Jade C. Jamison's Blog, page 40

Blast from the Past: Nicki Sosebee – No Place to Hide

If you caught my blog post last week, then you know I’m sharing old page content and turning it into blog posts so I can revamp other portions of my site to be more condensed and organized.

For the next several days, I’ll be sharing everything Nicki Sosebee!

~ ~ ~

In a nutshell: The hottest Nicki book yet!

The Winchester Tribune publishes an article warning the women of Winchester that there is a sexual predator on the loose in the streets of the town they once thought was safe. Danger doesn’t stop Nicki, though, and it’s not till it’s too late that she discovers the criminal in the place she least suspects. And there’s no one who can save her this time. Meanwhile, she decides that her new love interest Jesse might be worth more of her time…but he’s not making it easy.

Trivia: Jesse was going to be a flash-in-the-pan character. He was meant to be secondary, but he said, “NO WAY!” He has now become an important part of the series.

Cool facts: No Place to Hide was the first Nicki book to get a review–not just on Amazon but anywhere. And it was a 5-star review to boot!

Jesse’s five favorite bands:

1) Stone Sour

2) Five Finger Death Punch

3) Nirvana

4) Ozzy Osbourne

5) Judas Priest

Favorite song: “Breed” – Nirvana

Theme song: “Pain” – Three Days Grace

Characters:

Nicki Sosebee: A modern girl who works hard and plays harder.

Sean Ramsey: Nicki’s smokin’ hot best friend who can’t seem to see her as anything more than a buddy.

Jesse Roberts: Nicki’s new boyfriend whom her BFF Brandy describes as “Sean’s friend…the uber-hot guy with the pierced eyebrow.” He actually has a shot at erasing Sean from Nicki’s heart.

Brandy King: One of Nicki’s BFFs, Brandy has a hard time saying the F word and an even harder time trying not to giggle.

Detective Nathan Wright: A policeman who sometimes helps Nicki and sometimes…doesn’t.

Sergeant Darrin Graham: A policeman who seems to want to actually help Nicki. And he might be interested too.

Teaser:

Nicki arrived at Sean’s shop around eleven, before his usual lunch break, and walked in. He was working on some part at the big table up against the wall. He had safety glasses on and he was holding the part with some kind of clamp and then banging the part with a rubber mallet in his other hand. She couldn’t tell what he was trying to do. She didn’t want to startle him and potentially make him pound his hand or screw up what he was doing, so she stood back, remaining quiet, until she could get his attention.

She looked around the garage. She couldn’t see the Harley-Davidson clock anywhere, the one she gave him at his party. Maybe he’d hung it up at home instead.

“Hey, Nicki. How long you been there?”

“Not long.” God, how would she even begin? She sooooo wanted to just call him out. She had to control herself, though. Sean dropped the mallet on the table. “Haven’t seen you in a few days. Just wondered how things are going.”

“Fine.” He removed the safety glasses, then the heavy gloves he’d been wearing. “Jesse told me what’s going on between you two.”

She nodded. “You cool with that?”

“Doesn’t matter. But…” he shook his head. “You shouldn’t be here.”

Nicki sneered. “Why not?”

“Because, I promise you, Jesse doesn’t want you here.”

“What?”

“Just ask him, Nicki. Ask him. He doesn’t like the idea that we’re friends.”

She couldn’t stand it anymore and blurted it out. “Maybe that’s because you told him we slept together.”

Sean paused. “He asked.”

“He asked?”

“Yeah. And I don’t know about you, but I try not to lie to my friends.” So…was he lying to her now? Or merely stretching the truth?

Now she was confused. Of course. Sean was good at that. God, she was getting pissed. “Why the fuck did he ask, Sean? What did you say that made him think he should?”

“Does it matter? Shouldn’t he know?”

“If it’s so godd*mned important he know, why didn’t you tell him before?”

“Why didn’t you?”

“You’re his friend!” Nicki took a deep breath. Sean was cool and controlled, but she was losing it. “Fine. Whatever.”

Sean picked up the gloves again. “So…like I said, you should probably get out of here.”

“Don’t be stupid, Sean.”

“I’m serious. Jesse doesn’t want us hanging out together anymore, and I’d like to respect his wishes.”

She took a step closer. “Well, you know what? Jesse can’t tell me what to do. I’ll hang out with whoever I want. I’ll take care of Jesse.”

Sean threw the gloves back down and looked at her, his eyebrow cocked. “Oh, you’ll take care of Jesse? You think you know him that well, Nicki? Think he’ll just tuck his tail between his legs and do what you tell him to do? You’ve been f*cking him for…what? A week or two?” Try a few days. “And now all of a sudden you know everything about him? Newsflash: You don’t know dick about Jesse Roberts.”

She might not know everything, but she knew his heart. She knew he… sh*t. She almost thought something that couldn’t be true…the l word. Could it? She started over in her head. She knew he cared about her and she cared about him. Nothing else mattered beyond that. He understood her. She understood him. Sean saw the puffed-up man, but Nicki had seen the sensitive soul. Sean had never been intimate with Jesse, so he had no idea what Nicki was referencing. “I do too know him, Sean. I know more about him than you think.”

He took two steps toward her. “Then you tell me why he doesn’t want us to spend time together.”

“You’re so full of sh*t, Sean.”

His eyes glinted and he stormed across the remainder of the distance between the two, getting close. “Tell me, Nicki.” She felt her heart beat faster and she looked up in his eyes. She felt intimidated. But she felt something else too. She took two steps backward until her back pressed against the table. He took three more steps toward her so that only a fraction of an inch remained between them, and he placed his hands on the table on both sides of her, closing her in. “Or maybe I’ll tell you why he doesn’t want us together.” His face got closer to hers and she averted her eyes, unable to look at him. “It’s that.” He brought his lips close to her ear, so close she could feel the warmth of his breath. “Can you feel that, Nicki?”

Jesus. F*ck. She could. Her heart pounded against her chest like a bass drum and she remembered…something animal, something primal, something electric she felt for Sean.

Sh*t. She wasn’t over him. Not even close.

But maybe she could bluff. She owed Jesse that much.

She stammered. “All I can feel, Sean, is your big f*cking ego.” Her voice was quivering, but she managed to get away…by just grabbing his one arm and lifting it, then sliding her body out. She didn’t touch or grab him other than his arm, and she was able to make eye contact once she got a little farther away. Then she turned on her heel and left his garage.

And then she realized it. As long as she and Jesse were together, her friendship with Sean had to be over. Jesse had evidently known that before she had. But how could Sean know how she felt in the places of her heart she kept hidden?

And then it hit her like a piano falling from a third-story window.

Sean could only know how she felt because he felt the same way.

 

The post Blast from the Past: Nicki Sosebee – No Place to Hide appeared first on Jade C. Jamison.

Blast from the Past: Nicki Sosebee – Dead

If you caught my blog post last week, then you know I’m sharing old page content and turning it into blog posts so I can revamp other portions of my site to be more condensed and organized.

For the next several days, I’ll be sharing everything Nicki Sosebee!

Oh…one last thing.  I talked in this original page about this Nicki book having three covers. There is actually now a fourth cover. 

~ ~ ~

In a nutshell: Nicki Sosebee’s adventures continue…

Nicki’s love life might suck, but her sex life is great. The only way both could be spectacular would be if her best friend Sean would look at her as more than just a friend. Nicki knows she’s stuck in the friend zone, so she focuses her energies on her job. She’s becoming a better reporter every day, so when her editor asks her to interview a local politician, Nicki is thrilled. But when the politician’s secretary ends up dead, it’s anybody’s guess as to who did it. Nicki has a few ideas, though, and finds herself in deep trouble as she pokes her nose where she thinks it belongs.

