Selena Blake's Blog, page 16
June 24, 2015
Let’s Get Real: Stress Sucks
Let’s get real for a minute, Wolfpack. Stress sucks. Yeah, we’re going there and we’re getting personal, so strap in.
Stress is a strange thing. It can help you rise to the occasion or send you into a downward spiral. It never fails to amaze me how you can be chugging along happily and get bowled over by a big ball of stress. (Hormones don’t help.)
Everything that seemed so wonderful and peachy yesterday seems like utter rubbish today. And in my case, the smallest things set off my emotions. I can be annoyed one second, perfectly happy the next and balling my eyes out the next second.
Crazy, right?
I’ve found that it helps to not let stress and frustration mount or pile up. Confronting them head on helps. And sometimes you simply need a break.
This morning I found myself trying to reason with a 9 week old puppy. He puts anything and everything in his mouth. We’re working on it. But today I’m trying to get my pages in, things are spiraling out of control, my mood is all out of whack and I look over and he’s chewing on something. I could tell it wasn’t something he was allowed to chew on so I dive out from under my computer, blanket, headphones. Wires are strangling and tripping me and I’m reaching for him. I pluck a quarter sized piece of fairly hard, clear plastic from his mouth. I have NO idea where it came from or what it belonged to. Only that he was chewing it, it could have killed him and I lose it. I stare hard into those soulful brown-ish gray (seriously, they are the most hypnotizing color I have ever seen) eyes and tell him “no!” and “why must you chew everything? Keep your mouth off of stuff. Gah!”
I was literally trembling with anxiety, fear and fury all at once. That is one potent cocktail, let me tell you.
Everyone needed a time out. Him. Me. The universe in general?
TALK TO ME
Do you have days like that? Moments? Please tell me I’m not alone.
SMILE OF THE DAY
As Jon Stewart might say on the Daily Show… here’s your moment of cute!
Pup chillin’ beneath the couch. Won’t fit much longer.
GIVEAWAY
Congrats to Jean for winning a copy of Bound to the Vampire!
Seems that a few folks didn’t get a chance to enter, so I’m running another giveaway.
Enter: a Rafflecopter giveaway
IN THE NEWS
Did you guys see this story about Germany allowing erotic book sales ONLY between 10pm and 6am? Apparently that’s the only time people have sex.
The post Let’s Get Real: Stress Sucks appeared first on Selena Blake.
June 19, 2015
Fear or Love?
Hello Dear Wolfpack,
Happy Friday (and Happy Saturday to our Aussie packmates.)
Have you seen the Jim Carrey commencement speech that’s making the rounds online? If not, it’s worth watching. Particularly, the second half. I started this video at 10:12 minutes in and had to pause so I could reflect. I always thought Carrey was a comic genius even if his characters could be crass. But what struck me was how he says his mission was/is to entertain people, to free them from concern.
Video link: https://youtu.be/V80-gPkpH6M?t=10m12s
I’ve always felt that way about my books. My hope is always to entertain and free people from their daily grind, to give them hope and remind them to love and keep moving forward.
I like what he says about fear and love. How we have to choose.
#PickLove
YOUR DAILY SMILE
LAST CHANCE
Today’s the last day to enter my current giveaway!
The post Fear or Love? appeared first on Selena Blake.
June 17, 2015
This and that and thensome
Hello Wolfpack!
As you may have read in my newsletter a few weeks ago, it’s been a rough few months around Wolfpack Headquarters. We said goodbye to one beloved dog and welcomed a new one into our lives. Needless to say, Momma is sleepy.
But things are returning to normal (as normal as we get around here, anyway.) We’ve taken the rig out to the lake for the week and I have to admit, I’m loving the view.
Not a bad view for the week. Kind of distracting though.
A photo posted by Selena Blake (@selenaablake) on Jun 15, 2015 at 5:06pm PDT
(Follow Selena Blake on Instagram)
WHAT I’M WORKING ON
I’m currently writing on a few different projects. I’m in the final chapters of Beg For It, halfway through At The SEAL’s Command, somewhere past the halfway mark on Mystic Isle book 6 – And a Shifter Makes Three, and still in the early chapters of the next Stormy Weather book.
YOUR DAILY SMILE
It’s super hard (nearly impossible really) to focus on writing with this face staring at me.
Posted by Selena Blake on Thursday, June 11, 2015
DON’T FORGET
I’m hosting another giveaway this week! 3 easy ways to enter!
The post This and that and thensome appeared first on Selena Blake.
June 15, 2015
This Week’s Giveaway: Bound to the Vampire
Win a copy of Bound the Vampire this week. 3 Easy ways to enter!
The post This Week’s Giveaway: Bound to the Vampire appeared first on Selena Blake.
