Riley Murphy's Blog, page 16

Statements Aren’t Sexy…They are Sheep’s Pluck!

And by that I mean financial statements because you know, a plain statement like: “You are beautiful” Or “You are smoking hot” Or even, “You are the sun in my previously dark and dismal-without-you universe” can be sexy, right?

Numbers? Not too sexy. *Thinks for a moment* Wait, they could be a blast if you,

A: Were naked

B: Had a willing partner.

C: Don’t mind being decorated with a semi-permanent medium.

True story. In the above case scenario one plus one could add up to WAY more than two, if you know what I mean. *wink, wink*

Alas this is not my topic today. Today I speak of accounting. *leans into whisper* Now, usually when I use that word it’s me trying to account for my behavior, but nope. I really mean accounting – accounting. Normally I leave this up to the professionals as I have a tendency to get bored. Hey, don’t judge me. I’m creative and think outside the box most times so, yeah…where was I going with that? Right, I’m a daydreamer and a story teller, all rolled up in one. That is until I’m forced not to be, and yesterday was one of those days.

Honey calls these “Uh Oh, she’s on a mission” times and he’s smart enough to keep his distance. I won’t go into the painful details of me calling accountants, banks, the post office and well, numerous other places on my mission, I shall just tell you what happened after I figured a few things out. Well, at least enough to ask pertinent questions, that is.

Honey left the house in the early am. I had on a pair of black yoga pants and pink T-shirt. My hair was up in a ponytail and I had no make-up on.

Honey came home in the pm. I had on a pair of black yoga pants and a pink T-shirt. My hair was up in a ponytail and I had no make-up on.

What’s worse? We were both stunned to see each other in this moment. He was probably thinking, “Yee Gads! She hasn’t moved from that spot since 7am!” While I was thinking, “Jesus H! He’s home! What time is it?” Here’s the convo:

Honey frowning. “Have you been at this all day?”

Me frowning back. “Depends, what time is it?”

“Six ten.”

No wonder I was having trouble going through the last of the paperwork. I actually felt bad for the cussing I’d been doing at the gentleman who’d given me the report I was trying to piece together. Turns out? He wasn’t the problem. Impending dusk was. “I guess I have.”

“What’s for dinner?”

Typical. No how did you make out? Are you tired? Did you remember to hydrate? Are you hungry? Just, what’s for dinner. *le sigh* I ignored his insensitive and wholly male comment, and grumbled, “I suppose I look hagish.”

He had turned and was walking toward our room to no doubt get changed, when he stopped and spun around. “You’re cooking haggis? I’ve never had that before.”

Me, *blink, blink. Thinking* Yes, that’s because in all the 30+ years I’ve been cooking for you I’ve never made it. Never thought to make it. Never wanted to make it. Wouldn’t know how to make it even if the spirit struck me. What. The. Hell! Meh, I decided to go with it. why not? “Well, strap on your napkin it’s going to be a culinary feast for the senses.”

He left to get washed up, looking totally stoked about trying something new. I on the other hand, took my hagish-work-worn-from-number-crunching ass into the kitchen and tried to figure out how I could turn the ground lamb I was going to use to make burgers with into a Scottish delicacy. A few vegetables, one packet of onion soup mix, various spices and a pot of whipped potatoes later, and voila! A new version of my Shepherd’s Pie was born. All I had to do when I put the plate down in front of him was announce, “This is Haggis.” with conviction and he was sold. My only worry now was that he liked it so much he’d probably go on bragging about it. I have visions of the family asking me to make this delicacy come holiday time.

Oh well. In keeping with me Scottish theme. Gie it laldy!  Which basically means: “Do something with gusto.” Heh. This should be me motto in life, lads and lassies – because when I do something, whether it’s examining financial reports or turning Shepherd’s Pie into Haggis, I always do it with gusto!

Here’s another one for you.

“Lang may yer lum reek!” Sounds bad, but it’s actually good and I wish it for all of you. Honey too! It means. “May you live long and stay well.”

Riley who has discovered that Honey likes her Scottish accent. So much so, she may have to invest in a kilt. Mìorbhaileach!

 

Sue Me!

I’m tickled pink with the reviews and listener emails I’m getting for my recently released audio books!

