Dani Collins's Blog, page 58

FreakyFriday – Jennifer Hayward

As promised, the made-of-awesome Jennifer Hayward is guest posting here today with an exclusive excerpt from her February Harlequin Presents, An Exquisite Challenge. Please visit Jennifer’s blog for a unique snippet from my book, A Debt Paid In Passion.

Also as promised, a limited edition 2in1 only available in the UK.  Jennifer and I received a few author copies which we’ve signed and switched so the winner will get both author’s autographs. To enter for a chance to win, join my newsletter.

*Note: I moderate comments. I’ll approve as quickly as I can.*

On to Jennifer’s Delicious De Campos

~ * ~

When my brilliant fellow Canuck Presents writer, Dani Collins, suggested we exchange posts for our February Valentine’s books in a ‘Freaky Friday’ switch, I thought it was an inspired idea! Considering Mills & Boon has paired Dani and I together in a limited edition 2 in 1 volume for our February releases, it’s a beautiful thing.

If I do say so myself, I think we’ve written two hot books for the month of hearts, and I’m super excited to bring Dani’s extremely sexy Raoul and her feisty Sirena to my blog. Her excerpt from A Debt Paid In Passion is smokin’ hot. And I mean smokin’ hot.

Which would also serve to describe my very sexy winemaker, Gabe De Campo, hero of my February release, An Exquisite Challenge, the follow to my So You Think You Can Write-winning debut, The Divorce Party. Because who doesn’t love a man who makes wine?

Hope you enjoy this excerpt in which Gabe & Alex finally give into the heat between them. It’s been coming for a long, long time. Leave a comment and I’ll give away a copy of An Exquisite Challenge. Cheers and I hope you have a hot Valentine’s Day yourself.

Blurb

“First move’s yours, Lex,” he murmured. “After that, all bets are off.”

Wine magnate Gabe De Campo has fired his PR company three weeks before the most anticipated launch event the industry’s ever seen. Enter Alexandra Anderson—the last woman he should ever work with, but the only woman who can help.

Gabe and Alex have always been a lethal combination, and with so much at stake for them both, failure is not an option. Can they ignore the powerful attraction between them in order to maintain their professionalism…or is it only a matter of time before the cork is popped on their passion?

Excerpt

‘I told you to lose the earrings,’ he drawled.

She lifted her hands to her ears in a self-conscious movement. ‘I couldn’t exactly just stash them on a corner of the buffet.’

His purposeful stare suggested she lose them now. Excitement roared through her, licked at her nerve endings. She reached up and pulled the outrageously expensive jewelry from her ears and secured the backs with trembling fingers.

He took them from her and set them on the table. ‘Nice gift,’ he murmured. ‘Cost of a small car and all.’

Green eyes tangled with brown. ‘I like to think of them as a reminder of how untrustworthy men can be.’

His brow lifted. ‘Are we talking one particular man here or the species in general?’

‘I’d have to go with the great majority,’ she responded. ‘Lilly would say I should say ‘present company excluded’, of course. She thinks you’re one of the good guys.’

His mouth quirked. ‘And what do you think?’

She lifted a shoulder. ‘Does it matter? This is about sex, isn’t it?’

He picked up his scotch and took a long sip. Set it down with a deliberate movement. ‘I’ve never seen a more jaw droppingly beautiful woman in my life than you tonight.’

Her heart stuttered in her chest. Damnit he was smooth. And hell did she feel reckless. She’d just thrown the party of the year. She was on top of the world.

‘First move’s yours, Lex,’ he murmured. ‘After that, all bets are off.’

Never one to resist a challenge, she leaned down, braced her hand against his shoulder to steady herself and set her mouth to his. Explored his beautiful, sensuous lips like she’d been desperate to for days. He allowed her her leisure, let her have her fill of him. Then he reached up, tangled his hand in her hair and brought her down on his lap. Hard, dominant male greeted her silk covered thighs. His kiss when he took control was gentle and fiery at the same time. Touched something deep inside of her. And if she’d ever had any doubt that making love with Gabe would strip her bare, it went up in smoke now.

A tremor slid through her. He pulled back, his gaze questioning. This was why she’d never gone here. Because she wasn’t sure how she’d come out the other side.

She plastered a careless smile across her lips. ‘I think I’m having performance anxiety.’

His mouth tipped upward. ‘Maybe I’m not that good.’

‘Maybe you’re better.’

He set his lips to her jaw. ‘Why don’t you find out?’

Bio

JENNIFER HAYWARD has been a fan of romance since filching her sister’s novels to escape her teenaged angst.

Her career in journalism and PR, including years of working alongside powerful, charismatic CEOs and traveling the world, has provided perfect fodder for the fast-paced, sexy stories she likes to write, always with a touch of humour.

Her debut novel, The Divorce Party, won Harlequin’s 2012 So You Think You Can Write global writing competition.

A native of Canada’s East coast, Jennifer lives in Toronto with her Viking husband and young Viking-in-training.

She’d love to hear from you at her website: jenniferhaywardromance.com or

Twitter: @jenhayward_ or facebook.com/jenniferhaywardromance

Purchase Links

Amazon, Amazon.ca, Amazon UK

ChaptersIndigo Barnes & Noble Harlequin

The post FreakyFriday – Jennifer Hayward appeared first on Dani Collins.

Signings

Feb 8th Chapters Kelowna

Feb 19th Vancouver Public Library.

Click on the Events tab for more details.

The post Signings appeared first on Dani Collins.

#SampleSunday – A Debt Paid In Passion

This is my last excerpt for A Debt Paid In Passion–kind of. Please check back this Friday, Jan 31st, when I’ll have a special guest post by my friend, Jennifer Hayward, fellow Presents author and fellow Canadian. Yep, she’s the full package! She will be hosting me on her site and we’re both offering exclusive excerpts from our February books. Even Mills & Boon thought we’d make a great pair. Check out the UK 2in1 below.

We’re calling our cross-promo Freaky Friday. I wanted to Hashtag it, but #FreakyFriday already exists on social media and it’s genuinely freaky. Our version is more Jamie Lee Curtis/Lindsay Lohan–wait, maybe that doesn’t work either. Think Barbara Harris/Jodie Foster. Pretty wholesome, really. Just spending a day in each other’s cyber bodies.

This 2in1 won’t be available in Canada. Jen and I, however, performed the Freaky Friday ritual via Canada post whereby we have each sent the other a handful of signed author copies, thus allowing us to offer giveaways SIGNED BY BOTH AUTHORS!

To be entered to win one of these double-autographed 2in1′s, join my newsletter before Feb 28, 2014. I’ll be doing two draws, one on Feb 1st, the other on Mar 1st, so two chances to win!

