The Dynamic Trio - Blog

Got your attention? Well, if you own a Kindle reader and you’ve never read my books or you’ve wanted to try my Chase series and haven’t yet - here’s your chance to try me out for the grand total of FREEEEE! Giving Chase is the first in my Chase Brothers series - contemporary small town romance from Samhain.

Yes that’s right - from August 4 to 10th, readers can get a copy of GIVING CHASE for the kindle reader absolutely free at Amazon! Click the cover or the sentence above to go straight to the Amazon Kindle page.

Blurb: Some small towns grow really good looking men! This is the case with the four Chase brothers. The home grown hotties are on the wishlist of every single woman in town and Maggie Wright is no exception.

Maggie has finally had it with the men she’s been dating but a spilled plate of chili cheese fries drops Shane Chase right into her lap. The sheriff is hot stuff but was burned by a former fiance and is quite happy to play the field.

After Shane’s skittishness sends him out the door, Maggie realizes that Kyle Chase has had his eye on her from the start. Now that Shane has messed up, Kyle has no intention of letting anything stop him from wooing her right into his bed.

Despite Maggie’s happiness and growing love with Kyle, a dark shadow threatens everything. She’s got a stalker and he’s not happy at all. In the end, Maggie will need her wits, strength and the love of her man to get her out alive.

Warning, this title contains the following: explicit sex, graphic language, and some violent situations.

I hope those of you who grab it let me know if you like it!

40,313 / 90,000 (44.8%)

OUTSHINED

I’m very happy with my progress! I hope to keep chipping away at that wordcount so the book is done by the end of August. We shall see.

In booktalk land - I read Patricia Briggs’ Cry Wolf this last week and I absolutely adored it. I think Patricia Briggs is one of the best world builders writing today and so I wasn’t surprised at all to discover just how much I loved Cry Wolf.

Some romance, some action, some suspense - all combined into a really quick, engrossing read.

Another winner from Briggs that has me excited to see what’s next for Charles and Anna. The little tidbit at the end of CW for the next Mercy book looks very good too.

And Emma Holly’s All You Can Eat now available in mass market. This was a solid 3 1/2 - 4 star read for me. Amusing, sexy, hot sex scenes. I think Personal Assets remains my favorite contemporary along with Velvet Glove and I was disappointed that we didn’t get to see more of Jack’s “darker” sexual side but there’s something in All You Can Eat for just about all tastes!

OK, back to work for me!

I got my last pass pages/final look through on Undercover today. It’s so pretty I can’t quite believe it. This book has been designed so well, I’m thrilled with the job Berkley did on everything from the font choices to the cover. I can’t wait to see the final product!

So how about an excerpt?

UNDERCOVER BY LAUREN DANE
Copyright 2008, Lauren Dane
All Rights Reserved, The Penguin Group US
Releasing December 2

People scurried out of the way, keeping their eyes down as Sera Ayers stalked into the squat gray building on the outskirts of the city. Single-mindedly, she made her way through the myriad of nondescript hallways at the Federation United Forces. Anger coursed through her as she walked, her boots sounding a muffled thud, thud, thud on the laminate floors.

Halting at the sub-commander’s door, she slammed a fist into it several times. Her hand hurt but she felt a bit better for the small violence of it.

“Enter!”

She opened the door and went inside. Noting little more than the fact that two men were seated before Commander Yager’s desk, she opened her mouth to speak.

“Whoa! What’s so damned important that you nearly knocked my fucking door down?” Sub-Commander Yager bellowed before she could say anything.

“I just got your summons. You’ve reassigned me! That’s my problem! I’m the best you have out there. My team is good, damn it!” She shoved a hand through her hair, not caring that she probably looked like a curly porcupine.

“Sera,” Yager sighed, gesturing to the men in the chairs, “you have a new team. This is Commander Ash Walker and Para-Commander Brandt Pela.”

At the mention of the names, a roar of white noise filled her ears. In what felt like slow motion, Sera turned and looked into the face of a man she knew all too well many years before. “Ash.”

