Well...

I don't really have anything to report or say, but so you don't forget me, here I am. lol.

I'm up to 10,000 wordsish on the latest WIP. 

Have a great weekend. 

New Cover Alert

The new cover for Accidentally His has arrived.

Later tonight when my webmistress, Ava March, comes home she'll update the side there and on my website. So coming, March 20, 2011.

And my torsos there look generic enough I doubt Chris will recognize them.

This Post Is For Drew

I forgot who I borrowed the princes picture from but since I adore Disney and two guys it seemed appropriate.

My dear sweet Drew who is very special to me prompted this post. He told me he missed my posting, so I created this one for him. 

Let's see. I got my edits for Accidentally His my story coming in March and I have to say I liked it better than I thought I did. It amused me quite a bit. It's a fun, lightherted story starring Kirk and Elijah. Eventually I will get around to writing a story for two of the other characters from it, Toby and Logan. 

I've gotten basically what amounts to four chapters done on Galaxy's Heart so definitely making progress. But...er...I have this urge to work on my Regency I wanted to write like two years ago with the butler and the third son of a duke or earl I was calling, Undeniable. I know, gasp. I'm sure this is because I have absolutely no time to write on anything so it sneaks up on me. My brain needs to be put in its place!   

Er...Stylish Blog

My fellow Amber Allure author, K. C. Kendricks, author of What You Don't Confess, The Back Stairs, Give Me One Night, and many others has ...er...honored me with the Stylish Blog Award.

For those who have been nominated, there are few criteria to meet:

1. Thank and link back to the person who nominated you, only do not re-nominate them.

2. Share 7 things about yourself

3. Pass along this nomination to 10 6 recently discovered stylish and cool bloggers

4. Contact them and tell them about their nomination.

Okay, I admit I have not contacted anyone about their "award". LOL. Here are my Stylish Blogger nominees, in no particular order:

A Reader's Journey- Eyre

My Turn to Write - Devon Rhodes

Regency Erotic Romance - Ava March

Loveis What Makes the World Worthwhile - Andi Anderson

I Love Books - Lily

E.H. On Books And More - E.H.

Yes, that's only six, and really my friends don't feel obligated
Seven things you might not know about me.

7. I really hate these things where I have to pick other bloggers. Really. (Sorry K.C.)

6. I love football (San Diego Chargers is my team)

5. I was born, raised and have lived in the Los Angeles area my whole life.

4. I loved Billy Don't Be a Hero when I was a kid.

3. I thought about being an FBI agent in high school

2. I am fascinated by historical disasters like the Titanic, Mount Vesuvius, Lusitania, the Flu Epidemic of 1918, Jack the Ripper, etc.

1. I didn't start driving until I was in my thirties

There they are. Seven things you never wanted to know about me.

No Really

No, I have not fallen off the face of the earth.

Just nothng really to report. Working on Galaxy's Heart. Waiting for the cover for Accidentally His.

Not much else going on.

Hope everyone is having a great week.

The End Has Come

Nah, I'm not giving up writing or anything.

Rather, Devon mentioned possibly listed ending lines to our books as we had beginning lines and for some reason I loved that idea. I don't want to make this an official "meme" for anyone, just do it if you feel like it. For me, I've randomly chosen ten of my books. Most of them have more than just the last line listed.

Withour further ado:

“You want to have Thanksgiving with the family at our house? Mom called a little bit ago and I told her I’d check with you,” Alex said, following him outside.

"I’d love to.” Craig locked the door. He grabbed Alex’s hand. “And I love you, you know.”

Alex returned his smile. “Me too. You ready?”

"Yes. Let’s go home.”
Perfect Man

Brad kissed his palm. “About that. I really like being with the Los Angeles Fire Department.”

Did he care about his house in New York? He’d chosen that house, so of course he cared. But he could let it go. He nodded. “I’m all right with that. I’ll sell my house in New York. We can buy a place together here.”

“Buy a place? You mean like a home with a white picket fence?”

Justin laughed. “Well, I don’t know about the fence but yes.”

“That doesn’t seem too fast to you? Like we should maybe take it slowly? Take some time?” Brad frowned.

"Nope. I want a house and I want it with you. I love you, Brad. And that’s not going to change.”

Brad kissed him hard. “Great. Because I love you. And that, Justin Lowe, you can trust.”
Trust

Several minutes later, he held Calvin snug against him. He thanked God he’d be given a second chance. He wouldn’t blow this one. Not ever.
 
“I love you,” he whispered against Calvin’s hair.
 