Trivia: Dead is one of the fastest books I’ve ever written. I wrote it in August 2011. I had a couple weeks off from teaching and I was on a roll. I just cranked it out and, even though I had to conduct a lot of research, the words just flowed. Scarier yet, I was also writing articles for a now-defunct website at the time as well, writing about one a day. The words and story were just right there, so easy to access!

Dead has had three covers. The first was a picture of a cell phone with the title texted in. The second was the hearts cover, and the final cover is what you see now. Again, a cell phone, but a much better picture!

Cool facts: Only about two-thirds of the readers who buy Got the Life come back for more Nicki, but once they read Dead, they’re usually hooked!

How Nicki resembles Jade: Okay, this might be stretching it, but I took a News Writing class my freshman year in college. I realized I was not a reporter and I changed my major. I also took a Creative Writing class the next semester.

Sean’s five favorite bands:

1) Godsmack

2) Pantera

3) Avenged Sevenfold

4) Rage Against the Machine

5) System of a Down

Favorite song: “Cryin’ Like a Bitch” – Godsmack

Theme song: “Now or Never” – Godsmack

Characters:

Nicki Sosebee: A modern girl who works hard and plays even harder.

Sean Ramsey: Nicki’s drool-inducing best friend who keeps Nicki in the friend zone.

Jesse Roberts: Sean’s friend who’s pursued Nicki over the years. He’s finally on Nicki’s radar, and she thinks he might be worth a second look.

Jillian Carpenter: One of Nicki’s BFFs, Jillian’s life reminds Nicki exactly why she wants to stay single and childless.

Brandy King: One of Nicki’s BFFs, Brandy pulls no punches when she tells Nicki the girl’s got to get over Sean and move on. And Brandy might be a newlywed, but she still likes to hear all about Nicki’s sexual pursuits.

Commissioner Jeffrey Cannon: A slick politician who happens to be Nicki’s current target.

Sara Carmichael: Someone Nicki used to know in high school, Sara now works for the county commissioners.

Neal Black: Nicki’s editor at the Winchester Tribune.

Detective Nathan Wright: A policeman who sometimes helps Nicki…and sometimes doesn’t.

Teaser:

She was at the back of the hotel, about halfway around, passing by the service entrance to the hotel. It was an open area with a shed and a delivery bay. There was also what Nicki imagined was the location for employee breaks, an enclosed area with a wooden fence and a roof.

She kept walking when she heard, “Nicki!” She looked back toward the building to see Jesse sitting on a crate up against the brick wall, away from the entrance. He was smoking a cigarette. Typical rebel Jesse, though…he was nowhere near the designated break area. Nicki felt confident that the Sedgwick would not approve of guests seeing their employees smoking or even taking a break from serving their spoiled, pandered-to visitors.

“Hey, Jesse. Glad to see I’m not the only one taking a break.” She walked over to where he sat.

“It’s crazy, huh?” He took a drag off his cigarette. Nicki moved to the wall and leaned her back up against it beside him. “Hey, do you wanna sit here?”

She shook her head. “No. I’ve been sitting for a while now, and I needed to move a little. Thanks, though.”

“So, did you get any good info for a story?”

God, wouldn’t it be nice to tell him what she was thinking…that someone murdered Sara and she had two solid suspects–Cannon and his volunteer coordinator Colby Sears. But she didn’t dare say a word. “Yeah, a newsflash.” She stood up straight and held her hands out in front of her, her fingers bent as though grasping something, then she spread her hands apart, indicating a headline, and she did her best dramatic news anchor voice. “Nicki Sosebee dies of boredom while politicians and well-to-do talk incessantly about themselves.” Jesse laughed, a puff of smoke spewing from his mouth. Nicki smiled. “Guess there’s a reason my editor writes the headlines.”

“Hey, I’d read that story.”

Nicki leaned back against the warm brick wall, and they were silent for a few moments. Then she pointed to the west. “That’s the evening star, isn’t it? Guess I better make a wish.”

“You know it’s really Venus, right?”

Nicki nodded. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I learned that back in school and just forgot.”

“So what are you gonna wish for anyway?” He threw the spent cigarette butt to the concrete and stomped on it, rotating his foot back and forth over it.

Nicki pondered, staring at Venus’s steady glow. She stood up and took a few steps forward. “I don’t know. I’ll have to think about it.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jesse look over at her. “You look really pretty tonight.”

There was something about the way he said it. It was so sincere, so sweet, and so unlike anything she’d ever thought about or expected from Jesse in the past. Jesse was the kind of guy who never seemed to take himself, his life, or anyone else seriously. He pushed the boundaries, not to make a statement but to be a pain in the ass. He contradicted people just to get a rise out of them. Nicki had always gotten along with Jesse (in short doses) but had never thought about him as more than just Sean’s friend. In high school, he had been dogged in his pursuit of Nicki, even though she’d had a steady boyfriend. He’d flirted with her off and on since, but Nicki suspected Sean had put a stop to it, affirming to his male friend that Nicki was not interested. And she hadn’t been. A couple of weeks ago, she’d thought some of pursuing him just to see how Sean would react, but she’d just as quickly dropped the idea, because that would involve actually spending time with Jesse, and she hadn’t thought she could stand spending more than fifteen minutes at a time with the guy. Now, though, after bonding in a weird way, feeling like the only two middle class people there at this event, and then his tender observation when she least expected it… She and Jesse would never be boyfriend / girlfriend material, but–for the first time ever–she could imagine spending a little more time with him. She pulled her gaze off of Venus and turned to face him.

He looked serious, more serious than she’d ever seen him. He had a small smile that looked almost innocent. “That’s a really sweet thing to say.” Nicki explored his eyes and took just two steps, and those steps placed her right in front of him. Her gaze dropped from his eyes to his lips, and she placed her hands on either side of his face, her palms against his cheeks, and she kissed him. Jesse parted his lips as his hands held her at the waist.

It had been years since Nicki had kissed a smoker, and she’d forgotten about the initial nasty taste. But then she could taste Jesse underneath, and he wasn’t bad. Something about the cigarettes–maybe the nicotine?–made her lips tingle when it rubbed off on them. Jesse might have been a clown most of the time, but his kissing was serious–confident, strong, and firm–and Nicki was surprised at how much she enjoyed it.

It lasted longer than it should have. Much longer, and Nicki would have asked him to stop by her place after he got off of work.

Instead, they acted like adults. The uptight diners inside would have been proud of their restraint. When Nicki opened her eyes, she saw Jesse Roberts in a whole new light. And she had no idea what to say. Her arms were still around his neck and his remained around her waist. She managed to say, “I guess I should probably get back in there.”

Jesse inhaled, and for the first time ever, he not only looked cute (which Nicki had never denied), he looked sexy. His voice was hoarse. “Yeah, me too, before I get my ass chewed.” But he couldn’t let it go, could he? He kissed her one more time, and she felt that telltale sign in her panties assuring her that he did turn her on. But she didn’t know that she was quite ready for him. She did wonder what something like that would do to Sean…and since Sean was her ideal man, she didn’t want to destroy what little chance they had. She couldn’t just let her hormones rule her every action, no matter how titillating Jesse had become in just a matter of minutes.

And then there was the matter of the icy blonde she’d seen him with earlier in the week. She hadn’t even thought about that when she’d kissed him. “Oh, uh, sorry. I overstepped my bounds. I forgot you were dating someone.”

