Cerise DeLand's Blog, page 54

Special Ops: A few facts you may not know! MILITARY BLOG HOP begins!

Researching Delta Force for A LONG TIME COMIN' and my upcoming release about a SEAL team member, CONQUERING ZEUS (with the Sassy 7), I learned quite a few interesting facts:

Special Ops which includes Delta Force, SEALs, and many other specialized units of the military are very highly trained personnel, many of them in the service for years before getting the opportunity to apply for training in one of these schools.SEALs and Delta Force operatives undergo such rigorous training that only a fraction of those who apply and enter the schools graduate.SEALs and Delta Force operations are highly classified, which is why many objected to the new book out by a former SEAL describing the operation to get Bin Laden.In fact, the operations are so secret that the men in these units rarely if ever acknowledge to anyone that they belong to these elite corps.The budgets for these units are redacted, meaning few know the real cost of their operations.SEALs and Delta Force take their oaths to the President of the United States. Therefore, this is the person/entity to which they owe their allegiance.DO leave a comment here AND your email address in the comment to be entered to win a copy of A LONG TIME COMIN'Blog closes Nov. 15.Happy Veterans Day!Go here for more:
http://www.thejeepdiva.com/2012/04/men-women-of-the-military-giveaway-hop-sign-up.html

MILITARY BLOG HOP anyone? With prizes!

MILITARY BLOG HOP anyone? With prizes!
Yes, I am among those doing this wonderful hop!
Starts tomorrow at:
http://www.thejeepdiva.com/2012/04/men-women-of-the-military-giveaway-hop-sign-up.html

Do come back here to enter, then go on to the others!
Great fun...and quite a bit about the military, too!
I will give away a copy of my DELTA FORCE story, A LONG TIME COMIN'.
Do return!

GOT USA election nerves? RELAX with FRAN LEE's newest!

