Summer Lovin Blog Hop- Rebel Ink Press

Today starts the blog hop. It runs from August 15th through the 17th. Visiting more blogs means more chances to win a Kindle Paperwhite and other author swag given away by both Rebel Ink Press and the authors whose blogs you visit. The more blogs visited, the more chances you have of winning really COOL stuff. Plus, you get to read some cool blog entries written especially for the blog hop AND to learn about some awesome authors and the stories they’ve written. Don’t believe me? Well, read my entry below.  Just past my blog entry, you will find some tidbits about my Rebel Ink Press release, HOME RUN. Then scroll all the way down to find the button for the Kindle Paperwhite Giveaway and links to the other authors on the SUMMER LOVIN BLOG TOUR!

This is my first Blog Hop so I will be giving away a $25 Victoria’s Secret gift card to a lucky comment winner. I will choose a random commenter as the winner after the last day of the Blog Hop . It will be in the form of an e-gift card, so I will contact you and/or announce who the winner is the next day. So check back once the Blog Hop is over. Check my home page for the announcement. It is also possible, if I get a wild hair, for me to give a copy of the book to someone as well. Again, check back on the home page. How much more exciting can I make my first blog hop?!?!?!

SummerLovin_Button

Summer Love

Or is it the love of summer? Summer always brings to mind hot, hot days and sultry nights. Watermelon and cookouts and beaches and vacations. No matter how old I get, summer always makes me feel like I’ve been let out of school and the vastness of all the time and sunshine are just waiting for me to explore. Visits to relatives bring memories of hangin’ out my cousins and aunts and uncles and just being free to be me. Cause I don’t need to hide or make excuses for the craziness that is my family cause they ARE my family, ya know?

Summertime was when I said good bye to my first real crush as a young girl, even before I knew what crushes were all about. Summer was also the season I met my husband as well. So my first love and my final love are forever intertwined with summer.

The first date I had with my husband was a picnic at a huge park. Fried chicken, cheese, grapes and ice cold beer. Yes, I remember the menu even though it’s been more years than I care to count and there have been a gazillion other things that I’ve forgotten since that time. It makes me smile to remember how he took off his shoes and waded into ice cold water to pick a flower for me. It was silly and oh so romantic- it still makes me smile and swoon just a little.

So as much as summer is about love, I love summer too. Lazy reading of books, hanging out my girls and the smell of lilacs in the air. I yearn for summer in the winter and I am as giddy as newlywed when the first flower in my yard blooms. I can’t wait for the endless days and it makes me sad when summer draws to an end. Summer still means love to me. It still means vacations and free time and being outside. And no matter how many summers I live through, I want it to last just a little longer, come just a little sooner, and smell of sunshine and happiness and freedom and joy.

Summer was when I met my forever love, afterall.

Home Run

Home Run was released by just this month. It’s a sweet AND hot sports romance about two people who don’t have to take care of little kids, but do anyway. A chance meeting doing good deeds and their lives are changed much in the same way they change the lives of others. Making wishes come true… for others and themselves. And it’s only $2.99.

HomeRun_Cover

Amazon
ARe
Barnes & Noble

Blurb:

Daniela Sinclair is a trust fund baby who believes she can make a difference in the world by making the wishes of sick children come true. Noah Barker is a major league baseball player from a common background who agrees to fulfill a sick child’s wish. Together they burn up the sheets. Unfortunately, they also cause a family member to burn in anger. In a stunning case of betrayal, the home run ending they both envisioned is threatened and they teeter on the brink of striking out.

Snippet:

The snippet is racy- so BE WARE!

Chapter One

“Put your hands on the wall,” he told her. “Don’t turn around.”

At first she was startled. No one had been in the hallway. No one had been in the room. She was alone. At least she thought she was.

“And if I don’t?” she asked.

“Saucy,” he said. “Well, you know what happens to bad girls, don’t you?”

“Maybe. Tell me and I’ll decide if I want to be good or bad.” He couldn’t see the small smile that played on her face.

“Oh, you’ll want to be good. I have a feeling you’ll like what good girls get.” He punctuated his words with a brief touch of his groin against her ass.

