Katie Reus's Blog, page 39

Congrats to Kaylea Cross!

I'm still deep in my writing cave but wanted to quickly pop out for some awesome news! My fabulous critique partner, Kaylea Cross, finaled in the OKRWA's National Readers' Choice Awards in the romantic suspense category with her book, No Turning Back.

It's a very fast-paced, emotional romance with a bit of grit and edginess, at least in my opinion. In fact the whole series that book is linked with is pretty gritty. So, mega congrats to my girl for her awesome final!! Can't wait until they announce the winners :)

If you're interested, this is what No Turning Back is about:

CIA communications expert Samarra Wallace is on the run from a faceless enemy when she learns terrorists have kidnapped and threatened to execute her cousin. She will do whatever it takes to free her, including breaking cover to contact the former teammate she is dangerously attracted to. Now all she has to do is convince him she's not working for the bad guys.


Ex-Army Ranger Ben Sinclair isn't sure he can trust Sam, but he can't turn her away. Lives are at stake and she may be the only way to capture the terrorist mastermind his team is hunting. Despite his reservations, he finds himself falling for her. But when Sam's innocence is questioned again during a botched operation in the remote mountains of Afghanistan, the team pays a terrible price for trusting her. In the wake of that staggering betrayal Ben must decide if she's the innocent woman he fell in love with, or if she's a traitor who'd set them up to die.

I'll be Scarce

Until about Mid May I'm going to be deep in my writing cave. I'm busy working on edits for NAL/Signet, and I just received copy edits from Carina....And I know I'm going to be receiving more from Carina (another book) and two from Ellora's Cave soon too so I've got to cut back on the blogging. I'll still be on twitter so I hope to see ya'll there!

I do have an update on my bumble bees though. They were actually carpenter bees, something I discovered when I found the holes they'd been burrowing in the underbelly of our deck! They are no longer a problem :)

New Look!

Like the new header on the blog? It's courtesy of Jaxadora Design (she also did my cover for Killer Secrets) and I love it! I like the darker tones and think it perfectly conveys the suspense and paranormal aspects of my writing. I've also implemented the header into my website and tweaked my template so it all flows together. Since I'm officially working on edits for the first book in my trilogy (more news soon on the series title, etc. I promise!) I figured it was time to update my look to reflect all of my writing. What do you think?

And now I'm off to work on edits where I will be for probably the next few weeks. I'm warning ya'll in advance, I will be scarce here on the blog for a while because right after those edits, I have to work on more edits. Fun stuff! ;)

Distractions!

Today I'm at the Fierce Romance blog talking about distractions. Stop by and say hi if you get a chance. You might even win a copy of Dangerous Secrets :)

Bumble Bee Conspiracy

[image error] Lately it's been a lot warmer where I live so in the afternoons when I need a break from writing I'll try to take a quick 10-20 minute break on my back deck and get some sun. Unfortunately every time I go out there, these two stupid bumble bees show up without fail!

I try to be sneaky too. I always check and make sure they're gone and a couple times I've jumped in the shower beforehand to rinse off any traces of sweet-smelling lotion. It doesn't seem to matter what I do. They still show up after about five minutes of me laying there. Sometimes I can ignore them but the constant buzzing freaks me out and I swear they're ganging up on me, trying to drive me from my deck. I told my husband about my theory that they're conspiring against me, which of course he dismissed until this weekend. On Saturday morning we were watching the news and I guess I dozed on the loveseat in our living room. He said while I was sleeping two bees were buzzing around the window for about ten minutes, watching me! It's those little monsters, keeping tabs on me :(

Other than two annoying bees, the weekend was pretty tame. I got a cute pair of earrings from the Farmer's Market and worked on a proposal. What did everyone else do this weekend?

I'm alive!

Sorry I've been so quiet the past week. I promise I have a good reason(s)! After talking to my new editor with NAL about next years first release (still so excited!!), I officially received my edits for book #1 in the trilogy and while they're not scary, they're intense. My world building needs to be improved upon so I've been busy with that, but I've also been working on something else. Some of you know because I mentioned it on another forum, but like so many others I also decided to dip my toes in the world of 'Indie publishing' or 'self publishing' (whatever you want to call it), something I never thought I'd do. But when I see authors I respect like Shiloh Walker, Kristen Painter, and Kate Pearce who are e-published and NY published trying it out, it makes me pay attention. I like the idea of being diversified and having more control over content and more importantly, pricing. Note: I just saw this...according to this very recent article, it looks like Connie Brockway is also trying out some non-traditional means for her next two full length historicals. Interesting article you might want to check out :)

So why have I been so quiet other than being submerged in grueling edits? Publishing a story through the major online distributors was more time consuming than I thought because of specific formatting for each house. Since my novella, Killer Secrets, is now available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble, I figured it was okay to announce my new venture. It's also available through Smashwords which will eventually distribute it to Sony, Diesel, Kobo, and Apple but I'm still waiting for my premium status approval from SW. I'll also be publishing it through ARe, but until then Killer Secrets is officially available!

If you do happen to check it out, you'll be pleasantly surprised to find out that you get a preview of the first chapter from Cynthia Eden's new paranormal novella, BOUND BY BLOOD. I don't believe it's officially out from Amazon, B&N, etc. yet but it should be up in the next week or so. We did an excerpt exchange for our new releases and let me tell you, her story promises to be super hot!

Without any further rambling from me.... Killer Secrets, a novella length romantic suspense...

Journalist Eve Newman stumbles across the murder of a prominent member of her west Texas town and finds herself the target of a shadowy killer. When the body goes missing and the police don't believe she saw it happen, she turns to the only man in town she can trust; her deceased brother's best friend.