On to #SampleSunday! We left Raoul issuing Sirena an ultimatum. If you missed that or any other previous post, you can read them here:

Raoul learns Sirena won’t go to jail
Raoul learns Sirena is pregnant
Sirena claims the baby isn’t Raoul’s
Sirena weighs the risks of lying about paternity
Raoul issues an ultimatum

Here Raoul confronts her, unwilling to put up with any more delays:

~ * ~

As Sirena entered the alcove that housed the front of her building, she was still preoccupied by the lecture from the obstetrician about taking time to relax. She needed to read up on side effects of the medication he’d prescribed, too.

Distracted, she didn’t notice anyone until a lean, masculine body stepped out of the shadows. Her pulse leapt in excited recognition even as she jerked in alarm.

Her keys dropped with a clatter. Pressing herself into the glass door, she pulled her collar tighter to her throat. His familiar scent overwhelmed her, spicy and masculine beneath a layer of rain and damp woolen overcoat and wind-swept hair. The late afternoon gloom threw forbidding shadows into the angles of his strong features and turned his short spiky lashes into sharp blades above turbulent eyes. He was compelling as ever and she was as susceptible as always.

“Hello, Sirena.” That voice.

“What are you doing here?” Her knuckles dug into her neck where her pulse raced with dangerous speed. She was supposed to be avoiding this sort of elevation of her heart rate, but Raoul had always done this to her. Thank God she’d spent two years perfecting how to hide her girlish flushes of awareness and awe-struck admiration. With a tilt of her chin she conveyed that he didn’t intimidate her—even though she was in danger of cracking the glass at her back she was pressed so hard against it.

“You didn’t really think I’d wait until Friday?” he said, uncompromising and flinty.

“I didn’t think you’d be waiting at my door,” she protested, adding with admirable civility. “I’ll review the documents tomorrow, I promise.”

Raoul shook his head in condescension. “Today, Sirena.”

“It’s been a long one, Raoul. Don’t make it longer.” Her voice was weighted with more tiredness than she meant to reveal.

His eyes narrowed. “What sort of appointment did you have? Doctor?”

A little shiver of premonition went through her. Something told her not to let him see how unsettling the news had been, but the reality of all those tests and personal history forms had taken a toll. If she had thought she could avoid signing a shared custody agreement with Raoul, today she’d learned it was imperative she did.

“Is the baby all right?” Raoul demanded gruffly. The edgy concern in his tone affected her, making her soften and stiffen at the same time.

“The baby is fine,” she said firmly. If the mother could keep herself healthy enough to deliver—and ensured there was at least one parent left to rear it—the baby was in a great position for a long and happy life.

“You?” he questioned with sharp acuity. Damned man never missed a thing.

“I’m tired,” she prevaricated. “And I have to use the loo. It’s only five o’clock. That gives me seven hours. Come back at eleven-fifty-nine.”

Raoul’s jaw hardened. “No.” Leaning down, brushing entirely too close to her legs, he picked up her keys and straightened. “No more games, no more lawyers. You and I are hammering this out. Now.”

Sirena tried to take her keys, but Raoul only closed his hand over them, leaving her fingers brushing the hard strength of his knuckles.

The contact sent an electric zing through her nervous system, leaving her entire body quivering over what was a ridiculously innocuous touch.

She’d been too stressed and nauseous to have sexual feelings these last months, but suddenly every vessel in her body came alive to the presence of this man, the avenging god who had never had any genuine respect or faith in her in the first place.

Tamping down on the rush of hurt and disappointment that welled in her chest, Sirena found her spine, standing up to him as well as a woman in flats could to a man who was head and shoulders taller than her.

“Let’s get something clear,” she said, voice trembling a bit. She hoped he put it down to anger, not weak, stupid longing for something that had never existed. “Whatever agreement we come to is contingent on paternity tests proving you’re the father.”

Raoul rocked back on his heels. His negotiation face slid into place over his shock. In the shadowed alcove, Sirena wasn’t sure if his pupils really contracted to pinpoints, but she felt his gaze like a lance that held her in place. It made her nervous, but she was proud of herself for taking him aback. She couldn’t afford to be a pushover.

“Who else is in the running?” he gritted out.

“I have a life beyond your exalted presence.” The lies went up like umbrellas, but she had so few advantages.

He stood unflinching and austere, but there was something in his bearing that made her heart pang. She knew he was the father, but by keeping him guessing she was performing a type of torture on him, keeping him in a state of anxious inability to act. It was cruel and made her feel ashamed.

Don’t be a wimp, Sirena. He could take care of himself. The only thing she needed to worry about was her baby.

“Let’s get this done,” she said.

~ * ~

A Debt Paid In Passion came available on Amazon in North America this week, but I’m learning that the more I learn about publishing, the less I know. I thought it would be up on all Amazon sites worldwide. Nope. Still listed as pre-order on a lot of them.

You can buy now from Mills & Boon UK and eHarlequin though. (Mills & Boon UK has a new website and it’s gorgeous!) Mills & Boon Aus is still showing it as ‘Add To Wishlist.’

If you prefer Amazon: US | Canada | UK | India | Germany | Brazil | Spain | Italy | Japan | Australia. And there’s always: Nook | Kobo | ARe | BooksaMillion

Don’t forget I’ll be in the Vancouver area mid-February,  chatting with Readers and Writers at the Vancouver Public Library. And I’ll still draw for a regular signed copy of my new release from my newsletter subscribers so lots to win. You can join by scrolling all the way to the bottom of this page and putting in your email address or click here.

See you on Freaky Friday! (Or maybe Thursday Thirteen. Possibly #TeaserTuesday on Facebook…?)

The post #SampleSunday – A Debt Paid In Passion appeared first on Dani Collins.

Thursday Thirteen – Nice Things To Do

I was preparing a guest blog recently for a Thursday Thirteen spot on a fellow writer’s website. I realized belatedly that she was looking for thirteen lines from my New Release, A Debt Paid In Passion. (Read the post at RomanceBeckons on Jan 30th.)

Not one to waste good writing (I heard that snort), I decided to resurrect my own Thursday Thirteen posts–which I’ve been meaning to do anyway.

You can blame my husband for the topic. I said, “I need a Thursday Thirteen topic for a blog post.” Once I explained what that meant—we’re talking about someone who has a Facebook account but hasn’t even accepted my Friend request—he suggested, “Thirteen things a husband can do around the house so his wife can write.”

I think he wants to make me aware of his contribution. Apparently we’re skipping the part where I did all that stuff, but with kids underfoot. I’m not saying I’m not grateful. I hate getting groceries so I’m thrilled that he’s taken that over, but now that he knows that bathrooms don’t clean themselves, does he seriously think I did it for that many years because I liked it?