   What Fran Jamison and Jack Gerrard have in common could be balanced on the head of a pin. Jack screwed up his chances with the BBW years ago when he allowed his friends to influence his choices. And Fran totally lost her chance with the hot campus jock by openly spurning his attempt to apologize.
   Fran has never been to any of the reunions, but now a friend needs her, so this time she hasn’t been able to shimmy out of it. What she doesn’t expect in a million years is to find herself making hot love with Jack Gerrard on the hood of a parked car…in the airport parking ramp!
   Jack lost her once. But if she thinks she’s getting away this time, she’s dead wrong.
Excerpt:
To: franjamison@think_tank.comFrom: SikorskiK@WIndiU.eduHello to all of Gracie’s Girls, class of 2002. Once again, thanks to all of you for the flowers and phone calls after my aunt Gracie’s passing last winter. You all meant so much to her, and to me.As I’m sure you all know, our ten-year college reunion is coming up this summer. Since I now have Aunt Gracie’s big rambling house all to myself, I’d like to extend an invitation. If any of you are coming back for the reunion, you’re more than welcome to stay here, in your old rooms. Gracie quit taking in college students several years back, so there’s no one here but me and I’d love to have some company while I’m getting the house ready to put on the market. So what do you say? One last time as roommates? It would be great to see all of you again.Hugs,Karen     She hadn’t planned to attend, at least not until she’d received Karen’s guilt-inspiring email. Every instinct she possessed screamed at her to hit the delete key and pretend the email hadn’t arrived, but she just couldn’t do that. Karen was having financial problems and might have to sell the historic but dilapidated old Victorian house they had all shared in college.     She shouldn’t feel so gun-shy, but even after all these years it would be hard for her to go back and see all her old pals with the memories of her college years slamming hard into her refurbished self-image. A self-image that had taken her seven long years of analysis and hard work to create.     Fran sighed and rubbed her temples, shoving her reading glasses up onto her sleep-tousled head. She’d received the formal reunion invitation last week but had tossed it without even looking at it. No use reliving the whole college scene just to see how everyone else looked… See how many of her friends had kids… How they had all changed over the ten years since she’d last seen them. She certainly didn’t feel like listening to them telling stories about new babies and favorite pets and how they’d met their husbands.     All the things Fran had excluded from her life in favor of monetary success and “being her own woman”.Fran was far more realistic now. She refused to kid herself. She had never found the man of her dreams and settled down to raise a family, mainly because it had taken her seven years to get past her own demented mental image of herself. And now that she finally recognized her own worth and had learned to love herself as she was, she was way past the wild need to flaunt her wares and try to trap some unwary male. Besides, most men in her age bracket were already married. Or divorced and on the rebound. Or just looking for a one-night stand. So far, that had never quite appealed, no matter how good-looking the man in question happened to be.    Men were not a necessity in life. Besides…she’d royally screwed up, long ago, with the only man she’d ever really wanted any sort of relationship with.   She ran her fingers through her wild curls and pressed her thumbs against the bridge of her nose. Back then she’d been so sure that the tentative advances he’d made were simply another way for the jock community at WIU to have a laugh-fest at her expense. She’d reacted defensively, tearing his ego into tiny strips. And then he’d basically left her alone. Damn…   Only years later, after many long sessions with her uber-patient therapist, had it flashed with astonishing clarity into her mind. Jack Gerrard—her dream man—had actually tried to ask her out on a date. And she had gone off on the man as if he’d just asked her to jump naked into an anthill.   She gave a sigh of resignation. The worst part of it was that she’d always had the most pathetic crush on the man—most girls had crushes on the hot, sexy hero of the WIU gridiron.   Even in high school, Gerrard had always been in the company of cheerleaders and prom queens and the most popular girls. They hung all over him like bees around a honey pot. One look from those riveting blue eyes could make any girl drop her panties with a scream of delight. But Jack had ignored them most of the time, keeping up excellent grades so he could play varsity football. She supposed that was the true attraction.   Sure. There she went, lying to herself again. She’d been hot for his ripped body, just like all the other girls. But it had gone deeper than that with her.   He had offered her some modicum of friendship, and good-looking guys did not want to be pals with Fran Jamison. So when that friendship was withdrawn without explanation or reason, it had torn her up inside.

J.D. Faver brings us BAD VIBES!