Before I get to them, I want to give a little background about my artists. Well, not official stuff, that you can find on their bios. No, what I’m talking about *looks around and then leans in to whisper* is the dirt. *sits back* At least the way I see it…which could be totally the truth or more fiction I’ve made up in my head, but that’s besides the point. Here’s the deal. I hopped onto the Audible site when I was toying with the idea of converting my small story, Date With A Dom, into audio to see how hard the process would be, and what did I find? A whole pile of voices to choose from. Really, there were a lot and I had a number of artists audition for me who were very good, but then I came across this one sample and I was hooked. I couldn’t get the artist’s voice out of my head and the way she read? It was as if she was each of my characters in the moment she slipped into their point of view. Naturally, I hired her and she produced A Date With A Dom and Requested Surrender for me.

See how new I was at this? I didn’t even put Kai’s name on those two covers. A mistake I’m currently getting corrected. Anyways, we worked so well together that we started to brainstorm about a possible dual narration. From the very start of audio first coming out I always dreamed of having a male and female lead reading my work…you know, when I got famous by being published. Now that one of those things has happened. *stares right at you* I’m published aren’t I? I mentioned this to Kai. I wasn’t sure how we’d go about it or even if we could, but she was all for it so what did we do? We combed the voice archives for the perfect guy’s voice for Aries. It really helped that Kai loved Stare Me Down – I think the fact made her a little particular, if you want to know the truth – but that was okay by me. So there we were doing our very first show and tell (via phone call) of the list we were supposed to compile of male voices to choose from, but before I could tell her that I only had one name on mine, she said she only had one name on her list. I started to get chills. You know the kind of eerie chill that tells you something great was about to happen? Well it did. We both chose the same guy. Wen Ross. Now came the hard part. Bagging him…er I mean, hiring him, and then figuring out the logistics of the two of them getting together to do the narration in the studio. Yeah, I know it seems like a big hurdle right? Wrong. When the stars align they shine really bright! Turns out it wasn’t hard at all. They think is was luck, but I say it was kismet! My only problem now is making sure they aren’t too busy to do my books going forward. I’ve contracted them for Reputable Surrender (which they are currently producing) and Stare Her Down that I hope they will be starting on right after Reputable is done. Can’t wait for all this to happen!

Here’s what a reviewer said about Stare Me Down’s audio!

This is one HOT Read!

I’m going to start this review by talking about the narration first which was so refreshing…. the male said the male lines and the female said… well you get the drift, so the whole thing flowed like a conversation. I prefer this type of dual narration rather than the usual alternating few chapters type which means the H/H always ends up having two voices, one said by the male narrator and one said… well, again, you get the drift. There were a few echo/timing glitches occasionally but it usually flowed really well and Wen Ross’ voice was so sexy ahhhh oh, errrm, now onto the book.

 

Ramsey (aka Aries) is a handsome charismatic owner of a Sex Club and a Dom, he’s forced by the Court into seeing Jaxx a timid mousey Therapist, to talk through his anger management problems but their chemistry is like oil and water total opposites which leads to clever, witty and funny dialogue. But beneath the ‘Vanilla’ and the ‘Dom’ lurks some strong chemistry just waiting to be released and when it is there’s lots of very hot sex scenes where Jaxx shows just how ‘not so Vanilla’ she truly is. So, if you’re not into BDSM in your romances then stop reading this and move on.

 

There’s great chemistry, secrets, insecurities, a meddling Mother figure, a business plan to pitch to his estranged Brother, the threat of another man claiming what’s his and Jaxx who he is slowly, happily and successfully bringing into his world of Dom/Sub. And the witty banter, sex games, intellect, passion and attraction they both share means a funny HEA. So no cliffhanger.

Worth a credit? Only if you like your romances with a lot of hot, no holes barred, sex play.

 

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I loved the last line of that review because that’s exactly what I’m always going for when I write my stories.

I also LOVE that this reviewer mentioned, intellect. As one of my Facebook buddies commented after he’d read the review, *waves at Steve*  “I’m glad that reviewers are finally seeing your books as they should be interpreted. BDSM is more than whips and chains. Mindplay.”

Thanks for stopping by!

Riley

A Gunn, Rope, Video, Bailey, And A Quote Or Two…

He’s a Dom who’s into…

Rope…

She needs Gunn to help her out. Unfortunately, he has his way…

And she has…well, his way too…

He says stuff like…

“Make no mistake, Bailey. When we fuck you’ll enjoy it.” He let that sink in for a few seconds before he added, “But as to that? I intend to fuck your mind, before I fuck your body.”

She says stuff like…

“As I was saying, you think differently than other people and way more differently than women. Well, a woman. Me to be exact, because some of the shit you say sets my hair on fire, if you want to know the truth.”

