We have a winner!
Thanks to everyone who stopped by to help me celebrate the release of Crossing Hathaway. I hope you’re able to check out the book sometime, and that you enjoy reading it as much as I liked writing it.
So, without further ado, congrats to:
I’ll be in touch shortly to arrange for your ebook copy.
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The day is almost here! Only twelve more days until you can meet Ben and Eva starring in my very first contemporary romance.
In the meantime, I thought I’d wet your appetite with a little excerpt. Enjoy!
Chapter 1
I turned up the radio to drown out Paul and Jeremy’s daily argument over who would win a fight between Superman and Yoda. Although my vote went to Yoda, I didn’t advertise my membership in the geek club. Instead, I tapped my foot to Katy Perry’s I Kissed a Girl and shivered in the arctic wind blasting from IT’s massive air conditioner.
“Eva!”
The whiny voice made me flinch. My screwdriver flew out of my hand and crashed into the electronic chaos on my workstation. An avalanche of computer video cards and memory toppled onto the floor. I gritted my teeth as I turned to face my boss.
Cameron stood in his doorway, giving me his scrawny come-hither finger. “In my office. Now.” He disappeared into his dark cave.
A rush of heat swept across my face.
Oh hell.
Jeremy leaned out from behind the cubicle wall and shoved his glasses up his nose with his forearm. “Damn, dude. What the hell did you do?”
I groaned and rolled down the sleeves of my blue dress shirt. “I don’t think I did anything.” Did I?
“Are you sure you didn’t piss off Rita in accounting again?” Paul asked, his head buried in the chassis of a computer on his workbench. As usual, his hairy butt-crack showed above the sagging waist of his jeans.
Nice. Just what I needed to see right after lunch.
“I didn’t go near that old crab.” I threw up a hand. “And I didn’t do anything to piss her off in the first place. I just told her I couldn’t fix her computer speakers before the freakin’ e-mail server. Christ.” I shook my head and trudged toward Cameron’s office.
I popped my head into the pigsty. “You rang?” His windowless cell always smelled of fish and BO, an aroma that always stirred up the contents of my stomach and threatened to unload it onto his carpet.
Cameron slouched at his desk, fingers poised over his keyboard. His instant messenger dinged, and he typed without looking up. “Come in and shut the door.”
Flying fuckballs.
I backed out, inhaled as much clean air as I could, stepped into his office, and sat in the chair arranged in front of his desk. Shallow breaths helped me control my gag reflex as I stared at his bony profile and waited, my hands pinned between my legs and the chair so I wouldn’t fidget. I commanded my leg to stop bouncing, but it ignored me as usual.
He’d painted his office dark gray, the same shade as his desk, carpet, and chair. And, come to think of it, his hair, at least some of it. Who decorated a lightless hellhole in shades of gray? I wasn’t even sure it was a color, more a lack of color—a big gray hole. It matched his winning personality.
I mustered a smile when he turned his chair and folded his fingers together among the paper city on his desk. His silence stretched on, emphasizing the steady beeps and blips from the bank of servers outside his door.
“Something wrong?” I asked, fighting the urge to shake him and tell him to get on with it.
Cameron sighed and shoved his skeletal fingers into his rat’s nest of salt and pepper curls. “I’ve got a problem, and I think you’re my only solution.”
My eyebrows shot up, and my shoulders relaxed. If he needed my help, then he wasn’t about to chew me out. Better and better. “Yeah? What kind of problem?”
And why did he say it as if I were the lesser of two evils?
“My wife thinks she’s in labor.”
I shifted forward in my chair. “Oh. Crap. Then what the hell are you doing here?”
He clamped his fingers on to the edge of the desk, then proceeded to drum an annoying tune on it. “You know I spend most afternoons with Mr. Hathaway, right?”
“Yeah, though I’m not sure what the Big Cheese has you fixing all that time. How many computers does he have in there, anyway?”
Cameron reached into his drawer, then clunked a black iPhone on his desk and glared at it as if it had just peed on his shoes. “Mr. Hathaway is … eccentric. No—jeez, that doesn’t even come close to covering what he is. He’s effed up eight ways from Sunday. Look, I need someone to cover for me while I’m away, and you’re my sucker.”
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So, what do you think? One part geek plus one part funny-bone plus one part lip-smacking man in a snazzy suit. Have I peaked your interest? 🙂
Release date: August 6th, 2012
Publisher: Liquid Silver Books
Yes, I know it’s only Thursday, but I was so excited about this one I’m posting it a day early. Today Rosanna Leo, author of contemporary romance, Up in Flames, is letting it all hang out right here on the blogzilla.