She shivered. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” his voice was close to her ear, the breath whispering by, igniting her sense of want. He bit down gently. Her ear was delicate like everything
about her. His hands slide down the sides of her body, capturing her skirt then his hands slid up. Only this time, his hands held her skirt.

Just the nearness of him and she was ready to explode. She’d been dripping from his first words, his first touch.

She didn’t know it could be like this.

One hand rose to capture her breast over her clothes. It was frustrating. So very frustrating when what she really wanted was his hands on her bare flesh.

That thought disappeared the moment his other hand slipped into her panties.

He purred his approval when he felt how much she wanted him. If she wasn’t with him, she was thinking about him. Plotting when they could be together again. It scared her how much she anticipated when they could be together again.

 

Kindle Paperwhite Giveaway: Enter Here

 

Other blog participants. REMEMBER, the more you enter, the more chances to win!!!:

 

HL Wampler                                      DR Slaten                                            Vivian Proud

Nancy LaPonzina                              Joanne C Berroa                               Lila Munro

Melissa Keir                                       Lori J Gordon                                     Sarah Bella

Donna Steele                                    Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy     Juliette Springs

Suzzana C Ryan                                 Kate Roth                                            Anna Kristell

Wendy Smith                                    BethAnn Buehler                             Eden Glenn

Jane Wakely                                      Nora Snowdon                                  Erica Bayne

Britni Hill                                            BL Morticia                                         KD Ferguson

Bethany Cross                                   E Jaime                                                 Blair McDowell

Winfield H Strock III                       JL Oiler                                                 Alex Jones

Cassandre Dayne                             DH Black                                              Al Lohn

Jennifer Wilck

Summer Lovin’ Blog Hop T minus 3 Days

SummerLovin_Button

 

Rebel Ink is going to give away a Kindle Paperwhite and some other swag just for following the blog hop. The posts will be about Summer and Lovin’. So be prepared for some heated posts. Hot. Hot. Hot.

Starts in 3 days. The count down has begun. 😉

August Blog Chain

It’s that time of the month again- AW‘s blog chain is here!!! lol What did you think I meant?!?! My flash fiction piece is below. At the end is a list of the other participant’s blogs where their flash fiction pieces will be. It’s a kinda cool topic this month, so go read some of the others.

 

This month’s prompt:
Child of the devil

Whether the devil be literal, figurative, or Cruella. As always, can be prose, poetry, play, fiction, nonfiction.

Instructions:
Simply post your blog’s URL in this thread to join. I’ll let you know in this thread when it’s your turn. Once your turn comes up, you have two days to complete a blog post using the prompt. When you are finished, please add a link to your post on the thread.

1000 words or less

Date Night at the Devil’s House

“Don’t scare Trevor, dad,” she told her father. Then she turned to Trevor. “Don’t let dad scare you. I’ll only be a second grabbing my wrap.”

She turned and walked out of the room confident the two she’d left behind would get along. Her surety lasted only so long as it took to grab her wrap from her room and return. She almost walked into a low yet heartfelt discussion.

“I promise I only have the utmost respect for your daughter, sir.” She heard Trevor say so earnestly, it almost colored the room.

“Don’t stay out past her curfew. And if I find out that you’ve laid one single hand on my daughter, I promise I’ll make your life hell.” Her dad’s tone of voice was even, which was incongruous with the words he’d spoken.

She didn’t doubt her dad would make any guy who hurt her regret it. Could possibly make that guy’s life a living hell if he desired. Literally. He was the Lord of the Underworld. The proverbial devil- with a capital D,  after all. Satan. Beelzebub. And a host of other really odd sounding and spelled names.

She’d long ago given up the hope of having a second date with any guy while she still lived at home. Most guys took her out once.

Before meeting her dad, they would be all excited to have her agree to a date. Then they would meet her dad. Not wanting to offend him, they couldn’t very well turn tail and run on the spot. So invariably the date would proceed. But it would proceed in the sense that the guy would treat her like his kid sister and not an almost adult female. A few had given her a chaste kiss goodbye. Most just said ‘see ya later’ and then ran-walked as fast as they could far, far away from her and her house and her dad.

In the beginning, she’d just thought the guys were being nice in a gentlemanly sort of way. But as she waited and waited and then waited some more for a phone call about a second date, she’d finally gotten a clue they hadn’t been nice or gentlemanly. No, they’d been petrified of her father.