But I digress. He gave me the seeds of an idea for a blog post that is timely(ish) as Valentine’s Day approacheth. These aren’t limited to things you can do for your romantic partner, but anyone who is special to you. And yes, he did provide some of the suggestions on this list. I’ll let you guess which ones:

1. Make cookies

2. Take them out for dinner and a movie

3. Vacuum

4. Pick some flowers

5. Go for a walk together

6. Write a heartfelt note, card or letter

7. Wash the car (extra points for detailing the inside)

8. Rub their feet

9. Write a blog post for them

10. Fill their gas tank when you use their car (kids walked in the room at this point)

11. Put your spare change in the car ashtray (for the record, I never spend this change, but I get a lot of flack for not having any in there)

12. Compliment them (MrC is a wonderful man with a fabulous sense of humor)

13. Watch their kids

By the way, is it suggestively weird that I included the cover of my book, entitled A DEBT PAID IN PASSION, in a post about how much I owe my husband for all these nice things he’s doing for me? How could I balance this out? Hmmm…

Back to business. I just realized I’ve been horribly remiss is advertising the stops of my blog tour for A Debt Paid In Passion. The giveaways have closed on some of these, but please click over to read more about the story if you enjoy behind the scenes info. You can also join my newsletter for a chance to win a signed copy and please check back for details on a  giveaway I’m hosting with fellow Canadian and fellow Presents Author, Jennifer Hayward. Provided Canada Post comes through for me, I’ll have a limited edition, 2in1 of both our February books, signed by BOTH authors.

Meanwhile, here’s where I’ve promoting A Debt Paid In Passion:

Dec 23, 2013 – As The Pages Turn (Hero vs Hero)
Dec 26, 2013 – RomCon Contemporary (I want to go to this conference!)
Dec 30, 2013 – iHeartPresents (Also appearing here on Feb 7th)
Jan 4, 2014 – Contemporary Romance Cafe (Topic: Struggle and Grovelling)
Jan 7, 2014 – Ramblings From This Chick (exclusive excerpt)
Jan 28, 2014 – Tote Bags N Blogs (Topic: Kicking It Old School)
Jan 30, 2014 – Romance Beckons (Thursday Thirteen Lines – Sexy ones!)
Feb 7, 2014 – iHeartPresents (Topic To Be Decided, but look for 2in1 Giveaway)
Feb 18, 2014 – HarlequinJunkie (Q & A)
Feb 18, 2014 – Canned Laughter and Coffee (Radio, 8:30 pm EST)
Feb 19, 2014 – Vancouver Public Library (Free, but preregister. Details here)

Okay, wait. Once I guest post on Jen Hayward’s site, I only need one more to make this a Thursday Thirteen. I really need to start thinking these things through.

Watch, by the way, for me to start using thirteen lines from my books. I’m shamelessly lazy.

Have a great day. I’ll be back with my final #SampleSunday for this book on the weekend.

The post Thursday Thirteen – Nice Things To Do appeared first on Dani Collins.

#SampleSunday – A Debt Paid In Passion

We’re up to the fifth excerpt for A Debt Paid In Passion. I will likely post one more next week then cut you off. I have, however, invited a friend to cross post an excerpt since we both have Februrary <

We both have February titles. So please don’t cut me off. I’m quite sure there will be something here for you if you have time to drop by.

Actually, watch for news about The Healer. I’ve had some very encouraging chats with my publisher about it. Nothing I can reveal just yet, but all in due time.

If you haven’t read it yet, settle in! It’s a much bigger book in scope than my typical fare, but Vaun is the deliciously alpha-hero you’ve come to expect and Athadia is one of my favourite heroines. (I know, we’re not supposed to have favourites among our own children.)

The nice thing about this book is that its length let me develop the characters in depth. If you haven’t read the excerpts for this one, work back from this #SampleSunday.

But back to the book at hand. I have to stay on task as it’s date night and Mr.C has about had it with playing second fiddle to the army of fictional men in my life.

In the episodes leading up to this one:

Raoul learns Sirena won’t go to jail
Raoul learns Sirena is pregnant
Sirena claims the baby isn’t Raoul’s
Sirena weighs the risks of lying about paternity

Today Raoul weighs the risks of issuing an ultimatum:

~ * ~

Raoul’s mind had been going around in circles for weeks, driving him mad. If Sirena was pregnant with his child, she would have used that to keep him from trying to incarcerate her. Since she hadn’t, it must not be his. But she could have used her condition for leniency during the proceedings and hadn’t. Which meant she wanted to keep the pregnancy from him. Which led him to believe the baby was his.

Most troubling, if he wasn’t the father, who was?

Raoul sent baleful glances around his various offices as he traveled his circuit of major cities, aware there were a plethora of men in his numerous office towers where Sirena could easily, with her voluptuous body and warm smile, have hooked up.

The thought grated with deep repugnance. He’d never heard the merest whisper of promiscuity about his PA, but she’d obviously led a secretive life. It wasn’t like she’d been a virgin when he’d made love to her.

She’d been the next thing to it though, with her shy hesitancy that had turned to startled pleasure and exquisite inhibition.

Biting back a groan, he tried not to think of that afternoon in a house he’d toured as a potential real estate investment. Every day he fought the recollection of their passionate encounter and every night she revisited him, her silky hair whispering against his skin, her soft giggle of self-consciousness turning to a gasp of awe as she stroked him. The hum of surrender in her throat as he found the center of her pleasure nearly had him losing it in his sleep.

Every morning he reminded himself he’d used a condom.

One that had been in his wallet so long he couldn’t remember when or for whom he’d placed it there. He’d only been grateful to find it when a downpour had turned Sirena from the open front door into his arms. A stumbling bump of her pivoting into him, a gentlemanly attempt to keep her on her feet, a collision of soft curves against a body already charged with sexual hunger.

When she’d looked up at him with wonder as her abdomen took the impression of his erection, when she’d parted her lips and looked at his mouth like she’d been waiting her whole life to feel it cover her own…

Swearing, Raoul rose to pace his Paris office. It was as far as he was willing to get from London after trying to settle with Sirena once and for all. The remembered vision of her passion-glazed eyes became overlaid with a more recent one: when her lawyer had mentioned her pregnancy and she had shot that petrified look at Raoul.

The baby was his. He knew it in his gut and if he’d been ruthless with her for stealing money, she had no idea the lengths he’d go for his child.

Doubt niggled though. If the baby was his, and she was the type to embezzle then try to sleep her way out of it, why wasn’t she trying to squeeze a settlement out of him?

None of it added up and he was losing his mind trying to make sense of it. If she’d only talk to him. They used to communicate with incredible fluidity, finishing each other’s sentences, filling in gaps with a look…

Lies, he reminded himself. All an act to trick him into trusting her and it had worked. That’s what grated so badly. He’d failed to see that she was as undependable despite his history with shameless charlatans.

