Jennifer Colgan's Blog, page 13

Have you visited Excerpt Monday?

For a sneak peek of the cover art for my August release, Devil's Due, drop by the Excerpt Monday blog today. A comment enters you to win one of two gift baskets, one of which features both a copy of Devil's Due and Seven Days in Sydney.

Stop by and say hello!

Nothing like a good stretch

I wish I could get this comfortable under the dining room table. Or anywhere.

New Release!

If you could be someone else for a week, would you want to? What if you could be someone else forever?

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Researcher Tess Ronson has been given a golden opportunity. When she agrees to have her consciousness downloaded into a prototype android body, she's thrilled by the scientific and medical possibilities. The body, nicknamed Sydney by its creator, is physically perfect and stunningly beautiful, two things Tess is not.

For a week she lives a life she's only dreamed of and learns far more about her own burning sexuality and untamable spirit than she thought possible. But after seven days in Sydney she also discovers the consequences of giving herself over to her every wicked desire.



Excerpt:



"She's stunning." Tess Ronson adjusted her thick-rimmed glasses and tilted her head as she circled the seven-foot-tall glass cylinder in the center of Gentron Inc.'s Level 4 Security lab.


The naked female form currently suspended by delicate silicon wires within the cylinder was a work of art as well as cutting-edge robotic science.


Long, copper-colored hair swirled around her pale shoulders. Dark pink areolas surrounded her distended nipples, tipping breasts that looked to be perfect D-cups. Her hips flared from a tiny waist, and her flat abs sported a tight slit of a navel. Between her slightly spread thighs sat a triangle of neatly trimmed auburn curls. Long, long legs stretched down to delicate ankles and dainty feet.


Her eyes were open, revealing light blue irises circled by a fringe of burnished lashes. Arched brows gave her a patrician appearance. Her lips were the perfect shade of pink.


Beside Tess stood Dr. Jared Simon, head of Gentron's robotics division, hands clasped behind his back, preening. This was his triumph, and he looked about to crow.


Behind him, two other members of his top-secret research team lingered, also staring at the body in the cylinder. Melissa Stanz, PhD held a clipboard in front of her. Her dark eyes studied Tess more than the exquisite construction in the sterile tank. Next to her, Marc Roker, MD, more mechanic than physician, gaped likewise at the culmination of Simon's last ten feverish years of work.


"She's even more perfect than I envisioned her," Simon announced. His eyes shimmered a bit in the fluorescent lab lighting. Pride mixed with something akin to worship made his normally stoic features seem to glow.


"Have you completed your checklist?" Melissa asked. She scribbled a few notes on her clipboard. The clinical psychiatrist disdained electronic input devices, so while everyone else employed at Gentron, Inc. walked around with iPads and BlackBerrys, Dr. Stanz carried paper notebooks and ink pens, leaving her overworked assistant the task of typing up all of her daily notes.


Tearing her gaze away from the tank, Tess nodded. "I told all my family and friends that I'm going to a symposium in Detroit for the week. I've recorded a couple of voicemails I can send remotely so people will think I'm calling in but missing them. I had my snail mail stopped, but I'll be keeping up with e-mail since I'd do that anyway. Everyone I know is aware that I've got a coworker named Sydney staying in my apartment while I'm gone."


"You sound excited about it, but I have to be sure you're ready for this. You can still change your mind." Melissa met her gaze. They'd been discussing the next phase of Dr. Simon's experiment for months now, and if Tess had to reassure anyone one more time that she was ready to have her consciousness transferred into the beautiful body in the stasis tank, she'd scream.


This was a dream come true, not only for Jared Simon, who would get to see his most advanced android construction finally walking and talking and interacting with the world, but for Tess who, for the space of seven days, could escape her slightly plump, mousy-haired, nearsighted self and see the world through the robotic eyes of a supermodel.


"I'm one hundred percent ready for this, Dr. Stanz. This research is my life's work too. All I can think about is how this technology will help burn victims, paraplegics, people with catastrophic injuries who'll be able to walk around and live and work and communicate with their families while their real bodies heal. If this experiment works—"


"Not if, Tess. There's no room for if in my work," Dr. Simon reminded her sternly.


