Maya Blake's Blog, page 3

Quick Six WIth Phoenix Montgomery (Waking Up In Vegas)

Last week we met the royal-iscious Max Waldburg, the hero of Waking Up In Vegas. Since we're equal-opportunity romance lovers, we thought it fair to invite his lucky lady in love and lust, Phoenix, for a Quick Six too!  

Sexy grounded professional or live-life-as-it-happens flower child? Live-life-as-it-happens - perhaps without the flower child bit, though.

Believes in love at first sight or buy-me-dinner-and-we'll-see type? Buy me dinner and we'll see ...

Dinner by candlelight or heli-boarding in the Alps? Heli-boarding in the Alps. Which is why she and Max are so suited!

Jacuzzi for two or …..on the beach? The beach - she loves wild places.
Snowbound Cottage in Scotland or Vegas, Baby?! Vegas - she's action and bright lights all the way.

Happy to propose first or traditional romantic? No way is she a traditional romantic! (and any other answer would be a spoiler)

Ooh, that last one sounds intriguing. Find out what happens in Waking Up In Vegas. Out now from:
Amazon USAmazon UKBarnes & Noble

Quick Six With Max Waldburg (Waking Up In Vegas)

Hey readers, 
We caught Max, yummy hero of Waking Up In Vegas on his way back to Napa and got him to do a Quick Six for us. We promised not to keep him long so, here goes...
Sexy Stubble or Clean Shaven? These days I'm all respectable and go clean-shaven.
Tuxedo or ripped jeans? Ripped jeans at home, but I'll wear a tuxedo for work. If I really have to.
Dinner by candlelight or heli-boarding in the Alps? Definitely heli-boarding in the Alps!
Jacuzzi for two or sex on the beach? Both!
Vegas or The Maldives? Vegas - the place holds some really good memories
Rock on her finger or blood bond, paranormal style? I'm definitely a rock on the finger type of guy.
Thanks for stopping by, Max!
You can find out more about Max and what exactly happened in Vegas here:





Amazon UK
Amazon US
Barnes & Noble

Bargain Monday!

Just a quickie to let you know my debut UK Presents - The Price of Success is available for a bargain £1.80!

And, as if the lovely folks at Amazon weren't being generous enough, The Sinful Art of Revenge is also discounted at £2.30!

Both copies for under a fiver, folks!

Have a Win-Win Monday :)

Winners Announced!

Hi lovely blog readers!
Due to the traumatic events that happened across the Pond last week, I thought I'd wait to announce the winners this week.

So without further ado, the winners of my Calliversary free books are:

Deseree, Nina and Lisa Weaver! Well done you three. Please use the contact button to send me your addresses and I'll pop the books in the post to you.

Thanks so much for visiting and commenting and have a great week, everyone!

Maya x

It's My Calliversary - Whoop Whoop!!!

Can you believe it's been a year already? I. SURE.CAN'T.
It's exactly a year ago today that my lovely Editor called with that life-changing, OMG-I-must-be-dreaming 2 book deal. I'm 100% sure I've never said yes so fast to anything, lol.
So what's happened in the last year?
I've sold three more books to Harlequin Presents. Yep, I got word that Book 4 sold on Tuesday *happy dances*. For those who've read my debut and asked about him, this is Rafael, Marco's brother from The Price of Success's story. I loved writing this book - simply because Rafael is completely, unashamedly irreverent but deeply troubled too!
Even more good news regarding this book - it'll be out as a 2-in-1 US release this Christmas, so you get to read the two stories together, yay! I don't have title details yet but I'll let you know as soon as I do.

I'm also awaiting news on a possible earlier-than-fall release date for my Entangled Suspense story so watch this space.
It's been a wild, thrilling, often sleepless journey - who needs sleep, right? - and I couldn't have asked for a better set of editors, CPs and author friends to share it with - the support has been truly awesome.  
So what's on the horizon for the next year?
Hopefully more books!!! I intend to keep writing the stories I love until someone wakes me up from this dream - sorry, too sickly? Well...it HAS been a dream come true.
I'm also moving heaven and earth (and possibly seducing my bank manager) to try and attend a conference or two in the next year for the chance to meet some online author friends, readers, and my CPs!

Lastly, to celebrate this awesome day, I'm giving away 3, yep THREE copies of The Sinful Art of Revenge to three commenters. To win, just comment here or visit my Facebook page (where I will be posting some snippets throughout the day) and answer this quick, easy question: What's the name of my heroine from The Sinful Art of Revenge? If you're looking for the answer here, just click on the first chapter widget and find out. See? It's that easy!

The contest will be open till Monday.

Good luck!

Spotted In The Wild - Oz Cover!

My very first Australian cover. Yeah, it's the same two from my UK cover but I'm still EXCITED!!!!


Happy Monday, everyone! I'll be back when various revisions are done and dusted! :)

Title, Reviews & Saggy Middles

As promised last week, I have news on the title and release date for my next Harlequin Presents.

Drum roll, please...........

MARRIAGE MADE OF SECRETS will be on general retail release in the UK and US in October. This is the story of Cesare di Goia and Ava Hunter whose marriage has hit a bit, well...more than a bit of a rough patch because of...you guessed it...secrets! Well, there are other HUGE things standing in the way of their HEA but there are fun shenanigans on the way!

So be sure to watch out for their story in September on the Mills and Boon site and in October at your nearest bookstore!

