Talia Ricci at Joyfully Reviewed has this to say about Fated: Lauren Dane has written a highly emotional story in Fated. Shane and Megan face real fears and have to make agonizing choices.

Fated was about communication and working through problems. The mating of Shane and Megan took them by surprise but they refused to give up on their mating and each other. Just the way a loving relationship should be. Mark Fated in the winner’s column! I loved it!

Blurby Bit: 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.

This isn’t related to the previous story arc (Enforcer, Tri Mates, Wolf Unbound and Standoff), it takes place about 18 months after the end of Standoff and it’s Megan and Shane’s story! For now, it’ll be the last in the universe but eventually I’d like to come back and do Jack Meyers’ book.

You can check out an excerpt at my website and also at Samhain! I hope everyone enjoys Fated.

PS - I’m running two contests until Thursday the 21st to win copies of Ann Aguirre’s Wanderlust and Cynthia Eden’s Everlasting Bad Boys - check out the details at my blog!

Lauren

I’m pretty straightforward about writing. At its best, it is truly magical but most of the time it’s a matter of hard work and perseverence. I don’t personally subscribe to the idea of muses or of a lot of writing rituals. Most of my writing rituals revolve around notebooks and colored 3×5 cards with character notes and story points on them, LOL.

One thing I do truly subscribe to is that each story has a good sense of itself if you just let it. By that I mean, I can plot a story and I usually do have a somewhat solid structure in mind when I write, even an outline in many cases these days because when you sell on a partial or a proposal, you need to sell the idea so you have to write an outline of some sort. So I can have that outline but I know, as I write, things will reveal themselves to me that I had no idea of at the outset. This is something I can’t plan ahead on, it’s something I personally find magical and I never know what or when it will happen in any given story but it always does in some way.

Most often this is about character details, things I didn’t know about my characters until I began to write them. Liv Davis in Chased for instance - I didn’t know her mother had died when she was young and that she’d walled a part of herself off because of it. I didn’t know it until I got about halfway into the writing and it just came out. It happened to me recently with Relentless when I got to know Abbie and her real motivations, who she really was, came to me. It changes the book, layers in it ways you can’t plan in advance.

That’s the beauty of the creative process, it’s like alchemy and I truly love it when it happens. Well sometimes I get annoyed because I’ll have to go back and alter the earlier stuff to adjust for something I learn later on, LOL, but still, it’s wonderful and I love it.

Right now, I’m writing Outshined, a contemporary erotic romance for Berkley and something I hadn’t planned on AT ALL just jumped at me so many times, no matter how many times I tried to fend it off, that I’ve finally given in and let it happen. I now have to hope it works, LOL. Sometimes you have to fight off a story idea that tries to invade your book but other times, I give my story her lead and in the end, I think the story is better for it.

I’m nearing 64,000 words so I’ll let you know when I finish the first draft and go in to edit.

BTW, you have until noon pacific today, August 11 to enter a contest at my blog to win a copy of my upcoming Cascadia Wolves book - Fated.

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!

I actually made this yesterday but as I’m deep in edit country, I’ll toss it up here for your enjoyment. Or something, LOL!

Summer is here. Which means my kids are home and my time is taken up differently so I have to guard my schedule more carefully or I won’t get my work done. And I have a book due July 31 and another one in September so I can’t give in to the long, bright, hot lure of summer lethargy.

Sometimes when you’re caught up in a bunch of deadlines, your to do list takes over your life and you forget the wonder of popsicles and playing in the backyard and a cold margarita or beer on a hot day. So I try, very hard, to remember the magic of sunsets at ten pm and to squirt my kids with the hose for no other reason than to glory in the sound of their suprised, joyful giggles.

In an around three summer book releases and my deadlines. Because goodness, why do this if I can’t be joyful?

Happy summer to you all. Don’t forget to keep some money near the door so you can run with the kids when you hear the ice cream man!

