Friday Fun Facts: The Hometown Heroes Series is Here!

TGIF! Of course, it's kind of a weird Friday here in New York, since we had Presidents' Weekend last week, combined with 2 extra snow days on either end, so for those of us who are teachers, we just got back to school and now we have a weekend again! Sure, sure, snow days SOUND good, but after awhile it just becomes clearing snow and sitting inside and thinking about how you're going to catch up and teach everything in the days that remain.

But anyway...

Have you gotten your copy of Beacon of Love over at Amazon? If you've already read the story of Sophie and Lucas, I hope you'll consider leaving a review on its new Amazon page. Readers love reviews for discovering potential new authors :)

It's also probably not to soon to mention that the sequel to this story, Inferno of Love, will release in just about a month, and I'm soooo excited for that one! It will be available on Kindle, Nook, and in print as well, so you can get whichever version works best for you. To whet your appetite, here's a link to the Tour Page over at Black Lion, which features the blurb and a short excerpt. Enjoy!

Writers' Wednesday: Beacon of Love is Now Available!

Woo hoo! I'm super excited to share the news that Beacon of Love, the first book in the Hometown Heroes series, is now available on Amazon's Kindle for the sale price of only $0.99! Now through the end of the month, you can pick up this story and re-familiarize yourself with Sophie, Lucas, and the town of Lindsey Point and its haunted lighthouse. Don't worry - it will also be available at Barnes & Noble, Sony, and iTunes shortly too. I'll make sure to share those links :)

If you already read (and enjoyed) Beacon of Love when it originally released last year, I would love for you to leave a review on Amazon. Reviews drive sales, and I'd love the re-release of this story to have a nice bump before the brand new, never-before-released sequel, Inferno of Love, comes out next month!

Thank You!

Friday Fun Facts: Pre-Order Beacon of Love Now!

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! Just in time for this lovers' holiday, you can pre-order Beacon of Love for the super-low re-release price of $0.99! Smashwords is featuring the pre-order, and it should soon be up on Barnes & Noble as well.

In other news, I'm going away for the long weekend to a place that has more snow....yes, more than is in my front yard, which after yesterday is about 2 feet. It's a Presidents' Weekend snowy getaway, and while the people I'm with will probably be doing all kinds of outdoor winter activities, I'm hoping to stay inside and get some writing done. No Internet or TV, so at least I won't have those distractions.

I'm hoping it will be cozy and quiet, more like The Holiday

and less like, well, The Shining

(not like I'm going away with a madman or anything, just that I'll be in an isolated hotel in the middle of a snowstorm).

Here's to getting a lot of new words written on a new book ~ I"ll give you the update next week!

Writers' Wednesday: The Re-Release of Beacon of Love is 1 Week Away!

Hello readers! I'm thrilled to let you know that the re-release of Beacon of Love is happening next week, so that means if you didn't get around to reading it last year when it came out, you'll soon be able to! Even better, for the month of February, it will be on sale for only $.99 - less than a cup of coffee! Want to know what readers thought of it? Reviews over on Goodreads if you're interested.

For writers, here are a couple of links to share with you today, courtesy of BookBaby. The first is a blog post about where to post your free/sale ebooks (always helpful info!) and the second is a pointed article about how to use - and not use - social media to your advantage when you're first releasing a book. Good stuff!

Now, to bunker down and prepare for the snow....more snow....always more snow....

Monday Mentionables: Why I'm Not Watching the Winter Olympics

"Be the change you want to see in the world." (Mahatma Gandhi)

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter." (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Today's post admittedly has little to do with writing or my books that are releasing shortly, but I felt the need to vent today. So bear with me.

I am not watching the 2014 Winter Olympics this year. I have the feeling I am in the minority when it comes to this decision, being a person who would normally enjoy watching the opening ceremony and cheering for the figure skaters and oohing and aahing over the ski jumpers and rooting on the speed skaters and hockey teams. But this year, in the wake of not only the whole stray dog-killing scandal but also Russia's blatant anti-gay legislation, I feel that I can't watch the competition when it is supported, organized, and marketed by a country that goes against two of my greatest beliefs.

