Shiloh Walker's Blog, page 89

Get WRECKED…

Wanna win WRECKED?

I’m giving away an ARC over at Dear Author.

There’s also a giveaway at Goodreads.  There will be more giveaways at other places.  :) Probably including one here.

How about a snippet?  :)

Watch out, her brain warned her. You’re starting to think.

Desperately, she closed her eyes and tried to clear her mind. Focus on him. Just him. He feels nice, right?

Oh, yes. He felt better than nice. Better than anything she’d ever felt, really.

But what in the hell is going on? You were going to think things through and now—

Stop it. The calm, rational part of her mind got a little louder. But it just wasn’t enough and before she even realized it, she blurted out, “What in the hell just happened?”

Zach’s lips touched the back of her neck. “Well, I’m no expert, but I think you kissed me,” he said, his voice teasing. “And I’m pretty sure we both enjoyed it. But maybe we should try again.”

read more…

Book Bloggers… want review WRECKED?

Romance in the Highlands is hosting a blog tour for WRECKED… want to review it?

If you’re a book blogger, this is your chance.

I only have a limited number of ARCs and most will be used in giveaways, etc, so if you want to review, this is one of your best chances.

In the nineties, Abigale Applegate and Zach Barnes were the most beloved sitcom child stars in the world. Then they grew up and left Hollywood behind…

Whatever happened to Abigale Applegate?

She’s been wondering the same thing.

With her Hollywood dreams long gone, Abigale now has a nice, neat, uncomplicated life—until the day her perfect fiancé needs to talk. Dumped, a little more than shattered, and totally confused, Abigale turns to Zach, her best friend since forever, to help her pick up the pieces. He does it with a gift—a copy of Wreck This Journal. She can vent her frustrations, and sketch out a new plan. Zach just hopes he’s part of it. Because he’s been in love with Abigale his entire life.

When the journal falls into Zach’s hands, he discovers Abigale wants a new man. And fast. Nothing more than a hot distraction. Zach has a strategy, too. He’s going to be that man. It’s his last chance. Abigale might be out to shake up her life, but Zach’s out to reinvent it. Now, all he has to do is convince Abigale that life can go as planned.

snippet!

“What in the hell just happened?”

Zach’s lips touched the back of her neck. “Well, I’m no expert, but I think you kissed me,” he said, his voice teasing. “And I’m pretty sure we both enjoyed it. But maybe we should try again.”

And then she found herself on her back, staring up into a pair of dark blue eyes that she knew very, very well. They’d always seemed to glint with mischief, or trouble . . . but she’d never realized just how much they glinted with that kind of trouble.

Not until now.

As his mouth came down on hers again, Abby barely had time to catch her breath. Then she was wondering why she’d even bothered. He stole the oxygen right out of her with his kiss.

 

Saturday Snippets….hmmm…

We gotta describe something…

How about confusion, thrown in with a bit of despair?

His spine heated.

His breath hitched without him even realizing it and his heart started to slam against his ribs.

Fuck.

Oh, fuck, no.

She couldn’t be here.

But even as he thought it, he found himself remembering that godawful fear he’d felt coming from.  The way she’d looked at him…You can’t help me.

If any group of people spelled bad news, it was the people that Patrick Whitmore ran with.  But how did she get involved…

Patrick was slowing to a stop near a long, leggy brunette.  She was facing away from them, but at his touch, she turned.

If Joss hadn’t had years, years upon years of schooling his every fucking emotion, he would have lost it.

Just plain and simply lost it.

No.

Just…no.

I’m spoken for.

The soft sigh in her voice as she said, Damn it, why couldn’t you have come into my life a year ago?  Two years ago?  Why now?  I can’t have you now.

read more…

Lissa Matthews

Rhian Cahill

Eliza Gayle

Leah Braemel

Myla Jackson

Caris Roane

Jody Wallace

McKenna Jeffries

Taige Crenshaw

HelenKay Dimon

Delilah Devlin

Lauren Dane

TJ Michaels

Flashback Fridays…Her Wildest Dreams and a winner!

It’s another friends to lovers… kinky style.

Friday Flashbacks are my older books.

What in the fuck happened? he thought, bewildered, his chest heaving as he lay on his back staring up at the ceiling. Allie? He had just fucked Allie. And unless he was even more sleep deprived than he thought, it had been the best damn fuck of his life.

With a savage, “Shit,” he got to his feet, gritting his teeth against the lingering pleasure that had him wanting to sink back inside her body. This was Allie, for God’s sake. Bookish, shy, dull little Alison Ryan. Under his breath, he muttered, “I don’t believe this.”

Clenching his jaw, he knelt and lifted her shuddering, skinny body and put her back on the couch. Faint bruises were appearing on her wrists already and a wave of disgust flooded him. This wasn’t one of his women, who were used to rough sex and enjoyed it.

Allie, for pity’s sake.

