BMG

I have another new cover!

     This is for erotic comedy novel coming the third weekend in April.  This story had been around a while.  The first 30 pages was originally titled HUNK DU JOUR and those pages finaled in the 2002 Realizing the Dream contest.

     After it fianlled I sexed it up and sent it to Ellora’s Cave.  When I received a request and I believe this would’ve been in ‘03, I chickened out because I didn’t think I could write sexy enough.  I didn’t have the ba…err…nerve.

      Then.

      So I took all the sex out and sent it to the NY published I owed an option book.  However, my contract called for a historical option book, not contemporary.  I received a reection after being told by my editor who is no longer there that she “loved it”.  The rejection came from another editor with explicit details on how the story could be improved to fit their house.  Even without sex, the relationship moved too quickly.

     I decided I didn’t want to conform.  Instead, I sexed it up again.  Not as sexy as I can get, but it still qualifies as erotic.

      Anyway, it’s a really fun story.  Oh, by the way…occasionally I reward a commenter with a surprise copy of one of stories…hint…hint.     

       What it’s about:

       What happens when a sassy, savvy, plus-sized professional woman jumps out of her element and into the frying pan?  Cara is confronted with her worst nightmare–the kitchen stove.      Can she resort to cooking to get a shot at a sure thing?  For her thirtieth birthday, CARA THOMAS, gets the unwelcome gift of cooking lessons from her mother.  Cara doesn’t care if the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.  The only thing she finds interesting about a man’s stomach is a six-pack of muscles and she doesn’t expect to find them in the kitchen.  However, her best friend’s promise of hot sex with the chef motivates Cara to take his class. 

     But XXX-treme cooking?

    Hunky master-chef, MIKE NICHOLS, dislikes taking time to teach cooking classes, but when a local TV station decides to film the segments, how can he refuse?  His partner and co-owner of the restaurant delivers the usual bevy of blonde-baking-Barbies for the filming…however, one voluptuous redhead steals the show and maybe his heart. 

    In the world of desserts and love, he proves to be as bold and buttery as they come!  Mike gives Cara a preview of what she’s been missing her entire life and she develops a taste for more.  Is she brave enough to see where it leads…even when it involves cooking? Sparks fly and it isn’t the Baked Alaska! 

     Excerpt:
 
     The memory of the time she burned her parents’ kitchen to cinders as a teenager haunted her. Could it be possible her refusal to step within a mile of a stove made her an unlikely candidate for marriage? Her mother insisted it did.

      If it weren’t for Riva’s sure thing guarantee, no way would she be doing this. Taking a gulp of air, she locked her hand around the handle of the heavy-looking carved door and gave it a tug. The sight of wall-to-wall people in a lobby better suited to a boutique hotel than a five-star restaurant surprised her. 

       Cara pushed into the crowded room and began to search for someone to give her directions. When she took a closer look at the women who surrounded her, she stopped. There were almost a dozen tall blondes in slinky black dresses, cramped together and trying to look bored. 

        Could all these Vogue wannabes have come for cooking lessons?

        Cara tried to become invisible. When that failed, she stood straighter, stretching her five-foot-nine inch frame another quarter-inch and wished she’d worn her slut-city shoes, too. 

      “Everyone who’s here to participate in Chef Nichols’ cooking lessons, please follow me,” one of the women said. Another blonde, but this one had pizzazz. When the woman waved her hand in the air with a motion for the group to follow, a diamond solitaire, at least four carats in size, sparkled under the light of the chandelier. She made all the other women in the room look like day-old bread. 

       Compared to Cara…she didn’t want to go there. The thin woman could easily fit twice into Cara’s suit.

       “Are you here for Chef Mike’s class?” asked an older lady standing to Cara’s left.

       Cara nodded. The taste of lip-gloss reminded her to quit chewing her lip.  Someone might guess the idea of cooking had her rattled.  And she told herself, allowing her mother to talk her into cooking lessons didn’t make her a pushover.  After all, none of these anemic women could know she’d nearly burned her parents’ house to the ground while attempting to make French fries.  None of these women looked like she’d even eat a French fry, let alone cook one.

      “Michael is a wonderful teacher,” the woman gushed. “This is the third time I’ve taken his class.”

       “That’s nice,” Cara said, visions of well-built firemen popping into her head. Ordinarily it would be a good thing, but cooking with a mob of too-skinny blondes redefined her perception of being out of her element. 