Welcome, Rosanna, so glad you’re here! Let’s get right to the nitty-gritty, primal you. What scared you most as a child?
OMG! It still does! Two words: ZOMBIE APOCALYSE!!!! I’m terrified of zombies and zombie movies. Since my brother made me watch “Night of the Living Dead” so many years ago, I’ve been petrified of those movies. I still watch from time to time, but then I have nightmares for weeks afterward. I am a total wuss when it comes to zombies. The worst thing anyone could do to me is dress up as one and ambush me. I would dissolve into a terrified puddle on the floor!
Haha! You’d better watch out now since you spilled the beans about that. You just gave everyone who knows you a great prank to pull. 😉
There are a lot of stereotypes cast in a romance novelist’s direction, like they must sleep in slinky lingerie when most I’ve met are dressed from head to toe in flannel jammies when they hit the sack. Are you a warm and comfy girl? Or an in-the-buff or silk and satin kind of girl?
Ha ha! Well, of course, I only wear the finest of French negligees at all times! I actually parade around the house this way, and greet workmen in my skivvies. I get a lot of work done around the house for free! 🙂 No, I hate to say it, but I usually sleep in old T-shirts.
My favorite one is the one I got for climbing the stairs of the CN Tower in Toronto, what used to be the world’s tallest freestanding building. It took me 45 minutes and I am absurdly proud of getting the T-shirt! Oh, and the negligees do make an appearance from time to time…gotta keep hubby happy! 😉
Yes, the hubbies must be obliged now and then, I agree. Let’s pretend, for a second, that you’re not married and you meet a yummy man who has a time machine. Where would you ask him to take you, and when?
Oh, my! That is a delicious idea! There are so many lovely choices! I think perhaps my initial choice would be a dark Scottish castle in the Highlands. Medieval, baby! With a huge, Highland hunk on my arm…or elsewhere on my body! But then, I’ve always loved the Regency period. I’d go there, but not for polite Jane Austen world. I think I’d like to explore with a real Regency rake. In the master’s chambers…oh, yeah!
A girl after my own heart! I’d choose the Scottish highlands, too, as in step right into one of Karen Marie Moning’s Highlander novels set in the 14-1500s. Men in kilts are delish, especially Hawk (book 1)! Of course, it helps that I’m married to one. 😉 Speaking of tasty morsels, what’s your favorite paragraph from Up in Flames? No spoilers now, just a nice, slow tease if you please.
Hmm, (she says over steepled fingers), how to choose? Okay, I’ll have to go with the following paragraph:
“They all watched as an old pick-up truck pulled into the gas station lot. As she pulled out the nozzle, Jules checked out the driver. And then she did a double take.
Driving the pick-up was the most scrumptious specimen of manhood she’d ever seen. He was tall and buff and had windblown blond hair. And, she noticed as her tongue dried out, he wasn’t wearing a shirt. As the truck approached, she could make out the clear definition of his pecs, the muscular shoulders and arms. And as he parked his truck next to her Jeep, she took note of a strong jaw, full lips and hair that kept falling into his eyes. Tom Brady at his finest could not have looked so fine.
Jules tried very hard to pick up her jaw and not drip gas on her shoes.”
The reason I like this one so much is because it’s the first moment my heroine Jules sees my hero Shane. I just love it because she’s immediately flustered, immediately attracted, and she’s awkward, which I can relate to!
I’m thinking with a guy like THAT in that confined space, the windows in that truck must be fogged right over. *fans self* Where did your hero, Shane Gaskill, come from? Someone you know? Dreams of the *ahem* daytime persuasion? What makes him tick? Inquiring minds would like to know, because he sounds positively yum terrific.
Thanks Jocelyn! I kinda like him myself! Shane was born, not as a character first, but as a name. I had heard the surname Gaskill on a soap opera one day, and it stuck. And then it occurred to me that Shane Gaskill sounded like a sexy, strong name. I made him a firefighter because for years I’ve been amazed at how crazy women get over firefighters!
I used to work at the local City Hall, and when the firefighter recruits would show up for training en masse, everything would stop. Every woman in the building (and some men) would cease what they were doing, ignore their work and just watch those recruits saunter by. It occurred to me that those men could wield a lot of power over a woman. But I also wanted my Shane to be a good guy, someone who would never use a woman ill. He’s honorable and protective. However, I think his greatest trait is his love of performing oral sex! That may happen once or twice in the novel (*wink wink*).