Hi Cerise! Thanks so much for inviting me to be your guest today. I was going to share a little about writing a series. My romantic thriller series, The Edge of Texas, is set along the Texas coast just 25 miles north of the Mexican border, so there is a beautiful semi-tropical setting to begin with. Then I added some flawed characters, each carrying around a load of backstory. Finally, I paint on a coat of trouble, and if the characters seem to be getting a handle on it, I drop a disaster on them.   The hero of the first book, BAD MEDICINE, is Raphael Solis, the sheriff. In this book, he is reunited with Chloe, his high school sweetheart who fled town after his mother and sister falsely accused her of theft and caused her to lose her scholarship. To say that she has a big chip on her shoulder would be an understatement. I put them through hell together in this first volume.
BAD MEDICINE is followed by BAD KARMA, and then BAD VIBES, my newest release, picks right afterward. This is the blurb for BAD VIBES: Darla (one of Raphael’s deputies) arrests a vagrant, hanging around the marina, but after he’s cleaned up, she discovers a hunky, hard-body with a smoldering gaze hidden beneath the filthy rags. He turns out to be a federal agent working undercover. He’s after a gang of human traffickers using the Intracoastal Waterway to bring sex slaves into the United States from Mexico. Rafael assigns Darla as liaison officer to work with the feds, bringing her face-to-face with the “Iceman”, Mike Burke, the undercover agent she arrested. Darla, Mike and his partner tear up and down the Intracoastal Waterway in pursuit of the human traffickers, but when two local women disappear, the search becomes personal.As an author, I always have a feeling of loss when I’m writing the last chapter of a book, because I’m saRafael stepped into the cool darkness of his tenth-floor beach front condo. The air-conditioning rushed out to embrace him. He closed and locked the door and started the involved process of removing his damp, wrinkled uniform. He first disarmed himself and secured his sidearm in a lock box he kept close to the door, now that he was a responsible parent. He divested himself of handcuffs, badge and credentials before removing his boots and starting to unbutton his shirt. He glanced in on Lacy and Daniel, asleep in what had been a guest room in his bachelor days. He stood over them, each in turn, silently tucking the coverlet around Lacy. Here, with his children, he was always able to regain his sense of values and purpose; no matter what the real world had robbed him of on any particular day.Tiptoeing out, he left the door ajar, knowing Chloe would be waking whenever Daniel cried out for his next feeding. Rafael slipped silently into the master bedroom, listening to Chloe’s measured breathing as he removed his clothes and soundlessly stepped into their bathroom. He felt too dirty to climb into the same bed with his wife.He deposited his clothes in the hamper and turned on the shower. He brushed his teeth and stroked his hand over his day’s growth of beard. He smiled at his reflection in the mirror, hearing Chloe’s voice address him as her favorite werewolf. Stepping into the water, he inhaled the steamy spray. The warm rain shower made him feel whole again. He washed his hair and body and turned off the water. Rubbing his eyes with his fists, he opened them to see Chloe holding a towel for him. “Thanks,” he said, stepping out. “Sorry that I woke you.”“I don’t mind,” she said. I love you, you know?”He smiled, reaching for the towel. “I know. I love you more.”“Impossible.” She ran her hands over his damp chest. Rafael slipped the tiny straps off her shoulders, letting the short gown fall beside the towel. “I swear, baby, you could raise the dead.”Her soft gurgle of pleasure was drowned in his kiss as he pressed her soft, supple body against his. Rafael lifted her and carried her to their bed. He placed her in the middle and slid in beside her. As he stroked his fingers from her cheek, over her breast and down to her hip, his fatigue evaporated. A clutch at his heart reminded him that he’d almost lost her twice within the last year. First, at the hands of an old childhood foe, the heir apparent to a local crime family and later, when she’d gone into labor and happened to arrive at the Emergency Room at the same time as a crazed stalker was closing in on his victim. He swallowed hard and gathered her closer. “Don’t ever take any chances, Chloe. Promise me that you’ll always think before you act.” Her arms wound around him. “I never try to get in the way of nut cases. It was just my karma.”“Get a new karma,” he growled.~*~The order of this series is                                                                                                                                                          (1) BAD MEDICINE                                                                                                                                                                             (2) BAD KARMA                                                                                                                                                                 (3) BAD VIBES                                                                                                                                                                      (4) BAD DREAMS Visit J.D. Faver’s website: http://www.jdfaver.com/                                                                                                                follow on Twitter & FacebookI hope everyone has a chance to visit South Padre Island and the Lower Rio Grande Valley. In the meantime, you can visit through my series and keep up with the happenings. My goal is to entertain…and keep you up nights. ;-) *hugs*                                                                                                                                                                                       ~J.D.

Want my famous Cerise DeLand WINE BAG giveaways?

http://www.romancejunkies.com/halloweencontest2012/halloweenmainpage.html Celebrating the release of TIE ME DOWN, my latest in KNIGHTS IN BLACK LEATHER BDSM, menage series!
Enter this contest!

What does my famous CERISE DELAND WINE BAG contain?

MUMM Napa Valley WINE TOTE BAG filled with: wine cooler bag, Diva dishtowel wine cork wine coasters and box of Wine tasting menu recipe cardsa copy of CERISE's print book. Everything you need for an evening of wine, men and yummies!
THIS HALLOWEEN CONTEST runs until Nov. 29!