He walked away to get a wash cloth to clean her up—her cream and his come drying on his cock as he left the room.

He had to get her home.

If he didn’t, he was pretty damn certain he was going to work his cock back inside her tight sheath and fuck her slowly, to see if it felt as good when he was fully awake as it did when he was half asleep.

But he lingered too long in the bathroom. Trying to get his brain in order, his cock under control, and his thoughts together.

When he came out ten minutes later, she had already gathered her things and slipped out the door. He jerked the door open, and stood there naked as he watched her climb into a cab.

 

Read more…

My Beautiful Scars winner!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Donna, I need you to email me! Shilohwalker@gmail.com

Night Blade

Howdy Folks…

Night Blade is up on Net Galley…for reviewers, librarians, booksellers.

Here’s the link!

25 signs you are a writer

In response to this…um…I don’t even know what to call it.  But… yeah.  It’s in response to this …whatever this drivel is… his 25 signs of being a writer.

You write.
You write a lot.
You read.
You read a lot.
You write…and you delete.
You write…and probably think you suck.
You read…and think…why didn’t I think of that?
You buy more books than you’ll ever read…because you love books.
You have a pretty extensive vocabulary, because you’re frequently reading those books…and you know what is in those books? WORDS, dude!
You keep a notebook or something handy because you’ve been in that position where you had an awesome idea…and when you didn’t have a piece of paper handy…you lost the idea.
When you were in school, you probably read. A lot.  Maybe you had friends who didn’t. Maybe you did. And hey, that’s okay.
Maybe you have friends who read a lot now…maybe you don’t. And that’s cool, too.
You know that the idea of staying at home in your pajamas and watching Revenge might sound cool, but you also know that doesn’t get stories told. Writing a lot gets stories told.
You just might have a stationery obsession.  It’s okay.  A lot of writers do.  But that doesn’t mean we all do.
You might not be all that concerned or impressed with the idea of somebody majoring in English or Poetry.  We can all think of plenty of writers who didn’t major in those fields and went on to do just fine.
You hear the words I’m on a deadline…um, do we really go around saying this to ourselves?  I think we just look at the calendar and think, crap…February 1 is almost here.  The book is due!
You think, like any of your friends who’ve gotten tattoos, that you want to get one…so you find one that’s meaningful to you. If you’re a writer and it’s words…or quills…(yes, that is mine), then it makes sense to get a literary type tattoo. If you’re a comic geek?  Comics!  Star Wars geek? Yoda! Vader!  Makes sense!

image from Tattoo Charlie’s facebook.

 
You write.
You write a lot.
You read.
You read a lot.
You write…and you delete.
You write…and probably think you suck.
You buy more books than you’ll ever read…because you love books.
I’m on a deadline…crap…February 1 is almost here.  The book is due!

Mostly tongue in cheek, but not entirely because the overly, I am impressed with myself, my vocabulary, etc, etc…list just seemed to scream for another list.

So there’s mine. I could sum it one better, though.

You write. A lot.

Because really, if you’re a writer, you know that being a writer boils down to one thing.

Writing.

Cool! Hunting the Hunter… in ebook!

So far, it’s only showing on Kindle, but they are the quickest, generally, so that means other  places will have it.

If you’ve been wanting to read the Hunter books but are an ebook only reader, this one is now out there in ebook.  Yay!

You can buy it here…  If ya want!

Amazon

I’ll watch for it to go up at other places…hopefully. Deadline brain. I have deadline brain.

Beautiful Scars… now out…cover evolution!

One more chance to enter… and that’s now.

So… ever wonder what goes into a cover? Covers are hit and miss with a lot of people…from the authors to the readers, and probably even many of the publishers.

I’ve spent hours going on stock photo sites trying to find the perfect image before…perfect meaning…it fits what I have in mind.

Perfect doesn’t exist.  We have to work with sometimes very bizarre images… like this one.  Really.  Go look at it.  I found that one when I was trying to find an edgy one for a romantic suspense type of thing.  All links are work-safe, btw.

Other weird ones that came up during a ‘dangerous passion’ search…this one was really weird.  There’s always gotta be a girl with food.  Always. For some reason.  But what’s dangerous about that?

The danger here? Um…scorching case of herpes???  I don’t get it. But yep, these are things that come up just with random keyword searches… Danger.  Passion. Couple.  I’ve gotten better with my searches and you can narrow things down and make sure you don’t get cartoons, like oh…say THIS one…  but you can still find things like these characters.  Unless there’s a way to filter out the weird stuff, you know a serious images only please… option.

But that leaves you with stuff like this…say you’re looking for

Embrace…

You get this… this…this…and also ones like this.  Now that last one is a good one, except… it gets used.  A lot.  I’ve seen that couple on no less than eight books.  Probably more.  And they’ve got more poses up, it looks like.