“Love you, too,” Calvin mumbled sleepily.
 
Matt closed his eyes. He’d gotten what he wanted at last.
 
Funny how he hadn’t known this was what he wanted before he met Calvin. But now he did. He wanted Calvin. And only his heart would do.
Only His Heart

Aubrey kissed him, deep and possessively. “Tell me again, Daniel.”

“I love you, Aubrey.”

"I love you too.” Aubrey smacked him hard on the ass.

“Ouch. What was that for?”

“Just to show you who is in charge, milord.” Aubrey grinned. “Now get your ass upstairs so I can fuck you all night.”

Daniel raised his eyebrows, his heart and his cock swelling. “All night?”

“At least. Tomorrow too. And beyond.”
Another Chance

“Maybe. We’ll have to straighten all that out. But, in the meantime, your clothes won’t fit me. Could we go to your store and get a few things?”

He nodded. It made sense, he supposed, as much as anything did the last twenty-four hours. “Sure. I even get a discount.”

Manfred slid out of him, and tossed the condom Heaven knew where, and then pulled Conrad into his arms. Their mouths mere inches from each other, he whispered, “How much of a discount?”

Melting under that intense sexual look, Conrad sighed.“Twenty percent.”

Just before his lips met Conrad’s, he thought he heard Manfred say, “Purrfect.”
Manfred’s Curse

“Promise me you will never leave me again, squire,” William ordered, his voice gruff as he buried his face in Duncan’s chest.

Duncan didn’t bother to stop the tears of happiness flowing down his cheeks. His heart leapt. “Not ever, my knight.”
The Squire

“You still think all we have is hot sex?”

“Nah, I think we definitely have more. I admire you so much, Ray. You’re a passionate, amazing guy. I’m looking forward to knowing a lot more about you. For a long time.”

Ray rose up on his arms and gazed down at Nick. “Me, too. We’ve both learned something, I think. Sometimes we need to see the other side of things.”

“I can’t wait to see all your sides,” Nick said, raising his eyebrows and smacking Ray’s ass.

“You can’t possibly be ready for more,” Ray protested.

“Want to bet?”
The Other Side

“What you said to my mom at the restaurant.”

His lover struggled up a little and stared down into Preston’s eyes. “What did I say?”

“The man you’re with is lucky to have you.”

Scott smiled and stroked his thumb over Preston’s lips.

“Yeah?”

He nodded. “I don’t know how I got so lucky to have you fall in love with me, but I’m not letting you go.”

“So, you’re going to love me forever? Until the end of time?”

“Oh, yeah.” Preston pulled him down for a kiss. “But I don’t think that’s going to be long enough for me.”
Until the End of Time

Clark maneuvered him onto his back and looked down at him, grinning. “You’re the best, you know that? I just think you’re amazing.”

He reached up to touch Clark’s cheek. “Well, you know what they voted me in high school, don’t you?”

“Valedictorian? Best looking guy ever?”

Thomas rolled his eyes. “I wish. No. Most Likely to Succeed.”
Most Likely to Succeed

“I know. I feel the same way. I think in a way when we first met back in junior high I knew you were the one for me. You’ve been my best friend since then and if we weren’t a couple of idiots we would have been lovers sooner."

 Malcolm rolled Dusty on to his back and he lay across him and framed Dusty’s face with his hands. “You’re still the one.”

Dusty smiled. “For me, too. I love you.”


“Love you, too. Now, let’s do that kissing everywhere thing.”
Still the One

Copying Devon

While doing my blog tours I saw that Devon Rhodes had done an author meme with the first lines of ten of her books. You can read about it there at her blog. I didn't really want to do a formal meme, but it did get me looking at my books and I decided to just pick a random assortment of my own books. I think there are ten of them listed.

"Holy shit, do you know who that is?"
Ticket to Ride

"I have the perfect man for you, Alex."
Perfect Man

There sure were a lot of funerals going on in the cemetary that afternoon.
Jake's Regret

"Nick, Dr. Carmichael is here to speak with you."
Internal Affairs Detective Nick Sorenson grimaced and took a sip of his strong coffee. He had a raging bitch of a headache and the last thing he wanted to do was talk to a pain in the ass like Carmichael.
The Other Side

Kevin Flaherty stepped off the city bus and pulled his windbreaker tighter around him. The bus dropped off a block from his job and it was damn chilly this morning. His teeth chattering, Kevin hurried down the street to the car wash.

