Samhain Publishing

I haven't.

I know, boring, huh? I'm sorry to disappoint you all. But, well, whether I have or haven't, isn't the very idea of an office affair just so dee-liciously naughty? So dee-lightfully sexy? The thought makes me rub my hands together in glee and want to write very, very dirty things.

I think it's the secrecy of the whole relationshipship. The clandestine nature of it – making sure no one ever finds out. Especially if it's against office policy. (Hmm, does that even apply anymore? Is it even legal to discourage work romance?) Truth is, I haven't worked in an office job for a very long time, so I wouldn't really know. In fact, the last time I sat behind a desk other than the one I write at, I was 26, single and had a ridiculous crush on the cutest guy who worked upstairs.

Oh, come on. Admit it. You've also had a crush on the office hottie. The one who catches your attention whenever he walks past. The one you keep an eye out for every time you have a coffee break break. Or loo break. Or lunch break. Or spot-the-hottie break. You know for sure you have a crush on him when your day doesn't quite begin until you've had your first glimpse of him. He even makes your heart beat a little faster, and perhaps your palms start to sweat a bit when he says hello.

Yes, it's true. I took numerous spot-the-hottie breaks when I worked in that office. Even found ridiculous excuses to go upstairs. (Er, did I mention the offices upstairs belonged to a completely different company, so I had to come up with some REALLY creative excuses.) Know what the funny thing was about that little crush? Turned out I got to know him pretty well. And boy, was he ever not my type. Apart from his ridiculously gorgeous blonde hair, blue eyes, and pinchable ass, he was the loveliest, sweetest, most innocent and naive guy I'd ever met. I think if I ever had truly pinched his ass, he would have blushed twenty shades of scarlet.

That is so not the case with my latest release, Office Affair. Remember how I said the very idea of an office romance makes me want to write very, very dirty things? Well, it turns out, I did. The book has absolutely nothing to do with my own experience. Nope, this book is packed full of dirty sex scenes, hot romance, a gorgeous voyeur and a love story to melt your heart. So if you're the kind who likes your romance served with a little (er, lottle) sex, and your office life enhanced with a great big dash of gorgeous, alpha male, then Office Affair is just the book for you!

OFFICE AFFAIR: The Blurb

All work and no play? Not for this girl. Not anymore.

Melissa Sparks has had enough. Enough of being an overachiever, enough of having no social life, enough of being lonely. Just this once she wants a change. Something different. Something that looks very much like her business associate, Ben Cowley.

Ben is all alone in the deserted offices of Preston Elks. He’s gorgeous, he’s single and he’s been her secret fantasy for the last two years. It’s a split-second decision, but there’s no going back.

When Ben looks up from his desk, the last thing he expects to see is his too-serious, straight-laced colleague stripping naked. It’s been a year since his last relationship ended, and though he’s still picking up the pieces, Melissa throws his carefully balanced world off its axis. So does her offer: a brief affair, no strings attached.

Right about the time he realizes a simple affair will never be enough, she’s back in professional mode—and clearly as distant as ever. Now it’s up to him to show her that what they have is no fluke…and he’ll do whatever it takes to convince her. Even if it means inviting another man into their bed.

Warning: This book contains a man haunted by his past decisions, a woman determined to succeed, sex hot enough to steam up every office window on the block, and a voyeur who gets off watching those windows steam up.

Office Affair is available right now at the Samhain store. Go on have a look. Just click here.

Oh, and if you've ever had an office romance, or just an office crush, I'd love to know about it.

Jess

———

Jess Dee

Dee-liciously Sexy Romance

www.jessdee.com

It's okay. You can point fingers and label me a 'bad mommy' if you want to. I'll understand. I mean, how often do you see a mother laughing with untold joy after dropping her kids at school?

That was me, today. The car door opened, the kids climbed out, and a sense of pure relief and happiness overwhelmed me. For the first time in three weeks my kids were back at school and back in a routine. See, it's been school holidays here. And this holiday has been longer than usual, what with public holidays and religious holidays. So for 20 days (yes, I counted) I had the kids at home. Which wouldn't have been so bad if I'd had Mr Dee at home to help with them. But no, he was away on business, so I had the unadulterated pleasure of looking after Mr 7 and Mr 10, alone, the entire time.