I know what I stand for. Human rights and the equal treatment of human beings, and ethical treatment of animals, are two of the biggest. I also know that my watching, or not watching, the Olympics as a single viewer will have little effect on the event as a whole. I also know that the athletes are not the ones to blame, and that their performance and preparation should have nothing to do with the political beliefs or practices of the country in which the competition happens to take place this year.

But, finally, I also know that I could not, in good faith, be a role model for my students, my friends, or my community members, or be the kind of person I want to be, if I did not stand up for my beliefs. I believe we should all be true to ourselves, whatever that means to us. That is why I decided to publish my Hometown Heroes as an indie publisher, (haha - got a writing reference in after all!) why I write sex scenes that take place behind closed doors, and, finally, why I will not be watching the Winter Olympics.

To each her own. Have a great Monday, friends.

Friday Fun Facts: Come Visit Lindsey Point With Me!

BEACON OF LOVE is releasing this month!

Welcome to Lindsey Point, Connecticut: suspicious of outsiders, loyal to tradition, and absolutely devoted to its local legends. Enter Sophie Smithwaite, travel show host, in town to film an episode about Lindsey Point’s haunted lighthouse. But digging into the story of a tragic murder-suicide and love gone wrong reveals startling connections to Sophie’s own past. 

When a gorgeous local handyman fills in behind the camera, Sophie’s life gets complicated by more than just her family history. Part-time paramedic, handyman, seasonal Santa... Lucas Oakes does it all--except get attached. He’s still reeling from the death of his best friend ten years ago and the more recent infidelity of his ex-fiancee. 

Yet despite Sophie’s big-city nosiness and her insistence on chasing long-dead ghosts, he’s drawn to her. But mixing with an outsider means questioning people and traditions Lucas has always defended. When a series of attacks seem to be connected to Sophie’s investigation, both Sophie and Lucas must decide if they are willing to risk everything to uncover the town’s secrets...and their own.

*****

So I was thinking the other day, wouldn't it be neat if my readers could virtually "visit" the town of Lindsey Point before they read the stories of Lucas and Sophie and Finn and Aubrey? I've been playing around with this for a few days...nothing fancy, just fun. Just click on the book cover above, then select your full screen option (lower right corner of the presentation screen). To move from spot to spot, just click on the arrows at the bottom of the screen. Please let me know what you think!

Writers' Wednesday: Sharing my Shiny Cover for Beacon of Love!

Ta daa! Here's my beautiful new cover for Beacon of Love! Don't you just love it?! Thanks to the talented Amy Gamet for designing it. This book will be re-released (at a super-discounted price) later this month, so stay tuned!

Also, I've been playing around with a cool way for you to "visit" the town of Lindsey Point before you even open the cover of the book. I'll be sharing that virtual visit too. Now....off to watch the snow fall!

Monday Mentionables: Design Updates

Well, if you're here reading my blog, you'll probably notice a change in its design. My very talented web designer, Jo of Glass Slipper Web Design, updated not only my blog but my website AND the header for my Facebook page. I think they're gorgeous! She used the cover of the super-sensual The Promise of Paradise cover as a model, and I think it matches the tone of my books terrifically. What do you think of the new look?

Plus, if you haven't yet signed up for my newsletter, make sure you do that while you're over at my website. I'll have 2 releases coming up in the next couple of months, and I want to make sure all my readers know when they'll be available! Stay tuned for the beautiful new cover of Beacon of Love, as well!

Friday Fun Facts: Why I Decided to Indie Publish (This Time)

Update to Monday's post...

After a whole lot of deliberation, going back and forth, talking to a lot of authors at different points in their writing careers, I've decided not to sign with Lyrical/Kensington. Instead, I'm keeping the rights to both Beacon of Love and Inferno of Love, and I'll release those myself.

