Kathryn Nolan's Blog, page 15

The glamorous life of a romance author

Last week I got to be a real-life Lucia Bell - although sadly I didn't have a shy, nerdy bookstore owner to flirt with. But I did have an absolute blast at my first-ever professional portrait session!

Like most writers, I spend the day hunched over my laptop in my bathrobe, surrounded by coffee cups, muttering to my dog about potential plot holes. 

It's not really a GLAM LOOK. Alas, I hired the lovely and talented Heather McBride Photography who made me look damn good, y'all!

After a frantic Saturday buying real clothes (not bathrobes or yoga pants) we met in Fishtown - a funky North Philly neighborhood with tons of murals, breweries and coffee shops (my three favorite things). It was a bright, sunny winter day and I was rocking new boots and cute lipstick!

With my Beck-Mason-inspired leather jacket on, I definitely look like a biker babe, coming to scoop up her cute boyfriend. Or Roxy Quinn, coming to scoop up Edward. Also 'CONQUER' is my new mood for 2020 for real.

This is a big year for me. As of January 1st, I am officially a full-time romance author! After three years of balancing a few jobs at once, I'm feeling extra lucky and very blessed to be able to pursue the career I've always wanted. Seeing these pictures was definitely emotional for me -  they really depict how I feel about romance, romance novels, books and this community of book-lovers.  And I can't wait to bring readers more delicious, steamy, slow-burn romance.

And pictures of my dog.

Four questions with Mae Wood!

The lovely and talented author Mae Wood stopped by for a visit! Which is very kind of her - especially since my draft of Freya's book is due to beta readers tonight. I'm currently wrapped up in blankets with wild, unwashed hair, surrounded by empty coffee cups. But I'll be back from the Land of Deadlines next week. And will (probably) have showered!

All of that to say - Mae is much more entertaining than me today. Read on, enjoy her answers to my silly questions, then go check out her latest release CRUSH. It just came out yesterday! I read it, loved it, called it "lush and delicious" in my review (it's true).

Four Questions with Mae Wood

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
Eat a frog for breakfast and nothing worse will happen the rest of the day. Mark Twain said it wittily, but this is how I say it to myself. It’s about doing the thing you’re dreading, even if it is truly awful, and then moving on to better things.
 
What job would you be terrible at?
Anything in a restaurant. I have a laser focus, so I don’t multitask well at all. I also hate being under time pressure set by others. I function best when I can go at my own pace to reach a goal. I’ll keep my foodie love to writing books about food and wine, not working in food and wine!
 
If you could turn any activity into an Olympic sport, what would you have a good chance at winning a medal for?
Does procrastination count? I’m a lifelong, last-minute do-er. As a “responsible adult,” this means that I keep a pretty strict calendar with lots of deadlines I’ve created for myself so that I’m accountable. Left to my own devices, I’m liable to fall headfirst into a book and let tomorrow worry about itself.
 
 What does your writing process look like? Are you a morning or evening writer? Do you have to have anything *with* you to write? (Like coffee, tea, wine…)
I’m a start and stop writer. I have two small children and a demanding day job with an erratic schedule. I can’t write daily, so I write in chunks. When I have free weekdays, I buckle down. My favorite place to write is my home office, if I’m writing at night.  During the day, you’ll likely find me at the library where I’m surrounded by books and the coffee is free.

Wait, what's this romance novel about wine?

The only thing headier than wine is lust.

Ryan Royer thought his business trip to California's Napa Valley would be easy. Land a new client. Taste wine. But when the client is a free-spirited bombshell who presses all of his buttons, Ryan's world goes sideways. 

Kenzie Balfour is entirely irresistible. She's the fourth generation to run the von Eck Estate Winery, and she's more intoxicating than any award-winning cabernet. 

Ryan has been working hard for a promotion at one of the world's top investment banks. If he can close this deal for her legendary winery, he gets the job. He can't let a gorgeous woman with a great laugh get in the way of his goals. Even if she leaves him love drunk. 