Jesse’s brows tightened and then he raised his right eyebrow. “Dating someone?” His face relaxed and he said, “Oh. You mean Fiona?”

It was Nicki’s turn to look confused. “Who’s Fiona?”

“Tall blonde…you know, at the nightclub, you had that hoity-toity older dude on your arm.”

Nicki chuckled. “Oh, yeah.”

“I’m not dating her. Her sister wanted to meet Sean, and I was her gateway.” F*ck. Of course. Why did that not surprise Nicki? As though Jesse could read her mind, he kissed her again, and her thoughts of Sean floated off as though on the flutter of a butterfly’s wings.

She could feel her blood surging through her veins, as Jesse’s last kiss managed to amp up her desire. But now was not the right time. She moved her hands to his chest, hoping that stance would give her the will to resist, but there was no need. He said, “Do you want me to walk you back inside?”

It wasn’t that dark yet. Maybe, though, it was because he was also feeling whatever she was, and it felt confusing and too new. “No, that’s okay. Thanks, though.”

He nodded. “Okay.” He let her go and she backed up a couple of steps, trying to break the electrical circuit that seemed to keep her bound to him. She walked a few more steps back and brought her hand up in a wave. Even though it was darker out now, it was still light enough that he could see her. He waved back and she smiled, then turned on her heel to finish walking around the building.

She’d only walked a couple of steps when Jesse said, “Hey…can I call you sometime?”

Nicki stopped and smiled. She turned her head half a turn and said, “Yeah, I think I’d like that.”

Availability:

Kindle

Nook

Smashwords

Blast from the Past: Nicki Sosebee – Got the Life

If you caught my blog post last week, then you know I’m sharing old page content and turning it into blog posts so I can revamp other portions of my site to be more condensed and organized.

For the next several days, I’ll be sharing everything Nicki Sosebee!

~ ~ ~

In a nutshell: Nicki Sosebee wants her first headline, but she doesn’t want it to read “Reporter found dead.”

Nicki Sosebee has been working low-paying jobs ever since she finished school, but now that she’s older, she wants more. She’s a novice reporter trying to learn the ropes. Just as she’s getting her career goals on track, though, her love life gets worse and worse. Sure, she has no problems picking up good-looking guys for brief flings, but relationships? Out of the question. Maybe it’s because Sean, her gorgeous best friend, just can’t see her as more than a buddy. So when Sean encourages her as she pursues her first headline-producing story, Nicki realizes that her life’s pretty sweet…if only she can live long enough to see tomorrow’s front page.

Trivia: The first Nicki Sosebee book has had four covers total, two of which you will probably never see (well, five if you count the recent redesign to go paperback!). When it first appeared on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, I’d designed a cover that I thought was clever. It was hard to read the title, though, so it was bad news. But it was a notepad and a pencil, meant to look like an order pad for a waitress, and while it looked okay, the legibility of the title made it less than optimal. Many of you have seen the red heart with a bullet hole against a black background, the heart theme that dominated the Nicki books until Innocent Bystander.

My first attempt at a hot guy cover failed. I was still learning Creative Commons usage rules, and I hadn’t realized the photographer had to get the permission of the model. When the photographer informed me the model’s agent passed, I went back to the heart cover. However, the cover I have now is even better. I thought it would be apropos for the first Nicki book to show a little skin, so there’s no question what’s happening between the covers (ahem…so to speak). I had to pay a little for it, but I think he’s well worth it!

Cool facts: Nicki is a much better waitress than I ever was. I waited tables for several years when I was in college working on my bachelor’s degree, and (this’ll surprise you) it was at Pizza Hut. I tried. Believe me, I tried, but I just wasn’t fast enough. I was a much better cook.

How Nicki resembles Jade: OMG! Nicki has a bit of a potty mouth. Well, I f***ing do too. In all seriousness, people in my real life who only know me as a professional have no idea what a sailor mouth I have, and that includes my family (parents, siblings, etc.). One family member (a black sheep like yours truly) and some very close friends know the real Jade can swear with the best of ‘em. I’m guessing, though, that my readers aren’t too surprised…or shocked.

Nicki’s five favorite bands: 1) Korn 2) Lamb of God 3) Slipknot 4) Seether 5) Papa Roach

Favorite song: “Make Me Bad” – Korn Theme song: “Can’t Catch Me” – Lita Ford

Characters:

Nicki Sosebee: Modern girl who works hard but plays harder. She works for Napoli Pizzeria and is a novice reporter for the Winchester Tribune.

Sean Ramsey: Nicki’s super-hot best friend. He owns his own business, a motorcycle repair shop. He doesn’t trust authority but keeps his finger on local politics.

Jillian Carpenter: One of Nicki’s BFFs, Jillian is married with three children, three very good reasons, Nicki thinks, to avoid marriage altogether.

Jesse Roberts: One of Sean’s friends, a guy who has pursued Nicki off and on for years. However, Nicki’s not interested…yet. Nicki thinks Jesse doesn’t take anything seriously, and that attitude has always turned her off.

Neal Black: Editor of the Winchester Tribune, he’s taken Nicki under his wing to teach her everything he knows about the newspaper business.

Jason Edwards: A criminal bad boy, one whose story Nicki is following. She realizes that, while he might be good looking, a guy like this is nothing but trouble.

Michael Sterne: Jason Edwards’s half-brother.

Kayla: Sean’s current girlfriend who demands a commitment from her boyfriend.

Melissa Jacobs: A woman Nicki wants to interview for a story for the Winchester Tribune. Melissa is Michael Sterne’s girlfriend, and Nicki hopes the woman has information as to his whereabouts.

Stats: Got the Life was offered free on Amazon for about three months in 2012. During that time, it got to #33 Free in Kindle Store-Suspense.

Teaser:

Nicki’s cell phone rang just as she was grabbing her purse and heading toward the door. Even though she hadn’t programmed the number into her phone (yet), she recognized the number as Carlos’s. She was curious and paused inside the doorway to answer it. “Hello?”

“Nicki, I wanted to tell you goodbye.”

“Are you leaving Winchester now?”

“Yes. I’m already a day behind, but thanks to your friend, I can leave today.” He paused. “I plan to call you next time I’m in town.”

Nicki smiled. “I’d expect nothing less.” She inhaled. “Maybe I can catch up on my sleep before you come back.”

She heard him laugh. “I’m in trouble then, because if what we did last night was you tired, I won’t be able to handle you well rested, chica .”

She giggled. “You know what I mean.”

“I do.” She heard the rev of a motorcycle. “Take care of yourself.”

“You too, Carlos.” She hung up the phone, feeling sadder than she would have expected. Of course, Carlos was meant to be one night only and he’d wound up performing an intense encore. Ah, well, he’d been enough fun to take her mind off Sean for a while, and maybe that would be enough to tide her over until she found her next boyfriend. But the poor suckers who played her BFs never stood a chance.

She arrived at Sean’s garage, glad that she’d changed out of the hot suit. It was blazing out again, and even though it was about ten degrees cooler in Sean’s garage, it was still f*cking hot . Sean had Godsmack blaring out of the stereo, so she knew he was in full-on work mode.

She saw him working on a bike in the back of the shop and goddamn . The boy had his shirt off. How the f*ck could she maintain eye contact and have a normal conversation with him if he had his shirt off? As she got closer, she saw that he had a tattoo on his lower back that she’d never seen before. She couldn’t tell what it was and wouldn’t have a chance, because he stood and turned around just as she got closer.