Former Marine, Macklin Quinn, has been half in love with Eve since they were kids, but he's always considered her off-limits. When she turns to him for help he can't send her away. Within twenty-four hours it's clear she's in trouble and someone wants her dead. Mac will do everything in his power to keep the feisty journalist alive and help her bring down the killer. And if they can stay alive long enough, he'll do whatever it takes to convince her they're meant to be together.

COVER ART: Jaxadora Design

Happy St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is pure awesome for so many reasons! Seven years ago (pre-marriage, pre-kids, and pre-mortgage) my sister and I backpacked through Ireland for a month and were there for this wonderful holiday so I thought I'd reminisce and share some pictures from our trip.

This first one is in the Aran Islands. These three islands are off the West coast of Ireland. Even though it's just a ferry ride away from the mainland, it has a very isolated feel (and it's very beautiful). I thought it was pretty cool that Irish is the main language here as opposed to English being predominant.


This second one is a statue in Sligo. I'm not ashamed to admit that my sister and I did a bit of drinking in Sligo so our brief stay there was a bit of a blur. The hostel we stayed in was also a little suspect with a gross public shower (I've got pictures of us shaving our legs in the sink b/c we were too terrified to brave the public showers...but I won't share those beauties).







This is on the grounds of the Blarney Castle (where the Blarney stone aka the Stone of Eloquence is located) very close to Cork. Some legends say the Blarney Stone was the Lia Fail which served as the coronation stone for the High Kings of Ireland. I don't care where the stone came from, I didn't kiss it. I trekked up the stairs and laid down, dipped my head backward and acted like I did, but my lips did not touch that thing.



This picture is in Belfast, the second largest city in Ireland, and seems pretty self-explanatory. It's a picture of one of the 'peace lines' separating neighborhoods. I'm not going to get started on the irony of the title 'peace line' because I blog all day.






And last but not least, this is a picture of my first Guinness in Belfast. Holy Moses I look so young! Some days it's hard to believe seven years have passed since this trip. I have a ton more photos but these are some of my faves.

Hope everyone has a fun, safe St. Patrick's Day! There's a parade downtown tonight but I won't be making it. Luckily they're having another one this Saturday and I'm sure it will be just as much fun.

Monday Funday

My husband has been working the night shift and for those of you who've dealt with this for long stretches of time (ahem, Wynter Daniels), I totally commend you. My schedule is totally out of whack, but I thought it would mean less cooking for me. Wrong. I could easily live on eggs, fruits and veggies, but my hubby is a meat and potatoes kind of guy. It doesn't matter if it's 6:30 in the morning, when he gets off a twelve hour shift he's craving a real meal. So I'm still cooking at night and just storing the meals in the fridge. There's a point to this, I swear. I made a simple chicken pot pie last night and he swears it's the best he's ever had. Maybe that's sleep deprivation talking, I don't know. Lately I've been playing around with new recipes since chicken alfredo and spaghetti gets boring after a while. In the next couple weeks I hope to share any new recipes I come up with (including pictures) so by putting it on my blog, I hope to force myself to follow through. We'll see if that happens!

Over the weekend I read Jennifer Ashley's Primal Bonds. After reading Pride Mates, I've been dying to read the next story and I wasn't disappointed. There seemed to be more 'magic' and supernatural stuff in this one than the first (though I could be wrong, it's been a while since I read the first) and I liked that more of the shifter and Fae world was explained. Plus, the chemistry between Sean and Andrea is hot and adorable at the same time. I loved all their flirting. Very well done and I can't wait for the next book in this series (Shifters Unbound). If you like shifter stories, this is one I definitely recommend.

And in personal news, I had an appointment with my doc last week and the baby has a strong heartbeat and I'm textbook normal with my 6 pound weight gain. At 23 1/2 weeks I'm over the halfway mark and so looking forward to meeting my baby boy in a few months!

What did everyone else do this weekend? Read any good books? Discover a new author?

Now I'm off to hopefully knock out 2,000 words today! Have a great Monday everyone.

Updates!

[image error] After a month of awesome guest bloggers, my blog is back to normal! Currently I'm working on a project and since I want to finish the first draft by this weekend (then fun edits next week) I'll probably be quiet the next week or so.

But, I wanted to pop in and give some quick updates! I finished line edits for Deadly Obsession (releasing from Carina this August). The edits were more intense than I expected but the book totally shines now! Charlotte Herscher, my wonderful editor, is to thank for that!

Since there was a blog party here last month I didn't get to announce it, but I sold a shorter romantic suspense to Carina. From what I know so far, it won't be releasing until next year so when I have more details, I'll post them. I also sold two short novellas to Ellora's Cave (writing as Savannah Stuart). One is a continuing story in my Miami Scorcher series and the other is a light futuristic story that's super hot.

In totally non-writing related news, I went to my first Mardi Gras parade this past weekend and it was so much fun. Apparently Mardi Gras and moon pies go together like PB&J! Not to mention the crazy amount of beads and other swag they throw out. My MIL and aunt had no problem rubbing my belly and informing people I'm pregnant so I'd get more stuff... And it totally worked! I came home with a bag full of goodness! I've been to plenty of parades before but Mardi Gras in the South is totally different than anything I've been to before. People simply have no shame. No joke, I saw a woman pee in her pants and while I felt bad for her, she didn't seem to care or notice. That was the most disturbing part of all.

So what has everyone else been up to?

Magical Musings

Today I'm a guest blogger at Magical Musings! I'm talking about things that are bad but so good. If you didn't get a chance to win a copy of one of my books during my blog tour last month, then you still have another one. And there's cake! Of course it's not real but you can drool over a picture of yummy chocolate goodness. Feel free to stop by and say hi!