Bonnie Vanak's Blog, page 20

A special thank you to readers...

I love to read books and I'm grateful to all the readers who have read mine. Books are important to me, both writing them and reading them. They provide an escape, allow me to dream of possiblities and expand my horizons.

So as a special thank you to readers, I'm giving a gift for the month of Valentine's Day.

Nightly Special is my short story from the anthology, Vampires, Werewolves and Zombies, Oh MY! The anthology was penned by a few authors from Florida Romance Writers to raise money from our chapter.

Nightly Special is now available as a stand alone story and absolutely FREE on Smashwords. I had a new cover designed and had the story formatted.

Click here to find out.

I hope you enjoy! And thank you for all your support and your love of romance novels.

Seduced by the Wolf available for pre-order!

SEDUCED BY THE WOLF, my March Nocturne Craving, is now available for pre-order on Amazon!


Jarrett Lawson can't fall in love—but he needs a woman. Pack rules dictate that as the alpha male, he must mate before the rest of his shifter community can. But after losing his cherished wife, Jarrett has vowed never to risk his heart again. A vow that is tested when Ariel Abidos reenters his life.



Jarrett and Ariel once shared an explosive sexual chemistry, but Ariel left him with no explanation just before they became lovers. So when the sexy Lupine Fae needs his help to investigate why her people are vanishing on his ancestral land, he asks one thing in return: that she become his new mate....


Click here to order!

Now available on Smashwords and Kindle...

The Cobra and the Concubine, from my Khamsin Egyptian series! I had it reformatted. Next up will be The Scorpion and the Seducer, and then all seven of my Khamsin Egyptian historicals will be available.

The Covert Wolf, my August book, is finished and turned into my editor. Right now I'm working on the next Nocturne Craving, as well as a proposal for the next Nocturne.

To read a preview and order Cobra on Smashwords, click here.

To order Cobra on Amazon, click here.

New cover, New Year and contest winner!

Here's the cover for SEDUCED BY THE WOLF, my Nocturne Craving for March. It's another short story in The Ancients line. The reason why she's lit from within? When she gets sexually excited, she glows. I mean, REALLY, glows.

SEDUCED BY THE WOLF is the sequel to HUNTED BY THE JAGUAR. Wolf features Jarrett, the werewolf. I liked his character so much I decided he needed his own story, especially since he had lost his mate and child.

It's a new year and I'm pleased to announce the winner of my contest from last month is Cathy (Caffie!) Cathy please email me for your prize.

In other news, I finished the book! Yay!!! The Covert Wolf is scheduled for release this August. I wrote the book in three months. It was very, very tough, with working full-time and traveling for the day job, plus the holidays, but I did it.

It's not easy being an author, whether you work a day job or your FT profession is writing. Deadlines must be met, and then life happens. 2011 was a tough year. We lost my beloved father-in-law, and had lots to deal with in a haze of legal paperwork. It's not over. But we are blessed with good family and friends to help us through.

For Christmas, we went to Tennessee, and had a lovely time with my great brother and his very sweet, very fun wife. It was good to get together with family. And it was cold!

Just as cold as South Florida promises to be tonight. In celebration of finishing the book, we'll probably have a fire in the fire pit, and toast the New Year with a bottle of red wine.

Here's hoping 2012 is good to you, and brings you and yours plenty of blessings, and everything your heart desires.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

From sunny and warm Florida, wishing you and your family a wonderful holiday season!

And best wishes for a peaceful, happy New Year and a wonderful 2012!

The Empath and new website

The Empath has been released by Mills and Boon in the UK!  Enemy Lover will be released next month by Mills & Boon.

In other news, I finally have a new website. You can check it out here. I wanted a darker look to reflect the dark paranormals I'm writing.

My wonderful designer organized the books page to make it easier to access all the books, and there's a new releases page and a page for international editions. This will make it much more user friendly. If you want to know the latest books, you need only click on the new releases page.