Yes, it seems a little crazy in the abstract: I turned down contracts for 2 books from a NY publisher. For a writer who's spent years dreaming of being offered a dream contract with a traditional publisher, that seems like the craziest decision I could ever make. There were actually a lot of reasons I decided to go with indie published, though, and while I am not by any stretch of the imagination a household name or a regular best-selling author, I have enough experience with publishing, and enough readers, that I decided I wanted to keep the control and the profits for myself. Of course this is a risk; an established NY publisher can offer a lot to an author...IF they put the funds and the marketing behind that author.

Today, things are shifting in the publishing world. Authors are realizing that they don't NEED publishers to sell their books, to market to online readers or to build their following. In fact, a lot of the marketing that NY publishers do for their digital titles are things that indie authors can do themselves. Quite a few established authors are also releasing their agents, because they don't need to give 15% of their royalties to someone else in order to secure publishing contracts. Authors can sell more, and make more, through their own efforts.

If you really want to be wowed, read this post by Brenna Aubrey and this post by Matthew Mather.

This is not a rah-rah blog post saying that everyone should self-publish their own books. It is a lot of work, it requires an investment up front, and some self-published genres (like romance) sell better than others. I have decided to publish my own books, at least for the time being, and primarily to the digital market. That doesn't mean that I won't consider seeking out an agent or a traditional publisher in the future. It DOES mean that Beacon of Love will soon be available as a re-release and with a beautiful new cover in the next couple of weeks  AND that its sequel, Inferno of Love, will be available in early spring as well!

Stay tuned!

Monday Mentionables: Why Authors Rock

Ok, here's the thing: authors rock. And I don't mean they rock because they bleed plot lines and sweat character arcs and generally suffer in a very solitary manner to produce stories that readers may or may not decide to buy.

They rock because they help each other out.

In the 7+ years I've been bouncing around this industry, trying to find my feet and figure out the ins and outs of the publishing world, I have had the good fortune to come in contact with authors from around the world, in all genres and from all backgrounds, and they have inevitably given of themselves to help me (and others) negotiate the twists and turns in the road.

Never has this been more true than over the past weekend, when I was (still am) struggling with my decision whether or not to sign 2 contracts with Kensington or venture out on my own and publish those titles independently. You would think this would be a relatively painless decision. I mean, I'm not a newbie. I know what things to look out for, what things to consider...but it's still a tough call. There are pros and cons on both sides. So when I reached out to other authors for their advice, some of whom I knew personally, most of whom I didn't, the response was stunning.

In an eight hour period, no fewer than 20 authors responded - some on the author loop where I had posted my questions, more through my email account. They were new authors and seasoned authors, NY Times best-selling authors, those published with big name publishers and those who'd taken their rights back and published themselves, and just about everything in between. And they were, every one of them, sincere and genuine and open and honest with their advice. They told me what they'd experienced. They gave me numbers. They gave me concrete examples. They wrote with lots of exclamation points and ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, and at the end, every one of them wished me well with whatever decision I ultimately made.

Where else can you get support like that? I am truly happy to be a part of such a giving group of professionals. Now....when I finally decide what I'm going to do with those titles, I'll let you know!

Friday Fun Facts: Thanking my Awesome Beta Readers

As I promised, today I wanted to thank the beta readers who've been invaluable in reading over my Works-in-Progress over the last few years. As any writer knows, bouncing ideas off other writers, and sharing your baby with them before it goes out into the publishing world, can help improve the work incredibly. Outside readers have the ability to see things you can't, to ask questions that never occurred to you, and to point out all those "oops" in your stories, whether it's missing words or comma errors or huge plot holes.

A big THANK YOU to my faithful readers (please visit their website and support them too!)

Liz Matis, spicy sports romance author and indie publishing whiz

Janet Walters, founding member of my local RWA chapter and an incredibly prolific writer in almost every romance sub-genre

Cynthia Borris, who writes great romantic humor and who I "met" virtually years ago. We live on opposite coasts and have met in person exactly once :)

And dear friends Yolanda Sly and Tamara D., who unfailingly read my manuscripts, work full-time jobs, and still find time to meet for Starbucks or pedicures.

