J. Kenner's Blog, page 78

Gabrielle Bisset (K. M. Scott) on TV Memories

Please welcome Gabrielle Bisset to the blog!

Thanks so much, Julie, for having me here today!

Like Julie, I have a few names I write under, depending on the genre. For PNR/UF, I write under Gabrielle Bisset, and for contemporary romance, I write under the name K.M. Scott. My first novel under the K.M. Scott name, Crash Into Me, will be released on August 28.

Readers who’ve enjoyed my PNR/UF books will find many similarities in the writing style I use in my contemporaries, but with one major difference. My contemporary romances include a lot more popular culture references, which is a result of my love of what my father used to call “the boob tube.” If there’s someone who loves to watch TV more than I do, I haven’t found them yet.

I’ve always enjoyed television. Even as my teachers were preaching that it was a waste of time and would rot my brain, I loved it. Like Bill Murray‘s character in the movie Scrooged, I grew up watching TV and it was a major part of my childhood. Cartoons, sitcoms, soap operas, and mini-series all filled my days and nights.

All those years of watching TV have affected my brain, and the details of all those shows are rattling around in my head. Not surprisingly, they come out in my writing, and my contemporary romances are the perfect place for those references. Just last night, I was writing a scene and included one involving Mr. Spock and the original Star Trek episode that had the crew of the Starship Enterprise in a parallel dimension. The one detail that has stuck in my mind for years and came out in the story was Spock’s parallel universe goatee. (I swear it fits. And no, the hero isn’t like Mr. Spock.)

While my contemporary romances are erotic, that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for fun and silliness. Those are part of what makes romance sexy. I’ve got years of TV references just waiting for the perfect scene and the perfect couple, so keep an eye out for them in my books. And since I still have the TV on for hours every day, I’ll have popular culture references ready to go for years of stories!

Thanks again, Julie, for letting me stop over and talk about my TV addiction! And for readers, do you have any TV memories that have stayed with you for years? I’d love to hear about them!

Crash Into Me

What would you give up for everything?

Tristan Stone was powerful, commanding, sex incarnate. And he wore it all so well. From the moment his mesmerizing gaze met mine, I had no choice but surrender to everything he was. His power. His decadence. His passion. He was all I never knew I needed.

He wanted to possess me, and I wanted to be his everything. All I had to do was accept what he offered. But everything has a price.

The world he gave me fulfilled my wildest dreams, but would that be enough when the past crashed into the present?

K.M. Scott/Gabrielle Bisset has been writing since she was a child, but it wasn’t until she was in her job as a college history teacher and the mother of two children that she finally began to pursue her dream of writing. Her first book was published in June 2011, and her PNR/UF series The Sons of Navarus is a bestseller and fan favorite. Under her K.M. Scott name, she’s now writing one of her longtime favorite genres, contemporary romance. Her first book under that name, Crash Into Me, is the first novel in the Heart of Stone trilogy and will be available at all major retailers on August 28, 2013. Readers can find her online on Facebook chatting when she isn’t writing or working at her day job. Readers can also connect with her on Twitter and at her blog.

Thank you Gabrielle for guest blogging today! Do you have any memories of TV that have stayed with you through the years? Let us hear about them in the comments!

P.S. - Did you hear the news? Complete Me debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list and #3 on the USA Today list--and it's still on the USA Today list!  Color me excited!

P.P.S - Don't forget to subscribe to my newsletter so you never miss a thing -- and so that you're in on the monthly contests we're starting!  (And if you leave a snail mail address, you'll receive goodies, too! What a deal, right?)

P.P.P.S. And why not scroll down and share the post? After all, sharing is sexy!

XXOO

--J.K.

#MostWantedMonday – a peek into Evan Black

Welcome to the second #MostWantedMonday as we countdown to the January 7 release of Wanted by J. Kenner, book one in the Most Wanted series of erotic romances that wilI be followed by Heated in May and Ignited in September! (Some of you may have noticed that book two has had a title change; I love Heated and think it fits the series & book much better than the original title!)

