Maggie Wells's Blog, page 54
April 11, 2014
Cover reveal!
You know, you can consider your day = made when something this pretty lands in your inbox.
Here’s the cover for my upcoming Harlequin-E Contemporary release,
The Last First Date!
The Last First Date will be included in the June Contemporary Romance boxed set along with stories from: Rebecca Avery ~ Nicole Helm ~ Kristina Knight
It will also release as a single title in September 2014!
Tagged: coming soon, cover, Harlequin, Novella, romance
April 6, 2014
Weekend Writing Warrior – 4/6/14
This week I’m sharing eight sentences from a story called, Three Little Words. It’s a novella about the sizzling hot romance that sparks when two strangers who have lived a little hit it off at a wedding. Stay tuned after the excerpt for some good news!
****
“What’s your name?”
She bit it back the truth because, for one night, this night with this man, she didn’t want to be sad old Aunt Jo. She wanted to be the woman she’d been back in the days before she had to be seated with one of her cousins to round out a table. She wanted to be the girl who thought she had all the time in the world.
Fixing him with a bold stare she smiled as she answered. “Jose.”
“As in Cuervo?”
“Exactly.”
****
And now the good news: I just sold this story to Lyrical Press/Kensington Books! Whoo hoo! Here’s the pitch:
Three Little Words
Jo Masters isn’t the girl she used to be, but now that she’s a woman without obligations, she’s ready to recapture a little of her misspent youth. Her niece’s wedding, with its open bar and dark dance floor, seems the perfect opportunity to let loose.
Gregory Stark is just trying to make it through his son’s wedding day…And make some time with the gorgeous brunette on the bride’s side of the aisle.
His kid’s wedding probably isn’t the optimal occasion to put the moves on the sexy woman who introduced herself as simply ‘Josie’, but his best friend is closing in on her too. With a couple tequila shots under his belt, Greg makes Jo a proposition neither want to refuse.
What follows is a romp in the hay that turns into an all-out romp when meddling family members, missing shoes, a pushy old friend, and the fickle hand of fate all conspire to turn a perfectly good one-night stand into the start of an even more perfect romance.
Thanks for reading and be sure to check out all the entries from my fellow Weekend Writing Warriors!
Tagged: 8Sunday, coming soon, erotic, Novella, romance, warrior
March 30, 2014
Weekend Writing Warrior – 3/30/14
I’m so sorry I didn’t make the rounds last week. I was away handling some family issues but now I am back and I promise to be better this week. Without further delay, here are 8 lines from Seducing Steve:
“Tell me more about how crappy old Adam was in bed.”
“No!”
His chuckle came warm, breathy, and damp on her skin, evoking images of hot, sultry nights, cloyingly sweet iced tea, and lazily whirling fans. She was picturing herself clad only in a slip a la Elizabeth Taylor, when his thick, honey voice interrupted the fantasy.
“I like having my ego stroked almost as much as I like having everything else stroked. Did he fold his underwear?”
She her hands through his thick, fiery hair. “Your ego doesn’t need stroking.”
Erotic romance novelist Sara Wright yearns for passion that leaps from the page. After a marriage that proved to be more fizzle than sizzle, Sara’s writing reflects her growing frustration and also her secret passion for her best friend and muse, Steve Larson.
Steve Larson is anything but your typical romance hero. A redheaded computer nerd with a slow, southern drawl, Steve is neither a cattle baron nor a titan of industry. The one thing he does have going for him is that he has loved Sara from the moment he met her.
When she confesses that he has long served as her inspiration, Steve leaps at the chance to take things to the next level. Determined to be the man to make her fantasies come true, he takes a page from Sara’s own books and plots a passion so intense it threatens to consume them and the friendship they both cherish.
When friends turn into lovers, love can get lost in the shuffle. Fact becomes tightly cocooned in fiction as both Sara and Steve learn to balance their desires with the needs of their hearts.
Be sure to check out all of the fabulous Weekend Writing Warriors! See you soon!
March 23, 2014
Weekend Writing Warrior – 3/23/14
This week I have been working on revisions to my first novella in preparation for re-release! Here are 8 lines from Seducing Steve:
“I’ve dreamed about you. Asleep and awake,” she whispered. “I’ve thought about us for years.”
His eyes popped open. “Years?”
Her gaze locked on him, she nodded. “Years.”