Okay, so maybe he should have finished college. Then he could have maybe had prospects for a decent job when he got fired from his old one.
Car Wash
 
Lord, sleeping at the feet of Sir William was going to kill him.
The Squire
 
Jude stretched out on the king-size bed, his limbs tangled in the soft, satiny black sheets. He couldn’t keep the smile from curving his lips. He pulled the firm pillow from the top of the bed and stuck it under his head, letting his eyelids flutter closed.
 
Smack!
Twice in a Lifteime
 
Jason Sweet hated being back here.
For the most part, the suburb where he’d spent his first eighteen years of life had not been particularly interesting or malicious. It had just been ordinary.
Sweet Reunion
 
“This bites,” Mason Adams announced as he dropped his two bags in the middle of the living room hardwood floor.
The Beach House
 
Barnaby Lassiter thought perhaps if he squinted his left eye and tilted his head a bit to the right the guy leering at him from the other end of the bar could pass for him.
Only For Him

Advice

Once in a while I see things on the internet about authors and/or publishers behaving…indelicately. Let’s face it, we’re all human and can misbehave at times. And when you are new to publishing you’d be amazed at the mistakes you can make.


Relatively speaking, I’m semi-new in the long scheme of things. My first published book was in 2008. There are many out there who have been publishing a lot longer than I have been, but I’ve also been around in the writing world for many more years than I’ve been published.

In any event, many writers decide they want to write a book themselves because they fell in love with the romance genre while reading one day. I’ve made no secret that my love for M/M romance is deeply rooted to my first picking up Without Reservations by J.L. Langley years ago now. I couldn’t get enough of reading it after this and I’ve never stopped and don’t plan to ever. I read this genre almost exclusively at this point. And I’m certainly not alone in this. So with that in mind, I have advice for some newly starting authors or readers who in the back of their head have thought about maybe one day.

Some Advice For New Writers:

You are going to get some really bad reviews. You will. Face it. No matter how many people luurve your books, you will get readers who will think, “what the hell” when reading your books. I’m not going to sugar-coat it and tell you it doesn’t hurt. It does. And guess what? It really doesn’t get any easier to hear, “this book sucked” from your first book to your twentieth. And here’s where the advice comes in. SUCK IT UP. You have to. Do not engage in a dialogue, even a polite one, regarding a negative review. Save yourself grief. Really. Don’t say a word. None. Don’t even thank a reviewer for reading your book. I know some do, I don’t, and there is absolutely nothing that says you must. I don’t even thank good reviews. As so many review sites like to state, the reviews aren’t for you, they are for potential buyers to use to make up their minds. Many readers don’t even read reviews. When I choose books to read, I rarely do myself. If you must weep and wail over a really nasty review, and you are human, so you probably will, do so with a buddy off the internet and move on. The internet is public and everything lasts forever.

It’s tempting. Sometimes reviewers mention something about your book that isn’t even in that book. “I hated the character of George.” You read this and think, “Wait? What? I don’t have a George.” Yeah, still don’t say anything. Honest. Those that have read the book will know there is no George and those that haven’t will just think, “wow, that author is obnoxious commenting on how dare you mention a George. There is no George.”

And for goodness sakes don’t even do this on a site like Goodreads which is HUGE. Don’t accuse someone who gave your book one star of pirating the book. It’s absurd for one thing and makes you look bad for another. Not liking a book and not paying for a book are two different things. Don’t encourage your readers who enjoy your work to defend you either. You don’t want to gain the reputation that you have “rabid” fans. And do not ever invent fake people on Amazon and Goodreads to defend you. Trust me, it has happened.

Nothing will harm your career more than being a dweeb on the internet. Nothing. Publishers, editors, agents, readers, etc., all know how to use the internet and Google. If they like what they have read of yours and Google you to learn more, and they will, and see posts after posts about what an idiot you are, well, you get the picture.

When you decide to publish your work you are putting your book out there for people to spend their hard earned money on. It’s what you want them to do.

But it also means you have to take that your books are open for discussion. Open for derision even. Yes. And they have every right to say what they think of your writing, whether what they say is fair or not. Full stop, here. They have that right.

And then you will get an email from a reader who will tell you they love your books. They read one, loved it, and went out and bought your entire backlist and loved all of them, too. It’s a wonderful feeling and it does happen, too.

Always be professional. You won’t regret it.

And...

I'm working on Sutter's Bay 3, Galaxy's Heart and making progress. My goal is the end of February but it would be smashing to have it done before then.