Whoa, right on! Now my glasses are fogging over. I think I’ve found my weekend read. Maybe twice! How much of you is in your heroine, Juliet Baker?
A fair bit, actually. I like geeky girls. I especially like geeky girls when they get the hot guy. And I always felt geeky growing up, so a bit of that is present in Jules and how she sees herself. She’s awkward and has a little temper and tends to shoot her mouth off. If anything, she’s probably more outspoken than I am. Where Jules would launch into a tirade about an injustice, I’m more likely to ponder it quietly. She is loyal, sometimes to a fault, and I’ve felt that too in my life. It doesn’t always pay to be the “nice” one, because there will always be someone who will try to use you as a doormat. I like Jules because she is done being a doormat!
Geez, I think you just described me. It shocks me how many of us romance & UF authors are geeks in real life. What kind of high school personality were you? Band dork? Jock? Loner? Brainiac?
Although most of the photographic evidence has been buried, I was a wannabe goth girl in high school. It was pretty bad. I read “The Vampire Lestat” and watched vampire movies, but wasn’t cool enough to actually be accepted by the goth kids. I used to blacken my eyebrows and dye my dark hair even darker and wear red lipstick. My Italian grandparents used to think I had a disease. I was a total dork, but pretty happy nonetheless!
What??? No pictures? Gah, now I’m going to have to form the mental picture myself, but that’s okay, ’cause I’m a writer and I can already see you as a goth princess. 😉 Are there any other fantastic novels waiting to burst free from your imagination in the future?
Well, I have a couple on the backburner that I’m trying to finish. One is a paranormal romance about a Selkie. These creatures come from Scottish folklore and are said to be seal shapeshifters. They say if a woman is unsatisfied with her love life, she need only cry 7 tears into the sea, and an immortal Selkie man will come to her and love her as no one else can. I think that’s a pretty hot premise for a romance! And because I’ve written 2 paranormals about the Greek gods (For the Love of a God, and Sweet Hell), I am thinking of doing a third. This one, with the god Apollo as the hero. Apollo, with his muscles and blond hair, just knocks my socks off!
I LOVE Selkies, in fact they play a role in my UF series. I, for one, would be all over that one once you get it written. Now for the good stuff. Let’s get the down and dirty on Up in Flames:
Back of the Book:
Juliet Baker is not looking forward to coming home after six months. Yes, the fiery brunette wants to make a go of turning her parents’ farmhouse into a B&B. She’s just not looking forward to seeing the place where they died. To make things worse, she knows she’ll finally have to face her cheating, firefighter ex-boyfriend.
Luckily, her sister has found Jules a boarder. Easy money, right? Not when she realizes the boarder is Captain Shane Gaskill. Not only is Shane a firefighter, he’s the town’s hot new fire captain.
Jules is determined to hate all firefighters. After all, the men of that precious brotherhood protected her cheating ex. Shane, however, proves he’s different from the start. He’s protective and kind, and she can’t stop looking at his smoking, Viking-hot body. She learns, though, that Shane isn’t so willing to love again either. He’s been hurt, too. They both fight the sexual chemistry, and resulting tenderness, between them. But when a stalker begins to target Jules, they realize they can’t fight their desire forever.
As the threats escalate, Shane and Jules are thrown together. The resulting passion overwhelms them. But are they willing to trust each other and surrender to the flames of love?
Connect with Rosanna here:
By this tasty treat here:
Excerpt: (Yes, she even gave us a teaser!)
When he saw the woman, his breath caught in his throat. It was her, the rude but delectable brunette from the gas station. The one, he loathed to admit, he’d been thinking of almost the entire drive over.
“We meet again,” he whispered. “Maybe Ms. Baker has a gorgeous granddaughter?”
Gorgeous didn’t seem to be the right word for her, he decided, as he watched her argue with the firefighter. Her delicate face had blushed rosy pink from anger, and her bright eyes shone with indignation. She was splendid in her fury, from her cropped black hair to the shapely legs extending from her khaki shorts. Her body was tense, but her stiff shoulders could not detract from the soft, swelling bosom below them. The woman’s fists were clenched, so much so he ached to calm and relax her. Her generous lips were pursed into a tight line, but he remembered their sweet fullness when she’d gawked open-mouthed at him at the gas station.
No, her anger did nothing to diminish her many charms. Gorgeous wasn’t quite a strong enough word to describe her. Stunning seemed more appropriate.