And how in hell had he turned into his father? Was it genetic that he should wind up sexually infatuated with his secretary? He’d successfully ignored such attractions for years. His father had killed himself over an inter-office affair so he’d made it a personal rule to avoid such things at all costs. It was a matter of basic survival.

His surge of interest in Sirena had been intense right from the beginning, though. He’d hired her in spite of it, partly because he’d been sure he was a stronger man than his father. Maybe he’d even been trying to prove it.

It galled him that he’d fallen into a tryst despite his better intentions. He might have come to terms with that failing if she hadn’t betrayed him though. Suddenly he’d been not just his father, but his mother, naively watching the bank account drain while being fed sweet, reassuring words to excuse it.

I was going to pay it back before you found out.

He tried to close out the echo of Sirena’s clear voice, claiming exactly what any dupe would expect to hear once she realized her caught hands were covered in red. That he’d seen her as steadfast until that moment left him questioning his own judgment, which was a huge kick to his confidence. People relied on him all over the world. His weakness for her made him feel as though he was misrepresenting himself and more than anything he hated being let down. It galled him. Mere repayment wasn’t good enough to compensate for that. People like her needed teaching a lesson.

Staring at his desktop full of work, he cursed the concentration he’d lost because of all this, the time wasted on legal meetings that could have been spent on work.

And the worst loss of production was because he was trying to replace the best PA he’d ever had!

Seemingly the best. His only comfort was not giving her the executive title he’d been considering. The damage she could do in a position like that was beyond thinking. She was doing enough harm to his bottom line no longer employed by him at all.

It couldn’t go on. He’d finally, reluctantly, sent her a strongly worded ultimatum and his palms were sweating that she would reject this one too. She knew him well enough to believe that when he said final, he meant final, but he’d never had anything so valuable as his flesh and blood on the table. If she refused again…

She wouldn’t. Sirena Abbott was more avaricious than he’d given her credit for, but she was innately practical. She would recognize he’d hit his limit and would cash in.

As if to prove it, his email blipped with a message from his lawyer.

Sirena Abbott had an appointment on Monday and wanted the rest of the week to think things through.

Raoul leaned on hands that curled into tight fists. His inner being swelled with triumph. Silly woman. When he said Monday, he meant Monday.

~ * ~

Dun-dun-dun-dah…

A Debt Paid In Passion comes available on Amazon this week! I’ve been in a flurry of activity since October, planning launches then promoting More Than A Convenient Marriage? for December then this one and pushing three manuscripts out the door at the same time. Once this baby hits the shelves I’ll have a little breather (I think–depending what Vaun and Athadia have planned.)

Don’t worry. I’m still completely overwhelmed, taking two online courses and of course it will be tax time. And I have some obligations with a couple of conferences… You know the drill. Dani’s eyes are bigger than her stomach. Thinks she can do it all. Blah, blah, blah. Story of my life.

Meanwhile, if you can’t wait for it to hit the shelves, find A Debt Paid In Passion at: Mills & Boon UK and eHarlequin and soon at Mills & Boon Aus.

If you prefer Amazon: US | Canada | UK | India | Germany | Brazil | Spain | Italy | Japan | Australia

And there’s always: Nook | Kobo | | ARe | BooksaMillion

Will you be in the Vancouver area mid-February? I’ll be at a signing event at the Vancouver Public Library. If you want to hear more about my writing and upcoming books, listen to my interview from Oct 17th with Bernadette Walsh at Nice Girls Reading Naughty Books.

Please remember that I always draw for a signed copy of my new release from my newsletter subscribers. You can join by scrolling all the way to the bottom of this page and putting in your email address or click here. Have a great week!

The post #SampleSunday – A Debt Paid In Passion appeared first on Dani Collins.

#SampleSunday – A Debt Paid In Passion

Before I forget, there’s a giveaway at Goodreads for this book. It ends on the 15th. Also on the 15th, Hustled To The Altar will go up to $5.99 so please grab it now at $3.99.

    Goodreads Book Giveaway
       

          A Debt Paid in Passion
          by Dani Collins

            Giveaway ends January 15, 2014.

See the giveaway details

at Goodreads.

Enter to win

I’m late putting up my #SampleSunday, I know. Last night I went downstairs to put a chicken in the oven and peel potatoes, intending to come back up and post. I put on an episode of Happy Endings while I puttered in the kitchen and I will warn you now, that show is highly addictive.

I’m not controlling. I’m aggressively helpful. ~ Jane

On the upside, my kitchen is sparkling and the laundry is folded.

In related news, my day job agreed to let me go down to three days a week. This has provided me with the illusion that I have time for watching television. I don’t. I’m two lessons behind in the online Plan A Book Launch course I’m taking–for which I have five titles to plan. I have a course in Photoshop starting on Wednesday and I have revisions to turn in (hopefully) Monday. I also have a half dozen guest blogs to write and it’s time to start a new book. Oh, and the website is crying out for updating.

All nice problems to have, I know. I’m not complaining. Mostly I’m listing it for myself so I don’t forget. But priority one at the moment is posting the next excerpt in A Debt Paid In Passion. If you’ve missed the previous excerpts, they’re here:

Raoul learns Sirena won’t go to jail
Raoul learns Sirena is pregnant
Sirena claims the baby isn’t Raoul’s

In this week’s excerpt, Sirena comes to terms with the risks of lying to Raoul about paternity:

~ * ~

Over the next several weeks, the attacks from Raoul kept coming.  Settlement offers that increased in size.  Demands for paternity tests.  Time limits.

Pacing John’s office, she bit back a rebuke at him for revealing her pregnancy that day in the courtroom.  She hadn’t admitted to anyone that Raoul was the father and she was determined she never would.

“Here’s what I would like to know, John.  How am I supposed to pay more legal bills I can’t afford when it’s not even my wish to be talking to you about this?”

“Your wish may be coming true, Sirena.  He’s stated clearly that this is his final offer and you’re to accept it by Monday or forever go empty-handed.”

She stopped and stilled.  Loss again.  Like watching the final sands drifting through the neck of an hourglass, unable to stop them.  Pain in her lip made her aware she was biting it to keep from crying out in protest.  Rubbing her brow with a shaking hand, Sirena told herself it was what she wanted: Raoul gone from her life.

“Look, Sirena, I’ve told you several times this isn’t my area of expertise.  So far that hasn’t mattered because you’ve refused to admit the baby is his—”

“It’s not,” she interjected, keeping her back to him.  She wasn’t a great liar and didn’t like doing it, but justified it because this baby was hers.  Full stop.

“He obviously thinks it’s possible.  You and he must have been involved.”

“Involvement comes in different levels, doesn’t it?” she snapped then closed her mouth, fearful she was saying too much.

“So you’re punishing him for bringing less to the relationship than you did?”