Lauren

(oh and you wanna check out those releases - check my website) To celebrate summer - in this hemisphere anyway - I’m giving away a print copy of Making Chase or What Happens In Vegas - winner’s choice. Just comment here with your favorite thing to do in summer. I’ll choose a winner at six pm pacific/nine eastern, today June 30

**WINNER - is GRETA! Send me your mailing address and your preference between What Happens in Vegas or Making Chase and I’ll get the book your way! laurendane at laurendane dot com

So it’s finally here! Making Chase will be available in paper this coming Tuesday and it’s already up for pre-order at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

I’m thrilled with this book. It was great fun, although sad to write because it was the close of a series I just loved. It won the 2007 CAPA for Best Contemporary Romance as well as being a Recommended Read at several review sites including FAR, Joyfully Reviewed and Two Lips Reviews.

Here’s the blurb: Book Four In the Chase Brothers Series.

Tate Murphy is a girl from the wrong side of the tracks. She grew up a million miles away from the easy life Matt Chase has had. She’s spent her life pulling herself and her siblings up and out of that trailer by the railroad tracks and she hasn’t looked back. Matt Chase is a dream of a guy and she’s certainly not going to turn down a short fling with one of the most handsome men she’s ever seen!

Matt Chase has watched each one of his brothers find love and he knows he’s ready for that too. It’s all a matter of finding the woman who captures his heart. He’s certainly sampled his fair share of them but none has moved him the way Tate Murphy does when he goes to her shop to thank her for some cookies and a thank you note.

But as Matt gets to know Tate and appreciate her strength and unique beauty, he also realizes she’s got some big self esteem issues about her past. To build a future, he’s got to find a way past some big road blocks.

I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I loved writing it.

All kinds of stuff happening in Laurenland these days! First look at the pretty cover I got for my next Cascadia Wolves book, Fated!

I do love this cover so much! And I just finished first round edits this last weekend so that’s another thing done (thank goodness!)

And then I’m over a third done with Relentless now! Yay!

This vblog entry I did late last week will give you a bit of an idea of what Relentless is about and who the characters are.

Oh and this week I’m at Novelspot doing the Behind The Scenes Blog this week! Come over and say hello.

So it’s Monday and June already. Where did the time go? I’ve got a book due July 31 - Relentless, it’s moving along nicely and I’ve reached the beginning of the real meat of the story so it’s all about pacing right now and trying to keep all the story threads in order. After July 31 I have another deadline in mid September and then another in October and another in January.

I’m heading to Ohio for the Lori Foster Reader Get Together next weekend and I’m very excited. I get to see many of my friends and I always make new ones. If you’re going to be in the area, please come by the signing on Saturday to say hello. I won’t get a lick of writing done, but i’ll have a good time, LOL.

I made a book video for my July release, Reading Between the Lines and I’m now officially addicted. You can check it out at my Lauren blog if ya like.

I also managed to read Lisa Kleypas’ Sugar Daddy and LOVED it and Noelle Mack’s Wild and also enjoyed it very much. Don’t know what I’ll read next, my tbr pile is huge!

Writing life is uber busy and that means I’m happy because to me, busy means I’m selling books and people seem to like them.

I’ve been so busy I haven’t been online as much to look at blogs but a quick peek this weekend has reaffirmed that as a good thing. Oy, authors, come on. Just you know, maintain in public. No, it’s not always easy to be gracious but unless someone brings it to you, why on earth would you go trolling at other blogs to seek out drama? Just. Stop.

Stop whining about bad reviews in public! Everyone gets bad reviews. Nora Roberts, most likely the most well known author in romance and one of the very top sellers absolutely gets bad reviews. I see her on blogs and I never see her whining about bad reviews. I get em and I know every single author on this blog as received them. They come with the territory. Sometimes they’re spot on and hit on a weakness. Sometimes they hurt like whoa! Sometimes they’re nasty and personal. Sometimes it’s clear the reviewer hasn’t read the book. But always, they’re reader opinion. Shrug.

