Thursday, April 25, 2013

Naughty Author Chicks Welcomes Author Cindy Jacks!

Big treat for our Naughty Chicklets today! We are proud to welcome the multi-published, multi-talented, and all-around cool Chick, Cindy Jacks! Take it away, Cindy:

A Writer Looks at Forty

One of my guilty pleasures is Jimmy Buffett’s “A Pirate Looks at Forty,” but it seems I have the opposite problem from the protagonist in Mr. Buffett’s song― instead of finding myself with no outlet for my chosen occupation I find myself with too much. It’s an exciting time to be a writer with self-publishing, Indie presses and all sorts of venues to see my words in print. It does however mean there’s more competition than ever and at times I feel adrift on a sea of voices. How to make mine heard? I’m not sure I’ve figured that out yet, but what I do know is that I’m grateful to be part of the dialogue. Tenacity is most of the battle in any chosen career. This much I’ve learned in the past thirty-nine and three quarter years.

With age comes wisdom. I never quite knew what that meant when I was younger. I mean, I felt pretty enlightened back then. I wasn’t. I was just too stupid to know that there was lots I didn’t know. *grin* Well, there has to be an upside to this aging thing. It’s certainly not the effect time and gravity has had on my boobs nor is it those aches and pains slowly creeping in on me and my newfound need for reading glasses. Those things I could do without. But the wisdom and experience to navigate life with fewer mistakes and more self-assurance. That is indeed worth the wait.

Here are a few of life’s lessons I’ve taken to heart:

At times life gives me more than I think I can handle, but that I can handle a lot more than I think I can.

That which does not kill us does not only make us stronger, but also stranger and that’s a good thing. Who wants to be normal?

I love to laugh, but sometimes it’s important to break down and cry.

Stop telling myself what I think I should be feeling and just feel.

Nothing is ever as bad or as good as you think it will be…except in the case of ice cream. It’s always pretty damn good and it fixes most of what ails ya.

I like being comfortable in my own skin. I know what I like and what I don’t like, but I also realize it’s important to try something new once in a while…even if I think I’ll hate it.

It’s okay to slow down, just don’t stop all together.

All the blessings and opportunities to grow in the past thirty-nine and three quarter years have made me who I am. I wouldn’t change a thing. Not even the painful parts. I can’t wait for the next forty and a chance to learn even more about life, love and the pursuit of happiness. When asked if I would want to be in my 20s again, I answer with a resounding, “Hell no!” though I wouldn’t pass up the chance to have my twenty-something boobs back. Maybe when I hit the bestseller list ;)

And in support of my bosom restoration effort, please check out my latest release:

Sailor's Knot
Pirates at Heart, Book Three
The year is 2037 and the next generation of Logan family pirates have taken over the helm of The Yellow Rose. Running bootleg booze and smuggling runners from the Reformed States of America into the Republic of Texas, business couldn’t be better…that is, if brothers Marcus and Nathaniel don’t kill each other in the process.
Captain Marcus Logan is serious, brooding and haunted, carrying a torch for his first mate, Amelie. Nathaniel—the resident party boy—is none of those things, but somehow they’d made their differences work for them until recently. When tall, leggy blonde Captain Ruby Delaney is a guest aboard The Rose, she turns Nathaniel’s head and stirs up all sorts of trouble, not the least of which is winding up in Marcus’ bed one drunken night. This ill-advised one-night stand ignites a love quadrangle so intertwined that the phrase “it’s complicated” doesn’t begin to define this sailor’s knot.
A Romantica® futuristic erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave

Buy-it-now link: https://www.ellorascave.com/index.php/authors/index/author/slug/cindy-jacks/

Cindy’s links:
web: http://cindyjacks.com/
Twitter: @cindyjacks
Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/Cindy-Jacks/e/B003XRMLLS/

And don't forget to check out books 1 & 2!

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Mr.Selfridge and a Lady's Perfume

A working girl needs a wardrobe, though in my upcoming Cosmo Hot Reads from Harlequin, NAKED SUSHI, Pepper O'Malley, my heroine, wears only yellow pom pom chrysanthemums and a banana leaf for her gig as a sushi model.

Lucky girl.

But most of us with 9 to 5 jobs have to plan what we're going to wear each day. Casual...or sexy heels and skirt. Jeans and a tee? Whatever your choice, we have much to choose from in our local department store or boutique.