“His mistresses spend more on an evening gown and he tried to send me to prison for it!” she swung around to blurt.  “What kind of relationship is that?”

“You’re punishing him for his legal action, then?  Or not buying you a dress?”

“I’m not punishing him,” Sirena muttered, turning back to the window overlooking a wet day in Hyde Park.

“No, you’re punishing your child by keeping its father out of the picture—whether that father is Raoul Zesiger or some other nameless man you’ve failed to bring forward.  I’m a father, so even though I don’t practice family law, I know the best interests of the child are not served by denying a parent access just because you’re angry with him.  Do you have reason to believe he’d be an unfit parent?”

Completely the opposite, she silently admitted as a tendril of longing curled around her heart.  She had seen how Raoul’s stepsister adored him and how he indulged the young woman with doting affection yet set firm boundaries.  Raoul would be a supportive, protective, exceptional father.

Her brows flinched and her throat tightened.  She was angry with him.  And secretly terrified that her child would ultimately pick its father over its mother, but that didn’t justify keeping the baby from knowing both its parents.

“Have you thought about your child’s entire future?” John prodded.  “There are certain entitlements like a good education, inheritances…”

She had to get this baby delivered first.  That’s where her focus had really been these last several weeks.

Sirena’s fists tightened under her elbows as she hunched herself into a comfortless hug.  Her mother had died trying to birth what would have been Sirena’s little brother.  Sirena’s blood pressure was under constant monitoring.  Between that and the lawyer meetings, she was barely working, barely making the bills.  The stress was making the test results all the more concerning.

She tried not to think of all the bad things that could happen, but for the first time she let herself consider what her child would need if she couln’t provide it.  Her father and sister were all the way in Australia.  It would be days before they could get here—if her stepmother let either of them come at all.  Right now Faye was taking the high ground, sniffing with disapproval over Sirena’s unplanned, unwed pregnancy.  No one would be as emotionally invested as the baby’s father…

“Sirena, I’m not trying to—”

“Be my conscience?” she interjected.  He was still acting as one.  “I have a specialist appointment on Monday.  I don’t know how long it will take.  Tell him I will give his offer my full attention after that and will be in touch by the end of next week.”

John’s demeanor shifted.  “So he is the father.”

“That will be determined by the paternity test once the baby is born, won’t it?” Sirena retorted, scrambling to hold onto as many cards as she could because she was running out of them, fast.

~ * ~

A Debt Paid In Passion is available at: Mills & Boon UK and eHarlequin and will soon be up on Mills & Boon Aus.

You can also preorder here:

Amazon: US | Canada | UK | India | Germany | Brazil | Spain | Italy | Japan | Australia

And: Nook | Kobo | | ARe | BooksaMillion

Will you be in the Vancouver area mid-February? I’ll be at a signing event at the Vancouver Public Library. If you want to hear more about my writing and upcoming books, listen to my interview from Oct 17th with Bernadette Walsh at Nice Girls Reading Naughty Books.

Please remember that I always draw for a signed copy of my new release from my newsletter subscribers. You can join by scrolling all the way to the bottom of this page and putting in your email address or click here. It’s that easy!

 

The post #SampleSunday – A Debt Paid In Passion appeared first on Dani Collins.

#SampleSunday – A Debt Paid In Passion

Technically I’m supposed to be downstairs starting a family dinner, but I have a weekend full of family commitments so if I don’t post this #SampleSunday now, I’m done for. And I HATE to break promises, especially when I promised to be all newsy and chatty and braggy.

For instance, here’s the view from my kitchen window today. You know, if I was downstairs doing dishes like I was supposed to be. Braggety-brag-brag-brag.

Turning to writing brags, I got my end of year manuscript off. Yes, I’m the man. This has been an insane few months with back to back deadlines (Oct 31, Nov 1, Dec 31) along with revisions on the first two, copyedits on the first, and promoting my December book, More Than A Convenient Marriage, planning and starting the promotion of this book, A Debt Paid In Passion, and, oh yeah, that little thing people call Christmas.

I was away from my day job from the 20th to the 2nd and the only day I was not here in my writing office was Christmas Day. (We had a family game of Mario Party. I’m fairly useless with the video games so I was on my son’s team. “Mom, stop helping. I got this.”)

My goal this weekend (around some family stuff) is to sort out my goals for 2014. I’m getting there. I have some tentative deadlines set and a revision letter in hand. I already have some promotion dates scheduled and I’ve ordered my Astrology timeline so I can coordinate everything with the planets. Hey, don’t judge. If you want to be a star, you gotta pay attention to where the current ones are.

One of my huge goals is housekeeping this website. For the most part I’m happy with it, but I know the buy links could be easier and the books pages organized better. If you’re wondering why I haven’t got that done yet–I mean I typed it so why isn’t it done yet?–see above re: my last three months. Yeah, I’ve been goofing off, playing Mario Party. It’s true.

Okay, I hear dishes downstairs. Not only is guilt getting the better of me, but if I don’t get the roast in the oven, MrC will do it and he doesn’t do it my way. That won’t do.

Looks like we’re up to the third instalment for this story. If you’ve missed the previous excerpts, they’re here:

Raoul learns Sirena won’t go to jail
Raoul learns Sirena is pregnant

I promised a meaty excerpt today and it’s pasted below, but first, a Trivia Note: I take these excerpts from my last submitted version, prior to the final copy-edited version. In my version, Sirena likens her pity party to ‘emotional cutting’ which was a colourful phrase I stole out of my daughter’s vocab. The copy-editor changed it to ‘emotional self-harm.’ Go ahead and make quirky brows over that one. I did. I don’t usually see the point in fighting over something little like that. I honestly don’t remember if I changed it back or left it or deleted the sentence altogether. What are your thoughts?

~*~

The first volley of the second war was waiting when she got home from the hospital.

More tests had been scheduled, but for the moment her doctor was putting her faint down to stress and low blood sugar resulting from her unrelenting nausea.

Sirena thought nothing could be more stressful than facing prison while dealing with an unplanned pregnancy, but Raoul knew no bounds when it came to psychological torture.  The email forwarded by John read:

My client has every reason to believe your client carries his baby.  He insists on full involvement in the care through pregnancy and will take sole custody at birth.

Her blood congealed, even though this was no surprise.  Raoul was possessive.  She’d learned that.  This reaction was fully expected, but having anyone try to take this baby from her was unthinkable.

Blinking the sting of desperation from her eyes, she typed:

It’s not his.

Aloud, she added, “And tell him to go to hell.”

She didn’t let herself dwell on the fact that Raoul wanted his baby.  It would make her weaken toward a man she needed to believe was a monster—even though she’d spent two years falling into deep infatuation with not just a dynamic tycoon, but a man who was a caring son and protective older stepbrother.  In some ways he was her mirror image, she’d often thought fancifully.  They’d both lost a parent and both wanted the best for their younger sibling.  She had come to believe him to be an admirable person with a dry wit and standards that put her learned habits of perfectionism to shame.