From a trouser-tightening almost-kiss at a restaurant to a seductive walk through a vineyard at sunset, can Ryan keep his crush on his client under control, or will a taste of Kenzie be his downfall? 

Escape to California's wine country in Crush.

Take me to Crush!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I hope you're currently surrounded by dogs, champagne and tacos, getting ready to welcome in the start of 2020! (*shoots off glitter fireworks*)

Many, many thanks to all of you for making 2019 one of the best yet. I released two books and one novella this year - BREATH OF FIRE, BEHIND THE VEIL (Codex #1) and WILD OPEN HEARTS.

Both novels broke the top 100 thanks to all of you -- and WOH broke the top 20! 

I got to hug readers and authors at my first book reading and my first book signing. Rob, Walter and I were very lucky to visit many campgrounds throughout Pennsylvania. We also visited the Poconos, Pittsburgh, New York City, the Catskills, Shenandoah National Park, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Whew! It was tons of fun to wanderlust around this beautiful country. Thank you for your support, for sending Walter treats, and for giving us restaurant recommendations when we needed it. You are all the best!

I hope tomorrow brings fresh beginnings and the start of something bright and new - no matter how small. Wishing you kindness, gratitude and peace in 2020!

xoxo
Kathryn, Rob and baby Walter

In which Beck and Luna buy too many presents for their dog (A Christmas story)

LUNA

The minute I stepped inside our kitchen, I knew something was off with Beck. Penelope, true to form, launched herself at me with pure canine glee. I couldn't take her to Wild Heart today - which meant we'd spent a ghastly 10 hours apart. But as I was being lavishly greeted by my dog, my boyfriend was shifting on his feet with pink cheeks and a nervous expression. 
"Mr. Mason," I said, smiling up at him from the ground. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," he said gruffly. "How was your day, sweetheart?"
I stood up, narrowed my eyes at my favorite face in the world. When I tugged on the ends of his beard, he cracked a smile. Pulled me in for a big kiss.
"That's better," I said. "Now tell me what happened. Did something go wrong at Lucky Dog?"
"No, nothing like that." He stepped back, looked down at Penelope. "You know, it's just that Christmas is coming."
I did know. We'd spent the weekend wrapping our palm trees with twinkle lights.
"What about it?" I cocked my head. 
"I haven't really had a Christmas with a family before," he said. 
Sometimes I loved Beck Mason so much my heart threatened to burst. I tipped up and brushed another kiss across his lips. This one deeper, with more meaning. "It's an honor to spend this first Christmas with you. My soulmate."
Beck swiped his thumb across my cheek. "It's an honor to be here with you."
I gave him another kiss. Then another and another, until he was finally laughing.
"Then why do you look so nervous right now?" I teased. 
He rubbed the back of his neck, blew out a breath. "It's just that...I went a bit overboard."
"In what way?"
With a sigh, he crooked his finger and led me down the hall to one of the guest bedrooms. "In my defense, I've never had the chance to do this for my own dog." Then he opened the door and revealed what was easily 40 different toys for Penelope. 
"Do you think it's too much for Christmas?" he asked somberly.
"Beck." My hand flew to my mouth. He was too good. "I think..." I started to giggle. "I think it's just enough. In fact, I wouldn't mind adding more."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah," I said. "I'll move my morning meeting. We can go shopping for Penelope tomorrow. Doesn't the world's best dog deserve all the toys? And don't all the dogs at Lucky Dog deserve Christmas gifts too?"
His eyes were warm. "I think they'd love that." 
I looked at the room, overflowing with toys. Even though I was happy to shop for Penelope with Beck tomorrow, we'd still have so much left over.
"So, the Wild Heart Foundation is working with a new nonprofit," I told Beck. "They help people care for their pets after fleeing a natural disaster. Make sure they have enough food and bedding and toys so that they feel safe. They help their owners feel safe too." I nodded my head at the abundance in that room. "I know most of these are for Pen...but I think she'd share with some friends who are in a tough spot."
Beck's crooked grin lit me up like a Christmas tree. "I went overboard, didn't I?" 
I laughed. "No, I'm just saying..."
Beck pulled me in for a hug, kissing the top of my head. "I guess our dog doesn't need to open all of these."
"Oh, you were going to have her open them?"
"Of course." He looked down at me with bemusement. "She can use her paws, can't she?"
"You know, I'd heard rumors from the beginning that Grumpy Beck Mason was really a big softie. And now you're letting our dog unwrap her own presents on Christmas."
He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. Kissed the tip of my nose. "Tomorrow, we'll buy as many toys as we can. For Lucky Dog. For the people that nonprofit is helping. And anyone else who needs a little help."
"I like that," I said softly. 
"I haven't gotten your gifts yet," he admitted.
But I shook my head. "Don't. No gifts necessary. On Christmas, the only gifts I ever want is to spend more time with you."
Beck reached down and scooped me up, and began walking to our bedroom. "Then we'll always have a happy Christmas."

