Saturday Snippets

 

This week’s theme is one of food and while I have an incredible scene that takes place in the kitchen of a bakery unfortunately that is not published or even edited yet so it will have to wait.  Actually looking at some of my books I seem to have quite a think with sex in the kitchen. LOL  There are such scenes in both Submissive Secrets as well as POM – The Burning not to mention the upcoming Obsession of Jayde.  And until Jayde the food played a very minor role. So I give you a small excerpt from Pentacles Of Magick – The Burning because well, Cash Scott is smokin!

First things first. Food and decent clothes. She rifled 

through the drawers in the dresser to find only men’s clothing. 

Nice stuff, too. Expensive designer T-shirts and undergarments, 

even the workout gear looked and felt incredibly luxurious. Now 

if only she could find some of this stuff to fit her. She padded 

across the room to the closet to find only more menswear. There 

were several nice suits with shirts and ties but there was also an 

equal amount of leather. She slowly breathed in the familiar rich 

scent. 

Her thoughts immediately flashed to Cash and the way his 

lean, muscular body had filled out his leather pants and jacket. 

Yum. A little dark cloud settled over her at the realization that 

she would never see him again. She hadn’t even gotten his last 

name, let alone any other personal information about him. She 

suspected, though, that she would never forget the affect he had 

on her or be able to ride her bike again without thoughts of his 

hard cock pressing against her backside. 

Pulling herself back from her wayward thoughts, she closed 

the closet door and started to search the room for a way out. 

Walking to the door, she bent down to examine the lock to see if 

it could be picked. Testing the knob, her eyes widened in 

surprise when the door popped open. Slowly she peeked outside 

the doorway, looking for a guard or camera that would be 

watching her. Spying nothing, she stood up and eased out the 

door, her bare feet making no sound on the hardwood floors. 

Pressing her back against the wall, she waited for any clue 

that someone was nearby. Hearing no sound and only smelling 

the food and—dear God—coffee, she hurried across the landing 

to the stairs. Until she got to the bottom of the stairs she would

be completely vulnerable to anyone who walked into the area. 

She considered turning around and investigating ways out of the 

house through other rooms, but damn that food smelled good and 

she was hungry. She quickly moved down the stairs, trying not 

to cause any creaks. She reached the bottom with no incident. 

With the adrenalin coursing through her body, her limbs 

were no longer heavy or slow. 

Something isn’ t right here. 

Why would Merc allow her free reign of the house? It 

would only take a few minutes for her to have the whole place 

crashing down on them in flames. A test maybe? Some sort of 

new trap? She’d figure it out and eventually find her way out. 

She always did. 

Following the scent of freshly brewed coffee, she headed to 

what she assumed would be the kitchen. The layout of the house 

prevented her from seeing the interior of the kitchen without 

actually stepping inside, or at the very least poking her head in 

the door. She debated the smart course of action, but when her 

stomach growled again she decided to go for it. 

She moved into the kitchen, coming to a n abrupt halt. 

Expecting Merc to be waiting, she nearly fell over in shock at the 

sight of the man cooking at the stove. Dressed only in faded 

jeans, she followed the curve of his spine up and out across his 

broad muscular shoulders. Tanned, smooth skin, except for a 

small scar below his right shoulder blade. The faded color of the 

skin around the scar indicated the injury was from a long time 

ago. 

Cash. 

   

His dark hair stood mussed around his head like he’d just 

rolled out of bed. An image of him lying naked in a bed, teasing 

her with his broad hands and strong fingers, ran through her 

head. Him lying over her skin to skin as he pushed himself deep 

within in her warm willing body. 

Whoa. Get a grip, Selene. 

Truth be told, she was just happy and relieved to see him. 

She wanted to rush forward and wrap her arms around his waist. 

Holding on to him like she would a life preserver. 

What the hell is going on here, Cash? Where are we?”

Well, good morning to you, sunshine.” His voice rumbled 

through his body to hers, soothing her despite his attempt at 

sarcasm. It’s about time you got your lazy butt out of bed. You 

hungry?” 

She nodded, unable to speak again. She wasn ‘t sure she 

could without crying or doing some other crazy girly thing while 

feeling so swamped with this unexpected and unwelcome 

emotion. 

He put the s poon down on the edge of the pan full of eggs 

and turned to face her, his hand touching under her chin to tilt 

her face upward to meet his gaze. I think we have a lot to talk 

about, don’t we?” Selene blinked fighting tears and simply 

nodded her head again. But first we eat. You’ve been out for 

quite a while and have to be starving. Go. Sit. While I finish this 

up.” 