No, she reminded herself as she prepared a slice of toast she would force herself to eat.  He was a cruel, angry, small person who felt nothing.  For her, at least.  He’d proven it when he’d made passionate love to her one day, then had her arrested the next.

A black hole of despair threatened to open beneath her feet, but she was safe now.  That part was over.  She’d made a horrible mistake and the judge had accepted her remorse even if Raoul hadn’t.  She had no idea how she would come up with six hundred pounds a month, but that was a minor worry against convincing Raoul the baby wasn’t his.

There was no way she could live with having another loved one wrenched from her life.  The fear of her baby growing up without its mother, the way she had, had given her the strength to fight tooth and nail against Raoul’s determination to put her in jail.  Somewhere she would rally the strength to oust him from her life for good.

Which left her feeling incredibly bereft, but she ignored it.

Taking tea, toast, and a tablet for nausea to the sofa, she scanned her laptop to see if any transcription jobs had come in.  The legal bills were appalling and being fired three months ago had decimated her very modest savings.

If only she could take back that one awful moment when she had thought, Raoul will understand.  She rubbed her brow where it crinkled in lament.  Borrowing from him had seemed the most simple and obvious thing to do when her sister had been in tears, saying, I guess I’m not meant to be a teacher.  Their father was expecting payment from a big customer any day.  Ali had struggled so hard to get her marks up and be accepted into the specialized program.  The tuition was due, but the cash not in hand.

I can cover it, Sirena had assured her, confident the balance would move out and come back into Raoul’s account on the same statement.  He probably wouldn’t even notice, let alone care.  He paid her to worry about little details like that.

Then her father’s customer had gone insolvent.

Not overnight, of course.  It started with a delay of a few more days.  A week.  Sirena had begun chasing it herself, right up to the monthly cut off date, not wanting to mention her self-approved loan to her boss until she had the funds to repay it.

The money hadn’t appeared and the opportunity to explain hadn’t arisen, not before other events.

And since she didn’t want to involve her father when his livelihood was nose-diving, she had shouldered the fallout herself, keeping her motives from Raoul and not revealing to her family what she’d done or that she was facing jail time for it.

This had been the most crushingly lonely and frightening time of her life.

A muted beep announced an incoming email.  From Raoul.  Her heart leapt in misplaced anticipation.  It was one word.

Liar.

He wasn’t buying that the baby wasn’t his.

Gritting her teeth against an ache that crushed her chest, she added Raoul to her email block list and sent a missive to John.

Tell him that contacting me directly is out of line.  If the baby was his, I would sue for support.  I would have asked for leniency when he was trying to put me in jail.  This baby is not his and he must LEAVE ME ALONE.

Hitting Send was like poking herself in the throat.  She drew a pained breath, fighting the sense of loss.  But life hit you with sudden changes and you had to roll with them.  She had learned that when her mother had died and again when her stepmother had whisked her father and half-sister to Australia with brutal speed on the heels of Sirena graduating and enrolling in business school.

People left, is what she’d learned.  They disappeared from your life whether you wanted them to or not.  Sometimes they even fired you and tried to lock you away in prison so they’d never have to see you again.

Making a disgusted noise at herself for what amounted to emotional cutting, she turned her thoughts to the little being who wouldn’t leave her.  With a gentle hand on her unsettled abdomen, she focused on the one person she’d do everything in her power to keep in her life forever.  She didn’t intend to smother the poor thing, just be his or her mother.  She couldn’t countenance anyone taking that role from her.  And Raoul would try.  He was that angry and ruthless.

She shivered as she recalled seeing that side of him for the first time, after making bail.  The only thing that had got her through the humiliating process of being arrested, fingerprinted, and charged was the certainty that Raoul didn’t know what was happening to her.  Some accountant had done this.  A bank official.  They didn’t understand that Raoul might be gruff on the outside, but she was his best PA ever.  His right hand.  They’d become intimate.  He would be furious that she was being treated this way.

She had believed with all her heart that as soon as she told him what had happened, he’d make it right.

He hadn’t.  He’d made her wait in the rain at the gate of his mansion outside London, eventually striding out with hardhearted purpose, his severe expression chilly with distaste as he surveyed her.

“I’ve been trying to reach you,” Sirena had said through the rungs of the security gate, frightened by how unreachable he seemed.  “I was arrested today.”

“I know,” Raoul replied without a shred of concern.  “I filed the complaint.”

Her shock and stunned anguish must have been obvious in her sagging jaw, but his mouth had barely twitched in reaction.  Cruel dislike had been the only emotion in his scathing expression.  Sirena’s stepmother had been small and critical, but she hadn’t outright hated Sirena.  In that second, she realized Raoul reviled her and that was more painful than anything.

Guilt and remorse had made her want to shrivel up and die, but she couldn’t—wouldn’t—believe she’d ruined her career and her budding relationship with the man of her dreams over one tiny misstep.

“But…”  Everything she wanted to say backed up in her throat.  They’d developed friendship, reliance and respect over two years of working together and just yesterday they’d taken that relationship to a new level.  He’d been tender and teasing and…

God, she had believed he’d been loving.

“But what?” he challenged.  “You thought sleeping with me would make a difference to how I’d react when I found out you had stolen from me?  I was bored.  You were there.  That’s all yesterday was.  You ought to know better than to think it would make me go easy on someone who was cheating me.  Get a lawyer.  You need one.”

Swallowing the rock that her crust of toast had become, Sirena pushed the betrayal firmly away.  Raoul was in her past and somehow she had to make a future for herself and her baby.  She turned her attention to putting out more feelers for work.

~ * ~

A Debt Paid In Passion is available at: Mills & Boon UK and eHarlequin and will soon be up on Mills & Boon Aus.

You can also preorder here:

Amazon: US | Canada | UK | India | Germany | Brazil | Spain | Italy | Japan | Australia

And: Nook | Kobo | | ARe | BooksaMillion

Will you be in the Vancouver area mid-February? I’ll be at a signing event at the Vancouver Public Library. If you want to hear more about my writing and upcoming books, listen to my interview from Oct 17th with Bernadette Walsh at Nice Girls Reading Naughty Books.

Please remember that I always draw for a signed copy of my new release from my newsletter subscribers. You can join by scrolling all the way to the bottom of this page and putting in your email address or click here. It’s that easy!

One of my other goals for 2014 is to post an online read of one (or more) of my rejected manuscripts. See above about my reach and grasp, but I respond well to nagging so if it’s something you would like to see, please drop me a line and I’ll move it up my list of priorities.

Oh, and Hustled To The Altar is currently at $3.99. It will be going up to $5.99 soon so please grab it at the sale price if you’re considering it.