Don't get me wrong. I love and adore my children. To distraction. But distraction here is the key word. You ever try work with two noisy kids (and all their friends) at home? You ever tried to sit down and write a love scene? How about an explicit love scene, with no word left unsaid and no idea left unexplored? Yeah. I tried. And guess what? It didn't work. Not one word of it. So apart from one day, when I managed to co-ordinate both kids being out at the same time, for a period of more than three hours, I have gotten absolutely no work done.

Which means:

1) I had to pull out of an anthology I'd committed too. (No, not very professional at all, I know. And I feel really awful about it.)

2) I have less than a week to get a book in to a publisher. (Yeah, about that…)

3) I haven't had a chance to think about my next Samhain book – which is all beautifully contracted and needing to be written. (Can you hear my joy turning to full blown panic?)

4) The house is a mess. (Altho I did manage to shove some stuff in a cupboard before Mr Dee arrived home at the crack of dawn today, so the house doesn't appear quite so messy as it actually is. Just please, do not let him open that cupboard door…!)

5) We haven't eaten a proper meal in weeks. (Well, except for the few times we went to friends for dinner, and the kids dived in as though they hadn't seen real food in forever.)

6) I havent had a night to just relax either by myself or with pure adult company in a while. The kids' bedtime is way later during the holidays. Which means I have turned into a complete nutter, with no idea how to hold a conversation with a real adult. (But if you'd like to discuss X-box, i-Touch, FIFA 12,  or anything to do with the Hunger Games book or movie, then I'm your woman.)

7) Draw Something has become my favorite means of escape. Which is all well and good, apart from the fact that most of my opponents (and I'm playing a ton of games right now) are either 7 or 10 yrs old.

My book, Office Affair, releases in five days time, and I have given it almost no thought or no attention whatsoever. (Which really isn't at all fair to Mel and Ben, the heroine and hero.)

So, although I'll understand if you do point fingers and label me a bad mommy, I do ask that you give me the benefit of the doubt for just a few minutes. After 20 days of giving myself and my life over completely to my children, I am utterly delighted that I finally get to be Jess again. I just hope, after all this time, I remember how.

xxx

Jess

PS: Office Affair releases at Samhain on TUESDAY. You can get all the details and even pre-order the book right here

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Breaking Dawn – Part 1 released in Australia today, and yes, I confess, I was one of the Twihard fans determined to see the movie the day it was released. I’ve just gotten back, and now I’m sitting and thinking about how some books are just as incredible in movie form as they are as books, and how some, well, aren’t.

Let’s take Harry Potter for instance. Is there a soul out there who has read the books but not seen the movies? And more than that, is there a soul out there who has not loved the movies as much as the books? Okay, I’ve heard complaints that sometimes the movies weren’t completely faithful to the books, that Hollywood took some grand liberties in bringing Harry Potter to the big screen. (*cough* The final battle between Harry and Voldemort. *cough*)

And yet still, movie watchers have been just as spellbound by the HP movies as they have been by the books. The special effects are as captivating on screen as they are in the written word. Mr 10 is Harry Potter mad. We’ve settled into a lovely routine. He finishes a book, we buy the DVD, and we watch it as a family. He moans a little that this was different in the book or that wasn’t quite right, but he’ll then watch the movie again…10 or 15 times. (I know he'll read the books again too – as many times.)

This afternoon I was thrilled to buy The Deathly Hallows – Part 2. It meant that not only has Mr 10 finished the series, but I get to watch the movie all over again.

Tonight, as I sat in the cinema, surrounded by Twihards like myself, it was hard not to hear the audience laughter echoing through the room. (Did I mention Breaking Dawn is not a comedy?) In fact, there was a young woman, sitting just opposite me, who laughed so hard she had the entire audience laughing with her. Now I loved the first movie. Loved it. I’ve watched it numerous times. I loved it almost as much as I loved the book. The next three? Let’s just say I preferred the books. BUT, I will qualify that by saying I’ll be there, at the cinema, the day Breaking Dawn – Part 2 releases.

Yesterday I watched the official trailer for the Hunger Games. The movie releases in March next year.  I read that series obsessively. Did I enjoy the books? No. In fact, I found them profoundly disturbing. All three of them. Will I see the movie? The day it releases. Will the movie be as good as the book? I hope so. But I can’t help but wonder, will the words – so powerfully written by the author – be lost in translation to the big screen?