At first, her feelings had been hurt. But over time, she’d realized that such spineless ninnies weren’t for her anyway. Still, she’d wished that at least one of them had had a backbone. Seriously, was every guy such a wuss? Apparently, all the ones that came into her sphere of existence were.

Trevor would be the same. She had no doubt he would be like all the others. After overhearing her dad’s spiel, she at least understood why her other dates had all but peed themselves.

Resigned, she stepped back into the front room where Trevor was standing close to her father.

“I’m ready,” she said in a cheerful manner that belied her certainty that this date would be like all the others and just fizzle.

“I forgot to tell you that you looked fabulous, Lily,” Trevor said.

He walked over to her, pretended to help adjust her wrap and then kissed her lightly on the cheek.

She was so surprised by his actions, she couldn’t form a reply.

Her dad looked murderous. Whether it was because she was in the room, her dad kept his silence, however, just glowering in his dadly way. On anybody else, the the smoke coming out his nose would have been hypothetical. But since her dad was her dad, he had real little puffs of smoke coming out of his nostrils. Not a lot. But enough for her to know he was ticked.

She’d have to talk to him later. It wasn’t as if she were a child. She was 17 after all and a kiss on the cheek was pretty damn tame compared to some of the stories she’d heard from other girls.

She smiled. Maybe this date wasn’t going to be like all the others. It had certainly started out different.

She turned her head slightly so she could look directly into Trevor’s eyes. “Ready?”

“Yeah.”

Her dad followed her to the door and waited with the door open as they got into the car. As soon as the doors were shut, words tumbled out of her mouth.

“You’re brave, you know.”

“Not really. But if I had let him see I was afraid it would have colored our relationship.”

“Yeah? How?”

“I just wanted him to know he could care about you but so can I. Plus, it was a man thing. Trust me, he’ll respect me more for it and next time I come pick you up, he’ll be less intense.”

“Seriously? Is there like a handbook on this?”

“Nah. It’s just that my dad behaved like your dad when my sisters were dating. I figured it out then.”

“You’re dad’s a dick too?”

Trevor laughed. “Not normally. But the guys my sisters would date thought so. Until they started bring home guys he couldn’t intimidate. Then he chilled.”

“Great,” she muttered. “Wished I’d figured that out ages ago.”

Trevor broke out into a full on smile then. “No way, babe. Then you might’ve been taken when I was ready to ask you out. Besides, your dad’s gonna be more pissed when he figures out who my dad is.”

“Who’s your dad?”

“Michael.”

Well shit. What were the odds?

“Umm, my dad and your dad used to be friends. I overheard my mom talking about it once when she was complaining to her BFF that dad doesn’t get out for a guy’s night out anymore.”

“Yeah, I think they had a falling out.”

“Must have been serious. How long have they been on the outs?”

“A pretty long time,” Trevor told her. “But maybe if we keep going out, we can get them back together again.”

“The world might end if we do.”  Literally.

“True.”

“We’re going out again?” She couldn’t keep the hope and surprise out of her voice.

“Absolutely.”

“Cool.”

 

Participants and posts:

ishtar’sgate – http://chickenscratchbc.blogspot.ca/ (link to post)
orion_mk3 – http://nonexistentbooks.wordpress.com (link to post)
areteus – http://lurkingmusings.wordpress.com/ (link to post)
BDavidHughes – http://bdavidhughes.com/ (link to post)
Ralph Pines – http://ralfast.wordpress.com/ (link to post)
articshark – http://www.drslaten.com/blog (link to post)<———–me
pyrosama – http://matrix-hole.blogspot.com/ (link to post)
Anarchic Q – http://anarchicq.com/ (link to post)
meowzbark – http://www.lizzylessard.com/ (link to post)
MsLaylaCakes – http://www.taraquan.com/ (link to post)
grace elliot – http://graceelliot-author.blogspot.com/ (link to post)
Angyl78 – http://jelyzabeth.wordpress.com/ (link to post)

milkweed – http://www.thistlequill.blogspot.com/ (link to post) [after 8/15]

Home Run Release

Home Run released today from Rebel Ink Press. Woohoo!! The blurb and buy links are pasted below. Enjoy.