And the sight of his naked chest took her breath away. He was pure, sweet man, through and through, the ideal for Nicki. Sean might have only been three inches taller than Nicki, but height didn’t make the man. Solid, lean muscle, lovingly cared for, with just a little bit of hair on the chest, dark brown nipples, and a six-pack. Mmmm. That was the ticket. And to think she’d actually caressed that hunk of man there before. But she’d blown it, eight long years ago. And she was about to make a total f*cking ass of herself now if she couldn’t concentrate. So she forced her silly licentious grin to become a friendly, warm smile. It was one of the hardest things she’d had to do in a while. “Well, you sure impressed the sh*t out of Carlos today.”

“He should be.” Why did Sean look so…p*ssed? He walked over to the stereo and turned the music down. Probably a good idea, since “Re-Align” was ending and the next song, “I F*cking Hate You,” wouldn’t make the rest of the businesses on the block very happy. As he turned back around, Nicki noticed it for the first time–his bike…his obsession …was gone.

“What the f*ck, Sean? Where’s your bike?”

A puff of air escaped his open lips. “Why do you think Carlos is so godd*mned impressed?”

Nicki felt her eyes widen. “You gave him your bike?”

Sean gritted his teeth. “No. I sold it to him.”

“Why the hell did you do that?”

Sean turned around, walking back to the bike he’d been working on when she’d come in. “He was in a hurry.”

Nicki thought of Carlos holding her in front of her door last night bringing her to sweet orgasm and forced back a grin. “He wasn’t in that big a hurry. Trust me–I would know.”

“That’s what you think.” He picked up a wrench from off the bench beside the bike. “This is his bike here, and it’s got a f*cked up tranny. I had too many other things to do, so I couldn’t get his bike fixed as fast as he wanted.” He paused. “But he paid me my asking price for my bike, so I guess I shouldn’t complain.”

Sean knelt over again and began loosening a bolt on the bike, his back to her again. Nicki’s eyes started to drift to the new tattoo just above his waistband when it hit her. Sean wanted Carlos gone. That was the only explanation she could find. She stormed over to stand on the other side of the bike. “No, Sean, that’s what you want me to think. But you wanted him out of here.”

He stopped working the wrench but he didn’t look up. “What the hell makes you think that?”

“You just decided–as a supposed ‘convenience’–to let Carlos buy the bike you’ve been working on for three years?”

Sean stood, dropping the wrench back on the bench. He looked angry. He was wiping his hands on a rag and then his eyes locked on hers. “What the f*ck are you doing hanging with that guy, Nicki?”

She felt her blood grow warm. “What’s wrong with him?”

Sean walked around the bike and got closer. “Jesus. Seriously? He’s in a gang, Nicki, a big one out of New Mexico. Do you really want to be involved in that kind of thing?”

She huffed. “He didn’t act like a gang member.”

Sean smiled and shook his head as he continued closing the gap between them. “What exactly does a gang member act like?”

She took a deep breath. He was getting too close, too close for her to concentrate. She could smell him…Sean always smelled like sandalwood and–well, Sean–and he was more potent today than usual. Maybe it was the thin sheen of sweat on his chest that also made his pecs look so f*cking gorgeous? She gulped. Sh*t. She had no idea what to say. “Not like Carlos.” Sean chuckled, stopping about a foot away from her. Enough at least so that Nicki could get her bearings. “Why do you care anyway?”

His eyes stayed on hers. “Because you’re my friend, Nicki, and I know what these guys do.” Then his eyes dropped to her lips.

She intended to call his bluff.

“Bullsh*t. You wouldn’t just give your bike away for that. You know I can take care of myself.”

His voice was low. “You’re right.” His eyes locked on hers again as he placed his hands on both sides of her face, drawing her into a kiss. Nicki thought her heart had stopped beating until she felt it thudding against her chest, as though she were a rabbit being chased by a fox. Her hands cupped his pecs, and she felt the damp warm sweat, felt the hard muscle respond to her hands. Tasting Sean and smelling him up close made the effects of the venti caramel macchiato this morning seem like drinking mother’s milk. God, he tasted good.

The kiss ended and Sean pulled back. Nicki’s eyes stayed closed, her hands now touching only air. She couldn’t catch her breath, and she didn’t want the moment to end. She heard Sean say, “Sh*t. That didn’t happen.”

Nicki’s eyes popped open. She was speechless. “Uh, yeah, I think it did.” She had a pair of dripping wet panties to prove it.

Sean’s face was stone. “No, it didn’t.”

Nicki’s tongue played with a molar on the left side of her mouth. She was getting ready to speak, trying to think up a good retort, when she heard a click click at the other end of the garage. Sean looked in Nicki’s eyes again, sending her some coded message, something she couldn’t quite register, and then his eyes darted back to his visitor. Then Nicki figured it out.

She turned around for confirmation and saw Kayla, wearing tight jeans and a yellow halter top, her tiny B-cup failing to fill its form. Kayla’s long red hair bounced as she clicked toward Sean, extending a brown paper bag. “Lunch.”

Sean smiled at her. “Thanks, babe.”

Nicki tried not to puke. Sean’s arms wrapped around Kayla’s waist as Kayla’s arms wound around his neck. Nicki saw Kayla’s white thong string above her jeans, accenting her tramp stamp. God, Kayla was such a stereotype. Nicki couldn’t figure out what Sean saw in the girl. But she was nice enough, more than she could say about some of the women Sean had dated in the past. Kayla turned around, long enough that Nicki had wiped the disgusted look off her face. “Hi, Nicki.”

“Hey, Kayla. How’ve you been?” Did you taste my lips on your boyfriend? Oh, that was cruel, even for Nicki. Thank goodness she didn’t say it out loud. Nicki made sure to leave just as Sean was biting into the sandwich. There was no way they could resume their conversation now. It would just have to wait.

Availability:

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Blast from the Past: Nicki Sosebee

If you caught my blog post last week, then you know I’m sharing old page content and turning it into blog posts so I can revamp other portions of my site to be more condensed and organized.

Today I’m resharing the Nicki Sosebee page!

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Ah, Nicki. Jade absolutely loves books centered around strong heroines. Let’s face it–we’ve all had our fill of heroines who don’t know how to take care of themselves, are squeamish, are weak willed, and on and on. Jade had simply had her fill of them. Once in a while, a namby-pamby heroine is okay, but they’re not very empowering and they’re not unlifting either. Once in a while, they’re fun-to-read pablum, but they’re not what Jade wanted to read a steady diet of.

The character Nicki developed out of Jade’s need to read a strong heroine, and do we mean strong! She has a sailor mouth and can keep up in that department with her rough-and-tough best friend, Sean Ramsey. And don’t get her started talking about sexual freedom. She’s all about it. Granted, it stemmed from a lost opportunity at love (with said best friend), but she appreciates sex as much as any man ever thought of. She’s still finding her way through life too, but she’s figuring it out.

Like women who don’t feel the need to apologize for their views, their lifestyles, their needs? You might like Nicki too. Jade has this to say about Nicki:

Do you remember that scene in Fight Club, the one where Tyler and his alterego are discussing why he developed a split personality in the first place? Brad Pitt tells Edward Norton: “All the ways you wish you could be, that’s me. I look like you wanna look; I f**k like you wanna f**k. I am smart, capable, and most importantly, I am free in all the ways that you are not.”

That’s Nicki for a lot of us, I think. Women’s rights are a far cry from what they used to be, but Nicki embodies the women’s rights movement fully. She is everything some of us wish we could have been but weren’t. So we can vicariously enjoy her freedom and root her on, making a path for us all!

