Chloe Stowe's Blog: The Words and Madness of Chloe Stowe - Posts Tagged "teaser"

As the deadline for Hard Water looms (11 days and counting… yes, “Yikes!” does come to mind), I decided to pull back, take a deep breath and tease. While my best teasing talents usually require some fingers and tongue (sorry, couldn’t help it *sheepish grin*), I will restrain myself this time and restrict my dirty work today to words alone…

So, without further adieu, here is your Hard Water tease for the day…

Chapter Titles for the fifth Chloe Stowe original novel - Hard Water

Prologue… The Water is Hard and Deep
Chapter One… Fireworks over Warm Waters
Chapter Two… A Towel, a Spark and a Fist
Chapter Three… Windowpanes and Moonlight
Chapter Four… Jumping into the Deep End
Chapter Five… Jumping into the Right Deep End
Chapter Six… The Bittersweet Lapping of Candy
Chapter Seven… A Neanderthal and a Good Samaritan
Chapter Eight… A Slow Boat from South Africa
Chapter Nine… Drowning in the Shallows
Chapter Ten… Healing Waters
Chapter Eleven… Home Waters

Now, class, aren’t we all curious? Everyone feeling appropriately teased? Want some more? Check in tomorrow and I’ll give you a taste.

Love you all,
Chloe Stowe

Ah! Hellesgate, Kansas. What a twisted little town of derangement and love my chemically imbalanced brain has wrought.

Have you missed it? Have you had a hankering for a tall cold glass of Bingham’s hard lemonade? Or how about a nice warm mug of the Eastons’ apple cider? Has the sight of thistles blowing in the wind given you cause to check over your shoulder for wispy, green-eyed stalkers? Does just the thought of a single malt scotch have you diving for a fire extinguisher and an elephant gun?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions I kiss your feet and offer you my therapist’s card with the sequel.

Honestly though, I never thought I would be returning to Hellesgate. What a weird and totally incomprehensible honor it was to be asked back. Yes, there were tears. However, I stand by my emotions with my bottles of Prozac proudly by my side.

Writing a sequel is hard. There are so many expectations, in my case mostly internal. I wanted to be true to the characters but not have their stories turn stale. I wanted my readers to feel when they picked up Blow Torch like old friends were visiting them – old friends with heart-wrenching and soul-gladdening surprises being held secretly behind their backs.

Most of all, I didn’t want to disappoint.

I hope I haven’t.

Hellesgate is such a town rich with potential storylines that I really, really hope I picked the right ones to follow. I trust my readers to tell me if I have.

This time we delve into Cane Summerfield’s past. In Torched, we learned that the Iraqi war veteran had been horribly scarred emotionally from his experience in the Middle East. In Blow Torch, we learn the how’s, the why’s and, most importantly, the therefore’s.

“War is hell… and sometimes it follows a man home.”

To whet your appetite for the sequel which should be arriving to bookstands within the next two or three weeks, here is the chapter index for Blow Torch. Hope it teases and tickles you a little…

Prologue… Iraq
Chapter One… A Good Day
Chapter Two… Oranges
Chapter Three… Sahara
Chapter Four… A Tarnished Star
Chapter Five… May Day
Chapter Six… Guns and Floods
Chapter Seven… Blindsided
Chapter Eight… Born of Guilt
Chapter Nine… Done
Epilogue… A Better Day

Well, until my cover is ready for your perusal, I will leave you all with my heart-filled thanks for reading this rambling of mine. Once again, I invite you all to return with Matthew Archer and Cane Summerfield to Hellesgate, Kansas. It will be a trip full of passion, lust, greed, revenge and toe-curling romance. It will be a trip you will never forget.

Sincerely,
Chloe Stowe

Welcome one and all to the twelve day Hard Wood, Soft Heart Teasing Your Toes Off Event!

For the first time ever not only will you be given sneak peeks at the chapter titles of my newest m/m romance with Ravenous Romance coming out in the next few weeks, but you will also be given actual tiny, daily excerpts from each chapter!

