Jocelynn Drake's Blog: Announcements, page 23

Shatter Cover Reveal

Are you ready to see the cover for Shatter?

I will admit that Rinda and I had a difficult time finding an image that we loved as much as the image we used for the cover of Shiver. That one really grasped Lucas's arrogance and confidence perfectly. That being said... we are absolutely IN LOVE with the cover of Shatter. A big thank you to Stephen Drake at Design by Drake for yet another killer cover!

Drum roll, please......



So... what do you think?  Are Snow and Jude going to make you shatter?

I think so.

If you haven't seen it yet, here is a description of Shatter:

Maverick trauma surgeon Ashton “Snow” Frost keeps the world at a distance, relying only on his three closest friends to keep him connected. But when a ghost from their past returns to Cincinnati, Snow stands to lose everyone he loves. Framed for murder and reeling from attacks on his friends, Snow is pushed to his breaking point.

Jude Torres won’t let the doc shatter. The paramedic has been attracted to the doctor since he first laid eyes on him at the hospital, even if the arrogant, solitary man doesn’t fit into any of his plans. One hot, reckless kiss shows that Snow isn’t who he appears to be. And one night together will never be enough. Jude will fight for the doc.

Fight to keep him whole. Fight to keep him safe. Fight to simply keep him.

 

Rinda and I are feeling extra sweet ... or evil... so we are also release a special snippet. Read a little glimpse of Shatter:

“The nurse said he’s hours past his shift,” a woman said. “He looks too tired to drive home. Maybe you could take him?”

The low voice and shuffling noises tugged at him, trying to pull him from sleep, but exhaustion rode him so hard, Jude just sort of floated under the words, hardly understanding. A twinge in his neck kept him from succumbing back to sleep completely.

“He sat with me the whole time,” she continued, her voice closer. “He’s wonderful. Pretty, too, huh doctor?”

Someone touched his shoulder. He blinked up into blue eyes that held a surprisingly warm look. He’d never seen that expression on the man before. His eyes dropped to the doctor’s lips as he spoke. Jude didn’t hear the words this time, but he did take in the deep groove in the center over his upper lip—one that gave his mouth the sexiest curve. The doctor’s lower lip was fuller. Bite-able. He had another groove in his chin and Jude wanted to put his tongue in it.

“Beautiful Doc Frost,” he murmured, liking this dream as his heartbeat picked up.

Blue eyes flared wide.

A woman chuckled behind the doctor leaning over him. A woman didn’t belong in his sex dreams and for a moment, Jude frowned in confusion. Then he reached up and slid his palm behind the doctor’s neck, pulling him down so it would only be the two of them. “Come on,” he said softly. “We should go to bed. Wanna feel you against me.” He pressed his lips to the doctor’s, opened his mouth and licked along that sexy divot over the doc’s lips. Heat shot through him and a groan rumbled from deep inside.

Doctor Frost snapped back, straightening, his hand going up to his mouth. He touched his lips and those eyes narrowed, filling with so much fire, Jude squirmed in his seat. Then Jude’s cocoon burst as realization came to him. He’d kissed the surgeon general.

Do you love the cover? Do you love the description? Do you just love Snow?  I get it.  I do too. If you haven't already, be sure to pre-order your copy now!

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I Survived Coastal Magic & It Was AWESOME

This past weekend was a whirlwind of activity. I chatted with fabulous readers, brilliant bloggers, and some simply amazing authors. 98% of the time I am locked behind my computer, churning out words for books. There’s a little socializing going on via Twitter and Facebook with the occasional email here and there (Except for Rinda, we send lots and lots of emails, texts, tweets, and phone calls but those are all awesome).

It’s a different feel to actually look into a person’s eyes and read their body language as they’re chatting with you. You see their enthusiasm and their kindness, which doesn’t come across in a quick email. I’m always so nervous about going to conferences, and this one in particular since I didn’t know any of the authors when I arrived.

But I fixed that fast!

So let’s do a quick rundown of the awesome that I encountered while at Coastal Magic. I know I’m going to forget people and I’ve very sorry. It was insane and fun and extremely busy while remaining laid back.

Quick Thoughts:

First, a big thank you to Jackie Morgan (of Literary Escapism) and Chelle Olsen (Literal Addiction) for taking such good care of me. There were big spans of time at the start where I looked like a lost puppy. They both took me in and introduced me to awesome peeps.

Amy Lane is the funniest, sweetest lady I’ve met in a long time. I love her books and I love her great advice regarding the industry and tackling this new-to-me genre. I can’t wait to see her again! I hope that she finally found chocolate. There was a definite shortage.