The Nicki Sosebee series:

Got the Life, August 2011

Dead, August 2011

No Place to Hide, September 2011

Right Now, October 2011

One More Time, December 2011

Lost, January 2012

Innocent Bystander, May 2012

Blind, November 2012

Fake, March 2014

Lies, anticipated release date 2015

 

Blast from the (Recent) Past: Tangled Web 3 – Seal All Exits

If you caught my blog post earlier this week, then you know I’m sharing old page content and turning it into blog posts so I can revamp other portions of my site to be more condensed and organized. While I’d never really gotten around to creating the page for Seal All Exits, I wanted to finish out posting about the series. As of now, Seal All Exits is the last book in the Tangled Web series…but, TW fans, don’t you fret.  I do plan to write more.  I have at least two more books planned for the series.  Writing SAE was like coming home—seeing Katie and Johnny and Erin and Riley again was fun.

In a nutshell: Heather Morrow has been fighting demons all her life, but the past two years have likely been her darkest. So when her friend Katie invites her to a reunion of sorts, Heather jumps at the chance, because Katie, one of the most down-to-earth people Heather has ever called friend, is the only person she has ever felt like herself around, and Heather realizes that she needs an ally to help her out of the shadows. Kiefer Steele, vocalist for Shock Treatment, has been battling some demons of his own. He’s been a nothing most of his life, but world-famous guitarist J. C. Gibson took him from his beach-combing, weed-smoking ways and helped him make something of himself…except life on the road has taken its toll. The only ray of hope in his life has been his continuing online friendship with Heather. The two met in person once, backstage at a concert, and their friendship has grown stronger. They haven’t seen each other in three years, though, and both have changed immensely. When they discover each other’s darkest secrets, will their friendship—and budding romance—survive, or are they destined to spend their lives apart…and alone?

Trivia: Readers who have been with me a while already know that I had planned to write and release this book sometime in 2013.  But Bullet happened.  Before that crazy book, I had a lot of core readers who enjoyed the Tangled Web and Nicki Sosebee series, but Bullet put me on the map, for lack of a better phrase.  It was definitely thanks to those readers who were spreading the news, because something about all the teasing I did about the book incited their imaginations so that people couldn’t wait for me to release it.  Shortly after Bullet exploded (I don’t use that word lightly), I became immersed in my first blog tour (prep for that task alone took a month), and readers begged for a series.  I agreed to do it for later and started writing Seal All Exits.

But the trail was cold.

I got two partial chapters but couldn’t get anymore.  So, I decided, maybe I needed to return to Nicki.  She could talk to me.

I still struggled.  So I forced myself to finish a project that was already half done (what became Quickies) and then began the second Bullet book…followed by the third and the fourth. The problem was what I called my “muse.” It’s an inner voice. Yes, I can force myself to write when that muse isn’t talking, but it’s difficult. The second Bullet book was difficult to write. I guess my muse was just being a bitch that year.

My readers had been waiting for Seal All Exits for so long that, even though it was difficult to write, it was time. This book was long overdue. And so, finally, after all that time, I released the book in November 2014. Sorry I made Heather and Kiefer (and my lovely readers) wait so long.

Teaser:

Heather stopped walking, so Kiefer slowed and turned to face her.  “Um…I have a proposal for you.”

He raised an eyebrow.  “Yeah?”

“Yeah.”  She drew in a deep breath and looked in his eyes, but he could tell it was hard for her.  “I, uh…I don’t want or need a relationship.  But I’m so glad you’re my friend.”

Kiefer smiled.  “Ditto.”

“So…just so we can get it out of our systems…why don’t we, uh, explore our attraction, but…when we leave here, things go back to the way they were.”  Kiefer drew in a long, slow breath.  Was she saying what he thought she was?  “That sound okay?”

Honestly, no, it sounded like a copout.  He thought some of telling her that, but he wanted her.  He wanted her to continue to be a part of his life and he also wanted to step it up a notch after what they had experienced last night.  This might be his only chance to convince her that a more intense relationship could be a good thing.  So he nodded.  “Yeah.”

Blast from the Past: Tangled Web series – Punctured, Bruised, and Barely Tattooed (Companion Novel)

If you caught my blog post earlier this week, then you know I’m sharing old page content and turning it into blog posts so I can revamp other portions of my site to be more condensed and organized. While I’d never really gotten around to creating the page for Punctured, Bruised, and Barely Tattooed, I wanted to finish out posting about the series. Today, then, let’s talk a little bit about Punctured.

I wrote Punctured as a standalone novel, but I had planned on a bit of a surprise for Tangled Web readers in the book. Readers who’d never read the series wouldn’t miss a thing, but those who had read it were in for a little treat. No spoilers—you’ll have to read the book yourself to know what I’m talking about.

In a nutshell: Kory McCallister has had her eyes on tattoo artist Stone Bowman for quite some time—so long, in fact, that no other guy will do. Stone pushes every turn-on button Kory has—he’s tattooed from head to toe; he’s hot; he’s funny and charming; and he’s also mysterious. So when Kory’s friends dare her to ask Stone out on a date, she can’t believe she actually finds the guts to do it. More surprising? He takes her up on the offer. She discovers that, while his past might not be quite as dark or mysterious as she’d imagined, it’s bigger than she’d expected, and it’s something she will need to contend with if she decides she wants to keep him around to color her life for good.

Trivia:  [Possible spoiler!!!] Stone’s backstory is partially inspired by real-life former drummer Angelo Parente (of Motionless in White). I’m not going to say anything else—again, to avoid ruining it for a new reader—but Google what he did after leaving the band once you’ve finished reading the book, and you’ll see where my inspiration came from!

Teaser:

“Know what? Never mind. I thought you were better than that.” She turned on her heel and started walking down the street away from him.

Three…four…five. “Kory.” Yes. It had worked…well, at least she hoped so. She’d have to wait to hear what he had to say. Carefully, she turned around. She was several steps away from him. She made sure her face didn’t show sadness, fear, or anger. She hoped she had a look of annoyance, like he was an irritant at this point.

She let out a breath as though she didn’t have time to wait. Finally, she said, “Yeah?”

He walked toward her and she became aware of the sound his boots made on the sidewalk. Sure, she heard a couple of cars driving down the street, and she could hear noise from the bar she was almost standing in front of. She was becoming more and more aware of the heat bearing down on her shoulders like a weight, and it got worse the closer he got, because her breathing grew shallow.

He stood in front of her. Oh, fucking hell. His eyes were dark and her mouth started watering as his hands cupped her cheeks and he guided her chin upward until his lips touched hers.

Gone…the heat, the noise, even her goddamn heartbeat…until it started throbbing in her chest and her blood began swarming through her body, warming her back up from lifelessness. Stone’s tongue touched her lips and parted them before entering her mouth and, holy God, for the first time in a long time throughout her miserable existence, she felt alive. Overflowing with too much emotion, too much adrenaline and…

her fucking panties were wet

…hopes and dreams, unspoken and unknown, flowed through her like water.

Until the kiss was over. She opened her eyes, the breath gone from her lungs, and she searched his eyes. He’d done it. Why had he done it after fucking with her, blowing her off? Did he like messing with her mind?

But his eyes—they told her more than his words ever could. Jesus. What she felt then was heavy. Had he been screwing around with her head, when really he was just trying to deny something?

As she sucked in a breath, forcing it to the bottom of her lungs, she realized her hands had formed fists around the back of his t-shirt, as though she were clinging to him for dear life. No smile, no smirk. He said, “That what you wanted?”

 

Blast from the Past: Tangled Web 2 – Everything But

If you caught my blog post earlier this week, then you know I’m sharing old page content and turning it into blog posts so I can revamp other portions of my site to be more condensed and organized.  Today, I’m sharing the old page info about Everything But.

