Samhain Publishing

I'd like to welcome the hero and heroine, Alex Donovan & Maddie Saunders from my latest contemporary romance, WHAT A GIRL WANTS to the Samhain blog. I hope you enjoy my interview with them.

Selena: Thanks for jumping out of the book to join me today. Maddie, let's start with you. What was your journey like in What A Girl Wants? 

Maddie: The plane trip from to Hawaii was uneventful—

Alex: I have to interrupt here. Uneventful? Is that what you call it?

Maddie: Come on, Alex, even you have to admit it was classic. Besides, you laughed at the prank I pulled on you. Anyway, as for your initial question, Selena, I enjoyed the adventures you created for us, especially the humorous moments. Of course, what’s a romance without heartache, physical pain, angst and and ton of conflict?

Selena: Are you complaining about all that?

Maddie: Me? Never. I’m not a complainer, especially to my creator who has total control of my destiny. I may be a little impetuous—

Alex: A little?

Maddie: Okay, maybe more than a little. But as I told you off the pages, Alex, Selena gave me those traits. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Selena: Your turn, Alex. How would you describe was your journey in this book?

Alex: There’s no other book I’d rather have been created in, even with all the pain we both went through. Maddie’s right, the humor helped a lot, especially when it got real serious and sorrowful.

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It's finally here! My first Samhain release, Truth or Dare is out today!  

*picture me happy dancing around the room*

Truth or Dare is the second book in the Party Games series I've co-written with Lexxie Couper. I had a blast writing the series with Lexxie and can't thank our editor, Heidi Moore enough for her patience and courage when dealing with two mad Aussies. *grin* But enough about me, Truth or Dare? Which would you pick?

Truth or Dare: Party Games Bk2 by Rhian Cahill

Daring to tell the truth will change the rules of this game forever.

Party Games, Book 2

When her friend deserts her at an exclusive Sydney house party, Miki Drummond retreats to a corner to observe the insanity. Watching life go by is something she does well, especially after the hell her marriage put her through.

She never dreamed she’d reconnect with not one but two blasts from her high school past. And she never expected their heated gazes to bring her body so easily back to life.

Grant Rogers and Dayne Pierce never forgot Miki. Ever. Past experience tells them to tread slowly and carefully, but that plan flies out the window when they’re all dragged into a game of Truth or Dare. Something’s up, because Miki repeatedly chooses to take a shot rather than reveal her obvious pain. Time after time.

Waking up hungover in a strange bedroom, Miki is caught in an electrically charged moment with two men who offer her unimaginable pleasure, who seem determined to keep her suspended in sweet torment—permanently.

One night of pure fantasy is all Miki dares to take, but come morning the hard truth is that walking away isn't an option.