Jess

An interesting thing happened yesterday. I was accused by Lexxie Couper and Vivian Arend of being a hypocrit. (In the nicest possible way of course.)

Yes, I can hear you gasping in shock.

Jess? A hypocrit? Never!

But… I fear my accusers were right. I am a hypocrit. And here's the proof:

See, it all started when we received a draft of cover art for the first book in the upcoming Bandicoot Cove Anthology.

Now, anyone who has seen any of my covers will know that I love it when the cover models show a little skin.

Yep, I think that when it comes to erotic romance, semi-nude models – both male and female – are incredibly sexy. With one look at the cover, you know exactly what you're getting – a romance novel with heat! Take a look at these covers:

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So, it's been a while coming…in fact over a year since the first book in the Three of a Kind Series released, but Full House is finally here.

Are you familiar with this smoking hot poker series? If not, here are a couple of random facts:

1) The series is aptly named because it contains three books.

2) The series is also aptly named because each book contains a menage a trois.

3) The first book, Going All In, released in Dec 09. It's a m/m/f menage.

4) The second book, Raising the Stakes, released in Dec 10. It's a m/f/m menage.

5) Full House is the hottest of the three books. (And the other two were red-hot!) It's m/m/f menage.

6) Three of A Kind revolves around a social poker club. Games are played on a Friday night. Each week a different member of the club will host the game.

7) Megan, from Raising the Stakes, is probably the most talented player.

Grace, from Full House, is the only character who doesn't play poker.

9) Hunter, from Going All In, and Grace, from Full House, are cousins.

10) Max, from Full House, has a sister you may have met. Her name is Rachel Ashberg, and she's the heroine from Winter Fire.

11) Full House has it's first review already. It was posted in the JERR newsletter this month. Silla Beaumont, the reviewer, gave it 5 stars and an "Orgasmic" rating and had this to say: "The sex scenes are so damn hot, you’ll be lucky if your e-reader comes through without a power surge. Ms. Dee proves her talent in Full House with strong, likable characters, a terrific story and some of the best erotic scenes I’ve had the pleasure of reading. Nicely done, Ms. Dee!"

So, enough random factoids. Here are the details:

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I am so excited. The Red Hot Winter Anthology releases at Samhain today, and along with it, my novella, Winter Fire.

Would you believe that writing a novella for the Red Hot Winter Anthology came as a complete surprise for me? I’d seen the call for submissions for the antho, read it over carefully, and instantly dismissed it, deciding Sydney in winter is simply not cold enough to act as an appropriate setting for a novella with this theme.
And then I received a little invitation, asking if I would considering submitting a story. How could I refuse?

I couldn’t. Which brought me to thinking about the coldest place I’d visited in Australia. And the Blue Mountains won hands down.
The first time we visited there had been in the middle of winter. The temperatures were a good ten degrees (Celsius) colder than Sydney, it rained, and it was bloody freezing!
Fortunately for us, we found a lovely, small restaurant, with a roaring fire and lots of yummy hot soup. Can you say romantic?
(Well, it would have been romantic, had we not had a two year old with us, insisting on visiting every train and train track within a 70 mile vicinity.)
Still, that restaurant was the spark that ignited the setting for Winter Fire.
A quaint mountain village, in the heart of winter? Can you think of anything more romantic? A hotel set here had to be the place where Rachel, Garreth and Jackson’s story played out.

Winter Fire: The Blurb

Guilty pleasures can heat the coldest winter night…

A Red Hot Winter story.

There’s never been any question in Rachel Ashberg’s mind. Jackson Brooks is the one, and they both know it. The problem? Thanks to his unbreakable rule—never date his twin sister’s friends—he’s completely off-limits. Even if they can’t imagine being with anyone else.

It’s been over two years since their last encounter, when they gave in—just once—to their passion. Now, as the Brooks twins’ milestone birthday approaches, Rachel and Jackson are about to meet again at a gorgeous mountain resort. Needing something to take the edge off the desire that has never faded, she indulges in a fling with sexy stranger Garreth Halt. He even makes her forget Jackson for a while. Or…maybe not.

When she mentions Jackson’s name in passing, Garreth picks up on all the hidden undertones in her voice. And he brings Jackson into their bed, if only in a fantasy they play out together. Funny thing about Garreth’s fantasies, though. Even the most improbable, impossible ones have a way of becoming reality…

Warning: Enough heat is contained within these pages that you won’t even notice the winter cold. You might fall in love with Jackson—the real-life hero, determined to protect his sister from further pain—but it’s the handsome stranger, Garreth, who’ll take your breath away.

