Michelle McCraw's Blog, page 3

Writing progress, October 12, 2023

With work travel and writing travel this month, I’ve had to be kind to myself and set writing expectations low. 

“Seduce Me,” an exclusive short story in my Synergy world, appears in The New Boss anthology, which released in September and is now available in Kindle Unlimited. Make sure you’ve grabbed your copy – it’s only available through December.I finished the first draft of 4 Weddings and a Feud and started revisions.Books and Hook(Up)s is still on hold, but I hope to get back to it next month.

Even though the writing feels slow, I learned so much at the NINC conference in September, and I’m looking forward to learning more at the Moonlight & Magnolias conference in my new home state this month.

The post Writing progress, October 12, 2023 first appeared on Michelle McCraw, Contemporary romance author.

The New Boss – put it in my veins for 99¢!

It’s been a long time coming, y’all. 

My brand-new Synergy story, “Seduce Me,” is part of a multiauthor anthology of workplace romances. The New Boss is chock full of steamy office romance. Although the anthology has a very hot guy on the cover and a male boss blurb, “Seduce Me” features a lady boss (natch!). It’s short and sexy and features a slightly older couple – they’re in their early 40s because, frankly, are we not tired of twentysomething finance bro billionaires?

She’s the boss. She’s also hot for her work husband.

As the head of human resources, Ingrid fights for what’s best for the company’s employees. And what’s best for her direct report, Heath, is to keep him at arm’s length and not give in to the feelings he sparked during that magical weekend before he came to work at her company. No matter that everyone calls him her work husband. No matter that she’s been in love with her right-hand man for the past four years.

When Heath’s boss gets sick, he’s only doing what any employee would when he takes her home and tucks her into bed. He can ignore the fact that it’s the same bed where they spent a heavenly weekend. He can ignore his feelings like he’s done for four years. Can’t he?

Whoops.

You’ll swoon for this short, sexy forbidden workplace romance between an icy HR executive and her off-limits work husband. It’s set in the Synergy Workplace Romance universe and can be read as a standalone.

Come for the

Boss-employeeSecond chance romanceHurt-comfortForbidden attractionStar-crossed lovers

…stay for the

Lady boss with an unwavering moral compassOMG so much mutual pining!

The post The New Boss – put it in my veins for 99¢! first appeared on Michelle McCraw, Contemporary romance author.

Writing progress, September 10, 2023

Progress has been slow but steady this month…

“Seduce Me,” a short story in my Synergy world, appears in The New Boss anthology, releasing September 19 for only 99¢. Make sure you’ve grabbed a copy!City Owl accepted my proposal! What was previously “Mary & Franco” is now “4 Weddings and a Feud” and is halfway drafted!So that means “Books and Hook(Up)s is on hold for now. Stay tuned.

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Writing progress, August 16, 2023

Okay, so after almost two months of “meh” writing sessions, I finally feel like I’ve gotten it together. I’ve had three solid writing days in a row, all as a result of committing to shutting off the distractions. (Did I mention that I moved STATES?)

A few bits of progress below:

“Seduce Me,” a short story in my Synergy world, appears in The New Boss anthology, releasing September 19 for only 99¢. Make sure you’ve grabbed a copy!The proposal for my new project, “Mary & Franco,” is with the editor. Will they like it? We’ll see!And I’ve started ANOTHER new project, working title BOOKS AND HOOK(UP)S. It’s the sequel to that “Frenemies” project I tracked for a year. Let’s hope this one comes together more quickly!

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Writing progress, July 16, 2023

I can now tell you from experience that unpacking is easier than packing.

Packing took me about three months’ worth of weekends and was EXHAUSTING. Unpacking? Done in less than two weeks. Okay, so I’ve got one pesky box that I can’t find the right spot for, but my space is livable, and I’m FINALLY back to writing!

A few bits of progress below:

TEMPT ME is out in the world! Woot!FRENEMIES is officially on submission. Thoughts and prayers (again), y’all.“Seduce Me,” a short story in my Synergy world, appears in The New Boss anthology, releasing September 19.I’ve started drafting a new project, “Mary & Franco.” It’s the (untitled) next-in-series to 23 AND YOU AND ME (coming from City Owl Fall 2024).

The post Writing progress, July 16, 2023 first appeared on Michelle McCraw, Contemporary romance author.

TEMPT ME is here!

It’s finally here! Today is the release day for Tempt Me. This book has been percolating for a while as I figured out Jamila Jallow’s HEA.

Jamila started as a side character in the Synergy universe. Long-time readers will remember her as not only Jackson and Cooper’s bestie but also as Alicia’s mentor in my debut, Work with Me. So really, she’s the glue that brought them all together. She’s also a fabulous bisexual Black woman, and it took me a while to figure out that she deserved someone who’d pined for her forever.

Enter Jackson’s little sister Natalie, who first appears on page in Trip Me Up as a foil to ugly duckling Sam Jones. She seems to have it all together and to be the perfect daughter, but sharp-eyed readers will notice she’s more than she seems.

The blurb is below, and you can read the first chapter here and the second chapter here. Chapter 2 shows Natalie and Jamila’s delightfully awkward meet-cute. Of course, they’ve met before – this is a brother’s best friend trope, after all! – but this is the first time you, the reader, get to see them together.

Be sure to grab your copy today. And if you read it this weekend (or anytime, really), I’d love it if you’d post a review on your favorite retailer, Goodreads, or BookBub.

If you preordered, or if you buy it today, please email me your receipt (dated before June 17, 2023) to be entered to win the swag basket (or international equivalent)!

