Pamela Clare's Blog, page 24

It's RomCon time again!

It's RomCon time again!

This weekend, I'll be hanging in A-Town — that's Aurora for those who haven't read Hard Evidence — and spending some time with other romance novelists and, best of all, romance readers.

I wanted to share my schedule for those of you who plan to attend RomCon so that we can make sure to hook up somewhere during the course of the weekend. I'm not staying at the hotel — I just don't feel like it — so connecting with me will only happen before/during/after these events.

Thursday

8:30-9:30 PM, RomCon Social — I think this is in the Vail room. This is where RomCon "buddies" meet up. This pairs experienced RomCon people with newbies and authors with readers.

Friday

11:10 AM-12:05 AM — Contemporary Author Panel. I'll be on the panel with a wonderful group of authors: Carly Phillips, Dee Davis, Meg Benjamin, Pamela Clare, Shayla Black, Sherrill Bodine. Some of us are bringing books to give away. I'll have copies of Breaking Point with me.

6:30-10:30 PM, Wild West Night Dinner — I hope to saddle me a cowboy. (Unlikely since mostly women attend this conference, but one can hope.)


Saturday

10:10-11:05 AM — Pamela Clare's True Stories Behind the I-Team — Featuring special guest Vince Darcangelo. (Does anything about that name sound familiar?) I'll be bringing actual copies of newspaper articles, photographs and maybe video (if I can figure that out). Vince, who worked with me for three years, will help me share details about the investigations that eventually fused with my imagination to create the I-Team series. This should be a lot of fun. I just hope someone attends! If not, I guess Vince and I can do a lot of catching up.

11:20 AM-12:15 PM — Intimate Chat /BatBabes Reader Group & Pamela Clare. Who are the BatBabes? I guess I'll find out, won't I? Vince Darcangelo might also attend this event.


Sunday

9-9:55 AM — RomCon Readers' Crown Social. Breaking Point was a finalist for the Readers Crown for Romantic Suspense. It didn't win, but, hey, it was a finalist, right? This is a pre-brunch social for finalists, readers and winners. It's very early in the morning, so I can't guarantee I'll be there.


10:10 AM-11:30 AM — READERS CROWN Awards Brunch. Last year, I sat with Tara Janzen and Cindy Gerard. We were like this Romantic Suspense power table or something. They wonderful, and I adore them both. The food was quite good for a breakfast brunch buffet. I had a custom-made omelet.

12-2 PM — RomCon® Rumble. I have no idea what this is, but apparently I signed up to participate. Yeeha!

This is the only conference I'm attending in 2011 due to the demands of my job and of my writing schedule. I'll be meeting with authors who are old friends and some, like Julie James, who is a wonderful new friend. Jenn LeBlanc will be there with her cover model. I'm hoping to get some MTM action at the conference.

If you're at RomCon, be sure to track me down to say hello!

In the meantime, I've been very busy trying to get Sweet Release and Carnal Gift, my first two books, re-edited and up as ebooks. Sweet Release will have a fresh edit but no new material. Carnal Gift, however, will have 100 previously unpublished pages, and I can't wait to have it up. But I'll share more on this next week.

I am also working on Defiant, of course, and eager to finish it and get Connor into your waiting arms.

Also, those of you who want to hang out and have some I-Team fun — okay, so it's mostly hot chesticles — should join the new private Pamela Clare's I-Team on Facebook. I decided to start a new group and set it up as private so that our posts are visible only to members and not all of the Facebook universe.

Have a good second half of the week, everyone. I haven't been around a lot lately, but I'm still here.

MTM — A search for chesticles with Jenn LeBlanc

Editor's note: Welcome back to MTM. Sorry I didn't get this up on time. I have been incredibly busy trying to get books ready for you, so I hope you'll forgive me. This week, photographer, journalist and author Jenn LeBlanc returns to share with us some of the male beauty she finds as she tries to cast models for the role of her heroes for her illustrated romances. Enjoy!

Helllooo ladies, and possibly gentlemen. I am so excited to be back here for another guest Man Titty Monday post. Last time I was here, I brought my own personal collection of Man Titty from my novel. Images I photographed during my day job as a professional photographer.

I am a lucky, lucky girl. That benefits you because I like to share.


My novel The Rake And The Recluse has been very popular. What does this mean for you? It means I'm working on the sequel to the novel. It means, dear readers, that I need to find more chesticles. It means I have been spending an inordinate amount of time looking at beautiful men, for my day job. And I brought some of them with me today.