The post #SampleSunday – A Debt Paid In Passion appeared first on Dani Collins.

#SampleSunday – A Debt Paid In Passion

I was really hoping to have my WIP finished by this point and I could be all braggy and chatty. Instead I’m *this close* to The End and screaming through gritted teeth like a woman in hard labor.

So you get a drive-by #Sample Sunday and I promise to report in as soon as I’ve hit SEND on this bad boy. VERY bad boy. Porter Navarro is one kinky dude.

Whom you will meet at another time. For the moment, we’re revisiting Raoul and Sirena.

In our last excerpt, Raoul learns Sirena is pregnant. (Not exactly a spoiler. It’s the opening scene.) Here Sirena comes to.

~ * ~

Sirena became aware of something pressed to her face. Clammy sweat coated her skin and a swirl of her ever-present nausea turned mercilessly inside her.

She lifted a heavy hand to dislodge whatever was smothering her and a voice said, “You fainted, Sirena. Take it easy for a minute.”

Opening her eyes, she saw John, the highly recommended lawyer who’d been perfunctory until she’d almost vomited in his wastebasket. She’d told him the father’s identity was irrelevant, but Raoul was glaring from beyond John’s shoulder with all the relevance of an unforgiving sun on a lost soul in the desert—and appeared about as sympathetic.

She had tried hard not to look at Raoul, former boss, brief lover, unsuspecting father. He was too…everything. Tall, dark, unabashedly urbane and sophisticated. Severe.

Judgmental.

But of their own accord, her hungry eyes took in his appearance, her first opportunity in weeks. She catalogued his razor sharp charcoal suit, the solid black tie. His jaw was freshly shaved for his morning appointment, his dark hair recently cut into the sternly simple style of a career businessman.

And there were his eyes, the gray irises stormy and full of condemnation as he snared hers in an unbreakable stare.

John asked, “Is there any pain? You don’t appear to be miscarrying, but we’ve called an ambulance.”

Sirena flashed a terrified glance back to Raoul. It was a mistake. She realized immediately that he’d read it for what it was: an admission of guilt. A betrayal of truth.

Clenching her perfidious eyes closed, she willed him not to pick up on what had been revealed, but he was the most acutely intelligent person she’d ever met. He missed nothing.

If he knew she was carrying his baby, there’d be another fight. Considering what this current contest had taken out of her, she wasn’t ready for another. She wouldn’t, couldn’t, let him think he had a right to custody of her child.

“Sirena,” Raoul said in that dark chocolate voice of his.

Her skin rippled in a pleasurable shiver of recognition. Two years of hearing every intonation in that voice left her with the knowledge that her name on his lips right now was an implacable warning.

“Look at me,” he commanded.

Sirena reached blindly for John’s hand, clenching her icy fingers on his warm, dry ones. Beneath the oxygen mask, her voice was hollow and whisper thin.

“Tell him to leave me alone or I’ll take out a restraining order.”

~ * ~

Not a very long excerpt. Sorry about that, but it’s the end of the chapter. Please tune in next week and I’ll make sure you get a nice, juicy bite of the story.

Now, last week I was a pants-on-fire liar. I said the book was already available at: Mills & Boon UK. It disappeared off the UK site the next day and hasn’t been seen since. It’s not like Sirena to storm off in a huff. She’s typically very dependable. I suspect the elves in M&B’s workshop were eager to get away for their own holidays and pressed a button prematurely, only to correct their error later. I suspect it will return to Mills & Boon UK and appear on eHarlequin and Mills & Boon Aus this week.

You can also preorder here:

Amazon: US | Canada | UK | India | Germany | Brazil | Spain | Italy | Japan | Australia

And: Nook | Kobo | | ARe | BooksaMillion

Will you be in the Vancouver area mid-February? I’ll be at a signing event at the Vancouver Public Library. If you want to hear more about my writing and upcoming books, listen to my interview from Oct 17th with Bernadette Walsh at Nice Girls Reading Naughty Books.

Please remember that I always draw for a signed copy of my new release from my newsletter subscribers. You can join by scrolling all the way to the bottom of this page and putting in your email address or click here. It’s that easy!

2013 is closing out. Have a safe and happy New Year’s Eve and I’ll be back in 2014.

The post #SampleSunday – A Debt Paid In Passion appeared first on Dani Collins.

#SampleSunday – A Debt Paid In Passion

As promised, I’m starting a new round of #SampleSundays. I expect you’ll see six, taking us to the end of January and the official launch of A Debt Paid In Passion.

A Debt Paid In Passion was tagged as a Top Pick by RT Book Reviews. What a fabulous gift from Santa! Yes, I opened it early. I’m on the naughty list for the rest of the year.

I’ve been having a little trouble wrapping my brain around promoting A Debt Paid In Passion as I’m technically still promoting my December book, More Than A Convenient Marriage? This conflict inspired one of my recent blog tour posts, Alpha vs Alpha, where I pit the two heroes against one another. You can read it at As The Pages Turn on Monday, Dec 23rd.

However, A Debt Paid In Passion is available now on the Mills & Boon UK site so if you’re like me and want to try before you buy, then I’d better quit chatting and get posting the excerpt, right?

First a bit of background. You can read the blurb off the book page and get a sense of the story off the review above. When I sat down to write, I had the opening scene in the courtroom running in my head. I knew this would be a revenge trope. That scared me. Heroes with an axe to grind are tough to make likeable. They’re tough, period! So I had to look for all of Raoul’s soft spots and make sure both Sirena and the reader saw them. For Sirena’s part, I couldn’t let her be a pushover. She had a terrible crush on Raoul as her employer and is trying to get over it while falling for him again. This was not an easy book to write!

Apparently RT Book Reviews think I did okay (whew!) You can be the judge, starting with the opening here:

~ * ~

Look at me, Raoul Zesiger willed Sirena Abbott.

He had to lean back in his chair to see her past the three men between them. He should have been looking at the judge, but he couldn’t take his eyes off Sirena.

She sat very still, face forward, her profile somber. Her absurdly long, gypsy lashes had stayed down-swept as his lawyer had risen to speak. She didn’t even flick a glance his direction when her own lawyer stood to plead that jail time was counter-productive since she needed to work to pay back the stolen funds.

Raoul’s lawyers had warned him this wouldn’t result in incarceration, but Raoul had pressed hard for it. He would see this treacherously innocent-looking woman, with her mouth pouted in grave tension and her thick brunette locks pulled into a deceptively respectful knot, go to jail for betraying him. For stealing.

His stepfather had been a thief. He had never expected to be taken advantage of again, especially by his reliable PA, a woman he’d come to see as someone he could trust to be there, always, but she had dipped her fingers into his personal account.

Then she had tried to manipulate him into going easy by being easy.

