for the final lines editor to do her work. There seems to be an idea out there that Quickie authors need to be punished for being lazy... Please folks this just isn’t the case. We‘re trying to entertain readers and introduce ourselves in a fast affordable manner.

I firmly believe there's a place for Quickies. They’re a great introduction to an author's writing style. Every e-author should have one. They are a quick thrill during a lunch break and they make great fodder for mixed author anthologies. Short fiction is the driving engine of the emerging ebook market and it’s an evolving art form. The human eye and mind process an ebook very differently from a print book. Quickies need to judged for what they are—quality short fiction. Think of them as gemstones or special treats where quality outweighs quantity.

XXOO Kat

PS Two Lips Reviews gave “Beautiful Stranger” 5 Kisses and I’m thrilled!

http://www.twolipsreviews.com/content/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5395&Itemid=36