————

Winter Fire is available now at MBaM.

Jess

I am so excited. The Red Hot Winter Anthology releases at Samhain today, and along with it, my novella, Winter Fire.

Would you believe that writing a novella for the Red Hot Winter Anthology came as a complete surprise for me? I’d seen the call for submissions for the antho, read it over carefully, and instantly dismissed it, deciding Sydney in winter is simply not cold enough to act as an appropriate setting for a novella with this theme.

And then I received a little invitation, asking if I would considering submitting a story. How could I refuse?
I couldn’t. Which brought me to thinking about the coldest place I’d visited in Australia. And the Blue Mountains won hands down.

The first time we visited there had been in the middle of winter. The temperatures were a good ten degrees (Celsius) colder than Sydney, it rained, and it was bloody freezing!
Fortunately for us, we found a lovely, small restaurant, with a roaring fire and lots of yummy hot soup. Can you say romantic?

Read More

This morning as I sit at my desk, clicking key after key on my keyboard and surfing every possible site known to humankind, I have decided to write a blog about the one thing I am an expert on: the gentle art of procrastination.

See, even as I write this, an annoying voice in the back of my head is telling me I should be working on my latest manuscript and not messing around with blogs. But that voice has forgotten who it’s talking to. It’s forgotten that I am the master of doing everything except the one thing I should be doing.

Let me catch you up to date with what I’ve done up until now.

I drop the kids at school and seat myself at my desk at about 8.45am with every intention of writing. But I just have to check my emails first and clear my inbox.

Done.

Then I have to check in with the various Yahoo Groups I belong to. Okay, so I don’t like spending too much time at Yahoo groups, especially when I’m working on a book as it wastes precious time, so I simply visit two. Unfortunately, one of these has about 100 messages to wade through. Most of them do not pertain to me, but I read them anyway. Just in case.

Whoops. Quickly have to check email again to make sure no one has responded.

Then something vital pops up. See, I’ve been contemplating going to RT in April next year. It’s a thought. A desire. Nothing definite. But all at once, it’s urgent I check out ticket prices. So, four airlines later, and one trip to Travelocity, and I have all the price comparisons I need. But wait. I best send them to everyone else in Australia who mentioned they may be going to RT. Even the ones who aren’t thinking about going to RT. And maybe to my friends who aren’t even writers because some of the prices are pretty damn good, and maybe, just maybe, one of them has decided, out of the blue, to go to Los Angeles in April next year.

Quick visit to my email to report on ticket price findings, and then I open my current work in progress. I have to work!

Whoops, hang on. I haven’t checked my blogs today. Off I go. Then, once I’m online anyway, I better just check my stats on Amazon. Oh, and why don’t I Google my name, see what comes up that hasn’t already come up on the last 3 879 654 searches I’ve done.

Back to book, because I have to get some words down.

{{Slap}} Twitter. I haven’t check my Tweetdeck. Better run.

You know what? All of this is hungry work. Now I feel the need for some breakfast and a coffee. I bring the food and drink back to the office with me because I can’t afford to eat it in the kitchen and lose all my precious writing time.

But hang on. It’s hard to concentrate on the book when I’m eating, so I’ll just quickly check my emails again. And my Tweets. Oh, and remember, I have to blog at Samhain!

Which is why, almost two hours after sitting down to work on my book, I still have not entered a single new word into that document.

If you would like any tips on how you too can avoid doing the one thing you absolutely have to get done today, email me! Email now! I’m just looking for another excuse not to get back to that book.

Jess

BTW – if you’re looking for a reason not to work, here are some fun sites to check out:

international Heat
Down Under Divas
My blog
My Website

A couple of weeks ago I was in a restaurant with my brother. He’s eleven years older than I am, and because of the age gap I’ve always kind of seen him as being part of a different generation. He took a slow look around the restaurant and then mused out loud that he was the oldest person there. Trying to be empathetic and kind, I made several comments about how awful that must feel for him.

He looked at me and shrugged. “You should know. You’re the second oldest person here.”

Any attempt to vehemently deny his accusation was frozen forever on my tongue as I turned and evaluated the other people in the room. My brother was right. Each and every one of those customers and waiters was younger than I. I had officially become a part of that older generation. I’m ashamed to admit it, but this was not the first time it’s happened.

