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!

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.

I had a whole blog started about bathing suits and blogs and how they’re alike in that you want both to make you look GOOD and not make people want to throw up into their mouths, but I figured we’d all heard that before and we knew better than to be morons in public on our blogs, so I’ll just stop right there and talk about something else, ‘kay?

Now if only I had something to talk about. 

We’ve covered hot guys, we’ve covered writing about sex, and we’ve talked about inspiration, the muse (or lack thereof) and the fact that as professional writers it’s our job to put our butts in the chair and hands on the keyboard and write instead of farting around all day on the ‘net or playing the Sims 2 or Guitar Hero on the Wii. We’ve covered music and movies and upcoming books. 

What’s left?

Well, I’d like to talk about all of that again and then some — how being a writer means that everything  you do, every moment, is somehow always tied into the work. At least it is for me. I collect stories the way some women collect shoes. I want to learn about people because listening to them talk about their lives and what’s going on in them helps me find new inspiration every single day. Because even though I have a pretty deep well, not everything I pull up out of it is fit to see the light. Sometimes what comes up in the bucket stinks and falls apart into sludge and I have to throw it away. It really helps, sometimes, to have someone else’s bucket to scoop from.

Something as simple as the story of how a couple met can springboard me into a whole, vast wonderland of WHAT IF. A comment, a phrase, a casual mention of someone’s favorite song can all lead me to add the small details to a character that make him real to me (and hopefully, to you.)

My best friend since junior high got me a t-shirt that says “Be careful, or I’ll put you in my novel.” And that’s so true. Everything I see and hear finds its way, somehow, into the work. Most of the time I change it to protect the not-so-innocent, but it still came from something I came across in my day.

I look at the world through a filter. I listen. I pay attention. And then I get lost in the world inside my head; I let down the bucket and pull it up and sift through the contents and hope to find something worth using. Sometimes I remember where it came from. Sometimes I don’t. But in the end, it’s all big jumbled mess inside my head and I do my best to mash it all together into something palatable.

I can’t imagine what it would be like NOT to be a writer. I can’t imagine how it would feel not to spend so much time taking WHAT IF and turning it into AND THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED NEXT. I can’t imagine not…imagining. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

What is one thing about yourself you can’t imagine ever changing?

M

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!

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…

Why am I displaying my bad reviews from Amazon.com in this blog? Well, it started over here where John Scalzi posts snippets of his one star reviews from Amazon, then issues a challenge to other authors to do the same. Rachel Caine took it up. See? So, I thought, HEY!, all the cool kids are doing it and it’s not like I don’t have some one star reviews to choose from. Heh.

Bad reviews are part of the writing life. It’s not like I expect everyone who picks up my books to like them. People come to their reading with different perspectives, different life experiences. All that stuff colors their reading of the book. Reviews are opinions, nothing more and nothing less. Everyone is entitled to theirs.

I’m very self-critical, (I’m MUCH harder on myself than anyone else is), so if a negative review is well thought out I almost always find a place to agree with the reviewer. I try to learn from those particular negative reviews and make my next book free of the errors the reviewer has said I’ve made. (However, being human, I probably just make different errors.) A good review will make me smile broadly for two hours. A bad review will make me depressed for two days, but I try to use them as a learning tool.

In the end, bad reviews make the good ones all the sweeter. And luckily I have far more good reviews than bad.

So, with no further ado, here are some of my all time greatest hits from Amazon.com. I didn’t have a whole lot of one star reviews, so I took the two stars too.

Witch Fire

One star — “Not romance, not erotica, basically porn - what little plot there is exists to connect the sex scenes, note I didn’t say love making scenes. Altogether distasteful and I won’t waste money on this author again.”

Two star — “The writing was rather…Blah. Not awful, but sort of boring.”

Two star — “I was disappointed in this novel. I found it difficult to get into and kept putting it down.”

And Lady Makes Three

One star: “I was gullible enough to follow an Amazon recommendation on this one; it turned out to be on of my biggest mistakes. I wish I could give less than a star.”

Blood of the Raven

Two stars — “I would have given this book a 1 except it did have a plot. I like my books a little “steamy” but this is a little hard core for me.”

Seasons of Pleasure: Summer and Autumn

Two stars — “I am a big fan of fantasy and romance. My favorite thing about both these genres is the nice escape from everyday life they usually provide. This book did more to annoy me than relax me. The prose style is belabored and switches between “fantasy” and modern style intermittently. Characters are hollow despite the repetition of supposedly meaningful backstory. The author uses the same expressions over and over again, especially during sex scenes. Dialogue feels inauthentic and is ultimately unconvincing. A very unsatisfying read.”

Seasons of Pleasure: Winter & Spring

One Star — Style hasn’t improved from the first in the series. “I am a big fan of fantasy and romance. My favorite thing about both these genres is the nice escape from everyday life they usually provide. This book did more to annoy me than relax me. The prose style is belabored and switches between “fantasy” and modern style intermittently. Characters are hollow despite the repetition of supposedly meaningful backstory. The author uses the same expressions over and over again, especially during sex scenes. Dialogue feels inauthentic and is ultimately unconvincing. A very unsatisfying read.”