I’m not saying authors can’t speak online about things they find important. I’m not saying we have to be Stepford Authors either. But I’m saying hold your sh*t together in public because you cannot win. You will always look thin-skinned and it’s not going to change any minds.

The “back” key is one of my favorites on my keyboard. You have the luxury of hitting back and not revisiting places you don’t like. Being in the public eye to a certain extent means you have to deal with all sorts of stuff. Most of it is pretty darned cool but some of it is unpleasant. Shrug. Thicken up your skins and grit your teeth. Save the hissy fits for your BFF via IM or you’ll be the new blog fodder and while you can amuse yourself by thinking any publicity is good publicity, it’s just not.

Ugh. Okay to wash away the rantyness of the end of this post, how about a contest? Tell me about your TBR list and some stuff you’ve read recently and enjoyed. I’ll choose a winner, or maybe even two this Thursday afternoon and post the winner.

Good luck!

**WINNER - I’ve been away since 4 am Friday, excuse the delay, I just walked into my door twenty minutes ago - KAMMIE - you’re my winner. You win a copy of any available book on my backlist in whatver format they’re available in.  Just email me your choice and I’ll get it your way!

In June, the last book in my Chase Brothers series, Making Chase, will release in trade paper. For those of you who’ll be at the Lori Foster Reader Gathering in early June, I’m told copies will be available then!

Here’s the Blurb:

Tate Murphy is a girl from the wrong side of the tracks. She grew up a million miles away from the easy life Matt Chase has had. She’s spent her life pulling herself and her siblings up and out of that trailer by the railroad tracks and she hasn’t looked back. Matt Chase is a dream of a guy and she’s certainly not going to turn down a short fling with one of the most handsome men she’s ever seen!

Matt Chase has watched each one of his brothers find love and he knows he’s ready for that too. It’s all a matter of finding the woman who captures his heart. He’s certainly sampled his fair share of them but none has moved him the way Tate Murphy does when he goes to her shop to thank her for some cookies and a thank you note.

But as Matt gets to know Tate and appreciate her strength and unique beauty, he also realizes she’s got some big self esteem issues about her past. To build a future, he’s got to find a way past some big road blocks.

And an excerpt after the read more jump…
Read the rest of this entry >

I finished Fated on Friday night and now I’ll let it sit for a week or so before I go back to edit and polish it up and then turn it in. Now I’m on to my next book for Berkley, which was called Fallen but now is in “looking at a list of new titles” land. I am sort of weird about titles, it’s really hard for me to write without knowing a title. I’m just that way.  Anyway, I got started on it and it will be my main project until I get it done, hopefully by the later part of June so I can have about a month to get crit and revise and polish.

I like to build in an extra few weeks so I can let the book sit and come back to it and also, if there’s something I need time for, if I get stuck or if I need to add something major I have the time to do it. Sometimes I have less time than other times but I’m lucky to have an agent and editors who’ve helped me set up my schedule to allow for that.

And on a totally non-writerly front:
Last night I saw that someone had done the cover to Dio’s Holy Diver.

Our little Ronnie James is not the spiffiest looking of male specimens but he’s got a great voice (and a perm!) And much like I don’t apologize for my writing of romance, I don’t apologize for my intense love of Dio.

So the band is Killswitch Engage (not necessarily a bad name and thank god not a single hot ironed emo boy in the vicinity - sorry Megan)

I like the “homage” to the original but if you notice, the mixing is all wonked up because this dude is all guitar effects and his voice isn’t RJD. And while I do admit I love the screaming stuff, weirdo that I am, it’s cheating on this song. Dio doesn’t need good looks or decent hair or a distortion box and screaming - because he can sing. I do dig the bald lead singer thing though - I just wish they’d ease back on having the instruments so overpowering you can barely hear his voice.

This rant brought to you by the number - I am too old. Also by pull your damned pants up, are you going to wear that and back in my day…