Writers, who's in your support network?

Writers' Wednesday: A Shout-Out to my Writing Support System

Writing is a pretty solitary pursuit. At the heart of it, it's you and the pen (or the keyboard). It's you sitting down by yourself to muddle through the story line and shape the plot and the characters.

But publishing requires a great deal of support, and while that journey is yours alone too, it is usually helped along the way by a variety of people. Today, a shout-out to the people who have supported me and been my resources along the way. If you're looking for any professional services, I recommend all of these:

Jo at Glass Slipper Web Design, who's currently in the process of re-creating a brand new website and "look" for me. She's been terrific to work with these last 5 years, reasonably priced and always doing whatever updates I needed within 24-48 hours.

Karen Dale Harris, my editor for Inferno of Love. She does terrific free-lance editing and, to my pleasant surprise, drops me emails every now and again to see how my writing is going and to share news about the industry. Highly recommended if you need an editor!

Amy Gamet, who designed my cover for Inferno of Love. Also easy and friendly to work with, with very competitive cover design rates.

Jesse Gordon, my e-book formatter. If you need something formatted into ANY file at all, with a quick turn-around and great rates, contact him.

Maria @ My Author Concierge - This is going to be a preemptive shout-out, because we just started working together. But I'm excited to have a virtual assistant who's going to help me organize my promo calendar, help with my releases, and be my all-around go-to person for professional contacts!

And my beta readers...but that thank-you comes on Friday. They get a blog post all to themselves, for being such terrific friends and support systems throughout my writing journey. Here's to 2014!

Monday Mentionables: Working on Author Brand

One of my goals for 2014 is to sharpen, and perhaps recreate, my author brand.

Your what?

Branding is a key component to any successful business. We all recognize McDonald's golden arches, or the Starbucks lady inside the green circle, or the silver Jaguar hood ornament. We know in an instant what we'll get for our money. Author branding does the same thing. It makes a promise to the reader about what kind of story you'll get if you pick up a title by any particular author. It's necessary for success - and it's also bloody challenging.

When I first started writing, I just wanted to write. I wanted to tell stories. I had a vague sense of what kinds of characters and settings drew me in: contemporary, male-female, PG-13 or maybe R rated. My first 3 "One Night" books had the added instant brand of being "24-hour romances" which was kind of unique at the time. But beyond that, I'm painfully aware that I do not have a precise brand associated with my name. That is one of my goals this year, to try and address that.

Branding requires you to take a close look at what you write, what you offer the reading public and how you want to be known. And in this world of online everything, your social media presence has to reinforce that brand as well. I'm still in the early stages of trying to figure this process out, but one thing I know that I love to write is small-town romance. With the exception of my "One Night" novels (and honestly, One Night in Napa would probably fall into this small-town genre as well), all my stories are set in small towns. This, of course, is no coincidence. I grew up in a small town. I currently live in a small town. I've lived in big cities, and I've traveled all over the world, but I always come back to the comfort and safety and sense of community that a small town offers. I love writing about those quirkish characters, the secrets a town can hold and the way the people there know you and your family almost better than you know yourself.

So I'm thinking that perhaps the idea of spicy small town romances might be my brand. If you've read my books, what do you think? I'm trying to come up with a tagline that will play into this idea. Here are a few I'm tossing around...please throw in your suggestions as well!

Allie Boniface:

Where small town meets spice...

Soul mates...secrets...spice...welcome to Small Town, USA!

Explore the secrets of small town life...

Small towns...full of secrets and spice!

Where small towns are full of secrets and spice...

Friday Fun Facts: Knowing You've "Arrived"

Today's post title is a little facetious - I'm not sure one ever knows if one has "arrived" in a business, unless you win an Oscar or are elected President or something. But in talking about writing, it's interesting to think about milestones, and how we know whether we've "arrived" as a writer.