Needing a moment to focus on something else, she turned 

away. Looking around the kitchen, she imagined if he was much 

of a cook she would be in heaven. Large, oversized stainless 

steel appliances filled the room, large countertop workspaces 

gleamed, and there was even a brick oven in the far corner. She 

peeked out the window over the sink, spying a lush and 

manicured small lawn with a tall privacy hedge wrapped all the 

way around it, hiding the view in or out of the place. A small 

garage stood in the far corner of the yard, connected to the house 

by a covered walkway. 

Cash, whose house is this? And where is it?” She moved 

from the window and sat down at the scarred wooden table 

against the far wall. Running her fingers over the aged wood, she 

thought the table might be out of place in this elegant kitchen, 

but instead something about it fit and made the kitchen feel like a 

home. There were many nooks and cuts in the wood, indicating 

this table had seen its fair share of use. She even found some 

initials carved in the corner. Her fingertips ran over them. C.S. 

I see you have already found the carvings of a bored 

teenage boy.” He set down a plate in front of her with a heaping 

amount of food on it. Her mouth watered at the sight of eggs, 

bacon, toast and plump red strawberries. 

C.S., is that you?”

Sure is. Cash Scott, bored teenager and all around 

troublemaker.” 

 


Please pardon the weird formatting issues of this post, I am still finding my way around wordpress.  Don’t forget to check out the rest of the group for more fun with food! Or at least far more food than I had. LOL

 

 

 

RWA Thinks I’m Stupid

I read a lot of blogs and news releases and do my best to keep up with industry news and last week when the latest RWA response from President Diane Pershing came out, even I couldn’t hold my tongue. I posted an immediate knee jerk response and fortunately many others far more eloquent than I also responded.  After spending half my day watching the fall out online, I asked myself “Why are you letting this get to you? You have a book to write.” and I promptly turned off the internet and went back to work which is far more productive than arguing about RWA.

However, over the weekend I stewed about it and I read some more blog comments and just shook my head in disgust.  Controversy begets debates and arguing, which is good, but it also brings out the worst in some people and the next thing you know people are talking about authors behaving badly again.

As a brand spanking newbie writer back in 2006, I rushed to join RWA and my local chapter and LOVED it.  As you’ve heard from so many people the chapter level groups can be a writer’s best friend. For a while…for some longer. How well your chapter meets your needs is not a one size fits all.

After my publishing career, and yes it is a career path thank you very much, began in 2007 things with RWA went downhill fast.  By the end of 2008 I said enough is enough, I don’t need this stress and left RWA behind me. And to be honest it’s a decision I have questioned more than once.  I feel like I should belong, that somehow I am letting my local group down and ultimately missing out on the bigger picture.

But if I sit down and ask myself “What is RWA doing for me?” I come away with nothing worth the price of admission or the time it takes to deal with the stress of controversy.

With RWA I am neither PRO or PAN because the rules for both are f*cked up. When they changed the rules for PAN to $1000 in sales the first year, I thought “ok” I can live with that. Especially since that included novellas as well as novels.  I hadn’t quite reached that level but I knew I was well on my way.  So I waited for the logical PRO changes that would mirror the PAN changes. and waited…and waited… Oh and squawked about it to no avail as no one would even acknowledge me.

Let me explain.  Up until recently I was a short story writer.  The stories I published ranged between 8000 words to 25,000 words.  So if I made enough money I could qualify for PAN but to qualify for PRO you still had to write the full length books.  Wait?! I can hypothetically qualify for PAN but not PRO? WTF? What kind of career progression is that? And how is that helping me again?

That was hard enough to live with and now RWA is backpedaling even farther.  I don’t think I need to rehash the whole thing about how they think the no advance epublishing model is not valid but some of the arguments I have seen are questionable at best. I like epublishing and it’s model and have every intention of continuing my CAREER down that road. I don’t yet know what the future brings for me but I can tell you one thing. I am cautious and very much into research so any publishing decision I make is with a lot of thought and planning.  If RWA’s entire argument is that they are trying to protect it’s members then by God they need to be educating them not debunking a successful business model.  That is made of all kinds of what the f*ckery.

But i’m rambling again.  One of the arguments I keep seeing over and over is that RWA has to protect it’s members from poor sales and low pay and by example they keep talking about people who only make a few hundred dollars per book.  Uhm… Are we really comparing apples to apples? Did you even ask that question? I’m not convinced.

