I haven't given an update lately on what I'm writing at the moment, so I'll give you some blurbs of what's soon to come!

A new novel for Ravenous Romance: RARER THAN RUBIES

My first paranormal/shifter novella, as yet untitled:

Word Counts - Today: 0 | February: 17,411 | 2009: 58,046

I've been talking with a few other authors about whether or not it's a good idea to put up a full chapter of a novel-length work on my website. When Josh Lanyon told me he thought it was a great idea, I decided to give it a try.

So, I've got Chapter One of SEX, LIES & WEDDING BELLS posted online. I'd love to see if reading the full chapter gives readers a good taste of the characters, writing style and plot to get more interested than just a few excerpts here and there.

If you go and read it, please come back and let me know what you thought of it, and whether or not it encouraged you to buy it! Enjoy!

Word Counts - Today: 0 | February: 17,411 | 2009: 58,046

I emailed the editor with the top 5 titles and she and her partner both liked the same two titles:

RARER THAN RUBIES and SAPPHIRES & SIN were their favorites.

And the winner is RARER THAN RUBIES!

I want to thank all of you for your suggestions and votes! Most of all, I think you helped me eliminate titles, but I am happy with the result, which is a better situation than I was in with my first novel with them….it took a couple of months before I got a new title that they would approve.

As soon as I get the contract information and release date, I will be making another announcement. And of course, I'll post excerpts as soon as I can. I'm still debating on some character names, so expect more polls.

Thanks again!

Word Counts - Today: 0 | February: 17,411 | 2009: 58,046

Ok, maybe not quite everything, but I didn't really think there was that much that could still shock me, at least in terms of sex toys.

But HEAD O STATE Obama-shaped DILDOS have shocked me. I won't even put the image here because I'm afraid I'll upset more people than I will amuse.

But you can check them out here, and they come in two colors! (nope, not red and blue)

They also have Obama Condoms, which I suppose aren't quite as bad…

So, have I just become a prude, or does the idea of a dildo shaped like your president squick anyone else out there?

Word Counts - Today: 0 | February: 17,411 | 2009: 58,046

I meant to post about this sooner, then I got sidetracked, but I'm really THRILLED to announce that SEX, LIES & WEDDING BELLS was given

Word Counts - Today: 1,300 | February: 11,831 | 2009: 52,466

I've spent the past few hours over on hulu.com where you can watch full episodes of lots of current TV shows as well as some old favorites. How many out there are Buffy fans? Then you'll remember the Valentine's Day episode from Season 2 where Xander puts that spell on Cordelia to fall in love with him and she doesn't. But every other female in Sunnydale does, including Buffy's mom.  Just another VDay gone wrong and one of my favorite episodes. (watch it here ). On a side note, both Nicholas Brendan and Mercedes McNab were on the last episode of Criminal Minds.

Of course I should be doing other things besides watching old episodes of Buffy online. But what makes this even more ridiculous is that I just got satellite TV installed the other day. It wasn't my idea. My landlord wanted to switch from cable because of the hot deals DirectTV was offering before the digital switchover. So I got to spend an entire day waiting for the satellite guy to show up and do his thing. They gave us an appointment time of 8-12. So I was up early to tidy up for visiting repairmen.   At 11:30 still no satellite guy. I had been reluctant to start writing knowing that as soon as I got into the flow of things, that's when he'd show up and ruin my concentration, so I just did some random outlining and note-taking. But he didn't arrive until 1:30. And the guy had to go in and out of both my place and the landlord's (two-unit house). He came in about four times and  made varying amounts of noise until finally around 7 pm (yes, FIVE and a half hours after he arrived) he declared that the satellite was installed, the boxes were set up and we would have 150+ channels in twenty minutes or less!

Two hours later the signal kicked in.  So it took from 8 am until 9 pm to get the entire process completed. Pretty impressive. Now I have 150+ channels of nothing to watch. At least I don't have to pay it, it's included in my rent, but that didn't stop the entire process from ruining a perfectly good day. And flipping through the channel guide I discovered that the two channels that sound really cool aren't on our subscription anyway.

Thank goodness for DVDs and hulu.

If you managed to read this far, don't forget to check out my Valentine's Giveaway. There is still time to enter until midnight Saturday.

Word Counts - Today: 3,238 | February: 7,531 | 2009: 48,166

No matter what anyone else gets you, I'm giving away a couple of things this Valentine's Day.

Two lucky winners will get their choice of either of my currently available e-books (Sex, Lies & Wedding Bells or 'Tis the Season Taste Test).