Chastised by his tone, she backtracked. "Of course. I meant when—"


"Once this phase of the research is concluded, we can consider the implications for life extension. No one will ever be trapped in a dying or dysfunctional body again. There will be no incurable illnesses, no irreparable injuries. Maybe even no such thing as death."


Tess's entire body tingled at the thought. Sydney represented the ultimate medical intervention, the answer to every disease and disorder known to man. What couldn't be cured, one day, could simply be discarded, and an ailing person's mind could be uploaded into a perfect, healthy, strong, disease-free biomechanical casing customized to any desired outward appearance.


The four people in this room stood on the frontier of science and technology so advanced it would transform the world the moment it was revealed to the general population. Tess felt there could be no higher honor. The mere suggestion of backing out made her ill.


Melissa glanced at Dr. Simon. "Then let's get started." She backed away from the tank, still making notes.


Tess's heart rate soared. This was it. She'd dreamed of nothing else for weeks.


While Marc and Dr. Simon opened the stasis tank and began removing the suspension wires from the android body, Tess moved to one of the two diagnostic beds at the far end of the lab. A dozen different monitors and life-support devices surrounded one of the beds. Tubes and wires and electrodes hung from a metal pole along with bags of saline, antibiotics and a concoction of extraordinarily strong drugs that would keep her fragile human body alive for the next seven days while her mind resided inside the supercomputer resting within Sydney's titanium skull.


By outward appearances, Tess would be in a medically induced coma, but on a deeper level, she'd be functionally dead, her bodily functions controlled by machines. Even coma patients, research had shown, possessed some awareness, if not of the world around them, then of a plane of existence constructed in their own subconscious. They still resided in their bodies even though those bodies were unable to respond to outside stimuli. Tess's case would be different. Her mind would be gone, not just hiding in a little-used section of her brain.


Tests had determined the human body could only sustain itself in this state without irreparable damage for just over seven days, even with catastrophic medical intervention. So at the end of the week, Tess's mind would be transferred back into her body...or sooner if they ran into any problems.


Eyeing the equipment around the bed, Tess unbuttoned her lab coat and shrugged out of it. She placed that and each item of her typical working uniform—black slacks, a plain white top, white socks and soft-soled sneakers—on a straight-backed chair next to the bed. She glanced around to make sure Marc and Dr. Simon were occupied before removing her bra and panties and sliding them surreptitiously beneath all of her other clothes, as though no one might suspect she actually wore underwear. She slipped on the surgical gown Melissa had provided for her and climbed into the bed to await the injections that would knock her out and begin to loosen her mind's hold on her body.





Seven Days in Sydney is my first all-erotica title. To find out more, visit:

Smashwords


All Romance eBooks

Amazon.com

I've been interviewed!

Come visit Riverina Romantics Blog and learn all about my upcoming releases!

Unveiling

Today I unveiled my new cover art for my October Samhain release, Interview with a Gargoyle over at Killer Chicks along with some other headline news for July.

Here's the gorgeous cover... but you have to stop by Killer Chicks to find out everything else.


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Get it while it's free!

For the month of July Samshwords is offering Married to the MIB for free!

Just enter the Coupon code SSWSF at checkout to get your copy for a whopping $0.00 - hurry while supplies last. {That's supplies of days in July, by the way}.

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July 1 - July 31 - FREE at Smashwords!

Spence is a MIB, a special agent dedicated to protecting Earth from extraterrestrial threats. Three years ago, he fell in love with Dulcie, an alien abductee. Now the fate of an empire rests on Dulcie's hidden memories of their affair. It's Spence's mission to retrieve them. It should be easy, but will Spence be able to remain objective when the love of his life experiences total recall?

New ink!

No, I didn't get a tattoo. I just signed a contract with Ellora's Cave for my paranormal novel The Devil's Due.

Blurb:

Who would you sell your soul to save?



For Ceara Landon, the answer to that question is easy. She would do anything for her younger brother Kevin, even if saving his life means shattering his dreams.


On first glance it seems the skyrocketing success of Kevin's band, Pillars of Stone, is a dream come true, but Ceara sees the truth. His increasing drug use will destroy him and ruin any chance he has for lasting happiness.


