Jaci Burton's Blog, page 40

Five Things

1. Still writing Taking A Shot (the hockey book), which is why you haven't heard much from me, because I'm on omg deadline.

2. The weather here in Oklahoma can't freakin' decide what it wants to do. One day it's 80, the next day it's 50. I'm in between wardrobes. One day it's capris, short sleeved shirts and flip flops, the next day it's sweats, socks and hoodies. Come the hell on and make a decision already, Mother Nature. I'm ready for it to be warm, dammit. (rather cranky about this in case you hadn't noticed).

3. The television season is wrapping up, with finales coming left and right. Survivor's season finale rocked my socks off. Castle made me go 'omg'. How I Met Your Mother made me squeal with joy and wiggle with anticipation for what's to come in the future. I can't wait for The Good Wife and NCIS tonight and the Grey's Anatomy finale Thursday. What are you all waiting for?

4. My body needs to look like Giselle Bundchen's by the end of June. I highly doubt this is going to happen, especially since I made a red velvet cake over the weekend.

5. There's nothing more precious to me than my granddaughters. I miss them so much since they moved to California, but I got to Skype with them over the weekend. They're both adorable, so must share this pic. I love my baby girls.

That's it for me. What's up with you?

Garden Progress

It's been a month since we planted our vegetable garden, and the weather finally started to warm up, so things are growing. Yay!



We have strawberries! Lots and lots of strawberries. Those suckers are trying to take over the whole garden, though. Will have to container those next year.

Our three tomato plants have grown enough to need cages.

We're going to have a lot of onions! A lot more than are shown year since we have them in both garden boxes.

Funny story about our potatoes. All the garden sellers were out of potatoes when we went shopping, so we took some old potatoes I had around–you know, the ones growing eyes? Cut them up and stuck them in the ground. Voila. Potatoes growing like crazy in the garden. Yay!

The peppers and zucchini and squash and herbs are all doing really well too, despite some late spring frosts.

How is your garden doing, or are you just getting started?

A Special Day

Last Saturday, College Girl received her Undergraduate Degree in Animal Sciences. She also finished her first year of Veterinary School the day before. We're so proud of her. Three more years and she'll have her Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine. Then we'll get free vet care for all our beasties, because you know it's all about us. Heh.

Nautier and Wilder Back Cover Copy

As I mentioned before, I'm so excited to do another anthology with fabulous author Lora Leigh.

NAUTIER AND WILDER is the second anthology containing one of Lora's Nauti books and one of my Wild Riders books.

I had finished up my Wild Riders series with RIDING THE NIGHT, but the opportunity to do another anthology with Lora presented itself and I couldn't say no. So this book will introduce a new Wild Rider. Can't wait for you to meet him.

Here's the back cover copy for the anthology, due to be released December, 2011:

#1 New York Times bestselling author Lora Leigh returns to the relentlessly scorching backdrop of her Nauti Boys series with an all-new novella of a man—bad to the bone—and the one woman who knew he was trouble. That's why she couldn't let him go.

New York Times bestselling author Jaci Burton once again blisters the asphalt with an all-new novella in her Wild Riders series. A hot biker craves a life of passion and danger—and finds it with the woman he's sworn to protect.

Taking A Shot Back Cover Copy

Here's the back cover copy for TAKING A SHOT, the third book in my Play-by-Play sports series. It'll release in February, 2012

If you want to score, you have to get in the game…



The last thing Jenna Riley needs is more sports in her life. While her brothers are off being athletic superstars, she's stuck running the family's sports bar, whether she likes it or not. Then in walks pro hockey stud Tyler Anderson. As much as Jenna would like to go to the boards with him, she's vowed to never fall for a jock—even one as hot as Ty.

Ty, intrigued by the beautiful bar owner, becomes a regular. He senses that Jenna wants to do something more with her life. And as he gains her trust, the passion between them grows, as does Ty's insistence that Jenna should start living for herself. With his encouragement, Jenna starts to believe it, too…

But first, Jenna has to figure out what she wants, what she needs, who she loves, and if she has the passion and pride to take a shot at having it all—including Ty…

Brenda Novak's Auction to Benefit Diabetes Research

It's Auction time again! Brenda Novak's Auction for Diabetes Research starts on May 1st!

Every year, author Brenda Novak holds an annual auction to benefit the fight against Diabetes. Her son has the disease and she's done an amazing job of raising funds to battle it with this auction. She's raised over $1 million dollars! You can read all the details about her auction here and go to the auction site here

There are amazing items that go up for bid. Autographed books, ARCs, hand made items, designer items, art, trips, televisions, laptops, Kindles, jewelry, critiques from editors and agents. Stuff for writers, stuff for readers. Just about anything anyone can want is at this auction.

I've been participating in this auction for the past several years, both to donate and to buy things like crazy.