Yes, it does blow your mind, doesn’t it? Gets your blood cells all tingly and ready to head south for some naughty fun? Leaves you wondering “What kind of drama is that crazy woman going to put me and my heart through this time?” (Gets the English teachers out there chiding “That should be ‘my heart and I,” Ms. Stowe.”)

Well, this is no place to be shy. Step right up and prepare all your really good spots to be tickled and all your soft and mushy “ahhh!” places to be warmed… Besides, let’s be honest here, how many of my faithful readers out there are wondering if I’ve managed to slip another volcano into the story? Hands please. Yep, just what I thought.

I like to think that each of my novels lean a little in one direction. Be it heavy on the romance (Taken), or the sex (Hard Water), or the kink (Forever Bound) or the action/mystery/intrigue (Barbarian and The Hellesgate Series), I try to make each of my stories unique and memorable in their own way.

So without further adieu and with the promise of hard refreshments at the end, I proudly give you the synopsis to a novel that is all about love and the sex that leads you there.

I give you Hard Wood, Soft Heart…


This is a story of Las Vegas… of a one-night stand turned life-long love… of one man running so hard from his past that he runs headfirst into a man running just as hard away from his future.

A brilliant cardiologist scarred by a bitter divorce, Saul Tidewater has left the memories of his past behind and started a new life in Las Vegas. Dark and dashing, he must fight his surprising lack of self confidence when his long-held and hidden desire to make love to a man will no longer be denied.

Mercer Braun is the man everyone wants. Devilishly handsome with a blinding love for life, the former baseball player could have any man or woman that he wants… but Mercer only wants Saul. A bleak future awaits Mercer, however, and he must fight for his right to meet it on his own terms.

This is the story of two men who have lost their way and stumbled upon forever.

This is the story of a city that gives them the courage to vanquish a past while blazing a future.

This is a story of true love.


Tune in tomorrow, same blog, same post, for the official Chapter One tease!

Until then, ladies and gents, please help yourself some much deserved tequila… I’ll be in the back room puking my “Oh my God, they’re going to hate it!” nerves out through my nose. Yes, life for Chloe Stowe is rarely pretty. *grins*

Thank you all for reading and always
(amazingly) wanting to read more.

Chloe Stowe
Chloe Stowe

Ahhh! Day Two breaks!

Before we all surrender to the moment and weep, let’s recap a bit, shall we?

Day One (yesterday) brought the beginning of the “Twelve Days of Hard Wood, Soft Heart Teasing Your Toes Off Event.” Following a brief overview of what fans, friends and family (I’d like to say hello to my poodle who’s reading over my shoulder) could expect out of each day’s tease, the much anticipated synopsis of my seventh novel for Ravenous Romance was revealed.

In case you missed it, I magnanimously grant you time travel and you can head back to Day One right now. It’s ok. We’ll wait and maybe have some doughnuts while you zip yourself through the Chloe Stowe Wormhole.
A cautionary statement on travel in the
CSW: Be careful how far you go back. My eighth grade poem which began with the lines, “There once was a boy / who had no joy / in going to school each day,” might damage brain cells. Just saying.

Now that everyone has rejoined us, shall we get down to business? Yes, I believe I see one hand raised out there in…I think… Kentucky, so Chapter One Tease is a go!...


Chapter One: Driven to Extinction

“Saul Tidewater stood on the rooftop overlooking Las Vegas clinging to his heterosexuality by the skin of his teeth...” (page 1)


Once everyone get’s their breaths back, I’d like to point out that while my copy editor is still working fingers to the bone editing this book there may in fact be some changes to the excerpts I’m sneaking to you. Take the page numbers with a grain of salt. They’re just there to give you some generalized marker as to where you are in the book. Wouldn’t want anyone getting lost.

In this case, however, I have it on good authority that this may very well be the opening line to the novel! I know, I can hardly restrain myself either.