Passionate embrace has 1300+ results on dreamstime.  I can narrow down if I want to focus on a specific color (overall…say I wanted a darker image versus a lighter image), I can narrow it down by the model’s race, age, etc

Don’t even look for sensual woman, either.  You’ll get this…this…this…and there’s 5ooo+ more!  Just on dreamstime.  You’ve also got bigstockphoto, istockphoto, etc.  I think the cover artists tend to use other sites, because they’ve got better quality and more professional images, but that gives you an idea.

You can spend hours looking at images, but there’s no guarantee you’ll find the right image.

Sometimes, you have to find close enough.

We went through several different versions of the Beautiful Scars cover…and I do mean several.

The first one?

This…

It’s okay.  It’s pretty.  I liked the piano.  But it’s all wrong.  Chaili isn’t sweet or gentle and the book, while it’s definitely got it’s soulful moments, it’s hot and kinky.  The cover gives the impression of something sweet and soft…the book has BDSM elements, it has kinky sex and and a couple of people who are desperate for each other.

So I told the editor I needed something else.

I sent her a few images, and the images needed to be specific… for specific reasons that I’m not going into detail about.

In the end, we went with this one…(this is the first version, with the comp file, since we weren’t certain it would work.)

Still not right… I didn’t like the panties on the piano.  But…we were finally closer… you can still the original photo in the link above, by the way.

This, as you’ve seen, is the final cover.

 

So… there you have it.  Evolution of a cover.

EXCERPT!

“You wanted to kiss me stupid, baby girl. Have at it.”

Cupping his face in her hands, she eased up onto her toes, angling her head just a little as she pressed her mouth to his. Hmmm. The way he tasted. He was…yeah. Just amazing. Just like his voice. Whiskey-soaked addiction. Flicking her tongue against his lips, she groaned as he opened for her. Leaning in closer, she nibbled on his lower lip, nipped the upper one and then pushed inside.

He shuddered against her, but remained unmoving, impassive.

If it wasn’t for the way she could feel his chest rising and falling against her, so ragged and harsh, she might think he was unaffected. If it wasn’t for the way his body felt rigid, heavy with tension and need, she might think he wasn’t as aroused as she was.

One drugged kiss after another—now the need pulsed inside her, a vicious ache.

When she pulled away, she paused and rubbed her cheek against his, smiling at the way his unshaven skin rasped against the softness of her own. Shooting a quick look at his eyes, she shivered a little when she saw that he was watching her, his gaze so focused, so intense.

She pressed a kiss to his chin, down his neck. Along the sleek muscled lines of his chest. “You know, for a piano player, you sure are cut,” she teased. “What do you do, lift the pianos or something?”

“I chase after smart-mouthed web designers,” he muttered, swatting her on the ass.

“I don’t think that would make you look quite like this,” she said, sighing as she smoothed her hands over his chest. The silver hoop in his nipple was gone, replaced by a barbell. Tugging on it, she watched as a fine tremor racked his body. “I like this.”

 

Now…your final chance to enter the contest…

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Beautiful Scars…another snippet!

 

 

One…last…snippet…

“You decided to cut me out of your life. Right after I realized just how important you were to mine.”

Read more…

Or if you want…you could just preorder…

Samhain | Amazon | BN | iBookstore

And now…for the contest…

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Saturday Snippets…Character

Hmmm… this is character…two of them!

“Run that by me again.”

If Joss hadn’t been so pissed off, he might have been amused at the tone he heard in Jones’ voice.

“I have a body.”  He paused for a count of five and then added, “Relax.  I didn’t kill him.  I want to, and if you don’t get here soon, I just might let myself.  He’s in the trunk of a car that I’m stealing from him.  I don’t know what to do with him, but we can’t exactly just let him start making all those free phone calls he’s entitled to.”

Joss believed in rights–he believed in rights even for the guilty–the very fucking guilty, in this case.  But he also knew that if this guy went and lawyered up right now, he’d be making phone calls that would endanger their case…and lives.

That was a pickle, he supposed.

One he was glad Jones would have to juggle.

“I’m starting to think you enjoy this,” Taylor muttered.  “All of you.  Complicating my life has become a past time in this unit.”

“Nah.”

“If it’s not a past time, it sure as hell ought to be.”

“Oh, it’s a past time.  But you said has become.  It’s more like always been.  We love seeing you get a little hot and sweaty and smoothing down those ties you like to wear.  I told people that was the one sign you showed when you were getting pissed–you smooth your tie down.  Dez used to make you do it three or four times a day.”

Taylor didn’t sound amused as he said, “I’m not smoothing my tie right now.  I’m about ready to take it off in preparation to strangle you with it.”

read more…

Other snippeters!

Lissa Matthews

Rhian Cahill

Eliza Gayle

Leah Braemel

Myla Jackson

Caris Roane

Jody Wallace

McKenna Jeffries

Taige Crenshaw

HelenKay Dimon

Delilah Devlin

Lauren Dane

TJ Michaels