Ceara traces the source of Kevin's dubious rise to fame back to night club owner Alexander Quinn. The gorgeous, blue-eyed entrepreneur hides a terrible secret. He's a soul broker – he buys souls for the Devil, and he purchased Kevin's in exchange for fame and fortune. In desperation, Ceara offers her own soul in exchange for Kevin's, and for the first time in his lonely existence, Alex risks everything to refuse. He agrees to help Kevin sober up and guide his band to true success, but the price for Ceara is high. She'll have to bargain with her heart to save her brother along with the man who wants to possess her body as well as her soul.

The Devil's Due will be part of EC's Blush line, my first Jennifer Colgan title with EC. Stay tuned for more updates.

Friskies Buffet

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Shortly after this picture was taken, Topper [green collar in front] decided he was too good to eat with the riff raff and stormed off in a huff. Ranger [middle] proceeded to eat from both his and Topper's bowl. Onyx [background] remained oblivious.

New Release now avialable!

I'm thrilled to announce the release of my sci-fi rom-com novella, MARRIED TO THE MIB!


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Handsome, blue-eyed Spencer Ward stirs feelings in Dulcie Crandall that she can't quite explain. Spencer feels it too, but he knows why pretty, vivacious Dulcie seems so familiar. She's his wife.

Spence is a Man in Black, a special agent dedicated to protecting Earth from temporal and extraterrestrial threats. Three years ago, he met Dulcie, an alien abductee, during a daring rescue from an Umayan organ harvest ship. His employer, the Insterstellar Security and Time Agency, had Dulcie's memories of their whirlwind courtship and alien wedding ceremony blocked before they returned her to Earth. Now ISTA needs the memories locked in Dulcie's subconscious, and Spence and his half-alien shapeshifter partner, Ruben "Ruby" Throckmorton, have been assigned to retrieve them.

It should be easy, but will Spence be able to remain objective when the love of his life experiences total recall of the time she spent married to a MIB?

Excerpt:

All around Dulcie, geysers of foul-smelling steam belched from dripping pipes. Unidentifiable machinery hissed, and lights flashed in macabre shades of crimson and purple. She wasn't supposed to be here, hiding in this dank place all alone, driven by fear and some deep, desperate need to survive at all costs.

She'd come here, though, to escape someplace much worse. If only she could remember exactly what she was running from.

Just when she'd reached the point where her only option was to scream—not for help, but for the sheer, utter hopelessness of her predicament—he appeared. He swept out of the hot, churning mist, the broad-shouldered silhouette of a man backlit by a strobe of acid green. He reached for her.

Some strange instinct bade her to take the hand he offered, but rather than rise with dignity from her hiding place and let him lead her out of this neon hell, she flew into his arms, shivering and sobbing.

He murmured something soothing while she buried her sweat-dampened face in his neck. His scent curled into her lungs on her next shuddering gasp of breath, and she calmed. Strong arms lifted her from the darkness, and Duclie melted into his muscular caress. He smelled like sin, a curious mix of male sweat, danger and an intoxicating cologne.

There was something about that smell—familiar and wonderful—that told her everything from here on in was going to be just fine. She tightened her arms around him, and he scooped her up as if she weighed nothing. The steam faded then, offering a momentarily clear view of the place. This time Dulcie tried to pay attention to what she saw.

Miles of coiled wires, rusted pipes and twisted fingers of metal and smoky crystal stretched before them. In the still-shrouded distance a white light cut through the gloom.

"That's the way out," he said. His voice, like his scent, penetrated her weakened defenses and left her dreamy-eyed and breathless. Beneath her splayed hand the muscles of his chest, hidden under a black T-shirt, rippled as he strode toward safety. "We have to hurry."

"Hurry." She nodded, but for some reason all the urgency she'd felt a few moments ago had faded. She'd have stayed in his arms forever, cradled against his rapidly beating heart, cherished in his embrace.

"Hurry…" Dulcie awoke with that word on her lips. Again. This was the third time this month. She might have been more concerned about the details of the recurring nightmare, except it always ended the same way, with her daring rescue.



To read more about MARRIED TO THE MIB, you can visit:


Smashwords

All Romance eBooks

Amazon.com

All Romance eBooks

I spent Sunday uploading my self-pubbed titles over at All Romance eBooks - so if you're looking for formats you might not get elsewhere, or you're a fan of ARe, go check out my pages:

Jennifer Colgan

Bernadette Gardner

You might just find a hidden gem if you go looking. :)