I thought I’d try something a little bit different for #MostWantedMonday — of course I’ll be giving you snippets directly from the upcoming books just like we did with #StarkOnSaturday for the Stark Trilogy, but I’m also going to do some value-added posts!  Fun things like scenes that aren’t in the book, insight into Evan, Tyler and Cole’s Chicago haunts, “casting” posts, and more!

Today, I’m giving you a hint at what’s going on in Evan’s head, but in a scene that’s not actually in the book!  (Of course the caveat is that the book isn’t yet off to the copyeditor, so anything may change!)  Enjoy!

Evan tightened his grip on her arm, knowing that he should let go.  That he should push her away.  He knew damn well that Howard Jahn, his friend and mentor, didn’t want the niece that he thought of as a daughter pulled into the seedier side of Evan’s life.  Didn’t want her looking over her shoulder.  Didn’t want her juggling dangerous secrets.

He knew, because Jahn had told him—and Evan respected his friend’s wishes.  More than that, no matter how much he might want her, Evan knew damn well that having her would mean risking his own operation.  Hell, it would mean risking his freedom.  And yet …

He couldn’t  help but imagine her in his bed. Before, he hadn’t thought of her except as someone who liked polite sex with the lights off—or at least that’s what he liked to imagine when he thought of her at all.  Thinking that they wouldn’t be even remotely compatible in bed had taken the edge off of not having her.  But touching her now was like holding a live wire, and there was no denying the sizzle and crackle and pop that seemed to shoot out from her.  She’d be wild in bed, he was certain of it.  Wild and sweet and open to anything.

And “anything” was exactly what Evan liked.

Want more Wanted? You can pre-order right now!

Amazon print

Amazon Kindle

Random House

Amazon UK print

Amazon UK Kindle

more retailers coming soon!

And pre-order buttons for Heated: A Most Wanted Novel are starting to pop up!

Amazon print

More retailers coming soon!

Did you miss the New York Times and USA Today bestselling Stark Trilogy?  Click here to learn all about it!  And for Stark fans, a Stark novella is coming! Take Me will be available December 3, and you’ll even get to meet Evan Black in the story! (No pre-order button yet, but I’ll shout out when it’s up!)

And, in honor of Take Me, I’ll be starting #StarkOnSaturday again soon, too!

That’s all for now!

XXOO

J.K.

P.S. - Did you hear the news? Complete Me debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list and #3 on the USA Today list--and it's still on the USA Today list!  Color me excited!

P.P.S - Don't forget to subscribe to my newsletter so you never miss a thing -- and so that you're in on the monthly contests we're starting!  (And if you leave a snail mail address, you'll receive goodies, too! What a deal, right?)

P.P.P.S. And why not scroll down and share the post? After all, sharing is sexy!

XXOO

--J.K.

Kate Connor, Demon Hunting Soccer Mom, and #SoccerMomSunday

I’ll grant you that a soccer mom (or even a demon hunting soccer mom) doesn’t have quite the sex appeal factor of Damien Stark, but then again, Kate Connor already has two men in her life — her current husband and her dead husband who’s come back to life in the body of another man.  So I’m not sure she could handle Damien anyway (and he’s already got a woman, thank you very much!)

But while you wait for tomorrow’s #MostWantedMonday and the re-commencement of #StarkOnSaturday (because we have to count down to the December novella, Take Me), I thought that starting #SoccerMomSunday would be a fun thing to do!

If you’re not familiar with my Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom series already, Deja Demon: The Days And Nights of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom is the fourth book in the series, and I’ve just re-released it in e-format with an awesome new cover!  In September, I’ll be re-releasing book 5, Demon Ex Machina.  And then in October (just in time for Halloween!) I’ll have a brand new Kate Connor book, Pax Demonica!  I can’t wait!

This series is one that’s dear to my heart.  Not only is it so very close to my own life, what with the mommy-dom and the mini-vans and the demon hunting (oh, wait; that’s supposed to be a secret), but this was my first Big Book Sale and also my first movie option!  In fact the series is still in development with 1492 Pictures (Chris Columbus of Harry Potter, Home Alone, Adventures in Babysitting, and more!).  They’re awesome there, and I know if anyone can bring Kate to the screen and do her justice, it’s the folks at 1492!

