Trista Ann Michaels's Blog, page 16

Author beware...Ellora's Cave

This isn't a bash, this is a warning. In my publishing career, I've had two publishers close...Venus Press and Triskelion Publishing. Both also still owe me royalties that I'm sure I'll never see.

Ellora's Cave also owes me royalties. I've seen numerous other authors complain about not receiving checks and never being able to get anyone at EC to answer emails. When you do get an answer about late royalties they talk about how their new system has put them behind. These replies have been going on for months. If it really takes that long to put in a new system, then they have some serious problems.

I received one check dated Dec 25th and another dated Feb 25th. Nothing for January. When I asked them about it, the response was...Those are the only two checks we sent out. HUH??? So is the Feb check the one I was supposed to get for January or is it the one for February? No response. A second email was sent asking them to please answer my question. Which month was the February check for? No response.

After watching two other publishers implode, I see the signs. Unanswered emails, late checks, 6 months to install a new system? I don't think so. It's a stall tactic and they're not the first publisher to use it.

Please, authors, be very wary of EC. The writing is on the wall. There's something going on at the publisher that the authors are not privy to and it's doubtful it's expansion.

Hot excerpt from Lost Without Them...

“Sam!” Keegan screamed as she sat up in bed.
Sweat covered her skin. Every inch of her body trembled in fear and sadness. Tears streamed down her face, and she raised her hand to wipe them away. More followed as sob after sob racked her body. She kept seeing it. Over and over in her mind, she saw Sam mauled by that massive, black beast.
Why? Why did she keep seeing this? Why did it scare her so much?
Her door burst open, and both Sam and Cody rushed in. She looked up at them in surprise. At least this time, she was covered.
As she stared at Sam, she had an overwhelming sense of relief that he was okay. She jumped from the bed and threw herself into Sam’s arms. Sobs made her shake from head to toe as she buried her face in his neck and held on tight.
Sam tensed in shock, then slowly wrapped his arms around her back. Cody moved in behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders, softly massaging them.
“Keegan, what happened?” Sam asked.
“I saw them kill you,” she sobbed.
“Saw who kill me?”
She shuddered. “Those wolves.”
“I’m fine,” he whispered and tightened his arms around her. “Keegan, listen to me.”
He tried to pull away, but she wouldn’t loosen her hold. She knew it was stupid and unreasonable. She knew she shouldn’t care this much, but she did. She knew it shouldn’t be real, but something deep down told her it was. Something deep down gave her the feeling that something very bad was going to happen, and it would be all her fault.
“It was so real,” she whispered.
“It was just a dream, Keegan,” Cody said as he placed a kiss on the back of her head.
“No,” Keegan argued. “It was more than a dream.”
Sam grabbed her arms and began to pull them from his neck. “Keegan…baby, look at me.”
She turned tear-filled eyes to his, and her lower lip began to quiver.
“You’re somehow mixing me up with what happened to you. That’s all this is.”
She shook her head. “No. I’m there. I see it happen, and I can’t stop it. It tears you apart.”
“Keegan,” Sam said as he took her hands and put them on his chest. “I’m right here, see? I’m in one piece.”
Keegan noticed his bare chest for the first time. His skin was smooth and warm, his muscles hard and firm. He was tan from working shirtless in the sun. A scar ran across his right pec, and Keegan traced it.
“See?” Sam asked in a strained voice.
Her gaze moved to his, and she could see the desire darkening his brown eyes. He wanted her just as much as she wanted him right now. Should she do what her body wanted? Would it be wrong to take them both to her bed when she didn’t know what tomorrow would bring?
She just didn’t want to be alone. Not tonight. Maybe not ever.
“Please stay with me,” she whispered.
Sam frowned. “Keegan.” He swallowed before continuing. “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea.”
“I don’t want to be alone.”
“You just had a nightmare, baby. That’s all.”
Cody rubbed his palms up and down her arms. Sam still continued to hold her left hand against his chest. His fingers were warm as they closed around hers. Every swipe of Cody’s touch sent a warm sensation of awareness to her core.
She was determined to get them to stay, even if she had to seduce them. To hell with what she’d said this afternoon. She wanted them. Why fight it? Why deny it? She needed this, and she would have it, come hell or high water.
Standing on her tiptoes, she slanted her mouth over Sam’s. He tensed at first, but she didn’t give up. She nipped at his lower lip, encouraging him to open his mouth for her. When he did, she pushed her tongue inside, hoping to entice him to play. It didn’t take long.
Sam growled deep in his chest and met her passion with a hunger of his own—a hunger that nearly sent her to her knees. Wow, he could kiss. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she held tight and gave as good as she got.
Behind her, she sensed Cody pull away. Letting go of Sam with one arm, she reached blindly behind her and grasped Cody’s wrist. She took his hand and put it over her breast.
Cody didn’t hesitate. He moved quickly in behind her and wrapped his other arm around her as well. Both hands fondled her breasts, and she moaned into Sam’s kiss as lust swam through her veins, giving her an incredible rush.
“Keegan, are you sure about this?” Cody asked as he leaned in to kiss her neck.
She broke the kiss with Sam long enough to answer. “Yes.”
She’d never been surer about anything. After the last two days of coming close and not finding release, if she didn’t get one of them inside her soon, she’d scream.
Sam’s hands slid lower and cupped her ass, giving it a hard squeeze as he pulled her closer. She could feel the hard ridge of his cock as it pressed into her stomach. She wiggled against it, hoping to let him know just how badly she needed him, wanted him.
“Cody,” Sam growled breathlessly against Keegan’s mouth. “We need condoms.”
“Hurry,” Keegan pleaded as she pushed her hand into Sam’s pajama pants and wrapped her fingers around his cock.
He was huge—so big, in fact, her middle finger wouldn’t touch her thumb as she tightened her fingers around him.
Sam groaned and grabbed her hand, removing it as Cody quickly left the room for condoms. “I swear to God, woman, if you don’t slow down, I’ll fuck you without a damn condom. I won’t be able to wait for one.”