Eric Asher has a higher body count than me! Saturday morning started with a killer panel called: To Kill or Not To Kill, where the paranormal authors talked about the body count in our books, the impact of killing characters, and how we chose whether someone needed to die. Eric’s series is now on my To Be Read list. He was also at my table for the reader lunch and we had a great time. We even swapped tales of our ultimate “fan girl” moments.

Charlie Cochet is a sweetheart. I know she looks it, but you know what? She totally is in real life. I think I saw glimpses of a potential evil streak, but she hides it well. She also provided me with great industry info, told me about her killer Third series, and was just a blast to talk to.

Chudney Thomas sat opposite me the last dinner of the conference and even though we were both so exhausted from the long day, we had a great conversation. Thanks so much! I had a lovely evening and I can’t wait to see her at next year’s Coastal Magic. Go check out Chudney’s books! She’s a lovely, brilliant lady.

Damon Suede…. Damon, Damon, Damon….what can I say? He is evil and yet I think he’s become one of my favorite people. If you didn’t catch the Improv Flash Fiction, just go watch it now. (Part 1. Part 2. Part 3.) This man is simply amazing. He’s a killer storyteller, funny, evil, and sweet. I’m so glad that I was seated next to him at the panel and I can’t wait to attend a conference with him again.

Jade Lee and Brynn Myers, I want to say “Congratulations! You survived the Flash Fiction!” We were the virgins on the panel and both these ladies were fabulous. Both authors were fun and hilarious. Again, go check out the video links above.

Tigris Eden sat next to me at the book signing and she was kind enough to include me in a dinner for a giveaway winner. Tigris is another amazing, fun woman. I love the story of how she met her husband and we just had so much fun talking at the signing and dinner.

Andrew Grey made me feel like we were long-lost friends the moment I met him. You have to instantly love anyone who can do that. Thank you so much! I love the hugs and the conversation. I hope he had a wonderful conference and I’m so glad that we met.

Poppy Dennison was a ray of sunshine, which was pretty impressive because it was late in the day and I think everyone was just starting to drag. We were seated next to each other at the signing and I’m glad so many authors were making sure we chatted. Poppy is a fountain of great information and I can’t wait to test it all out!

I want to give one last shout out to Kit Rocha for commiserating about the trials of putting on and removing make-up. Really … authors love to meet with readers but we hate the whole thing of where we are expected to brush our hair, put on pants, and apply make-up. In general, we’re just not fit to be around normal people, but she is just a fun person.

There were so many more amazing people that I met but this blog post is already getting a big long. Let me just say that I think Coastal Magic is now my favorite convention. It has amazing authors, it is well organized, relaxed, and just so much fun. I am already planning to return in 2017 and I really hope that you will check it out as well. If you are thinking about attending a conference to see some of your favorite authors, please put Coastal Magic on your list. It really was fabulous and there are worse places to be in February than Florida.

Oh and before I forget… my husband and I did manage to make one trip away from the conference just long enough for us both to get new tattoos. I don’t have a pic currently of his, but I finally got the tattoos on my forearms that I’ve been dying for. I think Gage (from the Asylum Tales would approve).

Exciting News on Shatter

We know the wait for more Shatter information has been hard. There's so much that goes into self-publishing. We've been busy interviewing freelance editors and our fantastic cover artist--Designs by Drake--is so very, very close to finalizing the gorgeous cover.

But today? We have some goodies! First up, Release Date and Book Description!

SHATTER
Unbreakable Bonds #2
Releasing April 26, 2016

Maverick trauma surgeon Ashton “Snow” Frost keeps the world at a distance, relying only on his three closest friends to keep him connected. But when a ghost from their past returns to Cincinnati, Snow stands to lose everyone he loves. Framed for murder and reeling from attacks on his friends, Snow is pushed to his breaking point.

Jude Torres won’t let the doc shatter. The paramedic has been attracted to the doctor since he first laid eyes on him at the hospital, even if the arrogant, solitary man doesn’t fit into any of his plans. One hot, reckless kiss shows that Snow isn’t who he appears to be. And one night together will never be enough. Jude will fight for the doc.

Fight to keep him whole. Fight to keep him safe. Fight to simply keep him.

Unbreakable Bonds.

We also have a pre-order link! (The others should be ready very soon.)