“Trollhunter” director Andre Ovredal tagged to direct Carpe Demon by Julie Kenner under helm of Chris Columbus and 1492 pictures!

I’m also thrilled that the world of indie publishing now exists because when the series was dropped by my publisher I didn’t really have an option for continuing the series.  Now I can continue to write Kate’s adventures and get them to readers.  And I couldn’t be happier!

So here you go with the first #SoccerMomSunday — I hope you enjoy!

When I was fifteen, Eric and I found a demon’s lair and stopped the creature from becoming both corporeal and invincible.

When I was sixteen, I located a nest of vampires in Prague and took them out with the help of a local schoolteacher and a handy-dandy blowtorch.

When I was nineteen, I heard rumors that a succubus was preying on Swiss men. Eric and I investigated, took the bitch out, and still had time to ski the Alps before reporting for duty back at the Vatican the next Monday.

With a resumé like that, you might think that I could tackle any task, handle any emergency, totally hold it together in a time of crisis.

Apparently not. Because this damn bunny fiasco had pretty much put me under the table.

“No, no, no,” I said into the phone, enunciating as clearly as possible. “It really needs to be a bunny. Who’s ever heard of the Easter chicken?”

“Makes sense to me,” the guy at the other end of the phone said. “Ya got eggs, doncha? So why wouldn’t you have a chicken?”

I extricated myself from that conversation as quickly as possible, then immediately dialed Laura. Not for moral support. Not for suggestions. But for that most basic of primal needs—whining.

“It will all work out,” she assured me. “Honest. These things always do.”

“How? How do they work out? Timmy is convinced this party is all about him, I have a swarm of women descending on my house in three hours, demons are trying to kill me— which wouldn’t be unusual except that they now have zombie cohorts, and unless I think of a solution fast, the kids are going to be getting baskets for the egg hunt handed to them by Freddy the Easter Chicken. Honest, Laura, I really don’t see it getting better any time soon.”

“Stuart,” she said.

“Pardon?”

“Stuart is the answer to your prayers.”

I held the phone away from my head and stared at it, as if somehow she would be able to sense my disbelief through the phone wires. “I love the man, don’t get me wrong. And there have been times when I’ve thought that very thing. But if you think that Stuart is going to step up to the plate and spend hours on the phone locating an Easter Bunny for me, then you obviously haven’t been spending time with the same man I married.”

“Not finding,” Laura said. “Being.”

“Huh?”

“A costume, Kate.”

“There are no costumes. There are no actors. There is a complete moratorium in the world on bunnies.” I could hear my voice rising to a hysterical pitch. Zombie parts on my kitchen floor, no big deal. But toss me into a domestic crisis, and you’d think the world was coming to an end. Clearly, I needed to get a grip.

Want more? You can snag the whole series at a variety of retailers, with more coming very soon:

Carpe Demon: Kindle, Amazon UK, Nook, Kobo

California Demon: Kindle, Amazon UK, Nook

Demons Are Forever: Kindle, Amazon UK, Nook

The Demon You Know (short story): Kindle, Amazon UK, Nook

Deja Demon: Kindle, Amazon UK, Nook, Kobo

Happy reading!

XXOO

JK

P.S. - Did you hear the news? Complete Me debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list and #3 on the USA Today list--and it's still on the USA Today list!  Color me excited!

P.P.S - Don't forget to subscribe to my newsletter so you never miss a thing -- and so that you're in on the monthly contests we're starting!  (And if you leave a snail mail address, you'll receive goodies, too! What a deal, right?)

P.P.P.S. And why not scroll down and share the post? After all, sharing is sexy!

XXOO

--J.K.

Late to the Show: Margaret Daley on Zombies

Please Welcome Margaret Daley to the blog!

For years I had no interest in watching The Walking Dead, a TV show on AMC. After all, it was about a bunch of zombies. Zombies have never done much for me. I don’t like horror, and you have to admit they look awful and let’s admit it’s scary, too. Nothing would be worst than a bunch of dead people coming after you over and over. So no, I wasn’t going to watch the popular TV show. In fact, I couldn’t see how it was so popular, especially among some writers I know.