HomeRun_Cover

Rebel Ink Press
Release date: 8/3/13
Amazon
ARe
Barnes & Noble

Blurb:

Daniela Sinclair is a trust fund baby who believes she can make a difference in the world by making the wishes of sick children come true. Noah Barker is a major league baseball player from a common background who agrees to fulfill a sick child’s wish. Together they burn up the sheets. Unfortunately, they also cause a family member to burn in anger. In a stunning case of betrayal, the home run ending they both envisioned is threatened and they teeter on the brink of striking out.

Home Run- Snippet 2

Gonna do a snippet a week until my August 3rd release date. Here is number 2. Enjoy!

 

HomeRun_Cover

She blasted Rihanna from the car stereo, pumping out the bass to get her groove going as she belted out the lyrics. Music helped her reset and she wasn’t going to let the other drivers’ stares stop her from enjoying the upgraded stereo she’d chosen for her sporty little Beemer. Her hair was whipping around because she’d rolled down windows and she probably looked ridiculous singing at the top of her lungs. She didn’t care. It made her happy.

She made it to Noah’s netting only a few uptight looks from his closest neighbors. Surely they were skeptical seeing so many women come and go. But Dani had grown up around uptight and she knew the look well. If she had her way, uptight would be a thing of the past for everybody.

Thinking of uptight people always made her think of her parents, the epitome of uptight, snobby and unwelcoming. She wasn’t sure how she had ever grown up in a house so cold, so devoid of laughter, love and joy. Then she thought of spending time with Betty in the kitchen and the answer was right there. Betty was how she had survived. Thank God for Betty.

She wanted to keep Noah and her parents in different spheres so those two worlds didn’t collide or even intersect. Noah was too precious and her parents too relentless. A shudder went through her at what would happen if they ever met. Dani would prevent that for as long as possible even though she knew if she kept dating Noah, a confrontation with her parents would be inevitable.

Her car glided to a stop and as she reached Noah’s front door, he opened it, grabbed her and hustled her inside as fast as her feet allowed.

Guess someone missed me.

Home Run- Snippet 1

Here is a snippet from Home Run. It’ll be released from Rebel Ink Press August 3, 2013.

HomeRun_Cover

 

Noah was amazingly magnetic. She fully understood why women stood in line for a night with him. In addition to his personality, he was ruggedly handsome. But it was his mouth that set him apart from most other handsome men. It was surprisingly lush and full, almost but not quite feminine. His good looks combined with his soft heart for sick kids were a lethal combination and Dani wasn’t immune.

That same care he showed Juan then was how he took care of her now. He remembered the big things but he paid special attention to the small things and that set him apart from other men she’d dated. It was the beginning of the steamiest, yet sweetest, relationship she’d ever had.

He was addictive. But he was a complication. Her parents would surely hate him.

Open Road Release

HotRodsHotBods_200

Open Road Release on Jupiter Gardens Press today.
AllRomance
Coffee Time Romance
Amazon

 

Here’s the blurb:

Zoe Akio is a professional dirt bike racer who decides to ride her motorcycle across the country and think about a future post motocross racing. Her manager hires two bodyguards, Deke and Nathan, to travel with her. The three weeks with the three of them in close quarters changes all of their lives as a new, unexpected road opens up.

Here’s an excerpt:

“Malcolm, I don’t need anyone to go with me. I’ve got three weeks between races, and I just want to ride. I can make it from Cali to the East Coast in that time with no problem.” Zoe knew she was whining, but she really didn’t care. It didn’t matter that she was talking so loud people on the other side of the bar could hear her. But, Mal wasn’t listening to what she was saying. Typical.

“It’s not safe for you to be on the road by yourself, Zoe. I need you to get to the next races on time and in one piece. I’m sending some riders with you. And that’s final.” Mal’s tone brooked no argument.

She grunted at him and took a long pull off her beer. She was tired of listening to him yap. Soon she’d be on the road riding her bike for fun. Not for work. God, when had her passion turned into work?

If she didn’t argue with him, maybe he would just shut up and go away. Being her manager didn’t give him license to constantly tell her what to do, where to go or how to live . He was worse than owning a little yappy dog, always dogging her heels.