This year I've donated the following item:

A tote bag filled with the following autographed books:

THE PERFECT PLAY by Jaci Burton

RIDING THE NIGHT by Jaci Burton

TURN COAT by Jim Butcher

SWEET TEMPTATION by Maya Banks

VEIL OF SHADOWS by Shiloh Walker

BEYOND THE DARK by Lora Leigh, Angela Knight, Emma Holly & Diane Whiteside

CRUEL ENCHANTMENT by Anya Bast

HARD & FAST by Erin McCarthy

SEDUCE ME IN SHADOWS by Shayla Black

IN THE FLESH by Livia Dare

NO ESCAPE by Shannon K. Butcher

A T-shirt autographed by the authors in attendance at 2010's Lora Leigh's Reader Appreciation Weekend, and other various goodies.

You can bid on this item here

I hope you'll head over to the auction site and look around. If you're like me, you can't help but bid on one or two (or three or four) things. It's for a great cause.

On Tap Today

It's hair day today, and oh is my hair doing the happy dance of joy. It feels neglected and unloved. Hey, I've been on deadline. In fact, I'm still on deadline, but hair is a priority today.

Admittedly, I'm doing the happy dance of joy myself. The grey hair and dark roots were making me feel old and frumpy. Time to get the hot red going again. Woot!

Tonight, Biker Dude and I are going to see Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band in concert. So excited about this. Love every one of Bob Seger's songs. This one's my favorite:

Tomorrow morning I'll be getting up way early to watch the royal wedding. Admittedly, I'm a sucker for romance, and all the pomp and circumstance of a royal wedding. I watched Charles and Diana's wedding, so I might as well watch this one, too. Who else is getting up early to watch? (Of course if you live in England you don't have to get up before dawn like I do. Though I will be DVR'ing the start of the pageantry so I don't have to get up at 4 a.m. Maybe 6 a.m.

Beverly Barton's Book Release

Author Beverly Barton passed away unexpectedly last week. Such a sad thing for her family and her friends. I did not know Beverly personally, but a loss of a great romance author is a loss for all of us, because here is one less bright star in the romance world. And today is the release of her book, DEAD BY MORNING.

If you go to her website, you can read about how she was so excited about her books releasing this year. So let's get excited for her and buy her new book.

THE DARKEST SINS

He begins his work just before dawn, wielding a knife with the precision of a surgeon. Cunning and meticulous, he's always in control. Mercy is not an option…

WILL ALWAYS

Maleah Purdue is touch, outspoken, and completely dedicated to her work at the Powell Security Agency. But her fearless exterior shatters when a madman begins killing her colleagues one by one, mimicking a notorious serial killer already behind bars. Working alongside top profiler Derek Lawrence, Maleah will do anything to find the murderer, even if it means playing a psychopath's twisted mind games.

COMES TO LIGHT

No one connected to the Agency is safe. No one is beyond suspicion. For as Maleah and Derek piece together the clues, they uncover a chilling legacy of lies and brutal vengeance – and a killer who has been hiding in plain sight all along…

This looks like such a great book. I hope everyone runs out to buy a copy, or orders one online. Since Beverly isn't here to promote her book, I hope everyone spreads the word.

You can order the book at

Amazon in Print

Amazon for Kindle

B&N in Print

B&N for Nook

Chapters

The Book Depository

And It's Monday

Happy Monday!

I hope everyone who celebrates had a wonderful Easter. I ate a Cadbury Cream Egg. And made a ham. Life is good.

It's been raining here in Oklahoma land since Friday afternoon. I mean almost nonstop. I'm not even kidding. As I sit here and type this blog post at almost 1 p.m. on Monday, it's still raining. And thundering. It thundered for twenty-four hours yesterday. The dogs were not pleased by this. They would like to put in a Cease and Desist Order to Mother Nature, who I think has her earbuds in and her Ipod cranked up to something heavy metal and is ignoring their whiny pleas.

Workwise, I have about 5 weeks to write an entire book. Go ahead, laugh at me. I'll be in the cave. Writing. Nonstop.

As far as what's going on this week, we're going to see Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band this week. If you aren't old like we are, Google some of his music. Or think Tom Cruise in his underwear sliding across the floor in Risky Business. Yeah, that's one of Bob Seger's songs.

Hope you all are drier (I typed dryer…omg. It's so Monday) than we are here. If you're in the path of these hella storms, stay safe. And have a great week!

A Little Tease

I'm working on galleys for HEART OF A KILLER, and thought I'd give you the tiniest of teases.

Here's Dante:

His thoughts over the years had always come back to Anna, had always centered on her. He figured it had to do with the trauma she'd gone through and how guilty he felt over leaving her after that night. He never thought it had to do with love. He didn't know love.

More (much more) later.