      “Don’t worry. You’ll do just fine,” the woman assured.

       “Why bother to worry when you can just as easily obsess?” Cara quipped.  She followed behind while the statuesque leader showed the group into the kitchen. 

       “Welcome, everyone, to Chef Mike Nichols’ kitchen!” The woman gave an exuberant Vanna White sweep of her skinny arms.

       Cara had only a moment to be captivated by the sparkling white walls and gleaming metallic surfaces before she spied the cameras. Why were there TV cameras in the kitchen? Riva might want her face in front of a camera. Cara definitely did not.

       “That’s not good,” she said under her breath, her feet glued to the floor while everyone else continued to file into the room. “I can’t do this. I don’t like to have my picture taken, let alone this,” she said to anyone who cared to listen. 

        Cara’s mouth started to dry. She managed multi-million-dollar portfolios and yet the thought of cooking in front of cameras reduced her to a mass of quivering green Jell-O–the only thing she could cook, once she’d coerced someone else into boiling the water. 

       The sound of a dull thud penetrated her fear. Cara turned her head to see a metal tray careen toward her out of the corner of her eye and then heard the tray’s contents hit the floor with a crash. 

       “Shi–shoot! Please move the camera cord before someone gets killed.”  The big man who had just dropped the tray stood defiantly, fists on his hips, glaring at the cameraman. Just as quickly, the frown left his face when he glanced over at Cara. 

       She felt like a deer caught in the headlights surrounded by a herd of blonde heads as she looked back at the man who had to be Chef Mike. The sure thing? Her sure thing? No way!

      Cara had to remind herself to breathe as she looked at him–inch by incredible inch. There were so many hunky inches she couldn’t take them in fast enough. Perhaps seventy-five of them in all, and each begged for her complete attention. Hunk with a capital “H.” She was getting hot just looking at him. Chef Mike? Could she get that lucky?

     This was her sure thing? 

     www.myspace.com/britblaise

     www.britblaise.com
 
    

Share This

I have been inundated with family the past few days. My son is home from his one year tour with the National Guard in Afghanistan, my brother flew in from Wisconsin, my sister flew in from New Mexico, and my nephew drove in from Duncan, AZ. All within 2 days of each other. Whew! My other sister lives here in town and I’m happy to say we see each other almost every weekend.

But this has been the first time we’ve all been together since, well, since my mother passed away almost 7 years ago. So it was a good thing to have everyone together for happier times. 

There’s always good natured bantering, ribbing, story telling and teasing going on when we all get together. Something I’ve missed…horribly.

Tina and Isabella have both posted about conference tips and yes, they are magnificent little tidbits of helpful information but I’d like to bring everyone back to Earth for just a minute and take time out for your family.

 Writers are reclusive when they write. Hours are spent typing away page after page. We get wrapped up in the worlds and characters we create and tend to forget about the flesh and blood characters, yes, I said characters, right in front of us every day.

As I look at my calendar for the month of April and realize how full it already is I plan to take full advantage of the time I do have with my family and enjoy every minute of it.

That’s all folks!

Kayla Janz

Share This

Most of the Butterscotch Martini Girls are gearing up for a very busy April.  There are two upcoming conferences—the Desert Dreams conference, here in sunny, Arizona April 4-6th and the Romantic Times Booklover’s Convention the week of the 14th of April in Pittsburgh.

This year will be my fourth RT (Romantic Times) and my third Desert Dreams, since that conference only happens every other year.  They are both excellent conferences and the emails and loops are all abuzz with pre-activities and questions—especially from newbies.

Now, this in and of itself isn’t anything different from any other year.  I remember very clearly BEING one of the newbies and asking all kinds of questions–being worried about everything from what I should wear, how to act around the agents and editors, should I bring my manuscript (this is a big NO, if you’re wondering what the answer is…),  to what types of things I should NOT do to totally tank my writing career before it got started.  LOL.  That all seems like a long time ago now, even though it was only just back in 2003, and I’ve learned a lot since then.

What I remember most about my first set of conferences—especially the local one, was that so many people were willing to answer my questions and help put me at ease.  After all, this can be a cutthroat business, but here there were best selling authors as well as many other authors whose books I loved giving me tips and encouraging words every step of the way!  My appreciation for that helping hand back when I was in the newbie seat has always stayed with me.  So, watching the posts go by for our local Desert Dreams conference over the last week was a little bit nostalgic.  And as time has permitted, I tried to make sure to chime in with encouraging words or help where I could.  And I don’t want to make that sound like a big sacrifice—I really enjoy helping and mentoring new writers.