Does it mean we finish writing a book? Or that we sign with an agent? Maybe we "arrive" when the book is finally published, and others can buy it. Does it need to be in print, or is e-book enough these days? Maybe you haven't really "arrived" until you hit the New York Times best-selling list, or your book is made into a movie. Or until you're a household name.

For me, it has been a series of milestones, and each time I meet a new one, I feel another giddy sense of "arrival." The first time was when I signed a contract in 2007 for One Night in Boston, my very first book, with Samhain Publishing. The next was when I received my print copies of that book in the mail.

The next big moment of "arrival" was finding Summer's Song on the shelves in a Borders in NYC - that remains a highlight of my career. I also had the chance to be interviewed on a Portuguese news channel when Kindles first came out - that was pretty cool. I was invited to a women's luncheon for authors who had influenced readers. I went to Las Vegas for the EPPIE Awards, for One Night in Memphis, in 2009. A reader from the Czech Republic wrote a fan letter and asked if I'd send her a bookmark.

And yesterday, I reached two more mini-milestones that made me think, "huh, maybe I've arrived in this industry." A local book club, Between the Covers, chose The Promise of Paradise as their March read, and I decided to hire myself a virtual assistant to try and organize my writing and marketing life this year. (More on this later - virtual assistants may sound fancy and high-falutin', but they're quite affordable)

I guess what I mean to share with all this is not only the twisty road that my writing life has taken, but also that we as writers should celebrate ALL the milestones along the way, that there isn't one "moment" that means we've arrived as a writer. As I know from first-hand experience, around another bend can be something that knocks you flat on your face. I've had editors leave, publishing houses fold, manuscripts rejected more times than I can count. It's how we pick ourselves up that really matters. We've "arrived" when we decide we have, plain and simple. Don't let others dictate the measurement of your success .

Happy writing!

Monday Mentionables: Why I Love Small Towns

It's no secret that many of the novels I write are set in small towns: The Promise of Paradise, Summer's Song, Beacon of Love. And while part of me considers myself a "city girl," in love with the bustle and opportunity and endless restaurant and theater choices of big cities, there is also something safe and soothing about life in a sleepy small town.

This is a blog post I wrote a while ago about the town I grew up in.

This is the town I live in now. It is approximately 25 square miles in size and home to about 7,000 people. It has both a state and a federal correctional facility inside its borders, and it also has a train station that will take you to NYC in a little over an hour. It was also just named fifth safest on the list of "Safest Places to Live in New York State."

But Mount Hope is also currently facing a situation of internal town, and without going into detail, it's been very interesting over the last few weeks to watch the townspeople rally together to save a historic building. This town is small, it's in the middle of nowhere, it may be backwards in some of its thinking and practices, but it also has roots in farming families that go back generations. It has a hardware store where the workers know exactly where every single item is, aisle and shelf. It also has the claim to fame of being the site of one of the most famous sanatoriums from the early 20th century (this was the place to come if you had tuberculosis, to let the pure mountain air heal you). In fact, Ernest Hemingway's earliest love, Agnes von Kurowsky, the nurse he fell in love with in an Italian hospital, worked at the sanatorium after she left Italy (and broke poor Ernest's heart). And here's a funny historic detail for you: the road I live on still goes by "Sanatorium Road" on the electric company's records, though it was changed years ago.

This is not a metropolis by any stretch of the imagination, and there isn't a whole lot of diversity in many of the people who live here. But most days, I will take the sleepy hillsides, the spotty wi-fi service, and the tiny grocery store with its limited shelves of goods. Mount Hope has heart and good people. And that's why I love small towns.

Look out for the Hometown Hero series this year, Beacon of Love this spring and Inferno of Love later in 2014....because along with charm and safety, there are also passionate secrets in the small town of Lindsey Point, just like Mount Hope and a thousand other small towns in this big, beautiful country of ours.