Review...Remember Me

Title:  Remember Me
Author:  Trista Ann Michaels
Publisher:  Loose Id
Buy Link: Buy Remember Me Here!
Rating:   You Need To Read
Reviewed By:  Donna
Blurb:
Skylar can’t remember anything past five years ago, but lately she’s been plagued with sexy dreams of a man with sapphire eyes and hands that make her squirm in pleasure. When she comes face to face with a man with those same eyes, snippets of her past begin to emerge and with them, the desire to experience in real life what she experiences only in dreams.
The empath Devlin is shocked to see the love he’d thought was dead, standing right in front of him. Unfortunately, she belongs to another man, the Baron Karn. She’s his sex slave. Devlin isn’t about to let that stand in his way of getting Skylar back. In a bold move, he steals her from her current master. Then, using seduction, compassion, and charm, Devlin breaks down Skylar’s defenses and helps her remember the immense passion they once shared.
Now Baron Karn is determined to have her back…or see her dead.
Publisher’s Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: Anal play/intercourse, violence.
Review:
Skylar was lost to him years ago, and Devlin has never been the same since. As an empath, he can pick up on other people’s emotions, but not as clearly as those he is closest to. So why, after five years, has he suddenly started to feel Skylar’s despair? Is it a ghost sensation or something much worse?
Remember Me is engrossing. The characters are wonderful, the setting is inventive, the sex scenes are deliciously arousing, and the ending is a happy ever after. The story is well written with only a few minor typos, and it is really easy to get sucked in and never want to leave. I have been reading the books in this series out of order (not on purpose), but it still is an endearing series. I can’t wait to open the next installment.

Works in progress...

I always worry that the muse will stop. That suddenly, the ideas will stop flowing. So far, I've been lucky. A song on the radio, a movie, even Ancient Aliens have stirred the muse. Anybody else watch that show?

Anyway, works in progress are... Well, in progress..lol.

Right now, I'm working on Theirs. Another book in the Crime and Punishment series. A ménage a trios that takes me back to my roots of Their One and Only.

Chris and Sharna's story is in the works, as well as Jonah's story from the Entwined Fates series.

And I had a really wild idea watching Ancient Aliens. It involves alien twin clones from the future, a woman determined to finish her father's work, which involve the mystical 13 crystal skulls, and a universal paradox that the twins need to stop before the skulls destroys the world. Now that one will take a little research in science.