AMAZON

And...there's more! The latest version of the opening to SHATTER has been loaded onto its page here. This is before a copy editor, but it has some fun new interactions and a peek into how far Lucas and Andrei are coming in this new relationship of theirs.

As always, we have handy links to SHIVER, book one in our Unbreakable Bonds series.

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Thank you for your interest in our books!

The Hardest Words to Write

I’d been putting it off.  I’d been fighting it and avoiding it, finding things that were suddenly more pressing. But time is ticking down. We’ve got a big announcement coming and I just couldn’t put it off any longer.

It was time to write the book description for Shatter .

I’ll admit that I haven’t written many book descriptions over the years. The Dark Days Series and Asylum Tales were released through HarperCollins, and the publisher had the book description. I trusted them and their years of experience to craft a succinct, interesting, engaging description of a story that took me months to write.

Now it’s just Rinda and me… and a few author friends who kindly beta read for us.

But think about it… how do you condense more than 100,000 words down to just 150 words?

There’s action, heart break, triumph, misunderstandings, pain, joy, rage, near misses, and horror. An entire world unfolds at your fingertips over hundreds of pages. You get lost in characters, events, and strange or familiar locations.

So how do we do it?

Rinda and I go off to our separate corners and we both draft up a version. For me, I start by doing a brain dump of words. Words to describe the characters, the plot and the location. With all these words staring back at me, I grab fresh piece of paper and start writing.  I typically write about 20 sentences of utter crap before I start getting to the good stuff.  It’s like mining for gold. You have to move all the earth and useless dirt out of the way before you can start getting at what you were really looking for.

After a lot of moaning, complaining, and moving the cat out of the way and off the paper, I finally have something that might work. I slap that description in an email and send it off to Rinda before I can talk myself out of it.

Then…. Only then am I allowed to look at the draft that she sent over. I prefer to work blind. That way, I’m not influenced by what she wrote and she’s not influenced by me. We have more words to choose from and different perspectives on what needs to mentioned … and what should be avoided.

From here, we’ll go back and forth a bit. Come up with a single version. Then share it with a few trusted friends, who will offer some tweaks.

And soon… soon… you’ll get a look at the book description for Shatter .

The "L" Word and Other Dangerous Words

Rinda and I have chatted heavily the past few days, planning out the last action scenes for Shatter ... and something occurred to me with this book.

Is Snow going to say the "L" word in this book?, I emailed her, a big grin on my face as I hit the "send" button because while a small question, the answer can have diabolical repercussions.

I'm not going to tell you her response. You're just going to have to read the book when it comes out (and don't worry, we'll have details on that soon). But I'm a sneaky plotter. I plan out the big things such as plot twists and turns as well as careful character development. But I am also very careful about how words are used and when. No. 1 on my list, particularly when I'm working on a romance book, is Love. When do you use love ... as in the big "I love you."  The first use of the "L" word should be a big deal. The characters should work hard to get to that moment, whether its physically, emotionally or both.

I'll admit that I give a big Squee! when two characters finally say those three wonderful words. You just rejoice because you feel like those are hard-won words. Whether to use the "L" word was an enormous internal debate when I was working on Shiver . The first rule is that you have to stay true to the characters. Would these characters say this here and now? Have they earned it? Is it too easy? Are they ready?

As a reader, nothing frustrates me more than when the words are used too early, such as those instances where two people have known each other for less than 24 hours, have enjoyed some wild monkey sex and then ... blah. The words come tumbling out. They didn't earn those words!  There have been a few exceptions of some really well-written books that I could allow slide with the early use of the "L" word, but for me, I'd rather wait.  And yes... the "L" word is so worth waiting for.

But the "L" word isn't the only word I focus on.

Since I've started working on Unbreakable Bonds with Rinda, the word "baby" has become a keyword for me. It's what I think of as a turning-point word. In m/f romance, I can't say that I paid much attention to the word, but it takes on a slightly different shade/tone when I moved to m/m fiction. There's a tenderness when baby is whispered by an alpha that has gotten lost or just blunted in m/f romance. There's a wide opening of vulnerability and trust that suddenly appears on the page. If used correctly, that first use of "baby" can be a sign post in a novel, marking that shift in a relationship from purely physical to a much deeper, emotional bond.

Go look at the first use of baby in Shiver . Go ahead. I'll wait.

See that!!! Yeah, that "baby" was placed there on the third round of revisions and I have to admit that I did a little dance when it happened.

And that's not the only keyword hidden within Shiver .

Did you know there is one word -- not baby -- that Lucas only uses with Andrei? Yep. It's an incredibly common word, but it is a clear insight into the kind of person Lucas is and what Andrei means to him.