I've also started the next story which needs to be completed (I think by April 01). This is the story that is based on a vacation theme, Postcards From Paradise. There is a call for submissions on Amber Quill's site for those looking to break into AQ.

Anyway, I don't have a title for this story yet, although I vaguely thought of one the other night while trying to fall asleep. I'm batting it around a bit in my brain before I commit to that. I do have a name for one of the hero's thanks to Chris's veri word the other day. Yes, he will be Billy. Billy travels to Ireland on his vacation and begins an affair with a hot Irishman.

That's where I'm at, writing-wise.   

Get It! Get It!

Within a few hours, the fabulous Ava March will have a new book available from Loose Id. Do yourself a favor and pick it up. This is no ordinary historical, I assure you.

His Client

Pulling Apart now available

A whole day early...

is now available at Amber Quill

Accidentally His...news

As you will see from the side bar, I finished Accidentally His, and ahead of my own deadline. It's been scheduled for March 20, 2011. So that gives me a release the first three months of the year. 2011 is starting off well.

I'll admit right now that Accidentally His is a very light story. Just something I wanted to write based on my days of riding the bus.

Here's the blurb (not excerpt):

Kirk Matheson rides the bus to work several times a week, intrigued by the quiet bespectacled man he sits behind. When the bus crashes during a storm, Kirk finally meets the shy man, Elijah Cartwright. After Kirk stays with a seriously injured Elijah until the rescuers arrive, he makes a date with Elijah for when he recovers. Though an unfortunate event brought them together, can they find their way to happiness?

I'm now moving full steam ahead to Galaxy's Heart. It's got more angst to it. I hope to have it finished no later than February 28, 2011.

More Updates

I'm going to be blogging slightly less in 2011, I think. I'll still post at least a couple times a week, no fear there, but I decided trying to keep a schedule and posting particular things on certain dates wasn't really working the way I wanted them to work.

This may be good news for some of you who might be going, ugh, she's posting something else again! lol. As I said, I'll still post regularly, but I'm not sticking to a schedule and I'm not worrying about posting on certain days.

I'm very close to having Accidentally His finished, which is good, because I'm ready to get working on Sutter's Bay 3, Galaxy's Heart while there is still time. Yeah, yeah, I have two real deadlines to meet by June 01, but I'm trying to get Accidentally His and Galaxy's Heart in there before I have to worry too much about the others.

Accidentally His is the start, sort of, to a mini-series. And by mini-series, I mean there will be another related book (different couple). I don't think there will be any others after that but you never know as series books seem to do very well for me (Only Forever and Sutter's Bay have been quite successful). The next one can't come until after June though. Busy, busy until then.

Somehow, I get myself talked into agreeing to write themed books and so the two "deadline" books fall into this category. I really need to stop that nonsense, lol. More on those books as the time comes closer.

Monday Updates - the first for 2011

Update: Chris and Luciatea have correctly answered the too easy questions and are the winners of the upcoming release of Pulling Apart on Jaunary 09, 2011. Congrats!

Hope everyone had a great holiday season. Hard to believe we've started 2011.

I've been busily working on Accidentally His. I've given myself a due date of January 15th, and I intend to meet this date. If it kills me. Or something.

I'm really itching to get working on Sutter's Bay #3, Galaxy's Heart. I've been doing some light stuff lately and Accidentally His is no exception and that's fine. But I'm wanting to get back to the angst a bit and that story will fulfill that for me. And I so want to do it before I get too heavily involved in the stories I must have done later this year.

Okay, a few newsie things.

Beginning in 2011, I am going to be doing a mostly monthly newsletter. It will probably come out around releasing books, so don't expect to get bombarded with meaningless stuff. That's not my intention. If I don't have a release for whatever month, I may not even send a newsletter for that month. Anyway, the fabulous Ava March is helping me with this since I am fairly clueless about tech stuff. She has added a sign-up form for the newsletter on the blog and on my website: authorshawnlane.com so either will work to sign up. Try it!

Two, it's time for the Pulling Apart contest.

Now, honestly, I think you need to have read Pulling Away in order to read Pulling Apart. But that's up to you. Rather than doing a comment contest, I'm going to do it this way:

I'm giving away two copies. In order to win one, you must be the first person to leave your answer here on the blog to one of two questions. Please do not answer both questions. Just one of the two. If you are correct, you win one copy. I hope that makes sense.

Here are the two questions (first to answer one question wins)

1) What is the name of the West Hollywood Bar that Noah goes to with Kevin?
2) Is Noah a top or bottom? *grins*

All right. That's it for now.