The best in romantic suspense, hot erotic paranormal and urban fantasy romance

Today I’m at Books ‘n Kisses

Stop #7 of the Bannockburn Binding book tour.

Today I’m at Books ‘n Kisses, talking about one of my favourite subjects:  history.  No, I won’t send you to sleep.  I also manage to slide movies into it, and blood and gore, so it’s not all that boring.

Swing by for an excerpt that hasn’t been seen anywhere else (I think…I’m losing track about now), and drop a line saying hello.

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Also, Bannockburn Binding is out everywhere now — click on the image below to get a link to your favourite retailer.

 

Happy Australia Day To All Us Aussies

G’day and Happy Australia Day.

The ironic thing is, by the time you read this, Australia Day will actually be over — in Australia, anyway, thanks to the International Date line.  But it’s still officially Australia Day where I am.  So I’m saying G’day to all the Australians like me, who are parked in places far from the homeland and, like me, don’t get to have the day off to celebrate, watch fireworks, and melt under what is often one of the hottest days of the year.

Have a great day!

 

About The Industry – All Romance eBooks Trend Analysis for 2011

Every year, All Romance eBooks produces a Trend Analysis that they distribute to all their publishers.

The report is naturally focused upon All Romance eBooks and their position within the industry, but once you sift through that bias, it contains some very interesting information.

I thought I’d share some of the highlights.

 Some buyer highlights

We’re continuing to experience triple digit growth in the U.S. and the bulk of our sales are to U.S. customers. We are currently selling in 202 countries.

Top ten markets: United States, Canada, UK, Australia, Germany, India, New Zealand Philippines, Malaysia, and the Netherlands.

Female = 89%

Male = 11%

I find this one very interesting, because I believe it’s not just specific to All Romance eBooks.  I suspect the growth trend they’ve experienced can probably be applied to ebooks in general and romance ebooks in particular, for all ebook retailers.

The sales to the non-US countries is even more interesting, because many of them do not claim English as their primary language, and All Romance eBooks don’t sell foreign language editions.

J.A. Konrath, who is probably one of the loudest champions of indie publishing, has predicted that non-English translations will be one of the primary sources of income for indie authors over the next few years.  All Romance eBook’s sales trend is supportive data for that prediction.

Some bookish highlights

Heat Rating = over 97% of sales are on books rated 3 or higher, of significance is that the 5 and 4 flame sales have see a combined drop of 4% over last year with most of the difference shifting to the 3 flame rating.

This could mean one of two things.

1)  Readers are getting sick of erotic romance and are choosing “tamer” romances once more, or

2)  The definition of “hot” has shifted along the scale so far that what was once considered 5-flames for ARE is now only 3-flames.  The 5-flames is now kink, BDSM, and extreme erotic, while readers who still love their erotic romance are still buying them, they’re just buying 3-flame romances, not 5.

The fact that The Romance Studio have thrown away their “erotic” categories in the CAPA awards this year and melded the erotic and non-erotic all in together would hint that romances are all erotic these days.  Erotic romance is losing its distinction.  “Extreme erotic” is now the uppper end of the scale, while we are simply enjoying “normal” romances.

Despite everything I’ve said here, it is only the books that I label “erotic romance” and put the highest “hot” rating on that sell the best for me, personally.  If I lower the rating or label in the slightest (down to 4-flames for instance), the sales plummet.  My ARE sales figures do not match what All Romance eBooks are reporting, here.

Sales Revenue DRM v Non DRM = 97% was for Non DRM titles for 2011

96% was for Non DRM tittles for Nov & Dec

These figures are misleading.  Can you see the catch?  ARE don’t state how many DRM titles v’s Non-DRM titles are available.  If there is only 1% protected titles available overall, then naturally, the non-DRM titles are going to out-sell the protected titles.    So even bothering to compare from year to year is meaningless.

But, much further down in the report, ARE had this to say about DRM protection:

A special note about DRM, the impact of agency, and piracy.

While ARe supports both the DRM and non-DRM business models, we advocate that publishers refrain from using DRM and provide open access – it’s what our customers overwhelmingly want. We appreciate and understand the concerns expressed about potential revenue loss due to piracy. We believe the best deterrent is to provide customers with easy access to appropriately priced content.

Tens of thousands of DRM titles were removed by what has commonly been referred to as “Agency” publishers in April of 2010. Data from Q1 of 2010 seemed to indicate DRM might have ended up being approximately 12% or more of sales in 2010, as opposed to the 4% that resulted. Although we certainly realized some lost sales due to the decrease in that inventory, data supports the fact that many readers simply found alternate content to interest them and accordingly shifted those purchasing dollars to non-Agency publishers.