I can't wait for you to see all the magic we've woven into Shatter . There are going to be specials hints for you to discover there too.

Appearances: I Agreed to What?

I don't go out much. I don't like to travel far from my computer. It's my safe zone. It's my strength, you know... the written word. No one wants to actually see me. (This is my theory.) They want my butt in a chair writing more books. I've never been big on scheduling appearances. I'm too much of an introvert.

But I do have one appearance scheduled for 2016: Coastal Magic Convention in Daytona, Florida from February 4 through 7. I do believe registration is still open but it will close soon. If you can't make it for the full conference, there is a free, open to the public book signing on Saturday, February 6. (To see the full list of authors who will be at the signing, click here.)

My schedule includes:

Thursday, February 4

5:30pm – 7:00pm

Author / Blogger Mingle – Special “ice breaker” mingle for our Featured Authors and all registered bloggers.

I'm not scheduled for this but I'll like check out this with my husband:

8:00pm – 10:30pm

Cinema Craptastique: Movie Title TBD – Join our evening’s emcee, Damon Suede, in live tweeting an entertaining, yet thoroughly snarkworthy movie. A Coastal Magic original, we’ve trended nationally for the last two years on movie night! Damon Suede, Jade Lee, Amy Lane, Tere Michaels, Mari Mancusi, Sean Michael, B A Tortuga, Julia Talbot, Hildie McQueen, Eric R Asher – and more!!

Friday, February 5

9:00am – 10:00am

Worldbuilding: Locations/Settings – The benefits and drawbacks of using real location in stories, versus creating a fictional place. Do readers like having a “real place” reference, or is somewhere new more interesting? Does the setting help to create diversity in the story?Carrie Ann Ryan, Kristen Painter, Jocelynn Drake, Nancy Northcott, Deborah Blake, S E Smith

3:30pm – 4:30pm

Improv Flash Fiction: Fast paced and quick witted, authors create stories in real time, “round robin” style, using prompts from the audience. Always outrageous, and always hysterical. Damon Suede, Amy Lane, Lucienne Diver, Jade Lee, Brynn Myers, Jocelynn Drake, Kiernan Kelly, Lisa Kessler

9:00pm – 1:00am

2016 Coastal Magic Mixer: Day of the Dead theme! This is our “party night”. We’ll have music and a dancefloor, face painting (no charge, but will welcome cash donation), and a FREE photo booth to capture memories from the evening. Perfect for everyone, whether you want to let loose, or just chill with friends. Cash bar will be available.

Saturday, February 6

9:00am – 10:00am

To Kill, Or Not To Kill: Balancing the body count in Urban Fantasy. Authors discuss making the choice between taking that “final blow”, or not. How do these choices effect the characters and the story? Jocelynn Drake, Eric R Asher, Dianna Love, Jennifer Estep, J A Souders, Nancy Holzner

3:30pm – 4:30pm

Meet & Greet: Urban Fantasy (Theme coming soon) Jennifer Estep, Nancy Holzner, Charlie Cochet, Jocelynn Drake, Dianna Love, Eric R Asher, Lucienne Diver, Dina Given, H D Smith

5:30pm – 7:30pm

Public Book Sale / Signing – All Featured Authors will participate, along with additional “signing only” authors. You can see the full list on the Charity Book Signing page. All attendees welcome – also open to the public. PLEASE NOTE: Limit of 3 books brought from home for authors to sign. Please consider purchasing additional books from our authors directly, and/or our on-site bookseller.

 

I will continue to sweet talk Rinda and see if she'll let me make some Shatter -related announcements at the Coastal Magic Convention. I will have some copies of Shiver on hand. We don't currently have any other appearances scheduled, but we will keep you updated if that should change.

Danger in the Details

Did you know that Lucas drives a black Mercedes S-Class?  Or that Snow drives a Lexus?

Did you know that Ian makes breakfast for Lucas at Lucas's penthouse on Wednesday and Friday, which are also the same days that Mrs. Mason -- Lucas's housekeeper -- shows up?

Did you know that Andrei's parents are named Milos and Sonja and that they were involved in a threesome while on vacation in Las Vegas just two years ago? (Yeah, you're gonna want to look that one up.)

Did you know that Rowe has three dogs - two Rottweilers and one German Shepherd?

Did you know that Lucas's couch is white, the duvet in his bedroom is dark red, and the comforter in the spare bedroom is a dark evergreen?

Do you know who is taller than whom?