TIE ME DOWN release party at trsparties.com today!

http://www.jasminejade.com/m-560-cerise-deland.aspx TIE ME DOWN Release Party over at trsparties.com today!
Come over to learn more about shibari—and Case Turner and Samantha Marlowe!
Both live in Bravado, Texas, my Hill Country town where the men are good and plenty...and lonely.
Yes. Most men band together to keep one lucky woman happy.
They've learned how to share. Hmmm. Intriguing concept for men, right?
But it happens here. The reason the town has few women is purely economics. Many women leave town to go to college and most never return. Other women marry young and stay that way. So the eligible bachelors need to be smart and savvy to keep a woman they love very, very happy.
You do not want to miss this KNIGHTS IN BLACK LEATHER series that began with ROPE ME IN!

Shibari rules? They've got to have them!

http://www.jasminejade.com/m-560-cerise-deland.aspx For such an art that takes enormous strength and concentration on the part of master and submissive, yes, there are rules of procedure.

What are they?

Only a few, each one is meant to honorably protect the submissive or subject from harm or pain.
Each rule also ensures maximum enjoyment for the Nawashi and his subject.
They also blend to provide both master and sub with a sense of artistic accomplishment, vital to the beauty of the tableaux they create together.

The rules are:

1. Bind the prisoner so that he/she may not slip his bonds.
2. Bind the prisoner is such a way that you not cause any physical or mental injury.
3. Create a result that is beautiful to behold.The fourth rule is optional and is at the decision of the Nawashi : Do not allow others to see the process of making the knots.

Have you ever trained to be a subject of a Nawashi? What was your experience?

How does a shibari create art with rope...and a naked submissive?

Add caption
But how could a samurai use only rope as his medium—and how does this transform into erotic bondage?
The 16th and 17th century samurai warriors developed a system of tying up their captives in various positions that would incapacitate them. The positions would also show their subjugation to their conquerors. And to distinguish among the prisoners their rank, the warrior created a system of knots and positions that showed to anyone within their armies how valuable this particular prisoner was.
This system of showing honor and respect as well as social rank transformed in the late 18th and 19th centuries in Japan into the erotic bondage displays that today we call Kinbaku . (Demonstrations of this occurred in the geisha houses and evolved into auto-erotic bondage. Wood block prints of The Floating World portray such practices, difficult to find but available, also show erotic positions of bondage.)
Here, a master of the rope, called a Nawashi (rope artist) ties his subject into various poses, all of which show respect and honor to the subject and the master. The subject must practice total submission to the Nawashi and this requires not only practice but patience and concentration.  The art of working the ropes in a demonstration can take hours.
The result is a beautiful tableau or picture of a naked body bound in (usually) fine jute. Binding a female, a Nawashi uses the rope and knots to accentuate the curves and hollows of his subject’s hair, arms, legs, toes, fingers, breasts and genitalia. The more skilled the Nawashi , the more finely he can separate each part of his subject’s body and display it in erotic forms. Displaying a male subject can also be done, this time displaying the male body and even arranging the penis and testicles in artful manners. The reward of the Nawashi to his subject for an excellent submission and performance can be sexual intimacy and gratification.Would you find this kind of bondage sexually exciting?

What is shibari? And why is it BDSM?

http://www.jasminejade.com/m-560-cerise-deland.aspx
TIE ME DOWN, my second in my KNIGHTS IN BLACK LEATHER series, stars Case Turner who is a shibari master.
And just what is shibari?
Shibari , an ancient Japanese art form developed from samurai warriors, is the act of tying someone up. But it is not simply using a rope, tying a few knots and calling it a day. It is an expressive art form, used by 16th and 17th century samurai who lived in a feudal society where constant warfare among clans was the norm.
The use of tying up captured samurai from other clans was practical. These Japanese warriors had no prisons and did not wish to build any. Warfare in this period was fast, bloody and decisive. This meant that a samurai, who was bound by a code called bushido (Way of the Warrior) must honor his prisoners according to their rank.
But how could a samurai do that with only rope as his medium?

Ah, come back tomorrow to learn!