Secret Passageway: A Codex Spoiler Library

I wanted to remind readers that if you've read Behind the Veil - and are awaiting book #2 in the series - there's a Codex spoiler room on Facebook called 'Secret Passageway'.

This is your safe space to discuss spoilers for Behind the Veil - as well as posit theories about Henry, Delilah and the Codex team in general. So don't peek in here if you haven't finished reading yet. You'll also get early looks at Freya's book coming in 2020!

And remember... the bookshelves are not quite what they seem...

Join Secret Passageway

Walter turns two!

Last weekend, Rob and I celebrated baby Walter turning TWO years old! (*shoots fireworks into the air*)

Full disclosure: like most rescues, Walter's true age is a mystery. He could be 10 months old or 6 years old. *But* the vet's best guess (based partly on his insane energy levels) was that he was one when we adopted him on December 8th, 2018. So we celebrated his 'gotcha' day, his second birthday and that we've managed to keep Walter alive for 365 days.

Our cute, dog-loving neighbors brought Walter a cake-shaped cookie that morning and then we drove off to our favorite dog park. It's nine acres of fenced-in wilderness, which means Walter can assume his true form: WILD FOREST DOG. We usually arrive there, unhook Walt, and then we don't really see him for an hour. We do see his blurred form leaping over logs and sprinting, but that's about it. Our baby is greyhound-fast, agile as a mountain goat and has a decent amount of 'hunter' in his mixed breed. So when he comes back to us, I'm usually like "I feel like you've killed an animal? But I'm just not gonna think too much about it". 

The moment we got home I let him open up his presents from Aunt Tammy (who was very kind to bring this bag with her at Indies Invade Philly).  We then drove to the Christmas tree lot near our house in South Philly - where Walter lifted his leg and peed directly next to the four-foot tree we'd been eying. Rob yelled "THIS IS THE ONE" and that's how we chose it. A tiny toddler fed Walter pretzels, which was the height of both Walter and the toddler's day. 

I turned on the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack (a classic), we put on our coziest pajamas, then Rob and I decorated our little tree with ornaments we've collected over our 10 (!!!) years together. We named the tree Acadia (in honor of our Maine trip this summer) and only got into one argument over how to hang the lights. 

....and as you can see, Walter was a sleepy, happy pup. Birthday's can really take it out of ya!

Margaritas in Shenandoah National Park

Rob and I were super lucky to escape to Shenandoah National Park for the weekend and got to enjoy some wintry landscapes and blue mountains. It was fairly empty, so we had the trails to ourselves, and our house was on the Shenandoah River. Everything was beautiful in that pretty winter way - and at night it rained, which led to a lot of cozy channel-surfing time (enjoying a bottle of wine called 'Love Story' that reader Rebecca gave to us!).

Here's the three of us at the National Park sign. Fun fact: we've been to a lot of national parks but have zero pictures in front of the signs, usually because it's too crowded and we're anxious to get a-hikin'. But I pulled over to take a pic on the spur of the moment and the sweetest family snapped it for us (a family that happened to be from South Philly just like us!)

