Ava March's Blog, page 10

Coming Soon x 2, and One Cool Cat

Convincing Leopold has made its way to Loose Id's Coming Soon page. And yes, I've been by to visit the guys a time or two. I just can't resist. No cover though, and it will likely be another month before I get it. Until then, I'm content with them just being on the coming soon page.
Speaking of covers, I designed one over the weekend for Deliberately Bound, the next freebie short story featuring Oliver and Vincent. I was in a photoshop mood and indulged myself. So since the cover's done, that means I need to finish the story. A while back (like in December) I mentioned that I'd probably post it in April. It's now the 26th. I'm currently working on it and hoping to have it done by the end April, but it might end up being early next week. I'll post on the blog as soon as it's up on my website.
In other news, I found Chococat hanging out on the couch in kidlet's playroom. I really dig the outfit kidlet put on him - pink rhinestone pleather collar and tight, striped-pink shorts.

Convincing Leopold - Excerpt

First up, His Client is now available on Amazon for Kindle. Ok, so it's been available for a bit but I just remembered to mention it on the blog. We'll just pretend I didn't forget.
Second, Shawn Lane is holding a contest on her blog. Comment on this post before April 25th to enter to win. She'll pick 5 random winners for a pick from her backlist or one of her upcoming releases.
And last but not least, I have an excerpt from Convincing Leopold up on my website. Click HERE to check it out. I also tweaked the blurb a bit before I turned it into Loose Id. So here's the updated version:
Mr. Leopold Thornton finally has the man he's loved for a decade, yet he can't believe his good fortune. A reformed rake and a conservative solicitor? Can it possibly last? To add to Leopold's worries, Arthur's spending more time at the office…with a handsome new secretary. Desperate not to lose Arthur, Leopold does the only thing he can think of – use pleasure to keep him.
Mr. Arthur Barrington truly wants their relationship to work. Sinfully beautiful and devoted to him, Leopold's the opposite of Arthur's staid ex-lover. And Leopold's given up his old vices, putting those concerns to rest. Yet lately, all Leopold wants is sex – in the study, in the carriage, and at Arthur's office, no less. The sex is amazing, but juggling demanding clients and a demanding lover leaves Arthur exhausted and worried perhaps he and Leopold aren't suited after all.
It takes one disastrous night for Arthur to realize how much Leopold means to him. But convincing Leopold he loves him, all of him and not just his body, proves difficult. For Leopold's disappeared and Arthur hasn't a clue where to find him.

Stolen Cookies

So, what's new? I received the 2nd round of edits on Convincing Leopold and did them over the weekend. I was also interviewed by Deviant Divas Erotic Book Reviews. Here's the link if you want to check it out. Other than that, I've been renaming guys. It's the book idea I'm planning to work on next, and when I went back to my outline I realized I had given one guy's last name to another dude and the other hero needed a new last name as well. So I spent time going through my spreadsheet of character names (...yes, I keep a spreadsheet) and searching for common Irish and English last names online.
Here's where I admit I have sticky fingers when it comes to cookies. When I see a particularly yummy one, I snap it up. As I was browsing through my cookie file to pick one for today's post, I decided to share some of my favorite borrowed cookies.
'Tackle from Shawn' from Shawn Lane Writes Romance. Shawn's a football fan, and if the players did this on the field on football Sundays, I'd be going to every game.
'Shower from Eyre' from A Reader's Journey. Love the green and blue lighting...oh, and the cookies are mighty nice, too.
'Cross from Lily' from I Love Books. I just love the lines of his body and the look on his face. I really need to work him into a book someday.
'Shaving cream from Janna' from Rarely Dusty Books. She shares some awesome cookies on her Happy Gay Friday posts, and this one's a fav because I can't help wondering what happened before and after this pic ;)
And 'Almost kiss from Wren' from Nonsense and Little Things. I think it's pretty obvious why this one's a fav.

News and a Squee

I love a naughty man in a suit ;)

First up, His Client is now available on All Romance eBooks. It's not up on Amazon yet, but I'll let you know as soon as it's available for Kindle.
My big news for the day is actually related to my M/F books. Seven Nights to Forever has won Most Innovative Historical Romance in RT Book Reviews 2010 Reviewers' Choice Best Book Awards! *big squee* I've been holding that news in for over a month, as RT asked me to wait until the April magazine came out before I went squee crazy. I got the April edition in the mail today, so now I can squee till my heart's content.
As for other Ava news...not much. I'm still in mull mode on how I should do the next chapter in Back to You, so that work in progress is sitting for the time being. I've been debating what I want to write next and bouncing around like a darn ping-pong ball. Freedom is a great thing, but I'm finding that even though looming deadlines bite, having a deadline keeps me focused. Without one, I get rather bouncy. I finally decided late-late last night to stop the bouncing and make a damn decision. I think I've decided on a book and I even have the first 2 pages written, along with a complete outline by chapter, so that's good. Fingers crossed the fickle muse stays on that book long enough for me to write it.
And lastly, Shawn Lane is holding a contest on her blog. Pop on by if you want to enter to win a book of your choice from her backlist or one of her soon-to-be released titles.
Oh, and I'm actually reading a book. The Morning Star by M.Chandler. Loving it. Thanks for the rec, Chris ;)