My twitter followers love the days and nights I spend casting, they follow my model surfing with the hashtag #castingPerry , and they recently convinced me to start tumbling these lovely models as well. Oh dirty bird, on Tumblr.



I have brought some of my favorites for you, right here, right now.



Man Titty Monday meets Casting Perry.



Th beautiful man at the top of this blog was one of my first choices for Perry, and I know you know who he is if you are on this website. He is a little bit more bulky than what I want for Perry, and he has been building more muscle lately, so he ahs fallen a bit off the radar, but the fact that I found him laying on a large black horse made me very happy.


Say hello to Jed Hill photographed by Michael Downs.


Quickly while we are on the subject of larg black horses and beautiful men how about Chad White and his Friesian. Friesian's have a very special role in my novel, the hero breeds them. Why? Look at that horse. What horse you say? Oh sorry, it is behind the naked man. (so sorry - there are no chesticles here.)





So moving on back to casting. This image. THIS IMAGE. Which I loved so hard I even shared with Pamela and the gang on Facebook, killed me. Dead. Why? The saddle is On him. On. Him.






This man's name is Steve Boyd and I am enamoured with him. I need to sell a WHOLE lot more books to be able to afford him in my studio, but as of this moment, he is my ultimate Perry. But let me show you why:




Sun God




Sassy beach bum




Brazen beach bum




Just plain raunchy.




Attitude. He brings it in spades. Some models are kinda…blah. This guy has personality. I know that's what you're looking at right now, his personality. Right?



Anywhoo, because Mr. Boyd is so popular for (DUH) reasons, I continue to look for Perry. Starting with the saddle, I decided to see who else tried that bad boy on and OH MY. This was sent to me by Kati over at Romancing Rakes , who loves to help me with my casting via twitter.






Yeah. Oh my.



Then there was this guy and his sexy boots. Do you love boots like I do? Because I love boots.







Say hello to Bryce Thompson



Well. That's an awful lot of chesticle for one post isn't it? I suppose I should save some for another time.



Catch up with me anywhere. I'm around and love to talk Man Titty.



Enjoy

DEFIANT — Here's the cover

Here it is — the final cover for Defiant.

I got it yesterday afternoon but was too busy to be able to post it. I guess I shouldn't be doing it now, either, given that we're on deadline with a big paper, one new staff member and one newsroom staffer on vacation. (I got to the office at 7:30 to try to get a jump on things.)

Even so, I couldn't resist. I wanted to post it and share it with you!

I love the fact that my name is slowly getting larger than the title. I love that I'll have enough books and reissues out by the time this book releases that they feel the need to put "Never Before Published" on the cover.

The details are pretty specific — the MacKinnon plaid, the wooden cross, the hunting knife (can't call it a claymore because it isn't.

Here's a bit of trivia: I drew the tattoos myself and sent them to NY. There's more to Connor's "warrior marks" than the artists chose to put on the cover, probably because they felt it would make the image too busy. The one I miss the most is my drawing of a bear claw, which I thought was pretty cool. Oh, well. I agree with their decision, for what it's worth.

I also like the font they chose for the title of the book. It has a nice frontier-ish feeling to it somehow.

So what do you all think?

Coming soon: We're going to have a visit from the Dessert Diva. A columnist for my paper and a star of local TV, Danette specializes in making the yummiest desserts, pioneering recipes that make me really hungry each week when I'm editing our food section. Danette will be joining together with Natalie Benoit, the heroine from Breaking Point, to talk about baking pies — sharing pie-making tips, as well as recipes.

Danette is a lot of fun, so I know she and Natalie will make an entertaining duo.

If you're wondering whether this is a response to those who disdain Natalie's decision to stay home and bake pies for Zach, you're absolutely right on. Why not have fun with it?

MTM — Get to the Root of It Edition

Happy Monday!

Welcome to another edition of Man-Titty Monday. This week's theme is "Get to the Root of It." And by root, we man "manroot."

Anyone remember the old romances of the '70s? That was a favorite euphemism for "penis," though I always found it absurd. Manroot? Seriously? No way.

The word popped into our heads as we perused this selection of photos, as you will no doubt understand, as they all have one thing in common: you almost get to see the model's junk, and sometimes you catch just a glimpse of the root of it...

Some women don't like it all hanging out, but we think these photos are a good compromise between those of us who do like it all hanging out and those of you who want just a hint.