Most days... I don't know this information off the top of my head and that can be a problem.
Devil in the Details
I love working on a series. This is my technically my third... er... maybe fourth, depending on how you're counting. I love spending time with characters, watching them evolve over a series of months and taxing events. I love to see them stumble, fall, make mistakes and learn.

But there's a drawback... Anything you put in a preceding book has to be remembered for the next book. Trust me, readers remember this stuff! And you never want to take a reader out of a moment because you got an eye color wrong or the fact that you moved the layout of someone's house around because you simply forgot that the living room is on the left and the dining room is on the right. It's all about the little details.

It's become even harder to keep track of these little things now that there's two of us working on the series. I'm no longer the only person who's making decisions about the names of businesses, locations, car types, food preferences, towel colors, and such. That's why Rinda and I are keeping detailed bibles for the Unbreakable Bonds series. (This is going to save us of frustration and heartache later.)

After the rough draft of Shiver was completed and I was making my second official pass of the book, I kept a notebook at hand. Every time a name was mentioned (even if this person never appeared in the scene or spoke a word), or a color was given, or a brand of something was listed (such as a car type), I wrote it down. Every time a place was mentioned, I wrote it down. It's critical to write down the little details that have a chance of cropping up again.

Rinda and I pass the document back and forth as we edit, keeping it updated when we make changes to the book. This will save us time while working on Shatter . Instead of searching through the book for a reference, we just look at back the series bible.

I haven't started a new one for Shatter yet. We are still in the rough draft. After we finish the first draft and start the second pass, a new bible will be created for Shatter . Things change. New characters are added and new places are explored. And oh... the chaos we are creating for this new book.

Stay tuned.... We're hoping to announce an official release date for Shatter very soon.

Free Short Story!

To celebrate the holidays, Rinda and I have released a new short story today on our website only. We’ve gotten a lot of love and excitement over the Unbreakable Bonds series. And while you wait for us to finish the second book – Shatter – we have been releasing short stories so you can keep up with Lucas and Andrei’s developing relationship. (Seriously, they are so damn adorable!)

Today’s new short story is called Te Iubesc , which is Romanian but I’m not translating it. I’ll leave that to Andrei. The story takes place several weeks after the events of Shiver .

Did you know that Te Iubesc isn’t the only short story that we’ve released?

We’ve also released The Meeting and Perfect: A Halloween Short Story .

To get all the details on the Unbreakable Bonds series, please click here.

Happy Holidays from Rinda and Jocelynn!

Fuel for the Hopeless Romantic

Oh my god, I've been evil. Anyone who knows me or has read my books, this shouldn't come as a surprise. Really, I generally embrace my evil author side. I revel in it. But recently, it's been bad. I've got no one to blame but myself. I've planned this since the first word of Shiver and talked Rinda into my insanity. Is it a good idea? Well, sure. But that doesn't mean it's not evil and draining. While we are hard at work on Shatter , I've been taking random breaks to catch my breath.  And that "catching my breath" process has been me mainlining cozy Christmas romance novels (I'll have some reading suggestions soon) and romantic movies.

Don't judge.

Ah! Stop. You know you do the same thing too. (I'm looking right at you, lil judgey face.)

For my blog today, I thought I would provide my list of 5 Go-To Romantic Movies to Lift Your Spirits.

Pride and Prejudice - This is the version with Keira Knightly, Rosamund Pike, and Donald Sutherland. Yes, yes, I keep hearing that the version with Collin Firth is the better version, but I haven't gotten my hot little hands on that version. (It's on my Christmas list and I've been a good girl this year.) I love the sweeping visuals, the period clothes, the acting. I love the music and all the expressions crossing the face of Darcy, how he watches Elizabeth when she's not looking. After getting out of a very long relationship several years ago, I was watching this movie EVERY NIGHT for a while. It's beautiful and warm.  I love the story. The strong woman and the strong but socially awkward man, both with assumptions and misunderstandings. Both learning to admit they were wrong so they could come together in love. Love it.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding - I love this one because it's about a woman finding her own footing in the world and finding love while dealing with a loud, nosy but loving family. I don't have a particularly ethnic family (unless you count somewhat hillbilly) but they can definitely be loud and nosy and intrusive and overwhelming when they are all in one place with food and alcohol flowing liberally. I love the fact that she falls for a man who is willing to do whatever it takes for her to be happy, which also mean keeping her family happy. It's about opening your heart and taking a chance on something totally new and little frightening.