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In a nutshell: High school English teacher Erin Lancaster is stuck with the unwelcome job of filling in for the injured cheerleading coach, but she wants to back out when she discovers she has to be auctioned as a date during the annual spring fundraiser. She’s horrified to find her rock star crush Riley Schultz, former frontman of Spawn, will be playing emcee for the event, but she’s even more shocked that he also happens to be the highest bidder for her affections, and sparks fly when she discovers that maybe their attraction is mutual.

Riley’s been in the music business long enough to know that true love is not in the cards for him, but the cute blonde he’s dropped a wad of cash on would be a welcome distraction during his vacation. He has no idea there’s more to her than meets the eye.

Will one week together be enough for them to quell the flames, to enjoy everything but?

Trivia: Everything But is the first book I wrote while participating in a WriMo (a writing challenge where groups of writers get together and plan to write a 50K novel in one month). Well, I wrote about 50K that first month and knew right away that the story was only half done. So I spent the following month finishing it up! But it was fun participating in an event with the camaraderie of other writers reaching for the same goal. I’ll never pass another WriMo by!

Cool facts: Everything But has been my fastest-selling book by a landslide (well…until Bullet, that is). I anticipated that it would do well, considering it’s a “sequel” to Tangled Web, but I could not have anticipated how well this little book would do. It has blown me away!

How Erin resembles Jade: I might not teach high school, but I do teach college English.

Characters:

Riley Schultz: Former vocalist for Spawn, Riley is now singing and playing rhythm guitar in a new band called Undue Influence. Romance is no longer in the cards for him, but that doesn’t mean he’s not interested in spending some time with beautiful Erin who has caught his eye.

Erin Lancaster: A high school English teacher, Erin has had a crush on Riley Schultz since he was in his first band. She’s temporarily filling in for the injured cheerleading coach and is forced to participate in an “auction,” a fundraiser where she and the cheerleaders go on a “date” with the highest bidders. She might not feel as horrified if Riley wasn’t the emcee for the evening.

Jackie Cole: Erin’s best friend since the third grade, Jackie is the one who always manages to talk sense into Erin…no matter what the subject.

Ron Gill: The theater teacher at Erin’s high school, Ron has been harboring feelings for her that she had no idea about.

Marjorie (Margie) Schultz: Riley’s uptight mother who serves on the school board and has strong feelings about her son’s involvement with an English teacher.

Josie (Jo): A groupie-type girl who lives in Erin’s apartment building, Jo sets her sights on Riley. Why wouldn’t she?

Teaser:

Erin felt herself growing jittery, knowing she was going to be the next item of scrutiny. She kept telling herself it was all for a good cause. And all of the girls had made at least one-hundred dollars, so she hoped she could make that much as well. She’d lost count, but she knew they’d already made over fifteen-hundred. Any amount she pulled in would be gravy.

But there was another reason she felt anxious as hell. She was going to be standing next to one of her old rock crushes. She was afraid she’d come off as a giggly teenager, not unlike the dozen girls he’d already dealt with.

No. Must. Remain. Poised.

She was inhaling slow, deep breaths in an attempt to keep her cool. All the people in the audience who already knew her would think any residual nerves were simply due to the fact that she wasn’t comfortable with being thrown on a stage. No one ever had to know the truth.

And the rock star? Well…she’d likely never see him again, so why did she give such a sh*t?

After Beth was escorted off the stage, Erin took one last gulp of air. She didn’t want to stand until she was called up, but she smoothed out the fabric of her dress that was resting on her thighs. When she looked back up to the stage, she saw Riley walking toward the edge. He crooked his finger at the co-captains and then walked off the stage. Erin wasn’t quite sure what to think of that. Either he’d had enough, having bombed his last attempt at a joke, or he didn’t know he had one more person to auction off and was bailing before being accosted by fans again.

Erin tried not to feel hurt. It wasn’t personal. So much for standing next to one of her rock star crushes, though. So when John Corbin, a senior who’d never been in any of her classes, called her name (“Last but not least, Miss Lancaster!”), she stood up and walked toward the stage. Her smile wasn’t real, because part of her felt like she was in shock, but at least the nerves had dissipated.

So she kept the frozen smile on her face and walked off the bleachers toward the stage. Part of her struggled with feeling embarrassed. Ah…not good enough to be announced by the famous guy. Personal or not, she comforted herself with the idea that the guy was a dick. That’s what a lot of media had said about Riley Schultz anyway…that he was arrogant, conceited, and a bit of a control freak. She let her mind wander through its archives. She remembered that was at the heart of the Spawn breakup. Sure, part of it was the drugs. But she remembered there being some major conflict between Riley and his best friend from high school, J. C. Gibson, the lead guitarist. They both battled for ultimate artistic control of the band. J. C. wanted to go one way, Riley the other, and they wound up disbanding. They disagreed about the direction the band should go in. If Erin recalled correctly, Riley wanted to continue to cross over, drawing larger crowds, while still maintaining what he’d called “musical integrity.” J. C. had called Riley a sellout and said he refused to pander to anyone. Erin thought they were both being stubborn, because the bottom line was they both loved the music. Surely, they could’ve found some common ground. Maybe there was more to the story than she knew–hell, maybe it was just the drugs. Today, J. C. had already recovered and was in a new band that was already working on a second CD but Riley was only now getting back on his feet.

Maybe that’s what he deserved for being such a dick.

All right, her mental rant was over now and she finally made it up to the podium beside the two football players. The other player had been in her Sophomore Honors English class, and he held out his arm as if displaying merchandise. “Ms. Lancaster,” he said, grinning.

She smiled, thinking she was glad she had these young men auctioning her off. She wouldn’t have liked having a sarcastic asshole pimping her out anyway. John, the more vocal of the duo, spoke into the microphone. “Okay, I’m afraid we’re not the showmen Riley Schultz was, but we’ll take one for the team.” At the mention of team, Erin heard and then saw a large chunk of football players in the audience practically roaring their support. “All right, can I get a bid of twenty-five dollars for Winchester High’s English maven Erin Lancaster?”

Erin started laughing, afraid she was becoming hysterical, giggling just like the cheerleaders had moments earlier. She knew it was because everything was heightened, what with being on display and all, but it seemed like forever before anyone made a bid. Sh*t. That would be the ultimate humiliation. Not even a twenty-five dollar bid. But finally Ron Gill’s hand went in the air. And she wasn’t sure what to think about that. Ron was nice enough but they’d butted heads quite a few times during faculty meetings. They had different ideas. They were supposed to agree on a Shakespeare play every year. Ron was supposed to have his students study it in Drama II and she had to dissect it with her seniors in Honors English, but it was almost as if Ron just wanted to pick a fight. If she said Julius Caesar, he’d insist upon Macbeth. If one of the history teachers jumped in and asked about Henry V, he’d dig in his heels and demand Othello. If she wanted to focus on a comedy that year, he’d demand drama. He was infuriating.

And then it hit her. He was like a boy in middle school, picking fights because…he liked her. Oh, God. Why hadn’t she ever seen it before? And…he was a nice enough guy. But he really wasn’t her type.

And, again, just whom did she think she was kidding? The last guy she’d fallen for, a bad boy at that, had crushed her so badly she’d sworn off men forever. So…let him bid. She’d enjoy dinner with him and then go home. She just hoped she could earn at least a little more than twenty-five bucks.

“Can we get fifty?” This question was followed again by a few moments’ silence until she heard another voice booming in the back.

“Five-hundred.”

Erin was certain she hadn’t heard correctly. Her eyes scanned the crowd, unable to find the face that owned the voice.