The model at the top is about to lose his swim trunks. The very thought makes us hope for a really big wave. Come on, Mother Ocean! Help us out here. No wave? Bummer. All we get is that tasty hint — the dark thatch of hair and a tiny, tiny glimpse of manroot.




Whoever cropped this photo deserves time in prison. Not even a glimpse of manroot here. But this torso is so hot we just had to share. And, yes, there are veins. You vein-a-holics should be sated for a while.




This gentleman is having some kind of conflict with his underwear. Is it on inside out? Or is it right side out? He's not sure. He can't tell. He's upset about it, too. As a result, we get a tantalizing view of some serious man business — or almost.



Now this gentleman somehow wore his underwear into the shower. But this isn't a bad thing. Did you ever wonder why those idiot guys in college liked wet T-shirt contests? Now you know. Wet underwear contests seem to be more our thing here at MTM.


Someone recently shared this pic on the Facebook I-Team page. Somehow looking at this, the term "manroot" doesn't seem quite as silly. Something's definitely rooted right there on that man, and it's not a zucchini. We're not sure who this fellow is, but we'd be happy to help him finish undressing if he'd just send us his address.

We root a lot for David Gandy on this blog. Well, here he's rooting for us. That body. Those killer blue eyes. That dark hair. Those lips. That... manroot.

Go ahead. Take your time. You can stare all you like, and we know you will. Scroll through the photos again, as many times as you like. We'll be here for another few days.

Have a great day! We hope your ovaries are warmed up and your day is a bright one.

Coming up next: Inconspicuous vibrators for the workplace...

Just joking.

Happy Monday, everyone!

(Want to host an edition of MTM? Just let us know.)

Fun with Foreign Covers

Every once in a while, I find it fun to share with you the covers of my books as they appear in translations. Often the concepts are very different. Sometimes they're very old school, using images that seem to belong to the '80s or even earlier. And the translations of the titles are fun to learn, too.

As some of you know, I love language. Period. I love learning new languages and have never felt shy about trying to pronounce things I cannot yet say. To me, it's just fun. It's been interesting to me to try to interact with readers from around the world, despite the language barriers we face. In the age of Google translate, it's not impossible for me to communicate with readers whose languages are utterly foreign to me. Right now, my books are in Spanish, French, German, Italian, Turkish, Thai, Japanese, Portuguese and Norwegian.

At the top is the Norwegian cover for Untamed, titled Svikefulle Hjerte, or Deceitful Heart, in Norwegian. I speak fluent Danish, and Norwegian is kind of like misspelled Danish with some words that are strange to me. So I can pretty much read the Norwegian translations.



The same cannot be said for Thai, which must be one of the prettiest written languages in the world. I looks like a bunch of artful loops and curves. I can't read a word of it, but it's fun to post messages to my Thai readers on Facebook using Google translate.

Here's an example:

ฉันชอบที่จะเยือนประเทศไทย

That says, "I would love to visit Thailand." Is that just freaking cool or what? It's art.

The Thai publisher has done a fantastic job with these stories, which seem to be fairly popular in Thailand. They can't have the sexy covers that they have here in the U.S., but the series has a unique look to it that's a bit mysterious and culturally appropriate. And all the books come with plastic covers.

I have learned that they take books very seriously throughout Asia. Books are shown great respect and are treated like important property. As an author, I like that.



Here is the Japanese cover for Untamed, titled Loyalty to the Maiden's Prayer, in Japanese. I've learned to recognize my name in Japanese — that's something, anyway — but I need to learn more than that, as I hope to travel there one day. I have two good friends who live there — one a journalist from the Dream Team days and one a journalist who worked with me until Monday. (Not sure what it is about journalists who work for me, then go to Japan...)

Apparently, my books are fairly popular there, too, especially my MacKinnon's Rangers series. Readers are reportedly waiting desperately for Lord William's story. Yes, he is the fan fave. Apparently, Japanese readers enjoy characters with more shades of gray.

I was very fortunate to connect with Kyoko Nakai, the talented Japanese writer who translated my Ranger series into Japanese. Warm and gracious, she contacted me to ask if I'd like to write a special message to my Japanese readers for the release of Untamed earlier this month, which I was delighted to do. And she translated that, as well, sending me a copy of the published book when it came out. It hit No. 2 on Amazon.jp for mass market paperback.

(Incidentally, Nakai is a surname in Navajo, too. I find that interesting.)

One of these days, I plan to visit Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia to meet my readers and fellow authors there, as well as catching up with two wayward reporters and meeting Kyoko. Can't wait!