Dorfman in Love - This is a brand new edition to my list. I discovered it on Netflix just a couple months ago and I've already re-watched it twice. It doesn't have any mega-A-List stars, but the acting was very solid and the characters are fun. It's about a woman who is bending over backwards to get a man she's crushed on forever to notice her. But in her quest to please him, she starts to step out and gain confidence in herself with some help from some unexpected people. Sure, it's got the trite make-over, but there is a nugget of truth to it. There are times when you put on a new outfit or get a new hair cut and you just feel better about yourself, you're suddenly more adventurous, ready to take a risk or two. It's like that haircut or outfit has become a suit of armor and shield, protection against the unknown. And if you're lucky, you learn that it's not the haircut or the outfit, but what's inside that succeeds when you step out of your comfort zone. The heroine changes from this doormat character to a strong, vibrant person and she finds love with someone who appreciates her for her strength and not for what she can do for him. If you haven't checked it out, go add it to your list on Netflix now.

 French Kiss - A romantic comedy about a woman who is jilted by her fiance. She chases him to France, scheming to win him back with the help of a thief. I've got to admit this movie is all about Kevin Kline for me. I love him as a scheming, devious, quirky jewel thief with a soft heart and a plan for another, better life. Of course, it doesn't hurt that part of the movie is set in Paris and I just love Paris. I was lucky enough to go there as a teenager and I keep dreaming of returning one day. It's a nice stroll down memory lane. All in all, it's just a fun movie.

Love Actually - Oh the feels! I didn't mean to include two Keira Knightly movies, but hey, that's just how it rolls sometimes. It also doesn't hurt that it's a holiday movie. But yeah, I'm one of those. I love the bittersweetness of the movie. I love the romances that work in all their quirkiness. I cry about the ones that don't and the sacrifices that are made. I love the difficulties and the realness of it. No matter how hard we try, sometimes love doesn't work and the people we love fall short. And sometimes the most important people in our lives aren't the ones we didn't expected. But my favorite is the writer and the housekeeper who fall in love without being able to communicate. LOVE!

So that's my list. It's far from complete, but it's a great start. What movies are on your list of go-to romances? What movies would you suggest for the hopeless romantic? Do you love the tragic? The funny? The super sweet?

And if you haven't given our new book, Shiver , a try yet, you can catch up on the background of the series as well as read a couple free short stories here at Unbreakable Bonds.

Demona, My Other Writing Partner

While I've loved working on the Unbreakable Bonds series with Rinda, she isn't technically my first writing partner. In fact, I've had a writing partner since I wrote completed Dayhunter , the second book of the Dark Days series. This writing partner isn't as helpful when it comes to figuring out a particular twist in the plot or a change a character's development. But she is really good at reminding me that there are times when I just need to walk away from the page.

Though we might not always agree on the timing of that break.

Let me introduce you to Demona, my lovely cat and co-partner when it comes to writing any project. She is eight years old and she joined my tiny family with the help of my brother, who thought I absolutely had to have this cat. (He was right but I really hate telling him those words.)

She isn't a very large cat, but she is incredibly soft and fluffy when the humidity is high (and now that we're in South Florida, that's all the time). When we lived in Kentucky, she loved to hunt crickets that got into our basement and in Florida, she loves to catch the tiny lizards that sneak on the patio.

When she wants something she can be incredibly persistent. As in, you will pay attention to her NOW. She can be very vocal when it's time for food, attention, or if it just happens to be one of those moments when you simply need to follow her around the house.

In the past few years, she has started giving what my husband and I call "love pats." She will curl up on your chest and if you don't give her proper affection she will start patting you chin, cheek, nose, or eye to get  your attention.  If that doesn't work, she moves to head butting you.  For some reason, she's recently started skipping the "love pats" with my husband and going straight to head butting him like a little ram.

Like every other cat that I've owned, Demona loves paper. As a writer who frequently who switches between computers and paper, this doesn't always work for me. Whenever Demona catches me working on paper, she takes this as a sign that she needs to lay across the paper and rub her face on the end of the pen. While I will admit that is it incredibly adorable, it does make getting any work done extremely difficult. She also has no problem sitting on the paper and giving me the evil eye, as you can see in the picture to the left.

But regardless of the hours I keep or the crazy stories that I write, Demona is always there, ready to steal my pen and convince me that maybe it's time to take a kitty break to cuddle.

And I find myself hoping that we've still got many more books to write together. Because it's hard to imagine ever putting words on the page without her close by ready to chew on my pen or just lay across the laptop.