John said into the microphone, “Was that five-hundred?”

She saw someone step forward. “Five-hundred.”

F*ck. It was Riley Schultz. What the hell? She felt all her composure melt away. What was that she’d been thinking about an arrogant dick earlier? She looked down at him as he got closer to the stage and tried to smile, but instead she knew her mouth was just hanging open, in shock.

“Whoa, dude,” John said into the microphone. He looked back out at the crowd. “Um…can I get five-fifty?”

And the rest was a blur. Riley Schultz won the bid, spending more money than anyone else had, and she had no idea what to say or do. But at least she’d finally managed to smile.

Stats: I told you Everything But has taken the cake when it comes to being my fastest-selling book, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. This book has excelled all my other ones and by far. Its highest rank on Amazon was #234 Paid in Kindle Store, but that’s not all! It also got as high as #18 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Women’s Fiction > Contemporary Women; #32 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Contemporary Fiction/ and #41 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Romance > Contemporary. Also thanks to this book’s sales, I was, for a time, propelled into Amazon’s Most Popular Authors’ ranks. I have to tell you that was a great feeling!

Availability:

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Blast from the Past: Tangled Web 1

If you caught my blog post yesterday, then you know I’m sharing old page content and turning it into blog posts so I can revamp other portions of my site to be more condensed and organized.  Today, I’m sharing the old page info about Tangled Web, the first book I ever published (and also the first book in the Tangled Web series)!

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In a nutshell: Katie Logan has had a secret crush on her best friend Johnny Church since high school, but he’s never looked at her the same way. So when Johnny—now a famous rock-and-roll guitarist—comes home to visit, Katie can’t bring herself to tell him she’s engaged to be married. She should have, though, because she soon discovers that maybe the attraction is mutual…

Trivia: Tangled Web started out as a stand alone book, but a lot of fans asked for a series. I started giving that some thought and, as you know by now, Tangled Web is just the first in what promises to be a large series. I’d written lots of books before TW (all unpublished at that time), but with TW I decided to incorporate something I loved beyond all measure—my love of music, particularly hard rock/heavy metal. I’d been working on two master’s degrees back to back and hadn’t done much reading for fun when I wrote the book, so I was clueless that there were lots of rock star fantasy books out there. I thought mine was unique. Ha! I figured out shortly after self-pubbing the book that mine wasn’t unique at all. However, I did discover very quickly that there was a huge market for it, so it turned out fine. The rest, as they say, is history.

Cool facts: Yes, that is my Fender Strat on the cover, but I’ll never tell who the bra belongs to!

Tangled Web is, as of January 2013, my bestselling book by far. It consistently continues to outsell a lot of my other titles. It’s one of those books that people either love or hate, and I’m okay with that. Better you find out with a book like TW that you don’t like my style of writing!

How Katie resembles Jade: Katie became a vegetarian since the last time Johnny saw her. I became a vegetarian in 2009.

Characters:

Katie Logan: A twenty-something social worker, Katie has always played it safe. She has harbored a deep love for her old friend Johnny since high school but has never had the guts to tell him. Katie is also mentioned in Everything But.

Johnny Church (aka J.C. Gibson): Katie’s old friend from high school. Johnny is now a world-famous guitarist who has experienced the rock star lifestyle in every way imaginable. He has a secret of his own… Johnny is also mentioned in Everything But.

Heather: Katie’s grad school roommate (will appear again in Tangled Web 3).

Riley Schultz: Katie’s first boyfriend whom she dated in high school just to make Johnny jealous. Riley appears again in his own story, the second book in the series, Everything But.

Grant: Katie’s current fiance. A nice guy but a little too boring.

Teaser:

When she looked away from the CD, she found Johnny staring at her again, just like he had been earlier in the evening. She recognized that look, though, and then she knew it wasn’t just her own emotions tugging at her heart. Johnny had the look. And it disarmed her because he’d never had that look for her. Never. She swallowed, looked down, then got up quickly. “I forgot my beer,” she said, nervous, walking to the kitchen. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest.

Johnny took it in stride unfazed and continued talking over Trent Reznor’s smooth suggestive vocals. Katie didn’t hear what Johnny said, exactly, but she breathed in a few deep breaths alone in the kitchen, willing her heart to slow back down. Then she got another beer out of the fridge and twisted off the cap, even though she had no intention of drinking it. She’d already had too much to drink tonight, but fetching a bottle out of the kitchen had provided a convenient escape from the charged moment.

When she came back in the living room, Johnny had out his first studio CD, not the garage band copy he’d made for his best friend and biggest fan. When Spawn of Satan had landed a contract, they had changed their name to “Spawn” at the insistence of their manager, dropping the hellish reference. The name still held the intent without alienating fans—that’s what their manager had said, at any rate. Their first album was also self-titled. The cover was a black background covered in flames, overlaid with a picture of the five band members in various “disinterested” rock poses, nothing atypical. “Hey, Katie. Do you have any old yearbooks around here?”

She paused. “Yeah, I think so. Hold on a second.” She walked over to the hall closet and, just as her neatnik-self had thought, her yearbooks were stacked behind Monopoly and Life. She’d inherited the games and couldn’t bear to part with them, but she never played them. And those were the kinds of things Katie kept in her hall closet–neglected items she wanted to keep. She hadn’t actually looked at her yearbooks in at least a decade, but she knew where they were. She pulled them all out for Johnny and had no interest in reading all the insipid comments bound to be contained therein. She knew, for instance, that at least one friend had written this:

2 good

+ 2 be

= 4 gotten.

Like a lot of high school friends, though, she had forgotten who had written it, and she wasn’t interested enough to dig through the pages to find out. She was, however, interested in looking at the pictures with Johnny.

He stood up and sat on the couch. She sat next to him. “Did you want to look at senior year?”

Johnny was laughing at the two-page spread of the Battle of the Bands. The pictures were black and white, but the biggest one was of Johnny’s high school band Spawn of Satan. “Look how young we were!”

Katie laughed too. She pointed at another picture that had a girl drummer. “Look at her hair. Can you believe we wore it like that then?”

Johnny smiled and looked closer. “Look at some of the clothes.”

Katie snickered again and then caught herself yawning. She covered her mouth. “Sorry.”

Johnny looked up and shook his head. “No, don’t be. Sorry, kid. I guess it’s getting late. Guess I should probably go.” He closed the yearbook and set it on the coffee table. “It’s been fun, though.”

Katie wasn’t about to argue for him to stay. It was Tuesday night, and she still had most of the week to struggle through. If she didn’t get enough sleep tonight, she’d be even sleepier tomorrow, and her fiancé Grant was due back Thursday. She wanted to be alert and awake when he got back. Katie stood and stretched. “So what’s the plan for the rest of your stay?”

“I’ll probably be here a couple of weeks. I’m going to start making some calls tomorrow, tapping into the local music scene. Start auditioning guys as soon as possible, probably slap together my new band by Monday. That’s the plan anyway. Oh, and hang with my mom. She’ll kill me if I don’t spend more time with her.” He stood up and carried his empty beer bottle in the kitchen. “We’ll have to get together at least once more before I go.”

Katie wandered toward the kitchen. “Yeah.” And, she thought, she’d have to introduce him and Grant to each other too. But that could wait. It was too late now to launch into that spiel tonight. God, she was such a wuss. “We still have catching up to do. But no more beer.”

He grinned. “Deal.” Katie walked toward the door, pausing in front, turning to face Johnny. He said, “It was really good to see you, Katie.”