“Oh, God.”
Erotic romance novelist Sara Wright yearns for passion that leaps from the page. After a marriage that proved to be more fizzle than sizzle, Sara’s writing reflects her growing frustration and also her secret passion for her best friend and muse, Steve Larson.
Steve Larson is anything but your typical romance hero. A redheaded computer nerd with a slow, southern drawl, Steve is neither a cattle baron nor a titan of industry. The one thing he does have going for him is that he has loved Sara from the moment he met her.
When she confesses that he has long served as her inspiration, Steve leaps at the chance to take things to the next level. Determined to be the man to make her fantasies come true, he takes a page from Sara’s own books and plots a passion so intense it threatens to consume them and the friendship they both cherish.
When friends turn into lovers, love can get lost in the shuffle. Fact becomes tightly cocooned in fiction as both Sara and Steve learn to balance their desires with the needs of their hearts.
Be sure to check out all of the fabulous Weekend Writing Warriors! See you soon!
Tagged: 8Sunday, erotic, Novella, romance, warrior
March 16, 2014
Weekend Writing Warrior – 3/16/14
This week I am sharing 8 sentences from my upcoming Harlequin-E Contemporary release The Last First Date (formerly Jump Into Love). Fraud detective, Lang Sheppard, just confessed to being set up on a blind date arranged by his grandmother….
“So, when you’re not a fake detective you’re the primary suspect in a canasta-based prostitution ring?”
“Victim,” he corrected. “Not a suspect, I’m the victim.” His smile unfolded and he unleashed the full force of his silver gaze on her. “Don’t you feel sorry for me now?”
“Not half as sorry as I’m feeling for myself.”
He snickered. “Well, I guess I’ll just have to work harder to catch up.”
The Last First Date
On a night where everything goes wrong, one man finds his Ms. Right.
Langley Sheppard’s New Year’s Eve hits a major snag when Murphy’s Law throws the book at him.
His friends call him a serial dater, but this determined detective is the real deal–a man looking for the right woman. First date number forty-eight comes to a screeching halt when his date decides to lift a pack of gum from the local convenience store, but a spunky, snarky damsel in distress witnesses the confession and things start to look up.
Jessica Vickers has lost about everything—her job, her apartment, and even her fashion sense—but she hasn’t surrendered her attachment to premixed margaritas and taco chips or her optimism. With just a few short hours left until the clock strikes midnight, she’s looking forward to a quiet evening at home and a fresh start in a New Year. A dead car battery leaves her stranded in a convenience store parking lot with no cell phone and no jumper cables.
But things start looking up when handsome police detective Lang Sheppard offers to jump her.
Thrown together by circumstance and petty larceny, Lang and Jessica discover that on a night when everything goes wrong, all it takes is a chance at love to make everything right.
Be sure to check out all of the fabulous Weekend Writing Warriors! See you soon!
Tagged: 8Sunday, coming soon, Novella, romance
March 10, 2014
Calling all art lovers!
Free days for THE ART LOVER have come and gone, but you can still grab this smoking hot short story for only $0.99!
And visit these fabulous blogs for a chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card!
Fiction Witches
Reviews by Crystal
Sizzling Hot Books
You Gotta Read Reviews
In Shadows
That Girl Reads
A Passion for Romance
Fall into Reading Reviews
Sex Between the Covers
Toots Book Reviews
Romancing the Pen Today
Reading on the Wild Side
The Talent Cave Reviews
Harlie’s Books
Romancing the Readers
Lusty Penguin Reviews
Leigh Wants Food
March 9, 2014
Weekend Writing Warrior – 3/9/14
Hello, my friends! This week I am sharing 8 sentences from my upcoming Harlequin-E Contemporary release The Last First Date (formerly Jump Into Love).
Hugging the hideous coat even tighter, Jessica thanked God for its down-filled warmth. Tiny lacewings fluttered in her stomach, but she ignored them. This was New Year’s Eve. In just a few hours this craptastic year would be over and a bright, shiny new one would start. She just needed to make it through midnight.
Detective Delicious turned stormy gray eyes in her direction and the busted zipper on the hideous coat shot to the top of Mount WhyMe. She hadn’t realized the parka wouldn’t close until her mission was well underway. If she’d known, she would have put on a bra at the very least.
The Last First Date
On a night where everything goes wrong, one man finds his Ms. Right.