Anya says — same reviewer as the one above it, obviously. She read the books in the wrong order.

I own these bad reviews. I revel in them. If I could I would turn them into sudsy soap bubbles and take a bath in them. (Er? Did I just say that out loud?) Point is they are part of the glorious trip of being a writer. If you can’t suck it up and accept your bad reviews as part of your journey, then you should get out of this business.

Okay, I’m challenging authors too. Bring out the baddies! Let your Bad Flag fly! I want to see all your one/two star reviews. Own them, babies. Embrace the failure and make it yours.

So Vegas is now shipping from both Barnes and Noble and Amazon!

Behind closed doors, the real games begin…

Winning it big.

That’s the name of the game at Las Vegas’s Liege Hotel and Casino, where the hottest fantasies hinge on a roll of the dice…and the tantalizing knowledge that anything could happen before sunrise.

Cocktail waitress Carinna wants a man to tie her up, not tie her down. Little does she know that her most willing partner yet has something else planned for this fiery Latina bombshell.

Dahlia is a burlesque dancer with a brain for business and a bod for sin. Her latest admirer may be a sweet-talking Casanova, but despite what he thinks she’s not giving anything away free.

Meanwhile, Amy has the perfect plan to rob the Liege Casino blind…until the intimidating owner catches her red-handed. Now she knows she’s going to pay… with both pleasure and pain.

Professional shill Cassidy is ready to experience a breathless rendezvous with her “friend with benefits.” But when he proposes five delicious nights of sexy blackjack, the stakes have never been so high.

My story is Stripped. I came up with the idea while, not so surprisingly, I was on a trip with my husband to Las Vegas and we went to Ivan Kane’s Forty Deuce - a fabulous old style burlesque show/lounge in the Mandalay Bay. I came back, ready to write the book and my agent called and asked if I’d be interested in being part of a Vegas themed anthology pitch. I think for me, it was meant to happen and I’m glad it did.

Anyway - an excerpt of Stripped exists right behind the cut!

Read the rest of this entry >

Right now I’m writing a book in my Cascadia Wolves universe so I’m in a paranormal state of mind afer having written some futuristics and a contemp or two. I love paranormals, they’re such great fun to read and write.

I’ve always been fascinated by the unexplained and the paranormal. I remember, back in the stone ages when I was growing up, there was a show called In Search Of hosted by Leonard Nimoy. Man oh man did I love that show!

            It’s the question I think. The idea that there are things out there in the world that we can’t explain. I’m also totally enamored of shows about deep sea trenches because of all the cool stuff down there seven miles deep that we simply just guess about because there aren’t enough answers yet. Mysteries are delicious! The dark is just a big question, isn’t it?

            So it’s no surprise to me that I love writing paranormal books. Part of it is the way a lot of paranormal mythology connects with deep seated cultural and societal ideas. We’re afraid of what is different even as it compels us. We want to know, even though we have to peek through our fingers, heart beating fast, stomach churning with fear and yet, excitement about the unknown.

Vampires are the uber-villain—even as they’ve become the uber-sexy alpha hero. The teeth sliding over the skin is an ultimately intimate and dangerous act, especially in today’s climate. To give someone the very thing that keeps you alive is romantic as well as something that could also rob you of your existence. A vampire can be very strong and yet filled with anxiety over what he or she is. It’s fodder for the best kind of wounded hero, for the male who will move heaven and earth to protect his mate and of the woman (or man) who’ll give up their life for that love. How much more of an epic tale of love can you get?

The challenge is in how to get the human and the vampire together. Or how to bring two vampires or supernatural creatures together and make it work. It’s a great twist on the general romance conflict trope.

And werewolves, oh sigh. Werewolves are wonderful to write because they’re about embracing touchstone ideas - the strong male, the mate bond, feral sexuality, etc. There are people who don’t like the one true mate storyline (preferences folks, everyone’s got em!) but I love it. I love the idea of *knowing* someone is meant for you.  I also love the whole wildness, and uber-protectiveness of the alpha werewolf male (and female). I love that pushy, big guy arrogance and control freak attitude almost as much as I love writing the woman who will knock him down a few pegs. 

I love the foundational love of creation and nature the Fae represent. I can delve into Celtic or Slavic mythology and bring out the same basic stories about the shining folk. The Fae are about earth, they’re about nature and what I find the most fun is dealing with balancing responsibility of being so powerful with protection. Protection of love and family and protection of humans.

And all these ideas give you great villains. Because in a real sense, the paranormal isn’t so supernatural at all. It’s part of our subconsciousness as human beings. So we’re scared because who hasn’t had some sort of experience they couldn’t explain, be it lights in the sky, something mysterious happening in a graveyard or at home, that sort of thing? Being scared by a story is nearly as delicious as being titillated by one so the combination of the two is like a lemon cupcake – perfection.

What do you all like?  Tell me and I’ll enter you in a contest to win a bunch o goodies I pick up at RT! I’ll choose a winner upon my return April 21. Most likely I’ll pick more than one because there’s loads of books and swag. But at the very least one!