This is the book video! Best part about this is the original song. It was composed and performed by Ruby Williams. She took some quotes from my story and wrote a whole song around them! I love this one!!!

Other exciting news to share? Date With A Dom and Requested Surrender are out in audio!!! Super excited about this!!!

(click on the covers if you want to be directed to a sample)

There’s a story behind these narrators that I’m going to officially blog about this week. Kai Kennicott is the talented female narrator who worked on A Date With A Dom and Requested Surrender. In Stare Me Down she worked with a gentleman (LOVE the dual narration) and that’s where the story I mentioned comes in. Haha!

 

 

Stare Me down has male and female narrators who I absolutely love!

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Thanks for stopping by!!!!

Riley

 

Stare Her Down

Date With A Dom

Cover Reveal For Stare Her Down!!!

 

As an expert rigger, Gunn is the logical Dom to represent the club in the all-important bondage competition that will help out his friend. He thought he had the sub for the job, until she quit on him. Now he has to find an ideal replacement immediately.

Bailey wants the perfect bikini bod to capture the affections of her monumental crush. After a few margaritas, which prompted some sketchy decisions, she thinks Gunn can help her shape up. Didn’t a Dom equal Drill Sergeant?

Through her humor and Gunn’s stoicism, they find a precarious balance until the scales get tipped, but not in her favor. By the time she realizes her mistake, that a Dom is anything but a personal trainer, it’s too late because she’s literally tied up in a mess of her own making.

Securely caught in the rigger’s tangle, will she be able to break free and claim what she always wanted, or will her sexy and strict Dom stare her down until she accepts the truth? He’s all she ever needed…

 

Here’s the book video!

And here’s a teaser…

Thanks for stopping by!

Riley

Update about Stare Her Down!!!!

Busy, busy BUSY! Stare Her Down is turning out to be one of my all time favorite stories!!! I should have the book video up in the next couple of days! Here’s a sneak peek of some of the lyrics!!! LOVE!!!

What’s not to love about a guy who’s into rope? A sexy Dom, known as ‘The Viking’?

Don’t forget I will be doing a cover reveal for this story on the 12th!!! There will be prizes so check back!

 

I Am So Sick Of Hearing…

How are you doing? Okay?

There are very few times in my life where I’m ready to throw in the towel, but when I’m sick and Honey is at the bedside? Down goes the white terry. I. Swear. To. God! If he came in to check on me one more time (this would be yesterday while I was suffering some kind of putrid plague) I was going to scream. Ironic, as I didn’t think I had the strength. But I digress, let me assure you that Honey and I are complete opposites when we get sick. I want to be left alone and him NOT SO MUCH

So there I was, wallowing in my own misery and not bothering a soul, when Honey gets home and starts hovering. I think that’s what he was doing, quite frankly it was hard to tell through my raging fever fogged mind, but we’ll assume he was doing this. This is how I recall things.

Me finally sleeping because I’d gotten my achy bones in a position that didn’t make me want to cry. Can you hear me? No of course you can’t. I don’t snore, so of course I’m going to be poked – by Honey and not in the good way. This was in a very, very, bad way. Have you guessed it? He thought I was dead.

0.0

“Babe? Babe?” He pokes, pokes harder and pokes harder still. “Are you okay?” Now he shakes. “Babe?”

I don’t even want to open my eyes, but boy did I wish I had enough energy to sock him one! I groan. “What? I’m fine. I’m resting.”

“Oh. What do you want to do for dinner?”

I’m lying there thinking, he just thought I was dead and now he wants me to organize his dinner plans? That’s cold. “I don’t know, would you like me to cook you the lobster and steak I bought from the grocery store earlier?”

“Surf and turf?”

You know, I didn’t even feel bad getting his hopes up – the jerk! “I don’t give a…” Well, I could tell you what I said to him, but I wouldn’t want to offend anyone. Suffice it to say, it wasn’t nice. Then I told him to leave me be. Of which he did for about 30 minutes. Then he came back in.

“Have you been drinking plenty of fluids?”

“Yes, now please just let me rest.”

Half hour later.

“Did you take some Tylenol?”

I didn’t, but I told him yes and asked him nicely to leave.

Another half hour later he creeps in. “Were any of those fluids you’ve been drinking today, Gatorade or Pedialyte?”

I was living in hell and he was the punisher. I pulled myself up as best I could, huffed the hair out of my eyes and glared at him or tried to. “You called our daughter, didn’t you?” The tip-off being Honey wouldn’t know about this fluid stuff. He’d be more likely to try and get me to down some brandy then, you know, give me something that actually worked.