In the meantime, tell us if you have ever tried shibari, as master or subject!
TIE ME DOWN follows the best seller #1 in the KNIGHTS IN BLACK LEATHER series, ROPE ME IN, a delicious a quatre! 3 men for one lady!
http://www.jasminejade.com/m-560-cerise-deland.aspx

Horror erotic romance? Brenna Zinn says, Oh, yeah

What’s this, you ask.  Horror Erotic Romance??  How can horror be erotic?  How can horror be romantic?  They go together like peanut butter and bacon. (And do you not LOVE the cover?)
But have you ever TRIED peanut butter and bacon?  I’m here to tell you, it’s yummy.  So is horror erotic romance. 
There’s nothing more invigorating, more spine tingling than a hero and a heroine in a situation where tension is high, nerves are on end, the completely unexplainable is happening.  Danger, drama, and hot kinky sex get our blood pumping and keep our noses into books.  So, ya.  Horror erotic romance really makes some good sense, and is probably why the genre is currently one of the hottest out there.
Halloween right around the corner, our taste for something a little scary peaks.  And lucky us, Ellora’s Cave, the number one publisher for erotic romance, delivers on not only the scary, but hot BDSM.
But don’t be confused. My latest Ellora’s Cave release, Rise of the Dom , isn’t a story about having sex with ghosts or the walking dead.  Nope.  Imagine a hot alpha male Dom, his sexy as sin sub, and an evil dead Dom who is hell-bent on continuing to control from beyond the grave.  But let me give you a little taste…
Rise of the Dom by Brenna ZinnCopyright 2012  Ellora’s Cave PublishingExcerpt:
Chet placed his arm under Emma’s bent knees, then lifted her legs. When they were high enough that he could see the familiar curves of her apple bottom, he stopped. “You have disobeyed me. This is your punishment.”He raised his hand over his shoulder and held his position. Emma didn’t need to know exactly when his palm would strike her ass. Better to prolong the suspense. Anticipation was such a decadent tool to use with a sub. As far as she knew, she would stay in this position for hours until he delivered the blow.A sudden movement in the kitchen distracted Chet. A shiver registered on his skin as the temperature plummeted. He flicked his gaze in the direction of the stirring, but nothing looked out of the ordinary. The bright kitchen and the white table and chairs appeared untouched. Unmoved.I know I saw something…Out of the corner of his eye, he detected another movement. Something black. No more than four feet in height. When Chet shifted his eyes to see what the object was, there was nothing. Only clear countertops and an empty hallway leading to the living room.Chet mentally shook his head. When was the last time he’d had his eyes checked? Three years? Five?Realizing he still had his hand high over his head, ready to deliver Emma’s punishment, he decided it was time. His dick was hard and he wanted to feel the tight walls of her pussy coaxing him to come.Yet a noise, quiet but growing louder, buzzed close by. He strained to identify the sound.A fly? A bee?He turned his head left and right, taking in every inch of the pantry and kitchen. Nothing he could see would generate such a strange hum. Not even a trapped insect trying to escape out a closed window. But the buzz was there, growing louder by the second.He jerked back when he thought he detected mumbled words within the buzzing. A man’s voice, deep and forceful, whispered directly into his ear. At the same time a powerful mixture of anger and rage overwhelmed his senses, filling him as though he were an empty vessel.You’re too soft.She’s been willfully disobedient. She must be trained to obey.Hit her hard. Hurt her. Ensure she knows you are her Master.Chet glanced back at Emma. She gave no indication she heard anything out of the ordinary.The woman is your slave. Your bitch. Your cunt.Punish her. Make her writhe in pain.HURT HER!Chet shook his head to rid himself of the angry voice provoking him.NO! Chet silently shouted in his mind. I will not harm her. This is for her pleasure, not mine.Tensing his arm, he swung down and slapped her bare ass with his hand. Though he restrained from hitting her too hard, the resulting loud smack broke the silence of the room. Chet remained unmoved as the sting of the spank traveled up his arm. The throb, heightened by the chill in the air, registered with his cock, which twitched beneath his jeans.Despite the strike to her rear end, Emma made no further sound.You’re no