He didn’t want the flash of memory to strike. His ears were waiting for the judge to state that this would progress to a sentence, but his body prickled with heat as he recalled the feel of those plump lips softening under his. Her breasts, a lush handful, had smelled of summer. Her nipples were sun-warmed berries against his tongue, succulent and sweet.

The heart-shaped backside he’d watched too often as it retreated from his office had been both taut and smooth as he had lifted her skirt and peeled lace down. Thighs like powdered sugar, an enticing musky perfume between that pulled him to hard attention as he remembered how tight—almost virginal—she’d been. But so hot and welcoming.

Because she’d known her criminal act was about to come to light.

His gut clenched in a mixture of fury and unparalleled carnal hunger. For two years he’d managed to keep his desire contained, but now that he’d had her, all he could think about was having her again. He hated her for having such power over him. He could swear under oath that he’d never hurt a woman, but he wanted to crush Sirena Abbott.

Eradicate her. Destroy her.

The clap of a gavel snapped him back to the courtroom. It was empty save for the five of them behind two tables, both facing the judge. His lawyer gave Raoul a resigned that’s-how-it-goes tilt of his head and Raoul realized with sick disgust that the decision had gone in Sirena’s favor.

At the other table, partly obscured by her lawyer, Sirena’s spine softened in relief. Her wide eyes lifted to the heavens, shining with gratitude. Her lawyer thanked the judge and set a hand under Sirena’s elbow to help her rise, leaning in to say something to her.

Raoul felt a clench of possessiveness as he watched the solicitous middle-aged lawyer hover over her. He told himself it was anger, nothing else. He loathed being a victim again. She shouldn’t get away with a repayment plan of six hundred pounds a month. That wasn’t reparation. That was a joke.

Why wouldn’t she look at him? It was the least she could do: look him in the eye and acknowledge they both knew she was getting away with a crime. But she murmured something to her lawyer and left the man packing his briefcase as she circled to the aisle.

Her sexy curves were downplayed by one of her sleek jackets and pencil skirts, but she was still alluring as hell. Her step slowed as she came to the gate into the gallery.

Look at me, Raoul silently commanded again, holding his breath as she hesitated, sensing she was about to swing her gaze to his.

Her lips drained of color and her hand trembled where she outstretched it, trying to find the gate. She stared straight ahead, eyes blinking and blinking—

“She’s fainting!” He shoved past his two lawyers and toppled chairs to reach her even as her own lawyer turned and reacted. They caught her together.

Raoul hated the man anew for touching her as they both eased her to the floor. She was dead weight. He had to catch her head as it lolled. She hadn’t been this insubstantial the last time he’d held her. She hadn’t been fragile.

Raoul barked for first aid.

Someone appeared with oxygen in blessedly short time. He let himself be pushed back a half-step, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the way Sirena’s cheeks had gone hollow, her skin gray. Everything in him, breath, blood, thought, ground to a halt as he waited for a new verdict: that she would be okay.

It was his father all over again. The lack of response, the wild panic rising in him as he fought against helplessness and brutal reality. Was she breathing? She couldn’t be dead.

Open your eyes, Sirena.

Distantly he heard the attendant asking after pre-existing conditions and Raoul racked his brain. She wasn’t diabetic; had never taken medication that he’d seen. He reached for the phone he’d turned off while court was in session, intent on accessing her personnel file when he heard her lawyer answer in a low murmur.

“She’s pregnant.”

The words burst like shattered glass in his ears.

~ * ~

Like what you see?

This book is already available at: Mills & Boon UK and will be available at eHarlequin and Mills & Boon Aus soon.

You can also preorder here:

Amazon: US | Canada | UK | India | Germany | Brazil | Spain | Italy | Japan | Australia

And: Nook | Kobo | | ARe | BooksaMillion

Will you be in the Vancouver area mid-February? I’ll be at a signing event at the Vancouver Public Library. If you want to hear more about my writing and upcoming books, listen to my interview from Oct 17th with Bernadette Walsh at Nice Girls Reading Naughty Books. And please remember that I always draw for a signed copy of my new release from my newsletter subscribers. You can join by scrolling all the way to the bottom of this page and putting in your email address or click here. It’s that easy!

I’m posting this one early. The next one will come out on the 29th. If you’re celebrating this week, take care and enjoy.

The post #SampleSunday – A Debt Paid In Passion appeared first on Dani Collins.

Excuses Excuses

I know I owe a #SampleSunday. My big hangup is that even though I’ve purchased and installed Photoshop, I haven’t learned how to use this new version. I don’t have the graphic for the Presents & Modern cover mashed together.

Yes, I am totally serious that that is the big stumbling block I’m facing right at this second. I hate doing things second rate. Which you wouldn’t surmise from this chatty excuse for a blog post, but this is where I’m at.

Actually, here is where I’m really at: p.85 of 107 existing words on the book contracted to be in Dec 31st. Right now my total word count is 28335 out of the 50000+ that I need. Things are going well (not for H/h, but seriously, they’re not supposed to, right?) But for me, I’m making nice progress and I don’t want to stop to fiddle with Photoshop.

You should see this disaster I call an office, too. Not that it outwardly looks so bad. I’ve made pretty stacks of things, but those stacks kind of make me tear up, they’re each so loaded with stuff.

But as any writer will tell you, when the deadline looms, and the muse is with you, the only thing that matters is getting words on the page. (In this case, the screen.)

So I’m making that my priority right now. I’ve even neglected the banking. Shh, don’t tell MrC. I’m reasonably sure we’re in the black in the checking account, but *shrug*. This book needs writing!

I did manage to figure out how to use the Events tab that was installed weeks ago by my long-suffering website peeps. Thanks Seed! I’m really happy with the way it looks and will be even happier to see you if you’re able to make it to Vancouver in February. I’ll be promoting A Debt Paid In Passion which, you guessed it, is the book I should be promoting here, with an excerpt, but seriously, More Than A Convenient Marriage is still on the shelves. It seems like cheating on one alpha hero with another to start offering up Raoul while Gideon is still available.

Forgive me, too, for unplugging this week. I don’t have any blog tour stops so I’m taking advantage, dropping off Facebook and Twitter, sticking butt to chair, fingertips to keys, and plain ol’ writing.

Oh, and picking up my daughter and getting some necessary shopping done. I seriously hope Santa is real because at this point the pretend one is failing badly.

Have a great week. So long as I make good progress this week, I’ll be back in full form next Sunday. If I don’t, well, brace for more excuses.

Oh, in typical form, I’ll bury the headline and mention that Hustled To The Altar is on sale until the new year. $3.99 for the ebook. It goes up to $5.99 in January, so if you get an eReader for Christmas, be sure to grab Hustled sooner than later.

The post Excuses Excuses appeared first on Dani Collins.