There are two things that feel like absolute luxuries to me while on vacation. One is channel-surfing (why is it so fun??) and the other is GIANT MARGARITAS after a long-ass hike. Rob, Walter and I spent most of the day on Saturday driving through Shenandoah, hopping out to hike parts of the Appalachian Trail and enjoying those mountain views. It did start raining on us, so by the time we left we were hiked-out, shivering and starving (we'd planned this entire trip on a whim and completely forgot to pack *any food* on Saturday and the entire park had *no food*).

Lo and behold...we rock up in Front Royal to the bright lights of a Mexican restaurant with mango margaritas and carnitas tacos. I've never been so happy in my entire life.

Random (fun!) book news!

What I'm Working On
My first 2020 release will be the second book in the Codex series. Quirky, book-loving Freya must go undercover with Sam, a serious FBI agent. There’s only one tiny issue: they’ve hated each other for years. It's action-packed, funnnnn, enemies-to-lovers, slow-burn, sexy romantic suspense.

BEHIND THE VEIL is the first Codex book(and if you haven't read it yet,click here! It's also free in KU!). Codex is a private-detective firm that specializes in recovering stolen rare books. BEHIND THE VEIL follows librarian Henry and ex-cop Delilah as they go undercover as a fake married couple to find a centuries-old manuscript hidden within Philadelphia's glamorous high-society. Plus there's closet sex, secret passageways, guns, garter-belts, mysterious code words, and danger.

In Codex 2, our favorite book-loving private-detectives go deeper into the shady world of antiquities-theft...and discover even greater levels of mystery and danger. And Freya and Sam have so much enemies-to-lovers-chemistry my fingers are on fire!

Queen Cleopatra and the Baseball God
I sold a 20,000-word novella called Queen Cleopatra and the Baseball God to a romance magazine called Heart's Kiss Magazine. You can grab the latest issue, with my story in it, on Kindle for $3.99! (click here) And it also includes 60k+ words of short, romantic fiction by other romance authors for you to enjoy. Queen Cleopatra and the Baseball God is a super-short, super-dirty, super-cute novella about a cocky baseball player named Wyatt Nash. He's used to flustering women -- except the one woman who's never flustered by him: Cleo Hendrix. Cleo is the confident, magenta-haired bartender he's always had a crush on. Wyatt is the mega-hot baseball player Cleo desperately tries not to have a crush on. Also - there's dirty sex, y'all. Oh and a funky beach town!

If You Need to Spice Up Your Holidays
Listen. I know the holidays can bring their own brand of chaos and stress. If you need a smokin' hot escape, may I recommend SEXY SHORTS? I wrote 14 erotic short-stories that are as fun (and different!) as they are really, really dirty. Plus it's only $2.99 and free in KU (click here). Enjoy (winkkkkkk)

p.s. WILD OPEN HEARTS love
Guys! Six weeks after release, and Luna and Beck have been hanging out in the top 400 (currently #399!) with 220 reviews. THANK YOU!

Stories from my very first book signing at Indies Invade Philly!

I attended my first book signing two weeks ago - Indies Invade Philly. It was one of the most fulfilling weekends of my life, and I struggled a bit before I was finally able to put what I was feeling into words. I spilled my messy feels in my Facebook group and even fourteen days later it's all true! This is what I wrote:

"That signing room was pure happiness - readers were jumping into each other's arms. Reconnecting for the first time in years. Readers were laughing and crying; readers had to bring *suitcases* because they had purchased so many of our books. They made art, and fan art, and wore tee-shirts and presented us with *gifts*. It was just 600 book lovers -- and really, when you're a book lover, don't you want to just be around other people who love to escape into an adventure through stories? The power of your support was so uplifting I kept almost bursting into tears every couple hours.

Also - my adorable parents came, which was emotional enough for me, but then readers mobbed them in the cutest way!! I can't tell you what that meant to me. My parents supported my writing from the very beginning; I used to write a lot of poetry and "books" when I was in elementary school, and my parents would help me type them into a Word document and use clip-art to design it -- that was 25 years ago, and they've been my #1 fans ever since. I don't think they knew what to expect on Saturday, and they were so appreciative of *all* of you and your kind words.