Then because there wasn’t much else to watch, I taped three year’s worth (a marathon weekend of viewing The Walking Dead), thinking I would watch a few and see what everyone was talking about. My friends were already excited about the new season starting in October. It would be easy enough to delete three year’s of shows if I couldn’t get pass the first episode.

I watched the first show then the second until a week later I had seen all three years of shows and was hooked. I was hooked after the first couple of shows. I will admit I still don’t care for zombies and they are gross to look at but the cast and story-lines on the show are great. You never know when someone will be killed off or a new character will be introduced. No one is safe from the zombies, but the story is about human nature and our survival instinct.

I have several favorites on the show. Rick is great as the central character—very complex. Then there is Daryl. At first I thought he would be like his brother, but he has grown into a neat character over the three years. I hope Carol and Daryl get together. They need each other. Hershel is another that has changed and I’ve grown to like. In fact, the part of the story I like the best is how the characters are affected and adapt to what is happening around them.

I could go on and on about the characters.I’m looking forward to what they do with the prison in the 4th season. I’m sure we’ll see the Governor again—great villain. And the new people added in season three look interesting (since Andrea was killed—hated seeing her go).

Which character(s) do you like from The Walking Dead? What do you think will happen in Season 4?

 

My new book is called Dangerous Pursuit, Book 1 in my latest series, The Protector:

Reading about danger never prepared Samantha Prince for the desperate phone call from her brother in Brazil that sent her from the safety of her New Orleans bookstore into the rugged, inhospitable Amazon in search of him and a hidden treasure. And reading about romance never prepared Samantha to resist the mysterious appeal of Brock Slader, a guide she hired to help her in her quest.

Alone with Brock in an alien world of orchids and anacondas, primitive headhunters and very up-to-date gunmen, she struggles to keep their relationship strictly business. Will Samantha survive the dangers in the jungle only to have her heart broken by a man who lives on the edge—no strings attached?

 

I will be releasing the second book in the series in a couple of weeks called Dangerous Interlude, available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble!

 

Margaret Daley, an award-winning author of eighty-four books, has been married for over forty years and is a firm believer in romance and love. When she isn’t traveling, she’s writing love stories, often with a suspense thread and corralling her three cats that think they rule her household. To find out more visit Margaret Daley’s website. Or you can connect with Margaret at her blog, on Facebook, or on Twitter!

 

Thank you Margaret for blogging today!

I’m also excited about the new season of The Walking Dead! Be sure and answer Margaret’s question:

“Which character(s) do you like from The Walking Dead? What do you think will happen in Season 4?”

Share your thoughts and premonitions in the comments section!

P.S. - Did you hear the news? Complete Me debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list and #3 on the USA Today list--and it's still on the USA Today list!  Color me excited!

P.P.S - Don't forget to subscribe to my newsletter so you never miss a thing -- and so that you're in on the monthly contests we're starting!  (And if you leave a snail mail address, you'll receive goodies, too! What a deal, right?)

P.P.P.S. And why not scroll down and share the post? After all, sharing is sexy!

XXOO

--J.K.

Complete Me & Bodyguards: Bestseller lists times three (and four!!)

I’m excited because after debuting at #2 on the New York Time bestseller list and #3 on the USA Today bestseller list, Complete Me is still going strong, in its 3rd week now on the USA Today list!

But that’s not all!

 

 

 

 

 

I’m part of a Summit Authors Favorite Romance Themes boxed set (Bodyguards) and it’s now in it’s fourth week on the USA Today list.  Woot!

So I guess three (and four) is a charm!

Color me happy!

Don’t miss any news!  Be sure to subscribe to my newsletter!

 

 

Mari Mancusi, free dragon pendants, Stark swag, and questions for YOU!

I just got back from the Authors After Dark conference (loved it!) and was amazed and awed by some of the amazing “swag” (i.e., giveaways) that some of the authors brought.

Then I was chatting with awesome author and friend Mari Mancusi about a fabulous deal that her publisher has going on right now for her new book (hurry!! it only lasts until September 2!! Follow the link for details of how to participate).