She could see the disgusted look on Mal’s face and the tightening of his mouth as he looked around the rundown bar. She didn’t care about his discomfort at being in a place like this. The bar was old, dirty, and smelly. But she’d been coming here since she could legally drink. She was comfortable here, and the bartenders knew her name.

Plus she was surrounded by other bikers. They gave her respect and space. Being a motocross rider had some pull with the patrons in this bar.

Dressed in faded Levis that looked almost broken down and her motorcycle boots, all scuffed and worn, she fit right in. At least in the way she dressed she fit in with the guys. Most of the girls were biker sluts, wearing short skirts and too much makeup. Zoe kept her face relatively free of face paint, and her hair was all teased out but hanging in soft curls down her back.

At Mama’s, she was more like a guy than a girl. She liked that. She liked that most of the people in this bar liked to ride for fun. She needed that energy now more than ever. She was just so damn tired of competing. It had become all about the money and not about the ride.

“Look Mal, you get my rigs to Pennsylvania and I’ll show up to ride,” she declared. “You send people with me, it’ll take planning and shit, and I’m trying to avoid that. I need this ride.”

“I’m not telling you not to make the drive, Zoe,” he spoke slowly. “I’m just asking you not to ride alone. In fact, I won’t let you.”

Smutty Sunday 6/30/13

Doing something different again. Gotta give a shout out to my peeps at the AW Forum, yeah? So instead of telling y’all about books I’ve read, I’m telling you about books you should buy. And they are SMUT-TACK-U-LOUS. Just from the covers, you know they’re yummy!

America’s Darlings by Gail Bridges

Leah Collins is a sexual gymnast, a brilliant athlete poised to compete in the Mexico City Olympic Games of 2112. She takes pride in her advanced skills in the sexual arts, but performing Courtesan’s Treat and Raging Volcano in front of thousands of cheering fans is no easy task, especially when sexual malfunctions threaten.

At her side, a pillar of strength and compassion, is her best friend, Benson White. He is the one who scrapes her from the ground when her self-destructive tendencies surface. Benson is a talented sexual gymnast in his own right, the other half of America’s Darlings.

They hope for a gold medal. What neither of them expects is to fall in love.

Inside Scoop: This book contains a mixed-gender ménage, girl-on-girl, references to male/male sex, group sex, voyeurism, exhibitionism and everything else you’d expect from a society where sex is a game.

An Exotika® futuristic erotica story from Ellora’s Cave

Click here to go to the book’s page and buy.

 

Angel’s Redemption by Azalea Moone

Twenty-four-year-old Blaine Schneider is seasoned to hardship. Since the age of eight, he’s experienced nothing but a swarm of bad luck: from the funny electrical fire in shop class to failing grades and relationships gone sour. He believes he’ll never get past it; only his band, ‘Til Dark, and their dream, keeps him going through it all.

Shortly after he mysteriously inherits a beautifully carved angel statue, Blaine also finds an apartment big enough to display the lifelike sculpture, and he thinks his luck has finally taken a turn for the better. But when he discovers the spell inscribed on the statue’s base, he frees Lynsael from his stone prison, a handsome fallen angel who claims to be Blaine’s former guardian angel, and then his luck really improves.

But while Blaine is falling hard for the angel’s blue eyes and lively personality, in the shadows, dark forces are working to keep Blaine and Lynsael apart. It will take more than luck for the pair to come through unscathed—it’ll take a miracle.

Click here to go to the book’s page and buy.

 

Directing Traffic by Charley Descoteaux

Neil Sedwick expects to spend his vacation in a sleepy tourist trap mourning his late partner’s death. Instead, he puts his recently acquired CPR certificate to use and saves an elderly resident’s life. But it’s the survivor’s nephew, sexy middle-school teacher Ty Bigelow, who causes Neil to reevaluate his routine and consider reopening his heart.

Though the electricity between them is undeniable, Ty is struggling with his own feelings of inadequacy, and Neil is moored to the past. Even the healing peace of an old man’s garden and the ever-changing waters of the Oregon coast may not be enough to prepare Neil to overcome a crisis of the heart.

Click here to go the the book’s page and buy.