Let’s use me as an example again.  I recently wrote an 8000 word short story and published it with an epublisher that is NOT Ellora’s Cave or Samhain. Because it seems from all the arguments those are the only somewhat legitimate epublishers. Nothing against them but come on!

Based on early feedback from sales I will likely make between $400-$600 on that story in it’s first 6 months.  So for a story that took less than a week to write I will bring home a modest yet very decent wage.  In what world is $400-$600 for a week’s worth of work not at least a nice part-time income? It’s not as if I write 8 hours a day because I still work a full-time day job. What if I only made $200? Still not bad for the amount of time it took to write. Jeez.

And you know what? I am not the exception.

There are so many variables and possible outcomes that to pigeonhole an entire group of authors and publishers based on what you have “heard” is irresponsible.

I have since written a full length (by RWA PRO qualifying standards) and had it published by an epublisher and I am very happy with the money it has made so far.  Probably would have more than qualified for PAN if it had made it to full distribution before the decision to close the publisher came down.  (oops there are two more issues I keep hearing about)

Recent comments on a blog claimed that epublishing is less because we do not have distribution. Uhm…yes we do. Any epublisher worth it’s salt has learned that even in ebooks distribution has become key. (in fact I stopped publishing with one publisher because they stubbornly refuse to explore more distribution options) Just like NY distributes their books out to chains and independent bookstores, epublishers now do the same. Some have been doing this for a very long time.

We have places like All Romance eBooks, Amazon, Fictionwise, Books on Board, My Bookstore and More, Smashwords and the options continue to grow.

I guess my point after this way too long post is that stop looking at everything in black and white.  People have been playing in the grey areas for years.  I nor anyone else is trying to convince you that one business model is better than the other, only that their are options.  The same kind of thing RWA should be doing for their members.

Eliza

 

Online chat Nov. 22, 2011 @ – Righteous Perverts

Dec. 2-4, 2011 – LeatherFet, Charlotte, NC

April 5-8, 2012 – Frolicon, Atlanta, GA

Aug. 8-12, 2012 – Authors After Dark, New Orleans, LA

Snippet Saturday – Outtakes

Snippet Saturday is running late because I did something this morning I don’t usually do. I slept late. *gasp*

With my husband off to India this month my sleep and work schedule have drifted to stranger and looong hours.Not to mention now that school is out I don’t have to get up at 6am anymore. Woohoo!

Okay this week is all about outtakes and/or deleted scenes. I’ve been pretty fortunate in that I haven’t had to cut a lot of scenes. I tend to be adding during editing instead. But there have been a few scenes that have hit the floor because they didn’t seem to work. The first time was actually on my second published book and it was because my editor deemed a sex scene anatomically impossible. Aw c’mon. I seriously wished I could find two men and a woman who’d be willing to try it although I will admit that one of those men would have to be pretty well endowed. LOL

But that’s not the scene I am posting today. I already wrote a blog about that one way back when and even posted it in a hidden spot on my website. hehehe Sometimes it pays off to read author blogs.

The two scenes I am going to share are very short and from LUCAS the first black cougar novel. My editor felt I had too many POV’s and that they didn’t do enough for the book so they had to go. I would have liked to expand them but deferred to my editor’s judgement on what was best here. It’s their job to help you make your book better and you have to trust them on that.

So like I said, very short but not so sweet because these are in Lara’s POV, who is one of the villains in this story. Although we haven’t seen the last of her yet.

This first scene is right after a fight scene between Lucas, Keira and Lara and would have been the first glimpse into Lara’s head. Oh and please remember these are unedited and i’m certain they needed work.

Deleted scene #1

Watching the car scream out of the parking lot like a demon on fire, Lara smiled to herself. So, Lucas has himself a bitch. Interesting. I have finally figured out how to crack him. Seeing his bitch in danger easily provoked his anger and his transformation. Now there is some news that ought to earn me a nice reward from that bastard Malcolm. The thought of any reward from him made her pussy throb and immediately begin to cream. Playing this game with him had turned out to be even more fun than she’d imagined. Should she capture Lucas next time? Or better yet, why not go for the bitch? Oh yeah, lots of potential with her. If I didn’t know better, I would swear she had seen me standing here, waiting for them. When she was almost on top of me, she suddenly freaked and began searching the area for something. Interesting…very Interesting.
Oh well, eventually I’ll have to deal with Malcolm. But in the meantime dragging this out, chasing the prey, disobeying Malcolm is pure sensual torture for us both.