But since it was my day to blog here in BMG land, I thought I could start a list of good tips for the conference, and then you can all chime in and help me expand this list – sort of a newbie’s guide to going to conference.  I really wish I would’ve had one back then, but since I had all my fellow Butterscotch Martini Girls, I was in good hands! :)  (Although that was back before we had that name and we were a lot smaller group…LOL)

These are in no particular order:

-    Dress nicely, but for comfort.  Desert Dreams and RT are fine with nice jeans and a top, or something more formal, but make sure you’re comfy!!  RWA is a bit more dressy.

-    If you are concerned about what other people think of you—you wouldn’t be so worried about it if you knew how often they didn’t.  Aka-most people are thinking about themselves and what they have to get done/do at conference.  No one but you is going to stress over the fact that you put on 10 pounds, or that your makeup isn’t perfect or that you’re wearing the same jacket two days in a row.  Smile and look confident – and that’s half the battle

-    Take two sets of business cards—one without your phone number (but with your email and website) for readers and one set with your number and all other info for agents/editors and friends.

-    Carry your business cards at ALL times!

-    When you receive a business card from someone else, write who they are and how you met them on the back of the card.  Believe me, by the time you get home and go through these, you’ll be glad you did!

-    If there are tapes available for the workshops – BUY it!  Those are tax deductible (talk to your tax person) and you won’t stress if you end up networking and miss some.

-    Networking is the true gold of these conventions!!  Spending time in the bar chatting with an agent/editor or another writer is where valuable friendships are made and where you learn a lot from others.  Don’t get me wrong, the workshops are great, and I hope you come to mine but don’t come to mine at the expense of making some face to face contacts with others.

-    Don’t judge people upon meeting them.  This may sound stupid, but it’s a great life-skill, especially in this business.  I remember my first Desert Dreams, another newbie pointed out a woman in jeans and said she HAD to be new because she didn’t know enough to dress well for the conventions.  Her comments were on the loud side and several people heard her (which did NOT put her in a good light.)  The woman she was pointing out was a best selling author and is published under a gazillion pen names and is one of the best writers I know.  Oops!  Don’t forget—one of the perks of our jobs is we aren’t expected to wear panty hose and etc.  So, not to be trite, but don’t judge a book or a writer by their cover

-    Act professionally at all times.  This doesn’t mean you can’t have fun—I know I certainly do—but just remember you are representing your writing business (and your chapter for us locals) with every action.  There is a lot of drinking at these conventions, but getting drunk and dancing on the table half naked will NOT make a good impression on the editors/agents or other writers.  And news does travel fast in this business, so remember where you are, and act appropriately.

-    Here’s my favorite urban legend.  I mentioned not bringing your manuscript above, and I meant it.  The agents and editors won’t want to lug those home in their suitcases, they will ask you to mail them later.  The urban legend is (although I’ve heard this really did happen) that someone tried to slip their manuscript under a bathroom stall to an editor!  ACK!  Please don’t do this—this won’t win you any brownie points, but it will make sure everyone knows your name—just not in a good way.

-    Agents and editors are people just like you and me.  Yes, you may feel like they hold your future happiness in their hands—but really, they want your success just as much as you do.  If you pitch or submit an awesome book that they think can sell and make their company (and by extension, you) money, then they will want to buy it.  If it isn’t ready yet, they won’t.  That’s the simple statement of it.  They hold you no malice, they aren’t out to get you, and they aren’t demi-gods walking around with a glowing light around them.  They are people just like you and me.  They love good books, and they like the same things we like for the most part.  They hang out at the bar, they need to use the restroom (without being offered manuscripts instead of TP) and they get tired and have bad days.  When you see them, say hello, just like you would to anyone else.  You can introduce yourself and be polite, but don’t hang on them and beg for submissions!  A lot of times, a friendly chat with an agent or editor in the bar has resulted in them asking me what I write and sometimes even a request for a submission.  So be yourself, be nice and treat them like a person and not a means to an end and they will appreciate it and remember you in a good way

-    Rejections are a part of life.  I have 69 sitting in my file, and even now that I’m multi-published, I expect more to build up.  It’s a fact of life.  Don’t sweat it if you get some.  Think of it as sort of a badge of honor.  You’ve actually submitted!  Heck, Sherrilyn Kenyon was told by an editor to give up on writing, that she would never make it.  And look at her now!