I never used to think 40 was old. I simply used to perceive it as another year in the life.

Until I turned forty.

Suddenly I look around and everyone is younger than I am. My son’s school teacher was born fifteen years after I was. FIFTEEN YEARS! And I’m trusting her, a babe barely out of diapers, with my son’s education!

What about the doctors I always used to look up to? The ones who deserved respect not because they were doctors – but because their age demanded it. Now they’re all younger than I am. Even the ones who’ve spent years and years specializing. And what about professors? Aren’t they supposed to be old and grey? When did they start awarding PhDs to ten year olds anyway?

It’s not just other people making me feel every day of my forty and a half years.
Each morning I wake up and look in the mirror. The first thing I notice is the five new wrinkles around my eyes. I gave up telling myself they’re laugh lines when the laugh lines started laughing derisively. And those new gray hairs? The ones I used to pull out so no one would notice? If I continue pulling them out, people are going to start noticing big bald patches on my head. I won’t even mention sagging, drooping body parts. Suffice it to say, they are not pretty!

Yes, it’s tough to be forty. But you know what’s even tougher? The realization that today I am younger than I will ever be in the future. I have less wrinkles and gray hairs and sags and droops than I will have tomorrow.

Thankfully I have my heroines. I tend to age these eternally youthful looking women between 27 and 33. And so through them I can continue to be young. Yes, I may be living my life vicariously, but at least in my imagination and in my books I will never wake up to find another gray hair.

Jess

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Steve’s Story, Book 2 in the Circle of Friends series, released in print at the beginning of the month.

Now I confess, this book has received many mixed reviews. I’ve had readers who loved it to nth degree, who could not stop raving about it, and I’ve had readers who hated it so much, some could not even finish the book.

Which got me thinking how this might happen. Why would one book appeal to some readers and yet repel others? Truthfully? I’m not sure. But having given the reviews for Steve’s Story a lot of thought, I think I’ve figured it out.

Steve’s Story isn’t a fun ride from beginning to end. Yep, there are some funny lines and a couple of entertaining scenes, and yep, the sex is scorching. But underneath all of that lies a book steeped in reality. Yes, it is a romance, but it does not take place in a fantasy world. It stays true to the facts. And while the ending is a happy one, it’s also a terribly sad one. (Heck, I sobbed finishing the last chapter.)

While writing the warning in the blurb I made a big mistake. I focused on the sex instead of the story. The result? The warning makes the book sound like a sexy romp. Yes – it’s sexy and hot as hell. But it’s no romp. So I have taken the liberty here of rewriting the warning…

This is how it reads on the back cover:

Warning: This book might just make you cry, but it’ll make you smile as well. The story will probably get you all hot and bothered too. It contains naughty activities in the car, sex on the kitchen counter (and up against the wall), a quickie in the garden, a little experimenting with scarves – oh, and some hot loving in the bedroom.

This is how I now believe it should read:

Warning: The book is pretty sad. It’s also realistic and may not be everybody’s cup of tea. If you’re looking for a light-hearted, fun romance – this isn’t it. Yep, there’s a happy ending (helloooo? I write romance), but it’s certainly not your classic “And they lived happily ever after”.
If you’re looking for a hero who knows where his heart lies and refuses to give up on his heroine – no matter what obstacles they face – then this is the book for you!

So, you may love it or you may hate it, but until you’ve read it, you’ll never know.

STEVE’S STORY: THE BLURB

When love is threatened by truth, every moment counts…

Circle of Friends, Book 2

Steve Sommers is having a gut-wrenching week. His fiancée has left him, the woman who broke his heart is back in town – and they’re all gathered at the bedside of his best friend, who’s in a coma. The emotional ties between them are strained to the breaking point. Like it or not, it’s up to Steve to find the strength and compassion to support the four of them through the toughest ordeal of their lives.

In the midst of the turmoil and trauma, passion unexpectedly flares anew between Steve and the woman he loves. Suddenly the future he’d believed lost lies within his reach. But she still carries the secret that once tore them apart, and determined to protect Steve from the truth, she fights their rekindled relationship every step of the way.

Now the fragile bond they’ve developed hangs in the balance, threatened by a reality that love may not be strong enough to overcome…

Warning: REFER TO ABOVE.

Jess