“Oh, come on, babe,” the other man replied. “You always took things so seriously.”
“You mean, like our relationship? Yes, I did.”
“I swear, those others meant nothing to me.”
Listening to the other man, the other firefighter, Shane felt his own anger rising. How many others did he have when he had this knockout as a girlfriend?
“Kevin, I can’t do this right now. Please, just go.” Her eyes grew moist.
Her tears were not lost on Shane. He felt his stomach clench, and he was seized by the extraordinary impulse to protect her. She might be a bit odd, careening away from him earlier, but something in her luscious figure and angelic face called to him.
He heard the other man, Kevin, begin to protest. And then, Shane heard his own baritone voice cutting through it. “I believe the lady asked you to leave.”
Shocked, the other two turned to see Shane hurtle over the porch railing to the yard below. He pulled himself to his full height and approached Kevin and the brunette.
“Who the hell are you?” Kevin demanded. “This is a private conversation.”
“The lady asked you to leave.” He nodded at her, and then came to within a foot of Kevin’s face. “Consider it an order from your captain.”
“What?” Kevin blurted, as the woman’s jaw hit the floor.
“You’re the new fire captain?” she asked. And then her eyes dropped to his chest, the one he’d last displayed in its naked, sweaty glory.
Shane inclined his head toward her and smiled. Damn. Up close she was even prettier. At that moment, he would have given anything to get rid of that Kevin.
“Captain Gaskill?” Kevin ventured. A comical flurry of emotions flew across his face, betraying everything from anger at being interrupted to fear for his job.
“And you are?”
“Kevin McGuinness. It seems you’re my new boss,” he said slowly, as if mentally choosing his tactic for dealing with the unwanted newcomer. “You’ve got the wrong idea, though. This lady and I have a relationship…”
“Had a relationship,” she broke in.
“Mr. McGuinness, we’ll talk again when I’m settled at the station.” Shane used his most authoritative tone, the one that brooked no opposition.
Kevin, blue eyes blazing and blushing himself now, stared down his captain. Shane suppressed a chuckle, wondering at his luck at making an enemy in Riverbend, despite having only been there a few days. He could see Kevin wanted to take a swing him, but had enough brains to decide against it.
Instead, the man addressed the woman. “I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Whatever,” she replied. As soon as Kevin pulled away in the Mazda, she stormed toward the house.
Shane called out to her. “Miss, excuse me. Do you know where I can find Ms. Baker?”
“Why, Captain Gaskill, you’ve already found her.” She turned about, hazel eyes flashing and then pounded down the walkway to the house.
Is it Friday again, already? Hokey, where did the week go? It’s time, once again, for Meet the Author. We’re back with yet another kick-butt author to strip her down and see how she works. 😉
Please give a warm welcome to Chastity Bush, spicy romance author of her latest delicacy, The Stranger Next Door.
I just have to say what an awesome name you have! 🙂 What scared you most as a child? Has it changed as an adult?
As a child I was afraid of everything. From spiders to strangers, you name it, I was afraid of it. Now that I’m grown, I’ve shaken most of my fears, but still to this day, if you come at me with a spider, you better expect to get ninja kicked!
That makes two of us. They are creeptacular, aren’t they? *shivers* While I haven’t read your book, it sounds awesome and has jumped up to the top of my TBR pile. Are there any other fantastic novels waiting to burst free from your imagination in the future?
Actually I’m working on several at the moment. The one I’m most excited about is titled Melody Massacre to the Rescue. It’s a paranormal romantic suspense about special agent Melody Massacre. She hunts and captures rogue ‘others’ and at the moment is on the trail of one who’s leaving the mutilated bodies of men at truck stops all across the states. She, along with fellow agent Bennett Mason must identify, find, and capture the killer, while fighting their growing desires for each other.
Oh, I love me some good PNR. Sounds like it would be right up my alley to curl up in bed with. 😉 Speaking of bedtime, there are a lot of stereotypes cast in a romance novelist’s direction, like they must sleep in slinky lingerie when most I’ve met are dressed from head to toe in flannel jammies when they hit the sack. Are you a warm and comfy girl? Or an in-the-buff or silk and satin kind of girl?
Those stereotypes make me crazy at time. But on this… Now, don’t get me wrong, I love warm and soft and fuzzy, but I have to be comfortable while I sleep, so when I hit the sack, it’s in the buff all the way.