-    If you have a question, don’t be afraid to ask.  There’s nothing you can think of that other writers haven’t already asked or wondered about when they were learning the ropes.  And what’s more—we never stop learning!

-    Don’t ask total strangers or new acquaintances to critique your manuscript.  This doesn’t mean we don’t all wish you well, but most of us have deadlines, our own critique groups and a thousand other things going on.  We just don’t have time.  Ask around and find your own critique group.  That’s how the BMG’s got started.  At my first RWA meeting, I asked Brit Blaise how I went about joining a critique group.  She asked where I lived and told me I was in the new one she was starting.  “Uh…okay.”  The rest is history!

-    If possible, arrive at the convention site early and scope out the place.  At RT, we always go a few days early to sight see (hey, future books could be based there!) and to scope out the hotel. Where are the best restaurants, bars, bathrooms, entrances, ballrooms, workshop halls, goodie rooms etc?  Same for Desert Dreams, by the time people arrive on Friday, I’ll have the lay of the land!

-    Even if you have nothing to pitch, don’t pass up a chance to meet an agent or editor.  At the last Desert Dreams, everything I had was contracted and I owed one more, but I knew I wanted to find an agent.  So, I took an agent appointment with Paige Wheeler.  I sat down and told her I had nothing to pitch, but as soon as I finished my current contracted commitments, I wanted to find an agent.  (And after much research, I knew I wanted her!)  I told her she had given me a great rejection on my first book back in 2004, and she remembered it since she doesn’t give many great rejections.  (Woo hoo – you bet I was excited she remembered!)  Anyway, we chatted and she said to give her a call when my contracted things were done and I could submit something else.  As fate would have it, Kensington called me about six months later, and I called Pagie to broker the deal, and she’s now my agent.  So, the moral is – don’t pass up that opportunity just because you don’t have anything right this second to pitch!  I almost did.  Remember what I said about face to face time being valuable!  Thanks to the BMG’s for convincing me to keep that appointment!

-    Never trash someone else’s book or someone else’s genre.  We all have our own personal likes or dislikes, that’s human nature.  I LOVE paranormal of almost any type.  Historical romances?  Fantasy?  Suspense?  Well-written erotic romances?  Yummy!  But are there some genres I don’t particularly care for – of course.  However, I won’t trash them.  I have tons of friends who write those, and I’m happy for their success.  Remember—we are all writers, but we are not what we write.

-    Take a sweater and layer!  Those conference rooms can get very cold or very warm – be prepared.

-    It’s always a good idea to take a bottle of water and some Tylenol or a cough drop wherever you go, so you’re always prepared.  A good pen/pencil or alpha smart for notes is good too.

-    Always be inclusive.  Do you see someone alone standing in the corner, who looks like they may want to join your group, but aren’t sure of their welcome?  Say hello!  I can’t tell you how many friends I’ve made this way.

-    Lost?  Confused?  Frustrated?  Afraid you’ve just trashed your writing career by accidentally spilling coffee on your favorite editor?  Take a deep breath, and find someone to ask for help, and apologize to the editor and smile.  Everyone spills stuff, and we all have our share of embarrassing moments—if you doubt me, read the BMG blog archives and search on “panties”…LOL.  Don’t sweat the small stuff!

I won’t bore you with a ton more, but does anyone else have some great advice to add?

See you all at conference!

Tina/Cassie

Share This

My morning routine is to shower, get ready for the day and figure out what I’m going to wear.  Even though I work out of my house, yes I still think is today a business casual day or it today more dressy.  Once I’m ready, I make an awesome cup of tea, sit on my back patio and read.  It could be Donald Maas, Eckhart Tolle or like this morning, it’s catching up on my More magazine subscription. 

The magazine celebrates women over forty.  I also think twenty and thirty something women should read it.  Why?  Because it inspires and builds you up.  It doesn’t give you a false image to look up to and it celebrates exactly who your are.  It’s ashame that it takes twenty years for women to realize this.  Unfortunately, I’m with everyone on when the light bulbs went off.

Articles in the magazine inspired today’s blog.  I remember when I was about twenty or twenty-one (the age where you think you’ve experienced everything and know it all), I asked my mother (who is exactly twenty years older then me) a very (looking back in hindsight) stupid question.  I asked her, how did it feel to have half your life over?