Time to get the Star Trek DVD's out for inspiration...:)

Master Delacroix...Excerpt

I just signed the contract for my next book in the Crime and Punishment series, Master Delacroix. So to celebrate and to warm us up a bit from all this cold weather, I'm posting a short excerpt below. This is unedited, so ignore all the typos..:)


Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed him move to the side just before a harsh slap landed across her backside - something hard and thin. She yelped and shifted as best she could, but couldn’t get away from the sting and the heat now covering her ass. The leather rubbed against her nipples, adding to the wicked sensations now coursing through her.
Another slap and the heat working its way through her body singed her insides. She glanced up and noticed Daniel watching her with that same intense stare Nathan had. Lust shone in his eyes, and she shivered with delicious hunger. Her deceased husband never looked at her like that.
Nathan slapped her again and this time she moaned as every part of her wanted to undulate and purr like a cat in heat. God, this was nuts. Twice more his paddle landed against her ass, forcing her forward against the table. Damn, it stung but at the same time made her so hot. The pain morphed into a pleasurable need that had her almost panting.
Nathan returned his hand to her pussy, softly stroking her through the cream that coated her mound. She moaned and bit her lip, fighting the orgasm she could feel just below the surface. All it would take is one soft brush of his finger across her clit, and she would explode.
She tried to move against his hand, desperate for more, for anything that might end this agonizing need that now gripped her. His hand froze and she groaned in frustration.
“Be still, sub,” he commanded.
The sexy tone of his voice was almost enough to send her screaming over the edge.
“You’ll come when I allow it and not before. Am I clear?”
She scowled. “How the hell am I supposed to stop that?”
Nathan slapped her hard across the ass. She cried out in both shock and pain, but that pain soon blended with her lust, and she mewled like a kitten. Was that punishment for her smart mouth? Her question? Not calling him Master?
“I don’t mind a little sass in my sub. As a matter of fact, I enjoy it, but when I ask you a question, I expect it to be answered,” Nathan explained. “Am I clear?”
“Yes, Master,” she whispered, shocked at just how much this turned her on.
“Good, girl. Now. Are you ready for something a little more?” Nathan asked.
“Yes, Master,” she panted. “Please.”
Connelly was shocked at the needy sound of her voice. She’d never begged. Never been turned on enough to beg. She had a feeling tonight, she’d beg a lot.

Cold....

Yep, it's cold. We had one day that was nice, only to dip again. I can't remember when it was this cold for so long here.    
 Hopefully, it will warm up soon. In the meantime, I'll stay in, bundled up, and get some more work done on my latest whip.

Stay warm everyone.

Brrrr....

It's so cold! I can't believe we're in the middle of our second artic blast. This is insane. I need to go somewhere warm, but can't get away, so I'm at my desk staring at pics of somewhere warm. How sad is that?

 How about a sunny day on the lake?
 Or the Sheridan in San Diego?

Or my favorite vacation destination, the happiest place on earth? :)

At this moment, I think I would take any of them..:)

Excited!!

I'm so excited. With an author and reader track running simultaneously, we've got an amazing, jam packed weekend planned with some fabulous workshops and parties by Brenda Novak, Shannon K. Butcher, Bob Mayer, Hildie McQueen, Victoria Vane, Destiny Blaine, Anna Destefano, Roz Lee, and so many others.

Registration is still open, but not for long!

check out www.romfest.com for more information.

Hope to see you there!

5 angels for Fantasy Bar!

Fantasy BarKira was a woman who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She was hit in the head, tied up and beaten. She escaped with her life, and ran to her friend Mirage, and the haven of the Fantasy Bar. While there she was able to heal and try to come to grips with the fact that she had escaped by killing a very powerful man with very nasty secrets. She helps out at the bar while trying to figure out how to deal with the rest of her life and in walks trouble…

Jerrod could not believe the mess made by his best friend, Micas. The blood all over the room was not all his and this led Jerrod to believe that things had gone horribly wrong. He could not understand how he had overlooked the cruel side of his friend that would cause him to inflict so much pain on a woman. While investigating, Jerrod finds himself in the aptly named Fantasy Bar with eyes for no one but the striking bartender.

I really loved this book. The storyline was heart-wrenching and emotionally hard to read. The story of Kira’s attack was well-written and not overdone. Kira was a character that you could get close to in this short book. I was impressed with the way that Ms. Michaels grabbed me and drew me in. Jerrod was a very sexual man and honorable; anyone’s dream man! This was a great escape on a day I really need an escape. Thank you for that.

Dirty cold...

Is it just me or do those things look a bit like spurting penises? 
 It's been so cold, I had to find the humor somewhere..:)