While Day Three percolates and steeps in my brain for tomorrow, I’d like to thank all of you for stopping by. I hope I was able to give you a smile and just maybe a giggle. Please, enjoy some hot chocolate before you go and, heck, grab another doughnut or two. This is all about indulgence anyhow. Why not have a little powdered sugar and sprinkles with our escapism? I won’t tell if you won’t. *smiles*

Until tomorrow…

Chloe Stowe
Chloe Stowe

Welcome one and all to the 12 day preview of Peak and Thrust! Over the next week and a half, we will explore how my eighth novel can bring you a more satisfying roll in the hay. Yes, by following these 12 steps you and your lover can experience more zing in the sack, more va-va-va-boom in that oft-shared shower, more “ooh” in your “ooh-la-la”…

Or this could all be some clever marketing scheme to “peak” (notice smart tie in, please) your interest in my upcoming release? Hmmm. Well, the truth of my motives I leave to you my dear friends. I can promise you that if you do follow along you will be entertained, enlightened and quite possibly emboldened in your day to day life.

How you might ask?

With every step will come not only a preview of the name of one of Peak and Thrust’s chapters but also a teasing little excerpt to tickle your romantic bone… or your smut bone, whichever you bring to the party.

Along the way, my wry sense of humor will make frequent appearances as I give you all a behind the scenes “peek” at the writing of P&T.

More importantly, however, (at least I hope) are the tiny insights I’ll give you into life with a chronic mental illness.

Whenever you pick up a Chloe Stowe original, you get a little piece of me with it. It may not always be pretty and shiny, but I do hope it is always enlightening. Shining my little penlight into the often over-looked shadows of mental illness may be my reason for being here on this planet. I hope it is and I hope you will all share a little of your light with those still lost in their mind’s dark.

Then, of course, there’s the sex… or the step to better sex, I should say. (Sorry but the budget didn’t really allow for passing out condoms to all comers, so there will be no author sanctioned penetration here. However, please feel free to bring your own though to share with the rest of the group. The more condoms the merrier, I always say.)

Anyhow, there will be fun. There will be teasers. There will be uncut gems of hope. All I ask for in return is your patience with my sometimes royally screwed up mind. It may be a bumpy ride folks, but when we’ve got hot guys hungry for some loving bumping along with us then it’s all good, right?

Tomorrow Step One will arrive in your social media outlets and with it a look at the Prologue for my eighth original novel. Until then and to thoroughly whet your appetite for more I give you today the world premiere of the official (at least until my publisher changes it) back-cover blurb for Peak and Thrust…


“Happily ever after’s” rarely came to men like these…

Joey Ballios was a cop. For ten years his life had been little more than long foot chases through the cold Detroit snow, piles of paperwork on perps who would never be caught, and forty hour shifts that were as thankless as they were heroic.

Laird Fox climbed mountains. His whole life had been dedicated to scaling the unreachable and bringing the unattainable into the novice’s reach. He was a mountain guide in Alaska, a man who spent his days taking strangers to the top of the world, fulfilling their dreams while ignoring his own.

The two men’s lives should never have touched, their worlds never have crossed.

But when three gunshots ring out in a sweltering summer night, some lives are cursed while others are saved…

Joey’s partner is dead, shot in a darkened house that bears a dangerous secret. Running from that night, Joey escapes to Alaska.

There he finds Laird, a man who offers him sweet, scorching sex, a fresh take on life and a heart as scarred and as neglected as Joey’s own.

For five weeks they live for and love each other. But when the long held secrets of the past won’t let Joey go, both men’s futures are put on the line.

Will they surrender to a litany of lies? Or will they rise above them and rescue each other?

Sometimes Fate is more than just a whisper in the hot Detroit wind, more than just a wish on a distant Alaskan star.

Sometimes Fate arrives on tragedy’s tail, a post-script that begins with “Once upon a time.”