Just answer a few questions and email me your answers. Full contest information is available at my website.

Enter by midnight EST on February 14.

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Word Counts - Today: 1,097 | February: 2,407 | 2009: 43,042

No matter what stage or state my love life is in, I always feel like Valentine's Day is just a disaster waiting to happen. Expectations are high—unrealistic in many cases—and you are bound to put a foot wrong. The gift was not expensive enough. The gift was too expensive. The restaurant was all wrong… the potential for error is unlimited.

As much as an American Valentine's can be stressful or disappointing, we've got it good compared to the Japanese.

I lived in Japan for five years, working as a financial markets economist, and I still never quite understood how their version of Valentine's Day evolved. It's as ritualized as anything that happens over there and you deviate from the expected behavior at your own risk! 

First off, women buy gifts for men on Valentine's. Men don't buy anything—just wait, they aren't off the hook though. Women who work in the more traditional Japanese office were expected to buy a gift for every male co-worker. Maybe it was just something small like some chocolates, but you couldn't leave anyone out. So now it's expensive and stressful.

Fast forward one month to March 14. White Day. This is the day the guys have to pony up. Men are now expected to give a gift to each woman who gave them something on Valentine's. The custom is that the man's gift be three times the value of the woman's gift. You can imagine the gaming that goes on here by couples. If she wants something really wonderful, she can give the man something expensive. Then she's guaranteed a minimum value of her gift. If she doesn’t get it — well let's just say breakups occur with startling frequency on March 14. The smart guys would break up on February 13, just to avoid all of this ritual. I think the whole thing is ridiculous, sexist and sets everyone up with the wrong expectations and obligations.

 I'm sure that makes you feel a lot better about your own Valentine's Day-related stress, right?

I don't think there should be any obligation to do something, otherwise the recipient of whatever you do or buy might wonder if you acted only out of obligation, even in happy, healthy relationships. My solutions is to just ask: how do you feel about Valentine's Day and how should be celebrate it? Maybe that's too bold for some people, but it gets all the worries into the open. Even better, exchange lists of gifts or activities you each would like and then choose based on available time and budget. At least you'll know what would make your partnerhappy, even if you didn't come up with the idea yourself.

So, how about sharing your worst Valentine's gift? Whether you gave it or got it, we can all have a good laugh about it now, right?

Word Counts - Today: 0 | February: 0 | 2009: 40,635

One of my publishers, Ravenous Romance, is offering a $5 gift certificate:

In celebration of Valentine’s Day, Ravenous Romance will give every customer who purchases a full-length ebook or audiobook from February 8th through February 14th a FREE $5 gift certificate! One per customer.

So, now you can get a copy of my Sex, Lies & Wedding Bells, and then get a free copy of another novel to boot! You can’t go wrong.

Fictionwise is offering 30% micropay rebates on all erotica and romance titles. They don’t say when the promo ends but I’m thinking it’s February 14. I love the micropay service when I just want to buy one inexpensive title. I don’t have anything through Fictionwise yet, but I certainly found plenty of things to buy. Like Gym Dandy by   and the I DO Anthology….

Word Counts - Today: 0 | February: 0 | 2009: 40,635

Don’t Divorce Us  — please watch this video first…

If you want to help support the fight to keep the legally married couples MARRIED, then buy a copy of I DO – an anthology in support of marriage equality

Do you support the right of any human being to marry the person they love? The right to say ‘I Do’ to a life of commitment and sharing with that one special person? We do.

We hope that marriage will soon be a dream that everyone can share. That’s why the following authors of LGBT fiction have donated stories to this anthology, in aid of Lambda Legal Fund’s fight for marriage equality:

Tracey Pennington,  , Charlie Cochrane, Clare London,  , Lisabet Sarai, Sharon Maria Bidwell, Jeanne Barrack, Marquesate, Z.A Maxfield, P.A Brown, Allison Wonderland,  , Zoe Nichols and Cassidy Ryan, Emma Collingwood,  , Jerry L. Wheeler, Moondancer Drake, Fiona Glass, Lee Rowan.

All profits from the sale of this anthology will be donated to the Lambda Legal Defense to fight Prop 8 in support of marriage equality for all.

The book is only $5.99 and I can’t think of a better way to spend it than to get 20 great stories and support the cause! ORDER A COPY — Also IN PRINT from Amazon!

Word Counts - Today: 0 | February: 0 | 2009: 40,635