Plagiarism

So there was a big brouhaha this past weekend when Lorelei James found out that @AlisonGilmore had ripped off her entire book and put it up as her fanfic and then to a blog. AlisonGilmore claimed she was writing the book chapter by chapter. She wasn’t. She was and is a thief of the highest order. She ripped off someone else’s work and claimed it as her own. There was a huge internet smack down. HUGE. Like by several people all getting into the act and it brought her blog pages down and she ended up shutting off her twitter account. She now has a new twitter account and has made it private. Only the internet isn’t “private.” Not at all. The internet is very public and is forever.

Limecello posted a blog about the internet takedown.  As did Rilzy on her blog. They both have several pictures of the images capturing the twitter logs and the blog and the subsequent takedown. They have a, forever on the internet for all time and for anyone to see and read,  blog entry about the blatant plagiarism AlisonGilmore engaged in when she ripped off Lorelei’s book. The book was ALL JACKED UP.

Plagiarist aren’t new. They are the necessary evil when you are an award winning author. Only the internet makes it so much easier to find them and ferret them out. Like ridiculously easy. Almost as easy as it makes for someone to do the ripping off. So the internet is both a sword and a shield. It cuts and protects all at the same time.

What it can’t do is make stupid people smarter. Or people who can’t write, write. And that’s what it boils down to. Plagiarist are inherently lazy, stupid and weak. No talent is involved when you steal someone’s ideas and storylines. Word for frickin’ word.

AlisonGilmore sent a tweet that said in effect- writing romance, erotic romance and erotica is for talentless dweebs. I won’t go into why writing GOOD smex is hard- almost as hard as writing comedy. But what I will go into is my response to AlisonGilmore’s talentless dweeb comments. My tweet is below. I bolded what I wrote in response to her tweet. What I wrote is true. And it was a kick-ass response to her assertions.

 

D.R. Slaten ‏@DRSlaten 14 Jun

Plagiarism is for people who can’t think. @laurahunsaker @megantgrimm @loreleijames smut is for people who can’t write.

Smutty Sunday 6/16/13

Mine To Take by Cynthia Eden

 

Another smutty Sunday book rec deviation. Gonna focus on one author and one book. Cause that’s just what’s happening. One of these days we’ll return to my regularly scheduled program of doing a variety of different genre recs. But that day is not today .

Cynthia Eden. Need I say more? Hot alpha heroes. Wicked cool heroines. Lots of paranormal peeps. And Smoking sex.  Seriously, a girl who likes to read smut couldn’t ask for more. Not at all.

But here, I’m going to review her new contemporary romantic suspense novella- Mine to Take. Got an advance copy from NetGalley. It’s a longer novella. It is a really good length. I want to say it is a perfect length. But seriously, I love her writing so much that even a full length novel makes me want more. Never fails. I get to the end and I get the sads.

Mine to Take has a lot of goodness. I didn’t like the hero at first. I thought Trace was a douche of the highest order. But… but… but… as the story unfolded, I totally fell in LOVE with him. He has all the traits in an alpha hero that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE. He’s a badass. He cares more for the heroine than himself. And when danger loomed large, Trace loomed LARGER.

Skye is being stalked. Her life is being threatened. And it is someone close to her. Someone who knows where she is and what she is doing. So she goes to Trace to ask for help in stopping her stalker. What she doesn’t know is that Trace has always looked out for her from the very first time they met in foster care. And that hasn’t changed. Won’t ever change. Can’t change. Because some people aren’t just people you meet and move on from. Some people get under your skin. And they become your very reason for breathing.

There are some twist and turns in this story. Both Skye and Trace have their trust, beliefs and sanity questioned. And the bad guy? Totally didn’t see it coming until the end. Which is the way a good suspense story should be.

Ten years they been apart. Cause if you love someone, really love someone, sometimes you have to do the thing you don’t want to do the most. Let them go. And it’s the hope, the undying, never-ending, all-consuming hope of them returning to you that drives you forward. Because if someone you love has a dream, and you are in the way of that dream and you love them more than you love yourself, there’s only one course of action. At least if your a badass alpha hero who has loved his woman since he was a kid.

And when she returns to you? Sheesh, not even a crazy-assed stalker is going to get in the way of THAT reunion and happily ever after. No way. No how.

So get Mine to Take on Amazon. Read it. Love it. I promise, you’ll like it. I did.