Essentially, the publisher is giving away JEWELRY (wow, right?).  An awesome dragon pendant to every-freaking-person who pre-orders the book.  (Yeah, I think that’s cool!)

 

I just think that’s such a clever campaign!  Don’t miss out!

There are other book related giveaway things that are fun, too. I took fabulous door hangers to AAD that say “Shhhh … I’m with Damien Stark” with me to the AAD conference.  Lots of fun!  But I saw all sorts of cool swag there like coozies and notebooks and journals and buttons and bumper stickers and mugs and t-shirts and on and on … and that got me thinking.

So my question to you readers is — what do you like/want?  Do you love bookmarks? USB drives with sample books?  Coasters? Postcards? Nail files?  I’m about to do a massive “swag restock” and would love to know what you like!

(Bonus: sign up for my newsletter and include your snail mail address, and I’ll send you some fun swag! Don’t worry if you already subscribe; the system is smart enough not to email you twice!  ah, the wonders of technology…)

Hump Day books from Marquita Valentine, Andris Bear, S. D. Stuart, Eliza Knight, Loucinda McGary, Libby Fischer Hellmann, and two incredible boxed sets: A Fatal Four-Pack and Dangerous Desires!

Check out these fantastic Hump Day books!

Just Desserts (Holland Springs)

Sebastian Romanov, a very (not-so) proper modern day earl needs the help of Holland Springs’ sweetest baker, Daisy Barnes, in order to get his company back-or at least that’s the story he’s sticking with!

See more at Marquita Valentine’s website!
Angel Unleashed (Deadly Sins)

New Paranormal Romance!

For more information visit Andris Bear’s website!
The Scarecrow of OZ: A Steampunk Adventure (Steampunk OZ)

Brand New Science Fiction!

And visit S.D. Stuart’s website!
The Rebound Pact

A new sexy contemporary from Amazon best-selling author, Eliza Knight!

Find out more at Eliza Knight’s website!
Dead Girl in a Green Dress

Murder and mayhem on Mackinac Island.

For more please visit Loucinda McGary’s website!
A Fatal Four-Pack: Four Complete Mystery Novels

Four great mysteries for ninety-nine cents!

For more visit L. L. Bartlett’s website!
[image error] Dangerous Desires (A Boxed Set)

Romantic Suspense, Mystery & Thriller box set for only $.99!

For more information visit Kathy Carmichael’s website!
Havana Lost

Set largely in Cuba, HAVANA LOST IS an epic thriller spanning 3 generations of the same Mob family.

Find out more at Libby Fischer Hellmann’s website!

 

If you would like to submit a book to the Hump Day feature, click here!

P.S. - Did you hear the news? Complete Me debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list and #3 on the USA Today list--and it's still on the USA Today list!  Color me excited!

P.P.S - Don't forget to subscribe to my newsletter so you never miss a thing -- and so that you're in on the monthly contests we're starting!  (And if you leave a snail mail address, you'll receive goodies, too! What a deal, right?)

P.P.P.S. And why not scroll down and share the post? After all, sharing is sexy!

XXOO

--J.K.

Hump Day books from Marquita Valentine, Adris Bear, S. D. Stuart, Eliza Knight, Loucinda McGary, Libby Fischer Hellmann, and two incredible boxed sets: A Fatal Four-Pack and Dangerous Desires!

Check out these fantastic Hump Day books!

Just Desserts (Holland Springs)

Sebastian Romanov, a very (not-so) proper modern day earl needs the help of Holland Springs’ sweetest baker, Daisy Barnes, in order to get his company back-or at least that’s the story he’s sticking with!

See more at Marquita Valentine’s website!
Angel Unleashed (Deadly Sins)

New Paranormal Romance!

For more information visit Andris Bear’s website!
The Scarecrow of OZ: A Steampunk Adventure (Steampunk OZ)

Brand New Science Fiction!

And visit S.D. Stuart’s website!
The Rebound Pact

A new sexy contemporary from Amazon best-selling author, Eliza Knight!

Find out more at Eliza Knight’s website!
Dead Girl in a Green Dress

Murder and mayhem on Mackinac Island.