I hope to see you all tomorrow for Step One. Please bring your friends and your condoms!

Until next time…

Thank you all for reading!

Chloe Stowe

Good morning world! Welcome to our first day of priming your pumps for the release of Peak and Thrust on Monday, November 28! Yes, the big date has been at least penciled in on stone, so we’ll aim our sites on being all ripe and ready for Joey Ballios and Laird Fox on the Monday after Thanksgiving.

Are we all excited?

*pause under the weight of complete and total silence… I’m not even hearing crickets here, folks*

Well, yeah, that’s kind of why we’re here. We’ll get those crickets warmed up and singing off their little toes in no time.

It’s sort of apropos really, starting off with the whole world is deathly quiet thing, I mean. That deafening silence of no response, no feedback, no hoots and hollers, no whines and moans from an eager audience, that’s what I, like any author, feel like when I sit down to write those crucial first lines of a novel.

A blank slate.

Scary.

We’re talking freaking out scary, the kind where that flight or fight response kicks in and all your nerve endings get all prickly and nauseous and you start re-thinking your purpose in life and if you’re really worthy of being considered a life form above a slug and even those mute little crickets outside your window are starting to look at you funny…

Ok. That may be just me.

But you get the picture.

Scary.

So how do you start? It’s the Dickens versus King Dilemma.

Do you roll like Dickens and weave and sow words and characters and settings into a world so tight and so real that the reader loses themselves completely within it after the first ten or twenty pages?

Or do you go for the shock value, mold your efforts after Stephen King and throw the reader into the deep end of the story before they have time to even grab one last breath?

For me, when writing a romance that will be vying with all those millions of other romances out there, I go for the Wham Bam Theory.

Right out of the box, I try to hit the reader in the face. Slap a storyline or an emotion on them so fast that they have no choice but to turn to page two.

Then, after a few pages, when they’re hooked but still squiggling on the line, I try to reel them in with a little Dickens. Make them want to stay beyond just having to stay to find out what happens next.

At least that’s plan.

Does it work or not? That’s up to you, the fishes that give life and reason, the beautiful creatures that give slugs like me the courage to string a little line into the literary waters and hope for the best, little lines like these…

Prologue: Detroit

Gunfire erupted from the darkened house.

An unmarked police car sat in the driveway, its blue lights whirling madly in the hot Detroit night

There were no screams, no shouts of fright or anger.

There were no mad rushes, no frantic footsteps fleeing the scene.

And there was only silence on the police radio.

Stillness strangled the night.


If this peek at the Prologue of Peak and Thrust works for you, entices you to come back tomorrow and get a peek at Chapter One, I lay its success entirely at the feet of the Wham Bam Theory… since without that first initial “Wham!” there would be never be the proverbial sweet “Bam! and Thank you, Ma’am!”

I do hope to see you tomorrow, even though I realize now that I have compared you to bugs and big mouth bass… Hmm, I guess there really is a reason why my social life is stunted.

Until tomorrow, tell your friends, family and all your best fishes to come on by and help us warm up a few cricket toes.

Sincerely,

Chloe Stowe, the slug in today’s little drama
Chloe Stowe

Good morning ladies and gents! Day Two has arrived and with it comes the scrapping of the whole 12 Steps to a Better Sex Life theme. It just wasn’t working for me so I’m afraid you’re just stuck with pure Chloe for a while… Buck up, folks. I have to deal with her 24/7. *grins*

A few days ago I wrote about the trials and tribulations wrought by Peak and Thrust’s infamous Chapter One. To summarize: writing it was a little piece of hell. However, the end result actually came out pretty sparkly and juicy (something a smut/romance writer is always proud of). I’m happy with it and I can only hope you’re happy with it too. So without further adieu here is your tease of the day!


Chapter One: A Sloe Gin Fizz and a Nice Juicy Steak…

“Laird Fox sat at the bar nursing a Sloe Gin Fizz, a ham sandwich and a hard-on.” (page 2)


And that, one and all, is the introduction to Laird, the mountain guide of our little Alaskan tale.