Writers' Wednesday: Highlights from the February Writer's Digest

Hey, writers! Writer's Digest is a fantastic magazine resource for all authors, aspiring and best-selling, in all genres. Here's a rundown of the articles in the February 2014 issue, which arrived in my mailbox yesterday:

"Sizing up Small Presses" talks about the advantages of signing with a small press rather than a bigger, more traditional publisher. Among those advantages are closer communication with all staff at the press, including your editor, your cover artist, and many times even the owner of the press itself. (I can vouch for this one)

"What Writers Need to Know about the E-book Market" is an interesting read about how e-books have changed book distribution, marketing, pricing, contracts, and author-agent relationships. (I can vouch for this one too.) The fact that e-books are wildly popular, cheap, available at your fingertips in the stroke of a key or two, and easily produced by almost anyone, has both advantages and disadvantages for the market - but it's definitely changed how authors can get their stories into the hands of readers. One thing for writers to keep in mind: if you're looking for an agent to represent you in the e-book market, do your research carefully. Some agents are much more comfortable, experienced, and savvy that others in the e-book world.

Finally, "Best of Both Worlds" discusses the possibility of being a "hybrid" author; that is, publishing some stories in traditional channels and publishing others on your own. Indie publishing gives authors much more control over the whole product, from production to pricing, while it also incurs more risk and financial investment. Traditional publishing assumes that risk and can often put books in front of a wider audience of readers (especially in brick-and-mortar bookstores) but can dig in its heels when it comes to non-traditional titles, genres, or lengths. It also takes A LOT LONGER to publish a story through traditional channels. So why not do both? It's definitely something I've been thinking about over the last few weeks.

Check out more writing info, or get your own subscription, over at the Writer's Digest website. Happy writing!

Monday Mentionable: Kensington Acquires Lyrical Press....Meaning What, Exactly?

Happy New Year! I hope you enjoyed a wonderful holiday season and ate and drank appropriate amounts of holiday food while laughing with friends and family. Can you believe it's 2014? Well, two days into this new year, I got some interesting news from the publisher of my recent novel, Beacon of Love. Lyrical Press was acquired by Kensington, a well-known, well-established New York publishing house. (Here's the full press release.) Why? Well, advantages to Kensington would seem to be a backlist of 200+ romance titles and authors, as well a Managing Director who's spent the last 7 years running a digital press. I think New York houses are finally coming around and realizing the potential of the e-book market. The advantages for Lyrical are the chance for some of its staff and authors to join a larger publishing company which has wide-spread, well-established resources for sales and marketing.

What does this mean in the big picture? All Lyrical authors have the option to sign a new contract with Kensington, putting our previously-released books into Kensington sales channels. Lyrical will remain a romance imprint under Kensington, releasing new works digitally and longer (full-length, at least 60K words) works in Print-on-Demand as well. Royalties are competitive with other digital presses, as far as I can tell. Or authors can choose not to sign, and to keep our rights to those books published with Lyrical - we could perhaps contract them with other publishers or potentially publish them ourselves.

What does this mean for me personally? As of right now, Beacon of Love is no longer currently for sale. If I sign with Kensington, it will be re-released within the next few months. This also means, however, that until I decide what I'm doing with Beacon of Love, I won't be publishing Inferno of Love this month, as I had originally intended. (I'm sorry, I'm sorry....I know some of you were waiting for it!). Don't worry - it WILL come out, I promise! And I'll keep you posted on both stories and where you can find them in the next few months.

Tentatively, I can say that I'm excited about this chance to sign with a New York publishing house. While I enjoyed indie publishing The Promise of Paradise, and will probably indie publish again in the future, it's hard work to do so, folks - especially when I have a full-time teaching job that consumes my days as well. And to be honest, being able to say that I'm a Kensington/ New York author is a big feather in my cap, one I've been dreaming of since I first started this publishing journey.

I'll keep you posted every step of the way. I have to say, it's been a pretty exciting start to 2014 so far!