It wasn't always that way.

I've been watching Mr. Selfridge on PBS.org about the American who opened up Selfridge's department store in London in 1909. Oh,what fun! The beautiful store windows alone make it worth watching, but the interesting facts about how department stores have changed over the past 100 years is fascinating.

Did you know that at Selfridge's--

Ready-to-wear didn't exist; a lady came in for fittings, then her garments were made.

Cosmetics were sold under the counter so as not to offend a lady's delicate nature.

All the salesgirls wore black. I imagine the reason for this was so their appearance wouldn't detract from the merchandise they were selling.

Harry Selfridge made shopping an event, not a chore. He displayed a small plane in his store and even had the famed ballerina Anna Pavlova dance for his customers.

And--

Perfume was sold at the front of the store to mask the smell of horse manure clinging to the customers' shoes.

So the next time you go shopping at your local department store, stop at the perfume counter at the front of the store and enjoy a splash of your favorite fragrance.

You have Mr. Selfridge to thank for that.

Click here to see a wonderful array of photos and pix from Selfridge's.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

A moment to pause

I think today is a good day to pause for a moment of reflection. Hoping all of you and your loved ones are safe. My heart is with those who aren't. It's a terrible reminder of just how quickly it can all be torn away for no good reason.

Wishing you peace,
Cindy

Friday, April 12, 2013

Release day for guest Jillian Chantal

My good friend and fellow author, Jillian Chantal, has a new book out TODAY! I'm so glad we could have her over at Naughty Author Chicks to help her celebrate another milestone! Congrats, Jillian! ~ Casey Crow



Thanks Casey for inviting me over to visit the Naughty Author Chicks again. I love this blog and am honored to be asked by for natter. I have a new book out today called Venetian Masks. It’s a romantic adventure that takes place in Venice, Italy and Bangkok, Thailand. The heroine is an American oil painter who visits the city of Venice in order to take advantage of all the wonderful architecture of the city as well as the canals. She’s dying to paint the scenery there. She meets an Italian man almost the first minute after she arrives. He’s the driver of the water taxi she takes to her hotel, but he’s so much more than that.

This story was inspired by my own most recent visit to Italy in the summer of 2011. My water taxi driver was very sexy and handsome as only an Italian man can be. The excerpt at the end of this post is totally inspired by my driver. Venice is a city like no other. No matter where you look, there’s something beautiful. The buildings, the water, the gondolas, the men….  Well, you get my drift, right?
How about an excerpt?

She turned her head to see if she could find where the line was for the vaporetto, the waterbus service she’d read about on-line before she left home. When she saw a mass of people standing in one spot, she headed that way. The vessel pulling up to the pier seemed to be pretty large but with the number of riders waiting, she knew she’d never get on the thing with her bags. She sighed and moved toward the line. Nothing to do but wait for the next one unless she wanted to hoof it the long way around that she’d also heard about.
Before she could get far, a man in a navy-blue windbreaker approached her. He held his hand out for her suitcase. The jacket had a patch on it with gold lettering that said Canal Taxi. "Signorina, I work for a private water taxi company. Perhaps you’d prefer to travel in comfort instead of on the vaporetto?"

"Is the price the same?"
"Only a little more. A little." He held his thumb and index finger close together to indicate how small the difference was and reached for her bags again.

Exhausted, she let him take them and followed him as he led the way to a different dock. She smiled when she saw that there were only two others waiting for the next taxi. She liked that there would be more people than her on the vessel but she also was glad that it wouldn’t be massively crowded.
The vessel itself was gorgeous, made of what she thought was teak wood in a beautiful light brown color. Charlotte could see down inside the cabin. There was a deep-brown leather banquette for the passengers to sit on. There were also a lot of half-open windows spattered with water drops. They should let in a nice sea breeze once they got underway. She relaxed the tension in her shoulders and took a deep breath.

The man with her bags handed them over to another man in an identical windbreaker. When all the bags were loaded, the man turned his attention to the passengers. He assisted each one onto the boat and then leapt off. Charlotte was amazed that he didn’t fall on his ass. She knew she would have if she tried that trick. Hell, she still might when she had to get off the thing.
The other two people on the boat were together and chatted to each other all the way across the basin. The ride was soothing and Charlotte caught herself almost dozing off. Startled when the vessel stopped, her head jerked to the side and, wide-awake now, she watched as the driver assisted the other two passengers off the boat and handed their baggage to them.