The palest blue eyes she’d ever seen gazed up at her. Eyes she’d given herself to as he was above her and below her. Eyes that had held her down as he’d bound and collared her to his will. Eyes that had haunted her for the last ten years.

It all crashed down on her, the world began to close in and she fought with iron will to hold back the impending breakdown. She fisted her hands to stop them from trembling.

“Sera, you’re looking well.” Ash smiled, his posture relaxed as if she’d been an old friend he hadn’t seen in years. It appeared he wasn’t affected at all by her presence. Prick.

“Ash?” Sera said sweetly.

He cocked his head. “Yes?”

“Fuck you,” she snarled, landing a solid right hook to his jaw.

I finished all but one of the Brenda Joyce Deadly books and loved them all. I have to say books 4 and 5 have been my favorites with seven the least favorite so far because I thought Calder acted like an ass for much of it (although redeeming himself at the end). I’m saving the last book as a bit of a treat for when I hit 30K on Outshined.

In the mean time I’m reading Judith Ivory’s The Proposition and really liking it.

I’m hitting a good spot in Outshined and really liking my characters a lot. Erin (used to be Grace) is revealing herself to me and I’m getting to know Todd better too. It’s a contemporary so the worldbuilding aspect I had with Relentless isn’t there. It’s a different sort of writing experience and I’m glad to switch it up a bit.

Oh, Fated has been pushed up a week for release to August 19 from the 12th. Not a big deal but I just thought I’d say so. I’ve adjusted my book page here to reflect that.

That’s about it really. I’m working this weekend, writing writing writing and doing some crit for Megan’s Spice book, Switch (wheee! neeener neener!)

So for those of you who enjoy my Cascadia Wolves, there’s a new book coming out called Fated. This one is Megan getting her HEA at long last. I love fated mate stories but they can’t all be the same or it gets boring. So what happens if you get your fated mate but it’s not easy? What happens if a proud and powerful werewolf mates with a man who has hidden from what he truly is for most of his life?

Blurby Bit: Just because Fate brings you your perfect mate doesn’t mean it’ll be easy.

Could there be any worse fate than a road trip from Seattle to L.A.—with one’s mother—to attend a wedding? Why yes, when one isn’t married yet, like Megan Warden. Toss in a grandmother and a carload of already married sisters and it’s a recipe for sneaking sips of “special” coffee while someone else drives.

Shane Rosario has better things to do than attend a wedding where his father’s relatives will be at him nonstop about getting married and having children. If it weren’t for seeing his anchor bond, Layla, he’d have taken a pass on the entire weekend. It would be easy, since he’s become adept at hiding who and what he is.

When the two weren’t even looking, Fate steps in and before they know it, their bond is sealed. Bonded pair, married in the eyes of their people. Two people tied together in every way. Trouble is, Shane’s not sure he wants all that comes with Megan. And Megan’s certain she’s not willing to live outside her pack, pretending to be human.

The distance between them is more than geographical. It’s a widening gulf rapidly filling with resentment…an emotional divide only acceptance could bridge. Can Shane can accept himself to cross it? Only if they let love take control.

I loved writing Fated. It was a challenge because it was emotional and I did spend some time crying as I wrote it. But I hope it turned out well and I hope you all enjoy it too.

I received my author copies earlier this week so I thought a contest might be in order. SO - if you’d like to win an ARC of Fated all you need to do is tell me why you like fated mate stories, or why you don’t.

I’ll choose a winner at random from the comments Friday July 25 at noon pacific. Good luck!

WINNER IS COMMENTER #5 - Tracy Lenz-Pessin! Tracy email me with your format choice and I’ll email it your way ASAP!!

I saw this article yesterday, linked from Melissa Lopez’ livejournal: Writer’s Digest - Don’t Be A Writing Diva
It’s all solid advice - hone your voice, turn in your manuscript on time or early, send thank yous, think before you hit send, be careful how you criticize, continue to learn your craft, etc.

This is a career, a job, how you act leads into how you’re perceived. It’s important to put out there the face you want people to see and associate with you as an author and as my mom would say, “It never hurts to say thank you.”

And crossposted from Bring Me My Hookah

Earlier today I read an entry over at Booksquare that had me nodding my head - The Reading Problem. I’ve touched on this several times but it can’t be said enough frankly.