In the meantime, I'm back to working on Connor's book. I'll be finishing Chapter 12 today. I thought I was working on Chapter 13 last weekend. Then I discovered it was actually Chapter 12 — and that half of a chapter had already been written weeks ago and that it was completely different from what I'd just written.

This was frustrating, as both versions had things I liked and didn't want to lose. After much swearing — I was so angry at myself — I finally took the stuff I absolutely had to keep out of the first version and put it in the second version. I'm finishing that today if it kills me. And then on to Chapter 13 for real.

That's what happens when you don't have an outline and just write from the heart. One day I write it this way; a month later, I write a completely different chapter, although the gist is the same.

On to other things...

We had some big rain pass through here that set off flash flood sirens, as a four-foot wall of water moved down one of the canyons. Kind of exciting for an adrenaline junkie like me. Fortunately, damage has been fairly minimal, and all that free water falling from the sky has done wonders for our veggie garden and lawn. We've harvested lots of greens, broccoli, tomatoes and squash already. Much, much more to come. I love cooking and eating food that we grow ourselves. I'll share some photos soon!

I do plan to get Tina Lewis Rowe, the former U.S. Marshal for Colorado, in here for an interview soon, as promised. She and I keep missing each other. Not sure what's up with that. You think maybe we're busy? We almost pulled off lunch and window shopping just prior to Christmas. And then...

Also, I'm inviting the dessert columnist from our paper — known as Dessert Diva — to join Natalie Benoit from Breaking Point here on my blog for a post devoted to baking pies and sharing pie recipes. I think the title of that blog post will be, "How to bake good pies for your husband." (That really cracks me up — it made the entire all-male staff of the newsroom laugh out loud — but if you don't get the joke, don't worry about it.)

Benjy says he still has some of each of my five historicals in case anyone is interested in buying an autographed copy straight from him via eBay. These are the original versions. Once they're gone, they're gone.
And one last bit...

The new cover for Surrender is up on Amazon, and the book is now available for pre-order. This is the "author's cut" of the book, what I've been calling Surrender 2.0. I need to find a way to let readers know that it's not a brand-new book. I'm hoping the gold medallion on the front that says,"Includes New Material," will be enough to tip them off. Inevitably, someone will send me an angry email accusing me of trying personally to dupe them into buying a book they already have. But you can serve as my witnesses that I am 100 percent open and honest about these things.

Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

Now, back to Connor...

MTM — Hot Men in Jeans with guest blogger Alyson

(Editor's note: This week we continue with another in a series of guest MTM blogs, this one from the lovely Alyson Hacket. Thank you, Alyson!)


I tend to be the odd woman out when it comes to pictures of men for MTM. Not that I mind the almost nekkid pictures or the ones of their tushies but I much prefer to leave lots to the imagination. As a matter of fact, I think the peenie is an ugly thing rather than a beautiful thing — shhhhh! Don't tell my husband that! So hints of it rather than it out there for all to see is what I find HOT!!!

Therefore I have chosen men in jeans! I mean how many of us have read books where the hero is wearing a worn pair of jeans with the button undone. It is written so often because it is HOT!!! So here for your viewing pleasure are a few men in jeans :)

At top is Mr. Jeans #1. I love him because he has a fabulous "V," a happy trail, and he isn't overly muscled.



Mr. Jeans #2 looks to be saying, "You think this is hot? Just wait until you get me into bed!!" I am not sure how many of us would kick him out!



Poor guy! Mr. Jeans #3 is overwrought with desire for us. We are driving him out of his mind without our sex appeal!!



This is how Mr. Jeans #4 will great you when you come home from work. This so says "Come and get me baby!!"



I think that Mr. Jeans #5 needs a little help getting dressed — or undressed for that matter! Anyone willing to volunteer for that task?



And last but certainly not least, I couldn't leave you ladies without any hint of what is hiding in those jeans! Mr. Jeans #6 wants you to know exactly what you are getting when you unwrap him from his jeans!

Home improvement

It's been a busy week around here. After 13 years of having the same faded, worn, chipped paint and crumbling siding on my house, I took the plunge (i.e., broke out the credit card) and got my house restored and painted.

It used to be dingy yellow. Now it is a very sweet shade of blue with bright white trim. It's not quite finished yet — the trim above the upstairs window needs to be reconstructed and most of the trim still needs to be painted or given a second coat — but it we're so close! There's a big redwood deck in back that will soon be refinished and stained, but you can't see that in this photo.