Speaking of Alaskan tales… doesn’t every romance author have to write at least one? I mean, Alaska is just this big old wilderness teeming with storylines, dangers, romantic rendezvouses and good ol’ fashioned adventure. It’s literally ripe for the picking. Besides, what better opportunity is there for a man to show off his manliness than in the closest thing America’s got left of a frontier? Think modern day cowboy without the funny hat and spurs.

To be honest, that was the reason I was a little leery of writing a novel based mostly in Alaska. It seems to have been done to death… and done to death brilliantly by so many better authors than myself that I was a little scared of sticking my toes into such a thriving pool. I enjoy my toes, having them nipped off by ho-hum sales I’d like to avoid.

Yes, color me a chicken.

But also color me a sucker because in the end I just couldn’t resist Laird Fox.

Once a character gets sown in my head, it’s really hard to let him go unborn. That was the case with Laird, my surfer boy in flannel (yes, that’s how I picture him in my head; blame the medication.) His story is one of love/hate, everything in his life falls into one category or the other. It was fun fleshing out a man so black and white into a whole array of fascinating and fearless colors. I try to make my characters as real, as heart-hungry and broken, as quirky as life truly is. I hope I was able to capture Laird in that light.

So will Chloe Stowe’s foray into the Alaskan wilderness be a success or a flop? Will her toes be nibbled off and carried away on the tides of “Been there, done that better than you, little girl”? Or will she and her extremities survive to write romantic smut another day? It will be a waiting game of epic proportions, one where sanity and self-worth teeter on the line between success and institutionalization…

Hmm, a back cover blurb for authors? Could be the wave of the future, folks… Just remember you heard here on Day Two of “Peak and Thrust’s 12 Day Sneak Peek Event” first.

Until tomorrow…

Chloe Stowe

A good Saturday morning to one and all! Are we ready to dive into Day Three? Yes, picture this blog as a big pile of crisp, colorful leaves just waiting for a free spirit such as yourself to fling their body and soul into its autumnal crunchiness and splendor…

Well, it was a thought.

Despite my lack of crinkly fall goodness, I hope you will enjoy your daily visit to Chloe-land. To get things rolling, here is your sneak peek at Chapter Two of Peak and Thrust:



Chapter Two: Wham Bam Thank You Ma’am

Joey rolled his eyes at Laird as he waved Alma over for another beer. “I’ve got a coroner on my speed dial. Do you really want to be messing with that?” (page 26)



Humor, or at least what I think is humor, is very important in my stories. If there’s no laughter there can be no love… or so I like to think.

A lot of people correctly call my characters “quirky.” I take that as a good thing. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to read about a bunch of Barbie dolls smashing their perfect grins into each other’s cemented smiles. If I wanted “plastic love” I’d go get out my Ken dolls and G.I. Joe’s and have them go at it on the rug… Hmm, not a bad idea entirely. On a slow afternoon when your Kindle is on the fritz, why not? (Call your psychiatrist here if you are finding no reasons to “Why not?”)

But I digress.

I do hope you enjoy my attempt at bringing a few good chuckles into your life… hey, it may not exactly be on the same level of the crunchies a good pile of leaves brings you, but at least it’s something, right?

Now, go leap into this crisp fall day… and don’t forget to take your Ken and Joe’s with you. *grins*

Until tomorrow…

Chloe Stowe
Chloe Stowe

Excuse me, but has anybody seen the sun? You know, big orange heavenly blob that makes the world a prettier place to be? I was told by numerous sources on the Weather Channel that it was supposed to be here today. In fact, I counted on it being here. Had all my merry little plans made for a bright and shiny Sunday afternoon of football and romance, writing and holiday-making…

I think I’ve been stood up.

Bummer… No, really.

Ready or not here comes a peek into my messed up world. I warned you this might happen and here it is. File all complaints with Mr. Jim Cantore and the fake little sun he plopped over my head last night.