Reading, by some, is treated like a solemn communion, a sacred ritual, something done — done right, anyway — by the few who cherish delicate jewels of books. They read with a certain grim smugness, completely forgetting that reading, as Kevin Smokler said at Book Expo America 2008, “is an act of hedonistic joy.”

He then went on to ask, not rhetorically, “Why are we so terrified of calling reading fun?”

Yes, why? Why do we have such a terrible fear of being judged by people we don’t know on that metaphorical bus (you know the I can’t read this on the bus thread)? Who cares? This is a real question.

We spend so much time worried about what someone thinks about our reading choices we handwring and worry about things we can’t change. We cry about how romance won’t be respected until we do X (change covers, write about so and so subject matter, whatever).

All this stuff takes the fun out of reading. At least to me. I have enough stuff to worry over, stuff I can’t change any more than I can change someone’s opinion of romance based on 1970’s stereotypes and deep seeded feelings that women and anything to do with women being intellectually and morally inferior.

I don’t need my reading choices to be morally suprerior to anyone else’s. I just don’t care. I like to read! I like to read lots of stuff across multiple genres and frankly I am too old to give a rat’s patootie whether someone I don’t know thinks I’m stupid or I have cooties because the title is in pink or there are abs on the cover. I like pink and I like rock hard abs. Sue me, think I’m dumb, whatever.

Reading should be something you enjoy. Being ashamed of what we like to read because of other people’s issues with it takes the fun out of it. So then what? We have a nation of people who pretend they’re all reading literature but aren’t. We have endless angsty threads whereupon we try and make ourselves fitter, smarter, more acceptible to other genres and readers or authors. It’s a waste of time to feel guilty or inferior and it’s unnecessary.

Like what you like for heaven’s sake! Read what you like and who cares what that guy across the aisle from you on the train home thinks?

Reach into different genres to see what they can offer you, absolutely. Challenge yourself too. But don’t be ashamed of your reading preferences, don’t let the haters of the world suck your joy away.

First of all, I finished Relentless this morning! The song above, Pearl Jam’s cover of The Who’s Love Reign O’er Me was my theme song for yesterday and this morning as I wrapped up. Yay! I’ll start editing it tomorrow. I’m super happy with it right now. We’ll see how I am once I do the entire read through though. Each book is like a mini lifetime. This book gave me some fits but I think it turned out really well and I’m beginning to realize sometimes it’s the hardest books to write that I end up liking the most.

And secondly, Megan Hart and I sold the follow up to Taking Care of Business to Black Lace! This one is called No Reservations and it follows Leah and Kate to Las Vegas with Brandon and Dix on their heels. It’ll be out in the UK in September of 09 and the US in November of 09.

All sorts of flotsam today! Firstly I hit nearly 68K in Relentless last night! Wheeee! And I cried pretty much the whole time as I wrote. Big, emotional stuff, even the sex scene made me cry. I’m really pleased with this transition.

Secondly, I know there are some problems with Making Chase and folks trying to order it - apparently there was a problem in the system and they corrected it. It *should* be showing up soon and I’m told by tomorrow, end of day it’ll be available. So thanks to everyone who’s e-mailed me to ask about it. If you get impatient, you can always pop over to My Bookstore and more and order it directly from there.

Thirdly, the fantastic Samantha Hunter is guest blogging at Maverick Authors today! There’s a contest too. Go over and say hey.

basket with loads of cool stuff in it. So come on over and say hello!

Here’s a list of the participating authors (times shown are eastern):

10:00 – 11:00: Patrice Michelle

11:00 - 12:00: Alexandra Ivy

12:00 - 1:00: Gena Showalter

1:00 - 2:00: JJ Massa

2:00 - 3:00 Lauren Dane

3:00-4:00 HelenKay Dimon

4:00-5:00 Lara Adrian

5:00-6:00: Cynthia Eden

6:00-7:00: TBA

7:00-8:00: Meljean Brook

8:00-9:00: Shelly Laurenston

9:00 - 10:00: Yasmine Galenorn