Right on! You and me both. I don’t get sleeping in clothes, getting all tangled in sleeves and bottoms that ride up. It’s just so wrong and confining. How about the waking hours? Are you a boy shorts, granny panties, thong, g-string or commando girl?
It all depends really, mostly commando, unless I’m being sexy for my hubby, then there’s no telling what I’ll put on. *Big grin*
Yes! Ha! A girl after my own heart, not that I swing that way, just sayin’. Love it! 🙂 You, like most of us ink-wranglers I’m sure, put a lot of effort and heart into your characters. How much of you is in your heroine?
I always put a little bit of myself into my heroines. Most of it is sarcasm. I’ve been accused a time or two of being sarcastic, but I feel it really makes my heroines pop.
The more of an author in a character, the more believable, I think. I’m a little on the sarcastic side, too, so now I’m even more excited to read your work. Do you have any quirks? Odd little tidbits about you that few people know?
Possibly. I don’t like for my food to touch. It drives me crazy for my food to be all smushed together on the plate. I’ve always been like that and really have no idea why. I just can’t stand for my food to touch.
I get that. I’m that way with certain things, like bread shouldn’t touch wet veggies. Nothing cold should get hot and vice versa. Yuck. Enough to make Cat Woman puke up a hairball. Speaking of sexy superheros, if you could be one, what would your power be?
I always say that people should be themselves, unless they can be Spiderman, and if that’s the case, then they should always be Spiderman. I just think it’d be really cool as I’ve always been a fan of Spiderman, as are my daughters. Strange isn’t it? I hate spiders, but love Spiderman?
I couldn’t agree more. Be your own superhero, the penned avenger! *snort* Spiderman is pretty cool, though I’m afraid of heights, so I wouldn’t dig the whole swinging from a web thing. If he asked you out for dinner, what would you eat? Favorite food, as in need-to-get-a-room-to-be-alone-with-it, favorite.
Hands down, Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey Ice Cream and their Raspberry Fudge Chunk frozen Greek yogurt. I can’t get enough of either one. Just talking about it makes me want to rush to the store, climb into the cooler, and have at it!
Thank you so much for having me here today. I appreciate the support!
Mmm, ice cream. I’ve never had Ben & Jerry’s and now … excuse me while I run to the store! While I’m on an ice cream run, why not check out The Stranger Next Door:
Back of the Book:
The last thing Officer Tess McCoy expects is to meet her sexy new neighbor wearing nothing but her birthday suit, but since her partner’s death six weeks before, nothing seems to go the way she plans.
Despite his incredible good looks, Tess needs to keep her distance from the sexy stranger. The last thing she needs is another complication in her life, and the man living across the street looks like he could be a very big, very sexy complication.
But her life takes a startling turn when Jack rescues her from would-be kidnappers in the dead of night. Now, she needs Jack’s help to stay safe and find out who wants her, and why.
Sparks fly high as things between them heat up, and Tess can only wonder if she’ll escape the ones attempting to kill her, only to fall victim to Jack’s killer charm.
Connect with Chastity here:
Pick up a copy of this little lovely:
So, about a year and a half ago, right after I finished writing The Glass Man, I got a crazy idea for a contemporary romance novel.
Yeah. Me. Romance. Pfft. Who’d a thunk it, right?
It took me a few weeks to write it, and I have to say, I kind of dig it. Not my usual style, but I like it all the same.
Well, it’s been sitting in my laptop collecting dust for a while, forgotten. Until I received an email about four months ago. When is it coming out, she asked. I’m dying to buy it. Over the course of the last few months, I’ve had ten random people around the world email me, asking me when it’s going to be published.
Huh? What universe have I landed in?
How does anyone even know it exists outside of my Sisterhood of the Traveling Pens buds? Whatever happened, I’m over the moon. Hearing from those folks and their enthusiasm about something I wrote lit a fire under my rear end last week.
After putting on a final editing polish on Crossing Hathaway, I sent it off to a publisher on Saturday. Monday, I had the contract in my inbox.
What? Geez, how did they even read it that fast?
Anyhow, I’m over the moon to announce that Crossing Hathaway will be published by Liquid Silver Books in eBook format on August 6, 2012.
I love their enthusiasm. They’ve been amazing so far, so fast and professional, but down to earth, too, hooking me up to an author’s group where I’m learning tons in the back-and-forth banter going on. My editor contacted me today, and so the process begins. I’m just a little excited, and can’t wait to catch the first glimpse of my cover.
Do you read romance novels? What are some of your favorites?
Jocelyn Adams 