“You too, Johnny.” They embraced each other. “I always forget how much I miss you until I see you again.” They both patted each other on the back. As she started to pull away, she felt that Johnny wasn’t ready to let go yet. So she leaned her head against his chest again and lost herself in his hug.

Inherent in the hug was the message that he had missed Katie as much as she had missed him. That much she believed and knew in her heart. He did let go, almost reluctantly, Katie thought, and she smiled. It really was good to have her best friend here.

But as she did at last pull back and her eyes met his, she realized she was dead wrong. It was more than that. His pupils were dilated as though he had been in a dark room for several minutes, and they were gazing into hers. Could it be…?

Yes. She read him like her favorite book, and their lips met before she could ponder it more. A thought, an image of Grant flashed for all but a second in her mind, and then it was swept away, along with any guilt she should have felt. Her brain told her that Johnny had been in her life long before Grant had been, and so what they did together didn’t matter. It was a lame justification, but it was out of her mind almost as quickly as it had entered. This moment had been a fantasy for far too long, and there was no stopping it now…

Stats:

Tangled Web has ranked as high as #936 Paid in Kindle Store (in October 2012) and #56 in Books-Literature and Fiction-Women’s Fiction-Contemporary Fiction on Amazon (October 2012).

On Amazon UK, it has ranked as high as #845 Paid in Kindle Store (in October 2012) and #38 Women Writers & Fiction (October 2012).

Finally, it has ranked as high as #7581 on Barnes & Noble (in August 2012).

Availability:

Kindle

Nook

Smashwords

Paperback–Amazon

Blast from the Past: Tangled Web

Over the next month or so, I’m going to be making some huge changes to my website.  Because of that, I’ll be getting rid of some of the pages I’ve developed.  They’re a lot of work to maintain and visitors don’t see them much, so I’m going to be capturing that info and saving it as regular blog posts–basically, I’ll just be moving things from one spot to another to preserve it.  I do intend to replace the page content with other “stuff,” but first I have to save it!

On that note, here is the page information from Tangled Web (the series):

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The Tangled Web series began in late 2010. Tangled Web wasn’t the first rock star book Jade had written, but it was the first she was finally ready to publish. Like most of her books, it started as a “What if?” question: “What if a high school girl had a crush on her friend who had his own rock band…and his band became famous?” Obviously, it expanded and evolved…

The first scene in my mind was the Battle of the Bands, where Spawn of Satan is performing for their classmates. Katie is watching the band and is hit by the fact that her best friend has become her lust and she has no idea what to do about it. I wanted to incorporate that primal feeling that comes over you when you watch a really good band. You can feel the music deep in your gut, in your soul, and I wanted to mix that feeling with the fact that Katie is awakening as a woman and she finally knows what she wants. It’s all revealed in that scene, and that’s where it started.”

Obviously, the series has evolved from there. Jade realized early on that fans loved the book, and the series has been a top seller on Amazon. When she decided to write the next book, Everything But, response was immediate and overwhelming, and she has promised to continue the series! The next book (as yet untitled) is due out early 2013 (okay, so that was a bit off!). It will focus on Kiefer, the singer in Johnny’s new band, Shock Treatment. From there, you’ll get to “meet” the rest of the guys from Spawn.

Tangled Web: A Steamy Heavy Metal Novella: Johnny & Katie, April 2011

Everything But: Riley & Erin, September 2012

Punctured, Bruised, and Barely Tattooed (a companion novel), Stone & Kory, September 2014

Seal All Exits: Kiefer & Heather, November 2014

My Thoughts on Literary Theft

I ended my war against piracy this month.

For a long time, I would get incensed when I’d see free versions of my books lying all around the internet for the taking.  It seemed there were thieves here, there, and everywhere.  I spent endless hours sending notices to offenders, demanding they take down what was rightfully mine.

Over a year ago, I discovered (thanks to a Facebook friend) MUSO, a service that does all that stuff for you–it hunts down offenders and sends them takedown notices (at your request).  I was, shortly thereafter, also contacted by DMCA Force for the same type of service.  Both services operated a little differently, but I loved them both for different reasons, and where one was lacking, the other seemed to be strong.

There were still pirated copies out there, but that was beside the point.  If I found new pirated copies, all I had to do was send the info to one of the companies covering me (one was much easier than the other when it came to completing this process) and they’d take care of the problem.  Both companies have amazing customer service and I still to this day highly recommend them both to writers who feel the need to battle piracy.  For less than a dollar a day, you can have one of these companies doing just that for you.

But there are STILL lots of pirated copies of my books out there out there.

Ah, what’s a writer to do?  Frankly, it really is a full-time job just hunting that stuff down and sending the notices.  It is worth every penny to let a company do it for you if you wish to fight piracy.

That said, I was paying over $50 a month (split between both companies), and I don’t know if it helped.  Don’t get me wrong–I know the sites contacted took down their copies of my books (and usually kept them down).  What I mean is this: How many readers took the free copies offered by all those sites?  How much did those pirated copies cut into my sales?  Would the readers who stole my books have ever paid for them?

Recently, I read a book by David Gaughran called Let’s Get Digital.  I consider myself somewhat of an indie writer “expert,” simply because I’ve learned everything the hard way, but I’m not so cocksure and full of myself that I don’t take advice or continue learning.  Much of the info in Gaughran’s book was stuff I already knew but there were some gems of advice that made me glad I picked it up.

One of those gems dealt with piracy.

Let me tell you the most frustrating part of fighting piracy.  It’s like being a teenager with an acne problem.  That one annoying zit finally goes away, and another pops up a few centimeters away.  It is an unending battle.  That said, there was one site that angered me more than any other, and that was because it charged for those copies and gave readers the impression that dollars spent on the site went to a good cause.

I emailed the company (this was in the days before I employed MUSO and DMCA Force) and called them on their bullshit.  The site owner just kind of gave me a smarmy smile (yes, I could practically see it in the email) and challenged me.  He lives in Canada and I live in the U.S.–so whatcha gonna do?  It was that site in particular that drove me to MUSO and DMCA Force.  Those companies are very good at their jobs and, if you are an author and want to fight against piracy, I highly recommend them both for myriad reasons.

However, this month, I made a choice.  I am no longer fighting piracy.

The list of why is long, but let me tell you the main reasons.  While I am not one to give up just because something is a losing battle, I have begun to seriously doubt that I am losing a ton of money this way.  And, honestly, being pirated so damn much tells me people must want to read my books.  There’s a demand for them.  I don’t sell them for exorbitant prices, so I think that honest people will pay for my books–and that’s what Gaughran talked about in his book (sentiments previously echoed by folks like Neil Gaiman and Joe Konrath).  We, as writers, want to be read, and there’s an even better chance of being read if people are talking about our books.  There have been enough informal experiments (if you will) conducted by these folks to suggest that having books pirated is a good thing.  No, it’s not good in that someone is stealing from you, but I see the logic.  Aside from that, I can tell you that I don’t think I am losing $50+ a month in sales due to piracy.  Again, it’s because I think honest people will continue to be honest, and cheaters and thieves will always be cheaters and thieves.  I can thwart one attempt, but if I have one site take down one of my books, another will pop up with that book less than a day later, and Mr. Thief will get his copy there instead.  My time is more valuable than that, and, at the end of the day, I have to put faith in my fellow human beings.  I would like to believe that more people are honest than not, and for those who aren’t, I no longer wish to spend my precious time, money, and emotions on them when those resources are better spent doing the things I love (actual writing, for instance).

I understand and respect why other authors still feel the need to fight piracy.  For me, though, I am pulling my troops out of the battle.  I have other, more important, wars to fight.