Of course, it's only natural that when I decided to put myself into debt for restoration on the house that other stuff would break down. Last weekend, right after the painting work began, my dishwasher gave up the ghost. It was eight years old. Unwilling to spend time doing dishes by hand, we got a new one. Another blow to the credit card. And the blinds I ordered to replace broken ones in my bedroom and in the kitchen before my Danish friends arrived— they left my house on June 27 — will finally be installed on Monday — also on credit.

Bottom line: nicer house, but bigger bills!

For the record, I don't believe in using credit cards. But there are some times where you just get sick of finding pieces of your walls on the grass, you know? I guess I need to get writing!

In this photo, you get a glimpse of my flower garden, which brings me so much joy, in this photo. The veggie garden is off to the right behind that little wooden fence. The roses badly need to be deadheaded, but some are still in bloom. That's butterfly bush in the foreground (purple) with hollyhocks lower right. The roses are kind of little puffs of pink around the place.

Just wanted to share the photo with you all.

Upcoming stuff —

An interview with Tina Lewis Rowe, the former U.S. Marshal who was a source for me for Breaking Point and who got a walk-on part in the book because she rocks so much.

A look at the reissue of Sweet Release and Carnal Gift, which will be available as self-published eBooks by August 1. I'll tell you how they're different.


Other stuff —

Those of you who haven't joined the fun on the I-Team group page are missing out. Every day is MTM there, thanks to the fun women who share photos of super-hot men from around the universe. Click here to join.

Also, my website has been updated. There are links to the limited supply of autographed books my son Benjamin is selling through eBay, as well as some fun new foreign covers, including the Japanese release of Untamed, translated by the wonderful and gracious Kyoto Nakai.

I'm off to work on Connor's book. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Signed books and heatwaves

It's been a while since I've posted. In the time I haven't been blogging, I've... had a family of Danish friends visiting, given a 25-minute speech at SlutWalk Denver, put out two issues of the paper, finished editing Untamed for it's grand re-issue in January, dealt with a broken dishwasher (the new one won't be here till Friday), fractured a small bone in my wrist falling off the fit ball that I sit on at work, washed umpteen loads of laundry, replanted spinach and green beans, got the process moving to have my house painted, re-read Defiant so I could get back to it again, and begun the process of getting some books online as eBooks... not necessarily in that order.

In short, life has been crazy-busy. And there's lot's of news.

The first bit of news isn't news to those of you who are BFFs with me on Facebook. For a limited time, my son Benjamin is selling new, signed copies of my out-of-print historicals:



I think at this point there are about 22 copies of each book left. Benjy is selling them for the sticker price (that's $4.99 plus shipping for everything except for Untamed, which is $7.99 plus shipping). Although he originally posted that he would only sell to U.S. addresses, the demand from Australia and Canada has been such that he's making it work. Every night, he brings down books for me to sign. I personalize them, and then he packages them for me to ship.

This is the only way, apart from used copies or new copies from private sellers, to get print copies of these books at this point. Ride the Fire will be reissued with its epilogue some time in 2012, while Surrender and Untamed will be out in their uncut, original form with hot new covers in December 2011 and January 2012.



But Sweet Release and Carnal Gift are not being reissued in print. This is it for them. I hope to make them available in various eBook formats by the end of summer through self-publishing.

Given how few copies there are and the fact that I am signing them, I wanted to let you all know because I figure it matters more to you than anyone else. For more info or to check them out, just click on the titles you're interested in above. Some people are ordering all five, while others are just getting signed copies of their favorite.



I'll keep you up to date about Sweet Release and Carnal Gift and let you know when they're up as eBooks.

And now, given that I was awake until after 2 AM last night due to the heat (100F!) and up by 5:30 AM, I'm putting my sleepy, grumpy self to bed.

We were supposed to get rain but, as usual... No.

In the meantime, stay cool, and happy reading! And have a happy Hump Day!

An MTM Fourth of July salute to military men

(This week we bring another guest MTM. Ronlyn has stepped up to the plate to provide a different kind of fireworks in honor of the holiday. Enjoy! I wish my U.S. readers all a safe and happy Fourth of July.)

First of all we have to raise the flag to give a good old fashioned salute

As we in the U.S. celebrate our Independence Day, I set out to find some perfect specimen of our Armed Forces. This was a more daunting a difficult task than I'd anticipated. I mean, ALL the men are worthy of our admiration and praise, right? (In reality, the women too, but I'm focusing on the men here for MTM.)