In other news, my second HP - The Sinful Art of Revenge is making the rounds in anticipation of its general release later this month/early next month, and I've already come across two lovely reviews. I'll post my favourite one so far, below:

****mini spoiler-alert****

Maya Blake has officially become a favorite author with this book. This is an emotional reunion romance. Five years ago Damion had romanced Reiko right before he revealed that he was there to bankrupt her grandfather. Five years after Damion needed Reiko's help and found that he was still obsessed with her. But Reiko is damaged both physically and emotionally from an accident that caused her father's life. And it would require patience and a lot of love on Damion's side to woo her. I loved both characters. Reiko was a really unusual heroine- being half Japanese as well as having a cool job procuring expensive art. Damion is the perfect guy- rich and very much in love with Reiko. I hope Ms. Blake writes more novels because I really enjoyed the first two she wrote.

I also received a very lovely fan email about this story last week that made all the writing-angst worthwhile!

Speaking of writing angst - I've come to the place in my current wip I dread the most - saggy bloomin' middle! I love writing beginnings, I love writing smexy-times (boy do I love the smexy times, lol) and I love writing the endings...but the middle bit, right before my H/h are poised to make the move from drowning-in-sexual-tension to whoop-sexytimes is a killer for me!

It will get done because, well...it always gets done...but yeah, I'm tearing my hair out here a bit.

If you have any tips for tackling the saggy middle, share them with me? I'll reward you with chocolate ;)

Book 3 Sold (!!!)...and Other Stuff

It's been over a month since I last blogged...yeah, naughty me. I blame two very close-together deadlines and a bout of revisions hell.

But hey, I wouldn't have it any other way...well, maybe a little bit...whatever.

The GREAT news is, I heard from my editor yesterday and Book 3 is a go! I love, love, love Cesare & Ava's story and I had to work pretty darn hard to make it shine. Seeing my editor's email to say I'd succeeded made all the pain so much worthwhile...so yayyy!

I have no title or release details yet but I'll let you, my lovely blog readers, know as soon as I know.
 
In other news, my second Harlequin Presents/Modern book, The Sinful Art of Revenge, received 4.5 stars from RT Reviews! Although it's my second book from Harlequin Mills and Boon, it's my official debut book in the US as my first didn't get a US retail release (although I expect some news on that soon, so watch this space). So I'm doubly chuffed that my official debut book has been so well received by RT!
From reading through their ranking system, 4.5G is the highest ranking, followed by 4.5, then 4 and so on, so to receive 4.5 on my "first" is truly awesome.
So, what's next?

My editor currently has Book 4, so I'm awaiting revisions on that, my Entangled editor has my revisions on my romantic suspense, so I'm awaiting her thoughts on that too, and my next HPs (Books 5&6) are my very first duet featuring two hot Greek brothers which I'm really excited about.

Writing can be stressful at times, especially juggling it with a full-time day job and family, but I feel so blessed to be doing something I love so much!

Would love to hear your news, or just what everyone else is up to!

Take care, lovely people :)

xx

UK Cover - The Sinful Art of Revenge

Happy Monday everyone! Or if you're on my side of the Atlantic experiencing the cold snap...brrrr...Happy Monday but please bundle up warm!!

One of my lovely eagle-eyed Twitter friends DM'd me after spotting this on Amazon. It's the UK cover of The Sinful Art of Revenge!

The hero is ymmy and I totally love it!

Yes, my heroine is one-shoe'd for some reason...my totally dirty mind is choosing to think my hero has...ahem...shagged if off her. See that hint of satisfaction on his face?? Lol.

Anyway, let me know what you think?

Here's the blurb:

Taking what is rightfully his...

Endless tabloid coverage has left Reiko Kagawa with way too much information about art dealer Damion Fortier's legendary playboy exploits -everyone knows he's renowned for leaving a wake of broken hearts across Europe's most glamorous destinations!

Reiko knows she has two things Damion wants: the first, a priceless painting and Fortier heirloom. The second, her seriously off-limits body! And she has no intention of giving him access to either.

Damion isn't used to beautiful women scorning his advances, so it's definitely time to turn his lethal charm up one last notch to ensure he gets exactly he wants....

PS - (cheeky promo) - The Sinful Art of Revenge is also up for pre-order now on Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk and Barnes & Noble ;)

New Year, New Yay!

First off, belated Happy New Year to all my friends and readers! I hope you had a lovely Christmas, and a brilliant welcome to 2013.
2012 - my head's still spinning from how fast last year went by, although one or two dates stand out for me ;)
For 2013 I've decided not to set rigid goals. The aim it so keep writing, and to up my writing in a way that would make my eventual (I hope) transition into full-time writing a smoother one if/when it happens.
To that end, I'm thrilled to announce I signed a contract with Entangled Publishing yesterday! Woooot! Like most writers out there, I've been following Entangled's phenomenal progress since they launched in 2011 and I jumped at the chance to work with an Entangled editor on my Dead Sexy (romantic suspence) story. As soon as I have dates, titles, and relevant info, I'll let you know.
I also have a few things in the pipeline that aren't quite firm yet so watch this space.
My Harlequin Presents editor is also getting back to me this week about whether or not I nailed the revisions on Book 3 (always a nerve-wracking time, but hey, this journey wouldn't be exciting otherwise, right?)
Once Book 3 is done and dusted, I have a quick turnaround for Book 4 which is due...no, I'm too scared I'm getting ahead of myself.
Needless to say, things are happening and happening fast. I'm excited, I'm scared, I'm holding on with both hands but I have a happy grin on my face because the ride is thrilling!
I hope your year started with a bang too. I'd love to hear about it :)
Maya x