I got to hang with Indies Invade authors on Thursday and Friday night (and spoiler alert THEY ARE ALL MAGICAL). Lucy, Claire, Pippa and I drank champagne in our pajamas and celebrated Bluewater and were overwhelmed with the response for a project we just loved so much. All of these author-women are warrior-goddesses and I am blessed to know them. What a privilege it is to be part of this community - and what a privilege it is to know all of you."

That feeling of gratitude exists for each and every one of you - thank you for reading and for coming along on this journey with me. I can't wait to see what stories come next...

xoxo
Kathryn

P.S. Below are just a few of the pictures taken at Indies Invade Philly!

Top 5 favorite lines from CRAZY FOR LOVING YOU

AMAZING NEWS! The entire Bluewater Billionaires series is complete! Crazy for Loving you is live on Amazon and free in Kindle Unlimited! (Click here to buy)

A hard-partying, wacky heiress and a serious, honorable (growly) Marine co-inherit a baby together - honestly, what’s not to love about this book? Below are my favorite lines/snippets/scenes…enjoy!

TOP 5 FAVORITE LINES AND SCENES (*not a comprehensive list - too many!)

#1. The woman claps. “Oh, a stripper from Gramalicious? I didn’t know she had it in her.”

“Daisy?” I ask.

She grins and circles me, hips swaying, shoulders rolling to the music. It’s hard to watch just her lips when she’s a whirling blur of sensuality and outrageousness, so I don’t catch everything she says over the music, but she’s having a party whether the rest of us join in or not.

Her eyes sparkle as she twirls near me in that tight dress, her breasts jiggling just enough to be noticeable. “You gonna dance, or you just gonna stand there?”

My heart drums.

My fingers twitch.

Pure lust stirs low in my gut.

I don’t know exactly why I’m here—being pranked into going to a party by my brother is feeling like a less and less likely option—but I haven’t worked my ass off my entire life to not let loose and have a good time when the situation presents itself.

Especially tonight.

Don’t know that I have moves—the last time I tried to impress a girl, I did it by throwing down in a chin-up contest on a rope, and yes, I won—but I close my eyes and let the music hit my veins.

Dancing isn’t my thing.

Usually.

Tonight?

Tonight we’re in straight Fuck It-ville.

#2. All I have will be a memory of a strip tease from the hot-as-fuck stranger who probably wouldn’t be here if Gramalicious hadn’t checked him out, and who probably won’t be here long, because who stays to take care of a stranger’s baby?

He’s feeding the baby right now. And he changed a diaper after Pierson, The Dame’s butler, produced a bag of supplies, but staying? For the next eighteen years?

No way.

People don’t do that.

But not only is he holding and feeding the baby—the baby, , he’s also engaged in the stare war to end all stare wars with my grandmother.

Usually challenging her only makes her paranormal undead powers stronger, but it seems that being challenged might also be strengthening him.

Whoa.

Just whoa.

I said sexy as fuck, right?

#3. “Lady, I don’t know what kind of selfish jackass you take me for, but you can shut your yap-hole right the hell now. That baby needs a family. His mother wanted it to be me. And if she’s any indication of what money can do for a person, I’ll be the best damn thing to ever happen to him. You want your lawyers to draw up papers having Party McDiamonds here surrender her rights to me, I’m good with that too. We clear?”

I need a fresh pair of panties. And also to realize I should probably be offended by Party McDiamonds, but I’m secretly very impressed with the nickname.

It’s a new one.

#4. I’m older. I’m wiser. And I’m not falling for a hard-partying heiress just because she inherited an orphan who’s going to need all the love he can get.

Yep. That’s my story. And if I repeat it enough, I might actually convince myself it’s true.

#5. She parts her lips and her tongue dives into my mouth and holy sweet fuck, is there anything she doesn’t throw herself into full-throttle?