For the first time, Charlotte actually paid attention to the man who’d been piloting the boat. She almost gasped at his handsomeness but restrained herself in time. When he looked down into the cabin at her, she stood. "Is this where I get off?"
He stuck his head inside the passenger area and addressed her. "No, signorina. Vito told me where you’re staying. Your pension is closer to St. Mark’s Square. These people," he shrugged, "they chose the wrong travel agent. They’re not going to be happy at the long walk to the tourist area. You, on the other hand, even though you’re at a small place, are close to the middle of everywhere important."

"Thanks. I’m not really a tourist, but I’m glad to be near the action."
"You will be for sure since this really is a walking city. We don’t have vehicles in the streets since they are too narrow to navigate on anything but foot. Now, let me get you to your destination." He turned away and went back out of the cabin and up to the steering wheel.

Charlotte peered up at him under her lashes. He was very attractive with his olive complexion and dark hair. She watched his arms as he moved the wheel. Perfection. She loved a man who had sexy forearms. His short-sleeved shirt emphasized the strength of them as he twisted and turned to maneuver the boat through the smaller canals. Mesmerized, she finally realized she was being an idiot again by gaping at this man’s arms instead of the amazing architecture she’d come to Venice for in the first place.
With an effort, she pulled her gaze away and forced herself to focus on the passing façades of the houses and palazzos. She almost giggled. The scenery she really wanted to ogle was the man. At least for the moment. After all, who knew when or if she’d see him again? The buildings had been here for centuries, they weren’t going anywhere. She did giggle then.




http://store.sweetcravingspublishing.com/index.php?main_page=book_info&cPath=4&products_id=154&zenid=c02766cd300e522eb5065c0c1323ff58 Buy link

Contact Jillian at:
www.Jillianchantal.com

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jillian-Chantal-Author/263255010477618?ref=tn_tnmn

 

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

"Naked Sushi" Cover Photo Shoot

It was almost as good as sex...

Well, almost, but not quite. I'm talking about the orgasmic bounce my libido got when I received a tweet from Malle Vallik at Harlequin. They were shooting the cover for my October Cosmo Red Hot Read, "Naked Sushi."

And...whoa!

I totally freaked when I clicked on the pix in the tweets. There she was, a pretty model wearing a blue kimono and glasses. And sushi. "That's my Pepper!" I cried out, spilling my coffee.

Pepper O'Malley, the computer programmer heroine in my story. She's sexy, quirky, and fun. And soon to be a Cosmo Girl.

I've embedded Malle's tweets from the photo shoot:

And here's another:

I can only imagine what the guy was thinking when he placed the sushi on the model's back...

Now there is a man who loves his job!!

-----------------

More Naked Sushi in upcoming posts as we count down to October...


Photos for Cover Shoot via Twitter:
Copyright © 2013 by Harlequin Enterprises Limited

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

The Deadline Drama! A Photo Journal...

Clothes need to be put up but I'm working on a love scene!
Many authors have some things in common that cross genre. No, I'm not talking about plotting solid storylines, full character arcs, GMC, promotion woes... I mean, all those are very true and valid. But I'm referring to deadline drama. Or in other words, letting-everything-go-because-that-book-has-to-be-in-and-clean-drawers-and-food-other-than-coffee-and-trail-mix-don't-matter.

You know what I mean? I think you do.

So today, as I'm pushing toward my deadline, I'm airing my laundry today. Like literally.

But at least it's clean... The clothes are still sitting in the basket but they are clean!

There's the dishes, the house, the kids, the husband...

Yeah, well. Here's my photo diary of my deadline drama...


A cluttered desk is the sign of genius at work!
Now my dishes are clean...


....because we've been doing take-out!!

Don't judge me! Well, actually you can. I won't know it because I got get back to my ms! Bye! *salute!*

Friday, April 5, 2013

New Release! THE GIRL WHO CRIED WOLF!

So excited to announce I've got a new release out with Blushing Books called THE GIRL WHO CRIED WOLF! It actually came out years ago and has been out of print for a while, so I've reworked it. This version is totally different - and I think better - than the original. I'm excited about it! Hope you will be, too!


Happy Reading!