Honey gets this stupid look on his face, as if he’s half offended and half going to lie to me. “Maybe.”

I groan and fall back in the bed. “Tell me you didn’t call your mother.”

“God no. I called the kids and the girls and your sister.”

“Just one? I’m surprised you didn’t call both of them.”

“I tried, but she didn’t pick-up.”

So, translation of all this? When I’m well Honey wouldn’t be caught dead on the phone, but sick as I was? The man couldn’t get off it. Jeez! For someone who likes to play it low-key when they’re sick, news of my illness certainly got around. Oh, and Honey ordered in. Yeah, I know you were as worried as I was about what he was going to eat for dinner.

Men! *Shakes Head*

Riley

Getting Close!!! Stare Her Down!!!

Here’s an excerpt:

“I like knots to stimulate pressure points. This one?” he whispered beside her ear, pressing the tie she’d complained about more intimately against her with a gentle rocking motion. “Massages pleasure points most women know nothing about. I know everything about them, and I use them to their best advantage.”

When he pulled back, Bailey opened her eyes and studied him. Something had changed. Him, her, or both of them, but things were different now. Power had shifted. He was in control and she didn’t know why. He hadn’t really done anything extreme other than be firm in his talking with her, and yet, she was feeling foolish and kind of ashamed at the way she’d complained before. She’d behaved… immature was a word that came to mind.

Yeah, because he was totally mature. Powerful. Tempting. Sort of scary which was utterly sexy somehow. She nearly sighed with that last thought. “What’s changed here?”

“I know when to be a man and when to be a Dom. I think you’ve just learned the difference.”

She nodded and tried not to squirm, but he was pressing that knot a little harder and it wasn’t so much she wanted to tell him to stop that bothered her. It was just the opposite that worried her more.

“I have roughly ten minutes left and I plan on using that time wisely. I want to get to know you.”

Her relief over hearing that was short lived when he readjusted, moving down on the bed, and easing up into a kneeling position. One look at his intense and determined expression, and she knew his idea of getting to know her was far different than hers. He wasn’t going to ask her lame questions like she’d asked him.

What did that tell her? It was time for her to be just as determined as he seemed to be. She wasn’t going to die from embarrassment as he examined the ropes, that knot—God, did he pry her cheeks open—nope, she wasn’t going to cringe or close her eyes or cry fucking pickle! She was going to be grown up about all this. An idea that she nearly abandoned when he slid his fingers against her slick folds.

“You’re wet, Bailey.” His sizzling gaze finally lifted as he searched her face. “I like that. I also like how well you’ve taken to be tied. I’m a man who knows what he wants. I understand how to get it, but it will be so much easier now that I know you’re comfortable with rope.”

She was going to say she wasn’t. That she was only trying to impress him, yet the words died in her throat. They were drowned by the silent scream of desire she had, to see what he was going to do next.

She should have known his ensuing action was going to be spectacular. She should have guessed. A guy like him…

(end)

I’ll be doing a cover reveal on September 12th. They’ll be a raffle for some $$ and a chance to win the eBook version of Stare Her Down too! The pre-order link should be up by then as well. Can’t. Wait. I’m dying for these two to meet the world!

Riley

Wanna hear about the exciting life of an erotic romance author?

 

I had to share this one. Heheheh. So, Honey got home yesterday afternoon (earlier than expected) and he came into my office. Of course I was furiously typing away when he says, “You want to take a break after I clean up a bit?”

I stop and answered, “Sure.”

He went to leave and then paused. “I’m not pulling you away from an important scene am I?”

I didn’t even blink (this is bad so *I shall hang my head now*) when I replied, “No my hero’s been going down on my heroine long enough.”

He didn’t even blink (again bad – we are so bad *I was thinking*) when he said, “Ooh, ouch! He’s getting the head tap?”

(This is where it got awful and I know I’m going to hell) “Oh, yeah, no. Bailey would never to do that to Gunn, he’s like an expert. Besides, she couldn’t if she wanted to. She’s all tied up.”

*Cries laughing now that I think about it* because all he did was leave while I finished the sentence I’d been in the middle of typing prior to him coming in.That was when I really thought about that conversation! How cavalier it was. SO bad, bad, BAD!

Riley… Who’s is currently picking out her ragged and charred ensemble for her future destination. Not gonna lie, looking forward to the horns and spiked tail, but not a big fan of the heat. I wonder if Beezlebub will let me bring in a AC unit? Not like a central one or anything, just a small window unit I could strap to my trident or something. Ya think that’d fly?