For more please visit Loucinda McGary’s website!
A Fatal Four-Pack: Four Complete Mystery Novels

Four great mysteries for ninety-nine cents!

For more visit L. L. Bartlett’s website!
[image error] Dangerous Desires (A Boxed Set)

Romantic Suspense, Mystery & Thriller box set for only $.99!

For more information visit Kathy Carmichael’s website!
Havana Lost

Set largely in Cuba, HAVANA LOST IS an epic thriller spanning 3 generations of the same Mob family.

Find out more at Libby Fischer Hellmann’s website!

 

If you would like to submit a book to the Hump Day feature, click here!

P.S. - Did you hear the news? Complete Me landed at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list and #3 on the USA Today list!  Color me excited!

P.P.S. And why not scroll down and share the post? After all, sharing is sexy!

XXOO

--J.K.

Lois Winston on Writing Outside the Box

Please welcome Lois Winston to the blog!

For those of us who are “pantsers” rather than “plotters,” I’m sure you’ve at some point found a minor character taking over one of your stories. Such was the case when I began writing Talk Gertie to Me. What started out as a chick lit fish-out-of-water story about a sheltered Midwest twenty-something leaving home and moving to Manhattan, quickly grew into much more. Why? Because my heroine’s mother kept forcing herself onto the pages of the book. After fighting with her for a few chapters, I finally gave in to her demands, and am I ever glad I did!

I’ve since published fourteen additional books, and I’ve come to learn to trust my characters. Sometimes they have to beat me over the head until I’ll listen to them, but when I finally do, I rarely regret it. Like arguments, every story has two sides. I was only telling Nori’s side of the story. When I allowed her mother Connie a say in things, the result was a more complex, serio-comic book involving issues we all face as we grow up, marry, and have children. It became a book not just about cutting the apron strings but about choices, regrets, and second chances, none of which would have been possible without allowing Connie a say.

Connie taught me a valuable lesson: complex characters are the driving force in any story. If I hadn’t given into her demands, I would have written a run-of-the-mill chick lit novel, forgotten over time like so many other chick lit novels of the late nineties and early two thousands. Instead of following the chick lit trend of books about twenty-somethings who hate their jobs, date losers, and obsess about shoes, Connie forced me to write outside the box.

I’ve been writing outside the box ever since. In the romances and romantic suspense books I write under my Emma Carlyle pen name, I often tackle issues you don’t normally see in traditionally published romances and romantic suspense. For instance, in Finding Hope my hero is married to another woman for the first part of the book. I could have written the book in such a way that he and his wife had already split before the book opens, but it wouldn’t have had the same emotional impact.

In my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, I break many of the “rules” governing traditional/cozy mysteries. I use four-letter words, for one thing. Some readers have objected, but hey, my Mafia loan shark isn’t going to say, “Gosh darn it!” He’s going to drop the occasional F-bomb because he has to be true to who he is. Tony Soprano wasn’t Gomer Pyle.

I want my books to challenge readers to step outside their own boxes and not be afraid to read something a little different, not be tied to the “conventions” they assume govern genre fiction. The only rule I believe writers should follow is the one that states you should write a great book. Many other authors and publishers apparently agree with me if you look at the growth of cross-genre fiction over the last few years.

Speaking of cross-genre fiction brings me back to Talk Gertie to Me. Over the years I’ve had readers ask if there would ever be a sequel. I never considered one until one day when I thought, why not? At that point I was firmly entrenched in Anastasia’s mystery world. What would happen if I tossed Nori and the gang into the middle of a mystery? Would fans of Talk Gertie to Me accept the mystery plot? I wouldn’t know unless I tried. So I did. The result was the novella Elementary, My Dear Gertie.

I’d love to know what you think about making the switch from one genre to another with the same characters. Would you pick up a sequel that nudged the world of the first book into another genre? And how do you feel about books that bend genre conventions?

Award-winning author Lois Winston writes the critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series featuring magazine crafts editor and reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack. She’s also published in women’s fiction, romance, romantic suspense, and non-fiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Visit Lois at www.loiswinston.com, visit Emma at www.emmacarlyle.com, and visit Anastasia at the Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers blog, www.anastasiapollack.blogspot.com. Follow everyone on Twitter @anasleuth.