Warning: The author cannot be held responsible for any truth you may tell or dare you make take after reading this story. And if you find yourself sandwiched between two hunky men…take the dare.

~~~~~

You can find out more about Rhian on her website or you can connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.

When I was six, my family lived in Australia for a time. I quickly discovered that the word bloody was considered a very bad word by all my Aussie friends. If they were caught saying it, they might well get their mouths washed out with soap.

I, on the other hand, could say the word with impunity. And I did at every opportunity. But as for the substantial number of words my parents considered mouth-washing eligible, those I didn’t use until well into adulthood.

This experience showed me that response to specific words is mostly a matter of social conditioning. Which means all of society has had a role in creating the present pervasive use of one particular word to express everything from outrage and anger to surprise and indifference. The word has become so ubiquitous, although it’s still bleeped in the U.S. by the FCC, it has lost most of its shock value, even for those of us raised to consider it shocking.

Overuse has not removed all of its power, however. It still retains enough to contribute, in my opinion, to an erosion of civility and the elevation of vulgarity. It is, most definitely, not a romantic word. So as a writer of romantic fiction, it is a word I use only when that specificity is absolutely essential to my story.

How do you feel about it? As a reader, what is your reaction to “the word” coming from the mouth of the hero or heroine.
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After years in academia, teaching and directing clinical chemistry laboratories, I took a turn down another road and began writing fiction. My first novel, Dreams for Stones was published by Samhain on Christmas Day 2007. The sequel, Persistence of Dreams followed in 2009. Visit me at www.AnnWarner.net.

Where short story free reads are available:

OZ- Glenda Lewelling has just been introduced to Geoff Flemington, one of the most appealing men she's ever met. The only problem? Glenda lives in Chicago, and in two days, Geoff will be on his way home to Australia.

COLOSSUS COMMUNICATION - A perfect marriage, a yellow rose, and a gorilla.

One of my favorite TV programs is called Escape to the Country. Each week a couple who dream of relocating to the country are taken to visit three different properties. During today’s show, one of the properties had an amazing office. It was separate from the house and had incredible views out over the surrounding countryside.

I have office envy.

Just think – at the end of the day, all you’d need to do is turn off the lights and return to the house. Imagine the benefits. The next day you’d find your research books exactly where you left them. Children and puppies wouldn’t manage to create chaos with your nicely ordered piles of paper the minute you turned your back.

Ah, bliss.

I’m lucky enough to have an office, although a lot of the time I sit in my La-Z-boy and type away on my laptop. This isn’t always ideal because the puppy loves to sit on my La-Z-boy too. She thinks possession is nine-tenths of the law, and if I get up it’s almost a sure thing that there will be a defiant puppy sitting on it when I return.

Today I started to think about my ideal office. This is what I decided I'd like:

1. A view

2. A large desk

3. A comfortable chair

4. Walls lined with bookcases for my reference books

5. A handy restroom

6. A puppy-free zone (she keeps stealing paper from my trash bin)

7. No phone

8. A large white board so I can plot

9. A pleasing ambience with candles/music/pretty colors on the walls

10. A well-behaved computer/printer

11. Somewhere to make a cup of tea or coffee

12. A “Do Not Disturb” sign and perhaps a lock on the door

What would your ideal office look like?

Shelley Munro lives in New Zealand with her husband and a mischievous puppy. When she's not writing she  loves to travel, watch rugby (Yay, the All Blacks!), read books (romance, of course) and ride her bicycle. To learn more about Shelley and her books visit her website at www.shelleymunro.com. You will also find her on Facebook or Twitter

How many of us love a romance where the bad boy gets tamed by the love of a good woman? I’ll admit to being a sucker for a hot bad boy hero in a romance.

How about if the bad boy gets tamed not just by the love of a good woman — but also by the love of a good man?

There are many qualities the typical bad boy heroes share —they are reckless, fearless, charismatic, smart and brave. He can be a rebel, perhaps bitter, probably carrying some baggage. Much has been written about why women find the bad boy so appealing.

If the appeal to women is redeeming the bad boy, he obviously has to have some good qualities that he keeps hidden. We have to know that he is capable of pouring all that fiery passion into loving the woman (or man) (or both!) who can make him a better man. For me the appeal of the bad boy is knowing that underneath that tough, reckless, charming exterior is a man who’s hurting. He’s a man who’s hiding his insecurities and desire for love beneath a veneer of rebelliousness, anger and thrill seeking.

In One Wicked Night, out today, Tyler Wirth is a bad boy. Read more!

The wait is finally over for HOOKED (Studs in Spurs, Book 4)! Please enjoy the below excerpt!

Cat Johnson

HOOKED (Studs in Spurs, Book 4) by Cat Johnson 

His last eight seconds could lead to the longest, most satisfying ride of his life.

Annie Grant is at the top of her game as an on-air interviewer for the pro bull-riders tour. In all those years standing within microphone range of thousands of sexy cowboys, she’s never been tempted…until now. Now that respected veteran Luke Carpenter is no longer with his longtime girlfriend, he’s back on the market. And Annie is buying.