In other news, I'm busy trying to finish the Nocturne due the end of this month, getting ready for Christmas and sorting through a lot of projects at the day job. The book is close. Almost there. Almost. Speaking of which, I'd better get back to work because if I make the rum balls first and then write... not a good idea!

My mom

She was a very special person, a best friend as well as my mother. Mom enjoyed reading romance novels. It's because of her love of the genre that I started reading them as well.

We took many wonderful vacations together. Sometimes we visited states like Montana, where she would sit on a bench reading a book while I went hiking in Glacier National Park.

This photo is from our last vacation together, the year before DH and I got married, and the year before she died from cancer.

It was a dream trip for both of us. I'm very thankful we were able to take this vacation, and I feel blessed with all the memories I'll always cherish of our times together. This weekend  it will be 16 years since we lost her. Some days, it feels like yesterday. Mom adored Christmas. It was her favorite holiday. She'd spend weeks getting ready, from making cookie press cookies, to decorating the house and shopping. She created a wonderful tradition. We had to give away some of our toys to poor children before Christmas, because before we could get new toys for Christmas, we had to share what we had with children who had nothing.

When she was dying from cancer, my brother bought her a little Christmas tree with lights, so she could look at it from her bed. I still have the tree, and when I put it out, I remember my mother and the joy she brought to us all during the holiday season. We buried her 3 days before Christmas, three months after Dh and I married. She hid her illness from the family, along with her pain. It was only after we returned from our honeymoon and she collapsed that we discovered she didn't have long to live.

I think she wanted to make sure I was settled, and happy, before passing on. That was the type of woman she was - always putting others before herself.

Miss you mom, always. Thank you for everything you did for all of us.

Technology and the holidays

Confession time. I'm tech-challenged. Can't keep up with all the changes. Just when I was comfortable with Blogger, they changed the template and the browser settings. I'm finally learning FB. And my phone is hooked up to Twitter, but sometimes when I message a friend, I almost end up tweeting. Um, hello world, I did NOT mean to tell everyone that I was so tired that I brushed my teeth with hemorrhoid cream instead of toothpaste...

Dolce also prefers books and toys to computer wires
So if you want to send me a message either through Twitter, Facebook, send a direct message through the Networked blogs (I still am trying to figure that one out, I think I pressed a button and now I'm networked), or Goodreads (I'm not signed up on Goodreads and don't always go to that site) or send up a smoke signal, and I don't always answer, it's because I'm tangled in a wired world and don't know how to find my way out. The best way to contact me is email. Bonnievanak@aol.com






Busy with the holidays, trying to finish the new Nocturne due the end of this month and working at the day job. I am also working with a terrific designer and hope to launch my NEW website by January 1.


Happy holidays, and may the stress of the season stay far from you!

In memory of our Tia

Tia, our beloved Shih Tzu, died Dec. 7, 2006. She had liver cancer. She was a wonderful dog and a friend as well. Miss you, sweetie. I hope all dogs do go to heaven, because you sure deserve to be there. 
Tia, Christmas 2004

New release, new contest

Today is the release day for HUNTED BY THE JAGUAR, the third novella in The Ancients!




Stranded miles from home, Ariana Fuller has few ways to protect herself from the enemy hunting her—except to let her demon side take control over the angelic half of her soul. The last man she wants to come to her rescue is jaguar shifter Daimon Nelson, the man who claimed her virginity and still tempts her like no other.

Though Ariana fears giving in to erotic abandonment will free her inner demon, Daimon's scorching kisses and wicked aura of sensuality make her forget all common sense. She tries to resist his allure, but Daimon is equally resolved to complete his mission of seduction. He must mate with Ariana to absorb her dark powers before they are unleashed—and before the enemy can claim her for himself....


Click here to order HUNTED BY THE JAGUAR on Kindle.

To celebrate, I'm giving away a copy of MATED TO THE WOLF, my second novella in The Ancients series.



Just leave a comment on this blog to enter, or email me at bonnievanak@aol.com. Contest ends Dec. 30. Good luck and happy holidays!