May 20, 2015
Stuff Your Ereader
Just a quick note for my fellow book lovers. Giant freebie promotion going on, TODAY ONLY! omgreads.com/free-summer-reads
Also, Surprising Darcy and Just a Little Taste are FREE TODAY on Kindle.
Enjoy! Tell a friend. Tell all your friends.
And once you’re done reading The Cajun’s Captive, find out what happens with the rest of the Deveraux Pack.
The post Stuff Your Ereader appeared first on Selena Blake.
April 8, 2015
Last Call on Free Reads + a New Release!
Hello dear readers!
This is a quick Last Call post. Get your freebies & sale prices!
1. The Cajun’s Captive – FREE
Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon FR |Amazon DE | iBooks | Nook | Kobo | AllRomanceEbooks| Smashwords
More information, blurb, excerpt, etc.
2. Games Demons Play – FREE
Amazon | Amazon UK | | Amazon DE| | Nook | Kobo | AllRomanceEbooks | Smashwords
More information, blurb, excerpt, etc.
3. Ask For It – Mega Sale – $0.99
Amazon | Amazon UK | |Amazon DE | iBooks | Nook | Kobo |AllRomanceEbooks | Smashwords
More information, blurb, excerpt, etc.
4. Bound to the Vampire – Release Week Sale – $1.99
Amazon | Amazon UK |Amazon FR | Amazon DE | iBooks | Nook|Kobo
More information, blurb, excerpt, etc.
The post Last Call on Free Reads + a New Release! appeared first on Selena Blake.
April 6, 2015
New Release: Bound to the Vampire
It’s here!
Mystic Isle, Book 5. Valencia Fabelle’s book. Finally we understand what Valencia went through, what happened in her past that makes her the woman she is today.
Ice queen? Sure.
But there’s a reason.
Does a blast from the past mean together at last?
Find out: Amazon | Amazon UK |Amazon FR | Amazon DE | iBooks | Nook| Kobo
About Bound to the Vampire
Three hundred years ago their covens arranged for them to wed, hoping to end the infighting. He was strong willed and she was hot headed. Their love was instantaneous and passionate. But the night before their wedding, Valencia heard him utter the words that would shatter her heart and send her running.
Now, all these years later, they come face to face at a masked ball at Mystic Isle. Her memory is long and she’ll never forget his betrayal…no matter how much her body might crave his touch now.
He has his work cut out for him where she’s concerned and only four days left to change her mind. His thirst for her is undeniable. Luckily, he has in his possession the one thing she’s always wanted but never been able to possess.
EXCERPT
“Hello lady wife.”
Valencia Fabelle froze atop her crystal encrusted Manolo Blahniks. She would recognize that voice till she took her last breath. Two hundred eighty-nine years and ten thousand miles did nothing to lessen its potency.
Her body flushed just as it always had at the deep voice, the richness that was finer than the finest caviar, more delicious than the sweetest Swiss chocolate. Her lungs seized, her heartbeat accelerated and her nipples tightened beneath the silk bodice.
Evidently the others in her small group felt the effects of the honeyed sound as well. Or perhaps they were more shocked at his words. Valencia had always, as far as they knew, been single and celibate.
If only they knew the truth.
Their conversation ceased and Valencia felt their gaze shift from the man at her back to her. It was the opening night gala for her latest Shimmer store and she’d planned this party to the last detail. Special lights twinkled overhead, Avery stood atop a black platform with the most special pendant in Valencia’s collection around her neck. In the corner, the string quartet played a perfect mixture of classics and modern instrumentals.
She’d anticipated everything…except him.
Izzy’s blonde eyebrows were high above her lioness mask, Coco’s goblet halted halfway to her lips and Ceara’s jaw was dropped open so she looked like a fish on a platter.
Licking her lips ever so slightly, Valencia dug deep for the grace she’d relied on for centuries. A vampiress gives nothing away. Never let them see you quiver, her late mother’s voice whispered through her mind.
She kept her expression carefully neutral as she pivoted atop the seven centimeter heels. The train of her skirt twisted around her legs like a tourniquet. And there he was, tall, lean, and more handsome than she remembered.
And arrogant enough to show up to a Masquerade sans mask.
Dameon LeBeau.
A few centimeters taller than her, even in her heels, refined with hair just this side of jet black and eyes so blue they could seduce the sun. Between his dark brows and the perfect sensuous slant of his lips, she’d always been able to read his expressions. Right up until the night he broke her heart into a billion tiny shards.
He had that same blank, yet carefully constructed facade in place now. Shoulders back with an air of supreme wealth and cool aloofness, he studied her. But there was something else lurking in those eyes that had once stared deep into hers as they’d made love over and over.
Challenge.
A half dozen responses sprang to her lips as she stared him down. Though she’d imagined this reunion hundreds of time, she chose her words carefully.
‘I’m not your wife’ wouldn’t do.
Nice try.