 

Here’s an except from Talk Gertie to Me:

Out of adversity comes…a better life than you ever expected? Twenty-seven-year old Nori Stedworth thinks her day can’t get worse, until she finds her mother on her doorstep—complete with luggage and a crisis of her own. Now Nori’s inner voice, whom she always called Gertie, is piping up again, and is Gertie ever cranky. But witty. Fate smiles on Nori in the form of a much too good-looking guy who talks her into parlaying Gertie’s acerbic wit into a wildly popular radio program. And Mom? Mom’s quirky craft skills land her on Letterman and a budding crafts empire. Even if Mom’s plan for Nori’s life isn’t panning out, the two women can agree that it’s never too late to listen to your inner voice.

And don’t forget to check out Elementary, My Dear Gertie:

Two years have passed since the happily-ever-after that isn’t doing so well. Nori Stedworth has moved in with the love of her life, Mackenzie Randolph, much to her parents’ displeasure. They’re coping as best as parents from Ten Commandments, Iowa can. They want Mac to make an honest woman of their daughter, and that means nothing short of marriage. Mac is all for exchanging I do’s. He’s even bought the ring, but before he can pop the question, an explosion hurls him and Nori right into the middle of a murder investigation. Gertie, Nori’s alter-ego, can’t help but lend her acerbic wit to the twists and turns as the town is turned upside down in the search for a murderer and arsonist, and yet another scandal envelopes the not-so-pious residents of Ten Commandments.

A huge thanks to Lois Winston for guest blogging today! And don’t forget Lois’ question: “Would you pick up a sequel that nudged the world of the first book into another genre? And how do you feel about books that bend genre conventions?”

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

P.S. - Did you hear the news? Complete Me landed at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list and #3 on the USA Today list!  Color me excited!

P.P.S. And why not scroll down and share the post? After all, sharing is sexy!

XXOO

--J.K.

Cover Reveal: Wanted, Book 1 in the #MostWanted series by J. Kenner

 

Welcome to #MostWantedMondays — Yup, I’m starting up the weekly snippets again as we lead up to the January 7 release of Wanted, book 1 in the Most Wanted series by me, J. Kenner.

I should probably tell you that while Evan Black is smoking hot on the cover of the book, he’s even sexier on the page!  Can’t wait to share him with you!

(And don’t you just abso-freaking-lutely love the cover?  If you don’t, please don’t tell me because I’m dying over how much I love it!)

Big huge thanks to all the bloggers who have so graciously filled their cyber-homes with the cover today — and made today’s cover reveal extra fun!  And thanks to Bantam for coming up with such a supremely fabulous cover!

And here’s our first snippet!!  Those of you who have the ebook for Complete Me have seen this (I’ve tweaked it just a tad since it went into production).  Those of you with print copies, this is all new to you!

His eyes were as gray as a wolf’s and his hair was the color of cherrywood, a deep brown that hinted at golds and reds when the light hit it just right. He wore it long in the back so that it brushed his collar, and the natural waves gave it the quality of a mane—which only enhanced the impression that there was a wildness clinging to the man.

Wild or not, I wanted to get close.  I wanted to thrust my fingers into his hair and feel the locks on my skin.  I imagined his hair was soft, but that’s the only part of him that was.  Everything else was edged with steel, the hard planes of his face and body hinting at a dangerous core beneath that beauty.

And, yeah, I had good reason to believe that the danger was more than just an illusion.

Right then, though, I didn’t care.

I wanted the touch, the thrill.

That desperate need to fly I’d been feeling all night?  So help me, I wanted to fly right into Evan’s arms.

I needed the rush.  I craved the kick.

I wanted the man.

And it was just too damn bad that he didn’t want me, too.

Want more? Pre-order your copy of Wanted!

Random House
Amazon print
Amazon Kindle
Amazon UK
Barnes & Noble (Print or Nook)
More retailers coming!

P.S. - Did you hear the news? Complete Me landed at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list and #3 on the USA Today list!  Color me excited!

P.P.S. And why not scroll down and share the post? After all, sharing is sexy!

XXOO

--J.K.