Kat Sinclair is in love with Detective Reese Huntley. The only problem is that his partner is her extremely overprotective brother. And her brother has a stupid rule about her not dating cops. What her brother doesn’t know is that she and Reese have been secretly going out for months. Or at least they had been until Reese decides he can’t keep seeing her because it violates some ridiculous bro code.

Kat isn’t the type to give up easily, however, and comes up with a plan to change his mind. But her scheme to make him believe there’s a psycho after her backfires when Reese sees though her ploy and puts her over his knee for a sound spanking. That doesn’t deter Kat. She’s going to stick to her plan until she gets her man. She doesn’t care how many times or how hard he spanks her.

When it turns out that her life really is in danger, will Reese believe her? Or will he think she’s just crying wolf again?


Excerpt:


Kat kept her legs wrapped around him long after her orgasm had subsided. She loved the feel of him inside of her and didn’t want to let him go just yet. But they couldn’t stay locked like that all night or they’d both be stiff come morning. So, when Reese kissed her and rolled over onto his back, she willingly curled up in his arms.

“Mmm. Maybe I should call and tell you someone followed me home more often.”

Beside her, Reese stiffened, the hand he’d been rubbing up and down her arm going still. “Wait a minute. What?”

Uh-oh.“N-nothing. I just meant that I knew you’d come if you thought I needed you.”

She cringed inwardly. Crap. That hadn’t come out any better.

Reese swore under his breath. “I can’t believe I fell for this.”

Kat pushed herself up on her elbow, which was a mistake. All it did was give Reese room to kick free of the blanket and get to his feet.

“Fell for what?” she asked.

“You know damn well what.” He glared at her as he pulled on his jeans, then reached for his shirt. “No one followed you home. You made that whole thing up.”

Kat’s stomach tightened into a knot as he snatched his gun holster from the floor and shrugged into it. Everything had been so perfect. Why did she have to open her big mouth and screw it up?

“I didn’t make up anything,” she insisted. “Someone was outside the door.”

That part was true, at least. But Reese wasn’t buying it. He picked up his jacket and stormed out of the bedroom.

Double crap.

Somehow Kat scrambled out of bed without getting tangled up in the blanket and falling on her face. She threw on her robe, trying the belt as she hurried after him.

“Reese, wait! I didn’t make anything up. Why would I do something like that?”

He spun around to face her, his dark eyes glinting. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe to trick me into coming over here so you could get me into bed.”

Kat felt her face turn red. “Do you even know how stupid that sounds?”

“Actually, it sounds pretty damn clever to me. But then you always did know how to get me to do whatever you wanted.”

She almost laughed. If that were true, she wouldn’t have to resort to this kind of underhanded crap to get him to see reason. “Now, you’re just being a jerk, and I’m not going to stand here and defend myself to you. Next time some strange guy follows me home, I’ll go ahead and invite him in.”

“Don’t be stupid.”

She folded her arms. “First I’m clever, and now I’m stupid. Which is it, Reese? Because if I really had the ability to make you do whatever I wanted, I’d make you see you’re the one who’s being stupid. Regardless of what you say, you want me just as much as I want you—the bed-shaking sex we had in there proves that—and if calling you every time I think someone follows me home is what it’s going to take to get you to admit it, that’s what I’ll do.”

The muscle in his jaw flexed. “No, you won’t, because I’m going to make damn sure you don’t.”

Before Kat could even ask what he meant, Reese grabbed her arm and marched her over to the couch. But instead of plunking her down on one of the cushions and lecturing her like she thought he would, he sat down and gave her arm a tug that sent her tumbling over his knee. She immediately tried to push herself up, but a firm hand shoved her back down.

“Reese, what…”

The rest of what she’d been going to say ended in a gasp as his hand come down hard on her upturned ass. Her eyes went wide. What the hell? Was he actually spanking her? He smacked her again, harder this time. He was spanking her!


Buy it at Blushing Books!
http://www.blushingbooks.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=477


Buy it at Amazon!
http://www.amazon.com/Girl-Who-Cried-Wolf-ebook/dp/B00C1RXD2M/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1364483349&sr=1-1&keywords=Paige+Tyler+The+Girl+Who+Cried+Wolf


*hugs*
Paige

Sexy Romantic Fiction!

http://www.paigetylertheauthor.com
http://paigetylertheauthor.blogspot.com