So, first we have the ARMY. You know, "Be all you can be." And boy oh boy, these soldiers are being all they can be. As long as being hot and relaxing on what looks like a beach is being all they can be.


Next we have the MARINES. The few, the proud. I admit to having an affinity for jarheads since my father was one. Marines are actually part of the Navy and can be stationed on ships along with the saliors as well as on Naval bases. Their moto is "Semper Fidelis," which means "Always Faithful."



The AIR FORCE is next and they are of course known for their fly boys. Okay, I know I'm making light of all the hundreds of other jobs in the Air Force, but who can blame me? I mean, look at the flyboys!


And finally we have the Navy, with their big ships strong swimmers. Really, you can't go wrong with a sailor. On land or on sea he's gonna have you covered.



We've all seen and salivated over the final photo I'm going to share: A photo of a Navy SEAL which was first published a few years ago in Newsweek (I think it was Newsweek) when they did an article on SEALs.


A real life hero who would put his life on the line for us and does every day when he goes to work. This image has gone viral since the SEALs were back in the news for taking down the USA's most wanted terrorist a couple of months ago. And yes, without a doubt, this man represents everything that sends our romance reading hearts a flutter. Most of all though this guy and every other man and woman who puts on the uniform and steps to the front lines deserve our gratitude and respect. I mean, I'm sure he appreciates the fact that we all find him hot, but I somehow think he'd find the fact that we find him capable and recognize his sacrifice just as appealing.

This just in: The new cover for UNTAMED 2.0

I am in love!

I just got this cover from my editor at Berkley Sensation (Penguin USA). As you can see, it's for the re-released version of Untamed. And I shrieked when I saw it because, there in the background, are the ramparts of Fort Ticonderoga (Fort Carillon), where much of the story takes place.

I am so happy I could sprout wings and fly!

This editor is the same one who brought you Jed Hill on the cover of Breaking Point and who went out of her way to make sure the new covers for the MacKinnon's Rangers series were historically accurate (no tipis!). Her name is Cindy, and she flat-out freaking rocks.

Say it with me: Thank you, Cindy!!!

Thanks to the production team at Berkley, too. I owe them all a beer. Maybe one of these days I'll get to New York and be able to deliver on that promise.

I turned the edited version of Untamed in this morning, together with "The Ballad of Morgan MacKinnon," which will go in the book this time. As some of you know — and some of you don't — Untamed had 25 pages of content cut out to fit the original publisher's arbitrary maximum page count. They kept shrinking the size of their books — smaller books = more books per box = lower paper, printing and shipping costs — and I kept paying the price for that because I write long stories. (My contracts say the books need to be no fewer than 90,000 words; almost all of my books exceed 115,000 words, which is one reason it takes me longer to write them. There are more pages.)

For the re-released version, which will be out in January, we went back to the original untouched manuscript. Those 25 pages are in the book, which has a different edit this time, too. I'd forgotten until I was doing copy edits on the manuscript this weekend that the villain dies in a completely different way in the original version. (Talk about making huge changes to a story! Ouch!) I was so excited, because I much prefer it.

Untamed got a starred review from Publishers Weekly when it first came out, but it's never quite had the buzz that Surrender did, and I think that's in part because those 25 pages were cut. I have discovered in editing my older manuscripts that I don't put unnecessary stuff in, so when you take stuff out, you're changing the emotional tone of the story. As I read Untamed, I actually really liked it. And, as my Home Team can attest, I don't say that very often.

So I feel very good about Surrender 2.0 and Untamed 2.0 and can't wait to share them with you! Today, at least, I get to share this freaking awesome cover.

And here's some photos from Fort Ticonderoga that my son and mother took when we visited for research purposed back in Autumn 2008.


You can still see the remnant of the French lines in the forest around the fort.

Here's a view from the upper level of the fort looking down toward Lake Champlain with the La Chute River (plays a role in the story) and Rattlesnake Mountain (where the Rangers spy on the French) just out of the photo to the viewer's right.

This is close to the view from the cover of the book. To your right would be the lake (and ahead of you, as well, because Fort Ti is on a peninsula) and Rattlesnake Mountain. The other photos of the lake were taken from up there.

A closeup of a cannon with Rattlesnake Mountain in the back. Up there, hidden among the trees, the MacKinnon Brothers are spyin' on the French with their Mahican brother beside them....

Thanks for reading! I just wanted to share my excitement.

(P.S. Who has figured out that I'm just a big history nerd masquerading as a romance novelist?)