Monday Mentionables: Reindeer Sing White Christmas

Two more shopping days until Christmas! Are you ready? In honor of the holiday, I'm sharing one of my favorite videos from this time of year. Enjoy :)

Friday: Two More Excerpts for You!

Since it's the final day of my cover reveal tour through Black Lion Tours, I thought I'd share 2 more short excerpts with you from Inferno of Love, releasing in January 2014!

A flash of memory hit Finn in the gut, he and Aubrey sitting on the Bradleys’ back porch and watching a meteor shower. Make a wish, she’d said the first time they saw one shoot across the sky, and he’d given it his number one wish, the biggest he could think of, not knowing there would be twenty more by the time the shower finished. 

I wish I could marry this woman, he’d said to the sky. Marry her and have kids with her and live in a place like this someday. 

The Bradleys’ cedar deck spread out before them, three levels leading down to a heated in-ground pool, and he knew it had been silly to want something so extravagant. But sitting next to Aubrey, listening to her talk about all the places they might go someday, he’d believed it possible. He’d believed anything possible with her, even that the son of a dirt-poor steel worker and a pill-addicted homemaker could marry a brilliant, Boston-bred girl and make her happy...

“Mmm...” Honey began humming again. Aubrey’s face grew hot, and she wriggled in the chair to try and find a comfortable position. “Count backwards from fifty,” Honey said. “Slowly.”

Aubrey wet her lips. “Uh, okay. Fifty, forty-nine, forty-eight...” When she reached one, she kept her eyes closed and waited.

“All right, you’re standing next to a car you know well. You’ve ridden in it lots of times before. Your boyfriend is beside you, opening the door. What do you see?’

She screwed up her forehead and concentrated. “Nothing.”

“Relax. Don’t force yourself to remember anything in particular. Just think of him next to you. His cologne. His smile. It’s dark, right? It’s nighttime.” Honey paused. “What else is there?”

“A gravel parking lot,” Aubrey said before she realized it. “There are lots of cars, but everyone else is inside. No one else is out there, just us. Aaron’s trying to hold my hand. He keeps asking me to get inside his car.” Her fingers dug into the padded arms of the chair.

“Mm hmm. Good. What else?”

“I don’t want to go with him. I keep looking over my shoulder, toward the restaurant.” What was she looking for? Who was she looking for? Then she saw him – the figure from her dreams, the tall, thin, silent man. He stood a few feet away, hands in his pockets, watching her. She couldn’t see his face, but she knew him. Without a shadow of a doubt, he was someone she’d met that summer. In Lindsey Point? At the Cove? Her head ached with the effort of trying to remember... 

Writers' Wednesday: We Need Some Heat!

Brrr!! It's awfully cold in my neck of the woods. We got hit with 2 back to back storms in the last week, and we have about a foot of white stuff on the ground out there. One of my kitties doesn't mind, though - she's ready for Christmas!

In other news, Black Lion Tours is hosting a cover reveal tour for me this week, sharing my gorgeous cover for Inferno of Love in a bunch of places all around the web. You can win a copy of the first book in the series, Beacon of Love, too, if you visit any of the participating host blogs. Here are yesterday's sites; please drop by and give them some love!

http://markedbybooks.blogspot.com/2013/12/inferno-of-love-blog-tour-hometown.html

http://www.iknowthatbook.blogspot.com.ar/2013/12/cover-reveal-inferno-of-love-by-allie.html

http://www.thestuffofsuccess.com/2013/12/cover-reveal-inferno-of-love-by-allie.html

And if you want to know what's in store in Inferno of Love, here's a brand new mini-excerpt to add some heat to your day. Enjoy!

She closed her eyes as he rained kisses along her collarbone. Words mixed up inside her head, words like yes and why and this is how. The synapses in her brain sizzled, connections there, then pulling apart, then gone. She breathed him in, loving the scents of soap and aftershave mixing with bleach from downstairs and above it all, the Lindsey Point air. Saltwater and pine. Yummy...