Keyword Fun

...another tattooed sports hottie from my recent internet wanderings.
Blogger added a stats feature a few months ago. It doesn't have a ton of stats, but the most interesting ones are the key word searches that brought people to my little slice of bloglandia. There's the expected 'ava march bound forever', and other variants of my name and book titles (though the 'bound forever pdf download' got a frown from me). There's also been some more unexpected key words, such as:happy dance (...though I do sometimes talk about my little happy dances about the kitchen, so I can understand this one)pick the hottieerotic hottieshotty reading ....I'm seeing a trend here....loose little shortsAnd my all-time favorite. This one is from a month or so ago. boyfriend nipple ring playFor anyone who has a blog and doesn't check their keywords (they're under 'traffic' in the stats), I suggest checking them out. You might get a good laugh.
I'll leave you with this cookie. I really wish I was with him on the beach instead of here with the cold and crappy weather. It's almost the end of March. sigh. I'm really hoping spring arrives soon.

What's Been Up and Next Up

It's been two weeks since I turned in Convincing Leopold. The no-deadline thing lasted less than a week, but I'm already back to no-deadline bliss. And yes, the urge to clean and organize has passed, as anticipated. But I did manage to give kidlet's room a complete once-over, which resulted in 2 bags of trash and 1 bag of clothes for salvation army. Oddly enough, it doesn't look like there's any less stuff in her room now then before.

So what else has been up with me? Other highlights of the last 2 weeks involve browsing for new cookies (during which I picked up today's cookie), reading a book (Rougaroux Social Club: Bayou Dreams by Lynn Lorenz - very good book, BTW), and doing the 1st round of edits on Convincing Leopold....which made me realize I need to tweak the blurb for that book. So that's on the to-do list for this week.
I also bought an awesome new ap for my iphone. It's a white noise ap - has all sorts of sounds like rain, wind, and traffic (there's even a cat purring), and you can create your own mixes. My fav so far is air conditioning/light rain - perfect background noise that drowns out everything else (including chatty, skype-lovin' hubby). Many thanks to Sloan Parker for the head's up about the ap. The muse is lovin' it.

Speaking of the muse, next up on the to-write list is actually a to-finish book that I started last fall. I had this huge urge to write something with young lovers. Something that captured that intense first-love, young-love vibe. So I gave in to the muse and started Back to You. If you're guessing it's not all sweetness, you're right. There's some major angst, 'cause, you know, there has to be angst. ;) I need to get back to Sasha and Thomas and finish their book. So in the next week or so (but hopefully not too much 'so'), I plan to get back to them.
So that's what has been up with me. How about you? And if you have any good book recommendations, feel free to offer them up. I plan to get some more reading in before I get back to writing.

Story Behind the Story - Beyond Reckless

Stats – Sent book idea to Amber Quill Press & received approval 9/7/10, Submitted & received contract offer 9/12/10, Published 11/28/10

Little known fact – This is 'The Challenge' book. Shawn Lane and I both had ideas for short stories, and we challenged each other to write them in a week. Shawn finished Manfred's Curse a couple days before me, but I still managed to finish Beyond Reckless in a week. I don't like to admit that she beat me, instead I go with the 'we were both winners' line. *insert sparkly happy smile*

Extremely little known fact – I finally got to use my invitation to submit to Amber Quill Press with this book. I had received an invite back in 2009, and was super geeked about it, but I had other contracted books on my to-write list at the time. The owner of AQP was very cool and understanding, and left the invite open-ended.

How did I get the idea for the book – I saw a submissions call from All Romance eBooks for a free short story competition for books between 2,000-3,000 words. That night, Rys and Martin popped into my head, and I thought maybe I could smoosh them down to 3k words. Then I rechecked the sub call and realized it was for paranormal stories (should have guessed, as the contest was to run around Halloween). I was bummed, since I knew I couldn't do characters, smex, historical setting and paranormal in less than 3k words. I mentioned it to Shawn, who gave me a series of nudges that started like this - 'Can you make it at least 5k?' (5,000 words is the min length for Amber Quill). And while Shawn was nudging me, I was nudging her to write a short story. The challenge was thrown down, and a week later I had finished Beyond Reckless. It came it at 6,000 words, with no smooshing needed.