Her old crush is her new boss.

Socialite Natalie might suck at all the careers she’s tried (and she’s tried everything from fashion to flowers to food), but she’s good at one thing: helping other people. Now her older brother’s best friend, Jamila, needs her skills to get out of a public-relations predicament. Who better to help Jamila than someone who’s lived in the media spotlight all her life? She can ignore the pesky crush she’s had on Jamila for years, right?

Tech billionaire Jamila doesn’t need anyone’s help. She built her software company all by herself, and the media nonsense will blow over as soon as she launches her latest app. Except she can’t catch a break. Everything goes wrong, from bugs in the code to security flaws. The last thing she needs is her bestie’s off-limits little sister flitting around her company.

But another media slip-up later, Natalie is somehow Jamila’s employee. Between late-night media prep and temptation during a sexy photo shoot, the women grow closer. Could sunshiny Natalie be just what grumpy, controlling Jamila needs? What will happen when her bestie finds out about their forbidden romance?

You’ll swoon for this steamy sapphic brother’s-best-friend, age gap, forbidden-love workplace romantic comedy. It features a tech genius CEO who’s pricklier than her pet hedgehog and a socialite who might be more than she seems. Tempt Me can be read as a standalone.

The post TEMPT ME is here! first appeared on Michelle McCraw, Contemporary romance author.

Writing Progress, June 11, 2023

Whew, y’all, I’ve been busy.

TEMPT ME releases THIS WEEK! Be sure to preorder your copy here. If you email me your receipt (hit the Contact button up top), you’ll be entered to win a hedgehog-themed prize basket!

Aaannnnd…FRENEMIES is finally ready to go on submission! I appreciate all the good thoughts you sent my way as I reworked it.

Next month, I’ll be starting a new project! (Stay tuned. Even I don’t know what it’ll be.) And I’m moving, so I’ll be writing it in a new place. More to come…

The post Writing Progress, June 11, 2023 first appeared on Michelle McCraw, Contemporary romance author.

Writing progress, May 20, 2023

I’m feeling…okay about things, folks.

Copyedits on TEMPT ME are wrapping up, and I’m excited to dive back into the manuscript. I’ve already written and posted Jamila and Natalie’s bonus epilogue, so that little bundle of extra HEA is ready for her first readers.

“Seduce Me,” my Synergy short story for The New Boss anthology is proofed and headed off to the anthology publisher. It releases September 18. Don’t worry, you’ll be hearing A LOT about this one this summer.

And FRENEMIES? It’s back with my agent, waiting for her feedback. Thoughts and prayers, y’all. They don’t help with gun violence, but maybe they’ll help with authoring?

One last thing: I know I’m not a screenwriter, but I stand with the writers of WGA. All writers deserve to be paid more for their work.

The post Writing progress, May 20, 2023 first appeared on Michelle McCraw, Contemporary romance author.

Book-ban Bullshit

Props to romance author April White for the cool T-shirt!

It’s time to get political again, Friend.

Look, I’m sorry. I hate it, too. I’d love it if I could just stay home and read and write romance novels in peace.

But now they’re coming for us.

“Parental rights” sound great. I mean, as a parent, I know my kids best, and I hope I always act in their best interests. But that includes exposing them to different perspectives because that’s what learning is all about. But some folks think just because they’d rather pretend other lived experiences don’t exist, they can take away my kids’ rights to learn. That doesn’t make sense to me.

For example, this Texas bill seeks to ban mentions of any non-heterosexual relationships (among many, many other things, including masturbation, which, as I always tell my kids, is the safest sex you can have) in public school libraries. And school districts, including Katy, Texas, have already banned Angie Thomas’s The Hate You Give, an excellent, award-winning book about growing up Black in the U.S. My kids and I watched this movie to facilitate our conversations about white privilege. Not to mention Florida’s bill that would ban discussions of periods in schools. I mean, I started my period in elementary school. Do they expect girls to have to learn some kind of code to ask to go to the restroom?

But this Oklahoma bill hits me right in the first-amendment rights. It would ban books – not only from school libraries but also from public libraries – that are judged to contain “a predominant tendency to appeal to a prurient interest in sex.” Y’all, they’re coming for our spicy romance novels.

In the U.S., it’s spring, and that means it’s time for local elections. Pay attention to yours. Check out what’s happening with your school board. Write your representatives. Do what this awesome 100-year-old lady did. Don’t let them tell kids it’s not okay to be Black or gay or trans or have loved ones who are. And don’t let them take away our sex-positive romance books.

What’s your favorite banned book? 

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Writing progress, April 16, 2023

Can I see the light at the end of my Revision Hell tunnel?

I got TEMPT ME back from my beta readers, and I spent Easter Sunday in a hotel room making the suggested revisions. I need to do one more read-through, and then it’ll be ready to send to my brand-new editor. I’m excited, but also a little 😬 Once it comes back from the editor, I’ll be ready to put it up for preorder, and that makes me SO EXCITED!

My other editor sent back the revisions on “Seduce Me,” and it looks like it’s pretty close. It’s not due until July 1, so I’ll make the revisions when I have a little more time.

Which leaves me with FRENEMIES. I used my new tool, Plottr, to organize my thoughts and replanned the ending. I definitely recommend Plottr, but I can see how it can be tempting to overplan. It’s so robust, with capabilities for character studies, setting descriptions, and multibook series.

Then I wrote a synopsis, which my agent approved, and now I’m plowing through the revisions. I’m feeling cautiously optimistic that I can finish by the end of the month AND that this is a story you’ll want to read.

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