Luke knows his days are numbered. Every year the rookies get younger, the bulls get ranker and, like it or not, the time is coming when he’ll be hanging up his spurs. After a sizzling hot night with Annie, he realizes that maybe this old dog can learn some new tricks. But quicker than a bull can spin, things get complicated.

A tragedy forces Luke into a no-win decision: hang onto the tail end of his career, or retire early for his family. Either way, he can live with his choice. Question is, can he live without Annie?

Warning: Contains knock-your-boots-off cowboy lovin, some up close and personal interviews of the oral persuasion, and a happy ending…cowboy style.

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There's something wonderful about starting a new venture. A business, a job, a friendship–a love affair.

In the Bandicoot Cove series, three authors (Vivian Arend, Lexxie Couper and Jess Dee) have joined together to bring you some wonderful firsts. The stand-alone novellas they've written set at Bandicoot Cove will turn up the heat, but also twine together with family and friends making an appearance in the other tales. It's a unique story telling situation we hope you enjoy.

For Kylie, it's the fulfillment of her work dreams–as the manager of a new exclusive resort off the Australian Queensland coast, she's able to show off her skills.

In order to make the Grand Opening as perfect as possible, she comes up with the idea of a Soft Opening: guests invited to test drive the resort's facilities include random rock stars, media personalities, and family and friends. Like Kylie's younger brother Trent, and her best friends from high school, McKenzie and Sienna.

Today Kyie's story begins (EXOTIC INDULGENCE) It's a short free read available that occurs before the soft opening. PARADISE FOUND by Vivian Arend is also available today–with lovers Trent, Paige and Mason taking their easy going sexual fling to the next level…if everything doesn't crash into the beautiful waters of the Pacific Ocean before they can find their happily ever after.

September 6 look for the next book, TROPICAL SIN by Lexxie Couper, followed by September 20 and Jess Dee's ISLAND IDYLL.

——–

Bandicoot Cove is a world shared by Vivian Arend, Lexxie Couper and Jess Dee. Look for red-hot stories with satisfying HEAs, just what you expect from these awesome authors.

When Lost and Found was released as a digital book I blogged about how happy I was that Samhain had published this story. Because this book crosses genres and sub-genres, combining elements of women’s fiction, romance and erotic romance, it’s hard to categorize it, which many publishers like to do. In the digital publishing world, publishers can take chances on books that don’t fit the narrow genres and sub-genres of traditional publishers.

Lost and Found book has gotten such great reviews (check some of them out on my website or on Goodreads)> and is also a finalist in the Passionate Plume contest at the RWA Chapter Passionate Ink, which goes to show that taking a chance on something different can pay off!

I also broke some of the “romance rules” when I wrote this book, including elements are are typically considered “taboo” in a romance – infertility, infidelity, sex for the sake of making a baby. So is Lost and Found really a romance?
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Have you ever wondered why we say a pride of lions or a gaggle of geese?

The answer is they likely had their origin in a word game, named Venery, that was in vogue several hundred years ago.

The rules are simple. First someone suggests a group name (like geese or lions), and then everyone tries to come up with a descriptive noun to form an unexpected word picture.

Here are some I came up with:

A GALA OF DAHLIAS

A BROUHAHA OF BEARS

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Yeah, we’ve all done it, the long distance romance. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. For me, it’s not ever worked out quite well. So when I started writing The Reluctant Prince, there was a part of the story where I knew it would be a long distance romance, and frankly, the idea terrified me.

Sydney and Hadrian, separated by continents, would have to have, for a good portion of the second act, a long distance relationship. And I wasn’t exactly sure how that would work. I mean, long distance, even just a few hours, could be absolute torture on a relationship.

Continents? Really? Of course, what were they going to do? Sydney lived in the Midwest. Hadrian was Prince of an island in the Mediterranean. Their worlds were separated by an ocean. How was that going to work?

And I remembered this little thing we have.

Texting.

But could it work? I mean, it’s just a bit of text on a screen that my characters were reading from each other, as they lived out their lives. Could that really bind two people together over great distances? Especially in a book. I mean, did people really do that?

I had my doubts.

So imagine my surprise when I started talking to real-life acquaintances who texted. A lot. To people who were in other states, far away from the ones they loved, and while they couldn’t always pick up the phone and call, a text is there, ready and waiting, for that special someone to read. How amazingly relationships could develop over a simple thing like a text. I loved this idea so much, I had to use in The Reluctant Prince, to help bind Hadrian and Sydney together, even though they’re separated by an ocean and a lot of land.

It’s amazing what a little bit of technology can do to bring people together. In this world with such instant access to people, is a long distance relationship really that far away? I don’t think so, at least not anymore. Sydney and Hadrian helped me see that, and it made me love this story all the more. 

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