If I could edit the book now, what would I change (if anything)? – Um…nothing. I really like how the book turned out. It was my first non-sequel short story, and it was super fun to write. That's not to say I have plans for any more stand-alone short stories, but in this instance, the short format fit the book idea.

Misc Stuff – Thanks to a nudge from another friend, I'm mulling over the idea of a prequel for Rys and Martin, a story that would cover how they met and became a couple. I even have notes already for the book, but it's not completely fleshed out yet. Adrenalin-junkie Rys is tons of fun to write, so I have a feeling the muse won't take too long to finish figuring out the book.
That's the story behind the story for Beyond Reckless . Any questions? Ask away *g*

Bound Forever - Now Available

Bound Forever released around midnight Monday night! *big squee*

Yesterday I finished a book and today I had a book release. I'm just beside myself with excitement. It takes me a while to write a book and I don't have a lot of releases every year. So back-to-back squee days have gotten me a little over-excited. But it is really exciting, so I don't care if I've fallen off the geeked end.

I will say, I'm feeling a bit (a tiny bit) sad. Bound Forever is the last book for Oliver and Vincent. I'll still do freebie shorts for them, but it's their last published book. Bound by Deception was my 1st published book (way back in Sept'08), and now the series is done. I didn't initially plan for it to be a series. I knew when I finished BBD that Oliver and Vincent's story wasn't done yet, and when I was writing Bound to Him, I realized they needed one more to get to a rock-solid HEA. And now that one more has been released. But I refuse to get too sappy. In any case, I feel another happy dance coming on. ;)

Lord Oliver Marsden's life is perfect...well almost perfect. His bookshop is doing well, his bank account isn't empty, and his nights are filled with a deliciously dominant man…who tends to be a bit too domineering outside of the bedchamber. But Vincent loves him and that's all that should matter. Right? And of course, Vincent still firmly holds the reins of control. Yet while Oliver feels Vincent is finally ready to give himself fully to him, to make good on the offer Oliver refused a year ago, the looming threat his lover could someday be forced to marry keeps him from tugging the reins from Vincent's grasp.

Then Vincent receives a letter that changes everything. Oliver seizes the moment and pushes Vincent toward a night neither of them will ever forget. Yet come dawn, Oliver awakens to an empty bed.

Lord Vincent Prescot knows he loves Oliver. The man's his best friend and he trusts him. So why does submitting to Oliver leave him so shaken? It doesn't take him long to find the answer, yet his solution could drive his lover away for good.

Excerpt from Chapter One

Another One Done

It's done!! I sent Convincing Leopold to my editor at 3:48am, well, I guess that would be this morning. Five minutes later, I was doing a little happy dance in the kitchen. It was one of those limbs-flailing, spinning in circles happy dances. Fortunately, Kitteh was my only audience.
I'm now out from under all deadlines, for the time being, at least. Last summer, I contracted three books with Loose Id, and Convincing Leopold was the last one that needed to be written. As I just sent the book to my editor, I don't even have a deadline for edits yet. I'm so looking forward to reading and organizing. I've had the almost impossible urge to organize the closets, and now I can finally give into that urge :) Honestly, I'm not a neat-freak, but whenever I'm under a deadline, I always get the urge to organize or clean. Unfortunately for the state of my closets, that desire usually doesn't last long once the deadline has passed.
So what's next as far as writing goes? I want to finish up a novella I started last fall for Amber Quill. It's over half-way done, so it should only take a month to finish it. Other than that, I haven't yet decided. A few book ideas have been nagging of late, so I'm just going to see which one rises to the top and screams 'write me' the loudest.
Bound Forever releases tonight *g*, but I'll save the squeeing for tomorrow's post.

Bound Forever Give-A-Way & Cave Update

First, the cave update. I'm still there. Convincing Leopold is turning out to be longer than I anticipated - a good 5,000 words or so longer. I got a week extension on my deadline, and am determine to finish the thing by this weekend.
Chris over at Stumbling Over Chaos is giving away a copy of Bound Forever to one lucky commenter. Since the book is the 3rd in the series, I'm including Bound by Deception and Bound to Him in the prize, if the winner hasn't read those books yet. Simply leave a comment on the post to enter to win. Contest runs through March 7th.

In other news, Bound Forever has made the coming soon page at Loose Id. Yes, I admit I've been by to visit Oliver and Vincent more than once in the past couple of days. They're looking mighty handsome, if I do say so myself. Only one week left until their release date *g* I'm already starting to get geeked about it. Hopefully I can keep the geeking to a manageable level so I can stay focused on Arthur and Leopold and get their book finished.