Honestly, I’m on a lot of medication for my panic attacks. I have been for many years. With these meds I’ve been able to weasel out a mostly doable life that has me playing in the sun a lot more than just surviving in the shadows. Yeah, I know, not a pretty picture… but a lot of Picasso’s stuff wasn’t pretty either but they turned out to masterpieces in the end. So, here’s to hoping that there’s a little bit of Picasso buried deep down beneath the screwed up fear.

Anyhow, it’s hard to “play in the sun” when there’s no sun. Not kidding, here. Sometimes the sun and a beautiful blue sky seems to play as important a role in my struggling mental health as the meds. I know a lot of people with depression feel the same way. It’s fine if it’s raining, snowing is glorious, but when the day is just this big heavy brick of gray ugliness my mind just settles back in its perpetual shadows and burrows itself in for the duration.

It stinks.

Big time.

And see now that I have actually complained to you about it, I feel even worse. What kind of crap is that?

Well, on days like these you all are truly the manifestation of the song, “You are my sunshine.” I’ll more than likely write the day away, running toward the sunshine your happy, satisfied faces bring me when I’m able to deliver a good story to you… Sounds lame, I know. But the truth of my life often is a little crooked and off-putting, so lame just about fits perfectly here.

As I leave you this day with your Chapter Three excerpt, I wish you all sunshine and little Picasso’s in the shady corners of your souls…


Chapter Three: Powdered Sugar Clues

“The amount of skin stretched over the perfectly sculpted six pack and deeply barreled ribs gave Laird such a head rush that he found himself reaching back and grabbing at a wall just in case his knees decided to join his dick on its unplanned trip around the moon.” (page 39)


Until tomorrow…
Chloe Stowe

Good morning, world at large! If you have made it here for Day Five I assume you were able to survive Day Four. I applaud you, and I thank you. My darker days can get pretty dark and I only share them with you in hopes of enlightening everyone to the often muted struggles people with mental illness must battle through every day. Your return today makes my heart swell. Thank you.

Now, on to the smut!

What shall we talk about today? Well, since we’ve already had a brief expose on mountain man Laird Fox, why don’t we share a Joey Ballios moment?

Ah, Joey. I love him so. He’s the first cop I have ever written which amazes me really. Growing up, I always enamored by cop shows. Men of the shield intrigue me, tease me with their sense of lawfulness while carrying a big, bad gun and tickle all my good spots with their hero complexes. Let’s face it, folks: cops are hot… at least the fictional ones are. Hopefully Officer Ballios of the Detroit P.D. will fall into that sizzling category for you. I know he certainly stoked my fires. *grins*

When I was describing Laird a few days ago (let me just say here, that if I start footnoting myself in these blogs, I’m throwing myself off the nearest barn roof), I described him as a black and white kind of a guy… an attitude usually associated with cops. I wanted to switch things around a little. I wanted to make Joey be the guy who lives in the world of grays. I think it’s an interesting twist and I honestly think it works really well in Peak and Thrust. I sincerely hope you all agree.

So without further lollygagging on my part, here is your sneak peek of the day!



Chapter Four: Home Truths with Betty White

“Joey wasn’t about to make this guy too comfortable. Call it cop sense or animal heat.” (page 48)



Now, come on folks, how many romantic smut authors can give you Betty White with their hot ass men? I think I deserve a cookie for this one.

As Thanksgiving week dawns and Black Friday nears, I leave you all today with a reminder that Hard Wood, Soft Heart will be half-price on Friday at AllRomance Ebooks. I’m only one of 12 Ravenous authors being given this promotion honor so please keep me and my men in mind. I really don’t want to be laughed off the platform with the likes of Ryan Field, etc. (you know, the big guns). Yes, this is a plea. There is no shame in begging… right? *smiles*

Until tomorrow, may the only cops you dance with be superbly hung fictional ones.

Chloe Stowe