After all this time…
One has to get married before one can be a wife.
No. None of those would put him in his place either.
If I’m you’re wife, where’s my ring had a nice, well, ring to it. But Dameon was wealthy enough to buy any ring in her store right here and now. And it would be just like him to make a spectacle of her.
No, she settled for the words that she knew would damage his pride just as he’d destroyed hers.
“I’m sorry. Do I know you?”
There was the briefest flicker of surprise and dare she hope, pain, in his eyes and then he gave her the most wicked smile she’d ever seen. Wide, full, bright white teeth with a flash of fang, he reminded her of the rakish man who’d stolen her heart and claimed her soul beneath a harvest moon. The effect now was no less staggering.
Her toes curled in her shoes and she briefly forgot that she was supposed to hate him.
He took a single step closer, bringing a whiff of expensive cologne with him that made her tingle inside.
“Ahh, you slay me, ma chérie.” He held a hand over his chest where his heart should have been, if he’d had one.
Though his gaze didn’t stray from her face and he kept his hands to himself, her body reacted. Of its own will, her shoulders swayed forward ever so slightly, a delicious heat swept up from the small of her back, snaking over her shoulders before finally lacing around her neck. For the first time in a long time she felt breathless…and aroused.
Annoyed at her body’s obvious interest, she straightened her spine and stared him down through her peacock mask.
Around them, the masquerade continued as if her whole world hadn’t just tipped off its axis. But in reality, it felt more like the earth’s rotation had come to a full stop, perhaps even started spinning in reverse. That would explain why a thousand memories suddenly flooded her mind, yanking her into the past, a past where she’d almost been a wife. In that past she’d given her heart away and in the present, the people dancing and laughing around her hadn’t a clue. Most of them didn’t even notice the showdown in the middle of everything.
She held a hand to her cleavage, just beneath the diamond infinity necklace and cocked her head to the side to show off the column of her throat. With her short hair and delicate platinum tassel earrings shimmying against her skin, he’d no doubt remember the many times he’d kissed her there. And his promise to drink from her on their wedding night.
“The problem is,” she said in her huskiest tone, “I’ve been ma chérie to so many tall, dark and handsome types, I’m afraid it’s hard for me to remember who is who. But one has to be married before one can be a wife.” Truth be told, she’d felt like his wife in every sense of the word. “You must have me mistaken for someone else.”
Once again his brows pinched just enough to let her know that the sharp end of her words had hit their mark. But the wound healed quickly and the corner of his lips tugged upward into a sexy smirk.
So this was a game for him. He prodded, she sliced back. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
He let his gaze travel down the length of her necklace, down the plunging neckline of her royal blue silk dress. If she wasn’t mistaken, his gaze lingered on each of the delicate peacock plums that hugged the bodice. He didn’t stop there. No, he was quickly on to her hips and finally to her toes.
She silently thanked her foresight to wear the elaborate peacock costume because right now she didn’t feel quite so naked under his thorough survey. She was ashamed to admit she liked hiding behind the blue and green feathered mask especially when those brilliant blue eyes returned to her face.
“We both know that’s not true, Val-dear.” He strung the last two words together so they were one; an endearment just for her he’d told her so long ago. She’d believed him, had fallen for him and his sack of lies until there’d been nothing left of her heart.
Finish reading: Amazon | Amazon UK |Amazon FR | Amazon DE | iBooks | Nook| Kobo
The post New Release: Bound to the Vampire appeared first on Selena Blake.
Release Day Chat – Twitter, 4.7.15 @ 9pm EST #bedtimechat
Chat with me (@SelenaBlake) and Piper Trace (@PiperTrace) tomorrow, April 7th at 9pm EST on Twitter for a Release Day Chat! We’re gonna talk books, new releases, love, romance, and anything else that comes to mind.
Come ask us questions! Please use the hashtag: #bedtimechat
The post Release Day Chat – Twitter, 4.7.15 @ 9pm EST #bedtimechat appeared first on Selena Blake.
March 26, 2015
Stuff Your Ereader!
Hello dear readers. It’s time to Stuff. Your. Ereader! (Said in my best Bob Barker voice.)
How do you do that? Simple.
Visit this link, select what type of ereader you have. And then one click your way to a full ereader. This is a fabulous way to find new series to read!
I have TWO books available for this promotion. The Cajun’s Captive and Games Demons Play. (Please note amazon is not price matching GDP.)
The post Stuff Your Ereader! appeared first on Selena Blake.
March 8, 2015
Contest Time! Get Your Gift Card!
In an effort to spread the word about The Cajun’s Captive being FREEEEEEE! (Imagine that in an opera voice.) I’m hosting an easy peasy contest.
1 lucky winner will be selected at random 3/16/15.
Ready. Set. Go.
The post Contest Time! Get Your Gift Card! appeared first on Selena Blake.