Dom, the voice admonished.You’re a boy.A pretender.An embarrassment.Once again the odd noise buzzed in Chet’s ear, but the intense feelings of anger and hatred melted from him. A streak of darkness on the edge of his peripheral vision pulled his gaze over his shoulder. He studied the limited view of the hallway from his place on the stairs.Nothing was there.He ran his fingers through his hair. Between the weird voice and the crazy tricks his eyes were playing on him, he was losing his fucking mind.Concentrate, damn it. Don’t let Emma down. She’s depending on you to take this scene to completion.Out of guilt or for good measure, he wasn’t sure which, he struck Emma’s ass again. She absorbed the pain, uttering not a word, moving not a muscle.Satisfied he’d punished her sufficiently, Chet lowered his arm, allowing her legs to rest back on the steps leading down to the dungeon. He repositioned himself, then slid his hand up her thigh to remove her panties.A crash, as though something heavy and breakable had been thrown to the floor, sounded from one of the rooms on the second floor.Emma jerked upright and turned. Alarm filled her hazel eyes. “Did you hear that?”“Yes.” Heart racing with a jolt of adrenaline, Chet grabbed the railing and pulled himself up. He stepped past Emma into the kitchen, fully prepared to kick ass and ask questions later if he had to. “Any idea what that was?”“No.” She reached for her clothes. Without bothering to put on her top, she held the blouse like a flimsy shield in front of her chest while fumbling to put on her shorts. “It sounded like it came from my bedroom.”Chet rushed to a counter and pulled a large knife from a butcher-block knife stand. The sharpened edge of the blade glinted in the last remaining rays from the setting sun. “I know how you feel about me roaming around your place outside of the dungeon, but you said you saw something in your room last night. I need to check this out.”As he turned to leave, she stood and caught his arm. Lines of worry creased her forehead. A shadow of unease covered her expression like a dark mask. “I’m sure it’s nothing. Just something that fell by accident. I probably didn’t set something on my nightstand properly and it rolled off.”“Whatever that was couldn’t have been sitting on your nightstand. It sounded huge.” He tried to pull away from her grasp, but she tightened her grip. “What? Why don’t you want me to go upstairs?”She frowned and shook her head. “You don’t understand. I need a place I can go that’s all my own. A private place that’s just for me.”So you don’t have to get too close to me. That’s what you really mean.Impatience mixed with the adrenaline already pumping into his blood and muscles. “I do understand, but your safety is more important to me than your privacy. Let me go.”“Okay.” Emma sighed as she removed her hold. She tugged on her blouse. “But I’m going with you.”Unwilling to waste any more time, Chet nodded and ran down the short hallway. Emma followed closely behind. After reaching the bottom of the stairs, he used his long legs to his advantage, taking two steps at a time. He stopped at the second-story landing to catch his bearings. Never having been on this floor before, he wasn’t sure which door lead to her bedroom.“This way.” Emma edged past him, taking a sharp turn to the left.With his free hand, Chet grabbed the back of her shorts and stopped her in her tracks. “Me first. I’m the one with the knife in my hand. Remember?”Taking the lead, he grabbed the door handle and took a deep breath to calm his nerves. He swung the door open, holding the knife high in the air, ready to strike.Near a bank of windows a cardboard box lay on its side, its top flaps up and open. The contents of the box, mostly picture frames and knickknacks, littered the carpeted floor. The force of the fall had scattered pieces of broken glass all the way to the foot of Emma’s neatly made bed. Other boxes stood precariously stacked against the wall.“See. No big deal. One of my boxes fell.” Emma knelt and picked up a large shard of glass.The short hairs on the back of his neck rose as Chet entered the room and glanced around. When he saw the back wall, his blood ran cold. His grip tightened on the kitchen knife. Unable to utter a word, he tapped Emma’s back.When she looked up, her gaze darted from his face to the wall. A full heartbeat passed before she caught her breath and let out a horrified scream.
You can find me at:Website   www.BrennaZinn.comFacebook    Brenna ZinnTwitter   @BrennaZinn