Langley Sheppard’s New Year’s Eve hits a major snag when Murphy’s Law throws the book at him.
His friends call him a serial dater, but this determined detective is the real deal–a man looking for the right woman. First date number forty-eight comes to a screeching halt when his date decides to lift a pack of gum from the local convenience store, but a spunky, snarky damsel in distress witnesses the confession and things start to look up.
Jessica Vickers has lost about everything—her job, her apartment, and even her fashion sense—but she hasn’t surrendered her attachment to premixed margaritas and taco chips or her optimism. With just a few short hours left until the clock strikes midnight, she’s looking forward to a quiet evening at home and a fresh start in a New Year. A dead car battery leaves her stranded in a convenience store parking lot with no cell phone and no jumper cables.
But things start looking up when handsome police detective Lang Sheppard offers to jump her.
Thrown together by circumstance and petty larceny, Lang and Jessica discover that on a night when everything goes wrong, all it takes is a chance at love to make everything right.
Be sure to check out all of the fabulous Weekend Writing Warriors! See you soon!
March 3, 2014
THE ART LOVER IS FREE IN THE KINDLE STORE!
THE ART LOVER IS FREE IN THE KINDLE STORE!
Blurb
Starving artist Kelsey Tecato takes being The Templeton Museum’s artist in residence a little too literally. By day, she puts on a show of painting for the crowds that shuffle through the galleries, but at night, her muse runs wild.
Mitch Jameson is a guy’s guy. A cop moonlighting as a security guard, he has little use for the artsy-fartsy stuff, but the mysterious Ms. Tecato’s sexy portraits call to him.
So does an interior alarm.
When Officer Jameson goes to investigate, he finds a paint-splattered goddess working on a self-portrait–in the nude.
A couple tubes of paint and a roll in the drop cloths later, free-spirited Kelsey helps Officer Jameson discover his passion for art.
Excerpt
His gaze traveled over the discreet placard affixed to the wall, but he’d already memorized the pertinent facts. The paintings were created by someone named Kelsey Tecato, the museum’s ‘Artist in Residence’.
Coming on shift as the museum closed for the day, he’d searched the faces of museum patrons and employees as they straggled past the security station, but he’d yet to spot the one that matched the headshot of a studious-looking brunette featured in the museum brochure. When he oh-so-casually posed the question to Bert, he learned that meant Ms. Tecato’s art was being subsidized in exchange for her participation in demonstrations and exhibitions sponsored by the museum board. The knowing twinkle in the older man’s eyes when he clarified that the ‘in residence’ part didn’t refer to the artist’s living situation was enough to make him drop the subject. Bert was too damn nosy for a guy who never managed to pass the detective’s exam.
Forcing himself to put one foot in front of the other, he left the provocative portraits behind and turned toward the west end of the building. The Templeton rambled for nearly a city block but most of the space went unused. Exhibits occupied the open center space of the two-story building joined by a pair of sweeping marble staircases. The east side had been converted to classroom space decades before, but the warren of tiny rooms on the west end were primarily administrative offices and storage.
His heart started to pound when he picked up the murmur of a deep voice. Shifting the flashlight to his left hand, Mitch reached for his sidearm and came up empty. He was a guard tonight, not a cop. His service weapon was locked up safe in his apartment. At the end of the corridor he pulled up short, pressing his back against the wall and tightening his grip on the flashlight. He wore a panic button clipped to his belt but his instincts told him he wasn’t at the panic stage yet. Breathing soft and slow, he closed his eyes and focused his energy on catching a few words. Perhaps he could figure out what the intruders were after before making his presence known.
Thirty seconds passed. His eyes popped open then rolled heavenward as the droning voice segued into a bouncy pop song. The radio. Someone had left a radio playing in one of the offices. Shaking off the rush of adrenaline, Mitch pushed away from the wall and rounded the corner, only to come to a dead stop when he saw the fan of light spilling from the office at the very end of the hall.
Two things he knew for certain: the radio hadn’t been playing when he’d made his post-closing rounds, and that door on the end of the corridor hadn’t been open. He let the barrel of the flashlight slip through his fingers until he gripped the lamp. Wielding his only weapon like a club, he crept toward the door as silently as a guy who clocked in at six-four and two-ten could. Just outside the office, he caught a flash of movement inside the room and quickly pressed his back to the wall.