So this next scene is later in the book after Lara has managed to wreak all kinds of havoc. She thinks her plans for revenge are coming together but here the reader gets a glimpse of just how much revenge can twist a person. Again unedited and would have needed some work. And it’s a little dirty so reader beware.

Deleted excerpt #2

Lara laughed as she prepared her sleeping bag for the night. Remembering the vision she had shared with Kira, she couldn’t help but be amused by the other woman’s break with reality. She’d hardly had to say a word or even conjure a spell to frighten her. It had really been far too easy. When plotting her revenge against the Gunn Clan she hadn’t factored in the appearance of this woman. Lucky for her it had worked out perfectly. Lucas was inexplicably drawn to Kira and it had been amazingly easy to use her against him.

Now Kira was on her way to the local sheriff to say God knew what, and Lucas had abandoned his search for her due to his alpha male misguided anger and stupidity. This was all way too much fun. Pretty soon everyone would be suffering and she would finally be free to live her life without feeling the recriminations of a prejudiced clan. Her mother and her would finally be vindicated for the miserable years they had endured when the clan had turned its back on them.

But first she had to deal with Malcolm. He was on his way to the Dragon in the hopes of recapturing his brother and getting her back in line. What an idiot asshole. Always thought he had to have complete control, when in fact, he had none at all.
I am the master here and he does my bidding.
Sure he is fun to play with but in the end he will pay the steepest revenge price for being such an idiot. Not only will I cause him deep pain but his clan will never forgive him for allowing me entry into their world through him. A warm flow of deep satisfaction overcame her, finally.

Unfortunately when he arrived, she would be forced to endure the charade a little while longer. At least until they had recaptured Lucas and possibly even Kane.
One thing was for sure, those brothers were some fine animal specimens. Sex with Malcolm was exquisite pain and pleasure, something she would miss. She wondered what it would be like to have two or maybe even all three of them at once. Her body tingled at the images those thoughts brought to mind. Hmmm. Maybe she should consider using them a bit longer for her pleasure before finishing them off.

Her rampant sexual thoughts of the Gunn brothers had her body heating up. Her breasts swollen with desire, she laid down on her makeshift bed. Running her fingers across her nipples, a small moan escaped her lips. Her hand continued down her flat belly, reaching for her bald pussy. She was more than ready. As her fingers darted between the plump folds, she quickly found her swollen clit and pinched down hard. She thought of the three of them touching her, stroking her, but the one she’d watch hunt for her, she especially burned hotter for him. Oh yeah, she definitely wasn’t done with the Guardian brothers yet.

Now that you’ve seen a few scenes that weren’t able to make the final cut why not read some more. I find it fascinating to see what didn’t work and maybe even why. So follow the links below and read the other fascinating tidbits from the authors participating in Snippet Saturdays.

Cynthia Eden
Victoria Janssen
Lauren Dane
Leah Braemel
McKenna Jeffries
Moira Rogers
Sylvia Day
Vivian Arend
Mark Henry
Shelley Munro
Jaci Burton
Mandy Roth

T.V. Tuesday – What’s New This Week


Another guilty pleasure of mine has it’s season premiere this week. That’s right Burn Notice will be back on Thursday and my DVR is all set for it.

As much as I like this show I will be honest it’s not in my top 5 but I do enjoy it and I love the idea that I get new episodes while the network shows are all on break. It’s the perfect summer show complete with Miami scenery and all.

Michael is not only yummy I love the relationship between he and Fiona. Will they or won’t they? While we know putting them together is certain death for a television show, the teasing conflict and emotion between them are very telling. And knowing they should be together but wont be reminds me of someone I know. As much as I love an HEA, life is messy and some things just aren’t meant to be.

Not to mention i’ve always had a not so secret fantasy of being a spy. It’s cool, hard work, scary, mundane, exciting all rolled into one and they always get the gadgets. I luvs me some gadgets. lol

I could go on about the interesting characterization or the fun plots and fantastic scenery but lets be real for me it’s all about the fun. They get to shoot guns, play with toys, blow stuff up, be funny and always get the bad guy. Yep, sounds good to me.

If you’ve never seen it you can easily catch in on the USA Network on the internet, or on Thursday nights on TV or my favorite…Hulu.

Have a good one!

Eliza