Stunned silence and she looked at me and said, “Well I still feel like I’m in my twenties.”  Pay backs are a bitch.  I’m now forty-five and half my life is over.

But what a life!  I’m the happiest I’ve ever been in my life.  At forty-five, I love myself both physically and mentally.  It’s been a rough journey to get here, but a worthwhile one.  I’ve overcome an extremely dysfunctional childhood, a betrayal in a marriage where I thought I would be married forever, and a few more tragedies.  I don’t want to dwell on the past, because this article will then become about those tragedies and it’s not. I give thanks for the past, but no more energy then a passing thought.

This article is about life.  It’s about the power of a woman.  It’s about celebrating who you are and all your flaws at any age.  I want to grow old gracefully and have the best life I can.  I love the crinkles around my eyes, my flabby arms, and every flaw I have and yeah I have lots of them. 

I look back at pictures of when I was twenty and wonder why I thought I was fat.  Now I no longer think about weight.  In the last couple of months, when my friends talk about losing weight I just smile and empathize with them.  But I don’t criticize myself anymore.  I know when I’m sixty; I’ll look back and think, “Wow I look great.”  So now I enjoy pictures below the chest, eating, taking walks with no goals in mind except being healthy.

Mentally, I think like I’m in my twenties.  Sometimes when I buy clothes I have to remind myself that I can’t buy that twenty something shirt.  An example is I should not have bought that playboy beef eater.  Yes, I had a moment and now I have to find a twenty something to give it to.  I laughed about it, but didn’t give myself any negative messages.

I love that every day, wake up with a smile and thank God for my life and the journey I’ve taken to get here.  In the shower I give myself affirmations, instead of saying my arm flab is horrible.  I think, wow I’m the luckiest person in the world. 

I think that is the key to growing old gracefully is laughing with your friends, loving your family, never think you don’t have enough time (remember, when you die you’re not going to say, boy wish I spent that extra hour at work), find your true spiritual self, experiment erotically, take risks, never let others affect you, look forward to menopause, see the world and love everyday of getting older.  I do!!!! 

Isabella

“Beauty can’t amuse you, but brainwork-reading, writing, thinking-can.”  –Helen Gurley Brown

Share This

Title: The Blood Club Author: Brit Blaise Publisher: Amber Allure Genre: Dark Fantasy/Vampire Publication date: 2008 ISBN: 978-1-60272-196-8 Pages: 70 Series: N/A Reviewer: Tony http://www.twolipsreviews.com/content/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2964&Itemid=36

Heat Level: group sex, gay sex, bisexual, vampire     Rating:

Dr. Amanda Montgomery grew up as member of the Nerd Squad. Even as a successful psychiatrist, she still feels like a nerd because she has no social life, few friends, no dating, and definitely no sex. She wants a spark in her life and she needs it now. When Amanda and Detective Mark Philips investigate an establishment called The Blood Club, a hangout for vampire wannabes, they get more than they bargained for — especially, Amanda. She sees people dressed in full Goth wardrobe, as if at an actual Goth convention. However, that’s not what gets her attention with full force. She witnesses people performing graphic gay and straight sex acts on stage. There are not only couples performing, but also threesomes and even group sex.  And if this weren’t enough, Amanda has the sudden urge to participate, and she finds herself actually performing with everybody else on the stage, discarding all her inhibitions. 

When Amanda finds out Mark Philips is a real vampire, she has to make a decision. She is totally enamored with Mark and doesn’t want to lose him. Will she accept her fate by becoming a vampire herself to gain complete freedom and, more importantly, to be with her beloved Mark forever? Or will she choose to lose him for eternity because she is not one of them – a vampire? There is another complication in the situation she has to factor in. Mark has an ex-lover, a fellow vampire who goes by the name of Saint. That’s not the problem, though. It is that the ex is a man and Saint wants to renew the sexual relationship he had with Mark a hundred years ago.  Will Amanda have to compete with Saint to gain Mark’s affection? 

The Blood Club is a taught, dark romantic Thriller. Brit Blaise writes a no-holds barred story that is not for the faint of heart. If you crave vampires and erotic novels that include hetero, gay, bi and group sex, but still keeps the main plot moving, then you’ve hit the jackpot because The Blood Club will satisfy you — and then some. A good read.

BUY NOW!

Share This