“About time you showed up.”
A woman. The intruder was a woman and she’d been expecting him. Irked by the presumptuous amusement in her tone, he stepped into the open doorway, prepared to let her have it, and almost swallowed his tongue.
Screw the flashing red lights. Alarm bells clamored in his head the moment recognition clicked. Kelsey Tecato. Artist in Residence. Painter of hard-on-inducing nudes. Live and in person, standing in the Templeton Museum after hours.
And naked as the day she was born.
Buy Link
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Lover-Maggie-Wells-ebook/dp/B00HM9SDO2/ref=pd_rhf_ee_p_d_10
Retail Price: $0.99 Promotional Price: FREE March 3-7, 2014
Author Info
Multi-published author, Maggie Wells, is a deep-down dirty girl with a weakness for hot heroes and happy endings. By day she is buried in spreadsheets, but at night she pens tales of people tangling up the sheets. The product of a charming rogue and a shameless flirt, this mild-mannered married lady has a naughty streak a mile wide.
Fueled by supertankers of Diet Coke, Maggie juggles fictional romance and the real deal by keeping her slow-talking Southern gentleman constantly amused and their two children mildly embarrassed. They are the food purveyors to three dogs, a passel of fish, and one impertinent house rabbit she claims is the love of her life. Shh. Don’t tell her husband.
Twitter @maggiewells1, or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AuthorMaggieWells
Tagged: erotic, romance, short story
March 2, 2014
Weekend Writing Warrior – 3/2/14
This week, I’m sharing 8 more from The Art Lover! Even better news – this book will be free in the Kindle store March 3 – 7!
“Help me make something beautiful.”
A deep crevice bisected his brows, drawing them down until they hooded his eyes. “I’m no artist. I’m a cop.”
“I don’t think those two things are mutually exclusive, Officer.” She pressed a smacking kiss to his shoulder then cupped his cheek with one hand, pulling him until their lips brushed again. “Do you know when something is beautiful?”
“I know you are,” he answered without missing a beat.
The Art Lover – Available now for only $0.99! FREE March 3 – 7, 2014!
Starving artist Kelsey Tecato takes being The Templeton Museum’s artist in residence a little too literally. By day, she puts on a show of painting for the crowds that shuffle through the galleries, but at night, her muse runs wild.
Mitch Jameson is a guy’s guy. A cop moonlighting as a security guard, he has little use for the artsy-fartsy stuff, but the mysterious Ms. Tecato’s sexy portraits call to him.
So does an interior alarm.
When Officer Jameson goes to investigate, he finds a paint-splattered goddess working on a self-portrait–in the nude.
A couple tubes of paint and a roll in the drop cloths later, free-spirited Kelsey helps Officer Jameson discover his passion for art.
Be sure to check out all of the fabulous Weekend Writing Warriors! See you soon!
Tagged: 8Sunday, erotic, romance, short story, warrior
February 23, 2014
Weekend Writing Warrior – 2/23/14
This week, I’m sharing 8 more from The Art Lover!
Reflected in that funhouse reject mirror, her arms were bands of white slashing across the peachy-gold of his skin. Tiny hairs the color of coal dust curled around her fingers. The swell of her hips played peek-a-boo from behind his. Powerful, thick thighs all but blocked her from the frame. He covered her hands with his but didn’t try to halt her progress or guide her. She smiled and pressed a kiss to the soft underside of his triceps.
“From the first time I saw you, I thought you might be perfect. Now I know.”
The Art Lover – Available now for only $0.99!
Starving artist Kelsey Tecato takes being The Templeton Museum’s artist in residence a little too literally. By day, she puts on a show of painting for the crowds that shuffle through the galleries, but at night, her muse runs wild.
Mitch Jameson is a guy’s guy. A cop moonlighting as a security guard, he has little use for the artsy-fartsy stuff, but the mysterious Ms. Tecato’s sexy portraits call to him.
So does an interior alarm.
When Officer Jameson goes to investigate, he finds a paint-splattered goddess working on a self-portrait–in the nude.
A couple tubes of paint and a roll in the drop cloths later, free-spirited Kelsey helps Officer Jameson discover his passion for art.
Be sure to check out all of the fabulous Weekend Writing Warriors! See you soon!
Tagged: 8Sunday, erotic, romance, short story, warrior