The market share of DRM titles decreased further in 2011 to 3%. We attribute this to two factors: the decrease in overall market share of DRM inventory due to the loss of Agency publishers, AND buyer preferences shifting to Non-DRM publishers and Indie Publishers.

Agency Publishers returned to the site in early November. The DRM/Non-DRM market share split did improve during the subsequent two-month period of time (from 3% to 4%). We anticipate a 4-6% share in 2012, a far cry from what we believe we possibly would have seen without Agency interruption.

So if ARE are carrying 3-4% DRM titles and readers are choosing about 97% non-DRM, then that would seem to indicate that readers are not choosing based on whether the book has protection or not.  Which belies what ARE are saying, above.

Although, there are other sources (J.A. Konrath is one) that say readers do care, very much, if a book is protected or not, regardless of whether they have illicit intentions or perfect innocent ones.

I know I get mildly vexed by all the heinous “we are watching you!” safeguards on ebooks, when I buy DRM proected ones, but I don’t think it would stop me from actually buying a book I really wanted.  Would it stop you?

File Formats

File formats = PDF and ePub account for 85% of files downloaded. Next is PRC/Mobi at 14%, other file formats combined equal less than 1.

NOTE: We believe PDF, ePub, and PRC/Mobi are the “must have” formats.

Agree, agree, agree.  With one proviso.

PRC/Mobi, by the way, is the platform that Kindle is built upon.  It’s actually identical to Kindle, except for a change in serial number and file name.

If you’re buying ebooks in a format different from these three/four, then you might want to think about starting to change over to one of these four.  Actually, three.  I’d give up on PDF, too.  It’s too unweildy for the fluid ereaders.  It’s a useful will-open-on-anything format, but as a permanent, native format, it has problems.  Pick either Kindle, ePub or Mobi, and find an eReader you love that uses that format (or use your cellphone, iPad or tablet), and start trading over.   Soon, everything will be available in these formats.  Yes, everything.

In terms of which romance sub-genres owned the biggest piece of the pie in 2011, the top 10 are = Erotica, Vampires/Werewolves/Shapeshifters, Gay Fiction, Paranormal, Contemporary, Sci-fi/Fantasy, Multiple Partners, Interracial, Historical, Time-travel, Drama, and BDSM.

No big surprises here.

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Working Notes – Backstage Pass

Last time around, for working notes, I had skipped over two books, and had to back track.

This time, I don’t have a book to talk about at all, because of another phenomenon of the indie publishing industry:  doing it yourself means actually doing it all yourself.  Everything.  The formatting, uploading, releasing, technical un-hitching, acquiring of ISBN numbers, the lot.

For the last week, since I finished with Lucifer’s Lover, I thought I would be able to dive right back into the second book of the Beloved Bloody Time series (and it is about bloody time, too – I’m dying to get back to it).  Ha!

Hoisted by my own petard, as they say.

Fact is (was…still is, as I write this), I wasn’t quite finished with formatting and creating  and releasing versions of Lucifer’s Lover, and technically difficulties mean that here I am, a week later, still struggling with getting the last two versions out the door.

One of the primary difficulties was simply a matter of time:  I’m also smack dab in the middle of the book tour for Bannockburn Binding, and I have to keep up with that, as well.  And as luck would have it, all my scheduled posts for my blog ran out at the same time.  So, I suddenly had to drop a few higher priorities in order to address a few urgent ones:  posts for this blog, guest posts for the blog tour…I figure you would like to read something interesting when you visit here and there, no?

Then, and only then, could I get back to formatting and uploading the last two versions of Lucifer – namely, Smashwords, and Createspace.  (Createspace is the print version – and feeds the Amazon print page, too.)

So for my “snippet” of my current work today, I thought I would give you a sample of the list of steps I go through to get a book out there, along with some notations.  I don’t always follow every single step, because some books are re-releases, for example, or for some other reason I might leave off steps.  But this is a standard, all-inclusive checklist for self-publishing a book, if you’re not paying for a lot of external processes like editing, formatting, distribution, etc.  I do everything myself but design the cover—but I have magazine editing experience.

First draft:  Write the book.  Pretty obvious, but just finishing a book is a milestone and should always be celebrated.

Final title for book.  A book`s title can change during the writing.  The final title is a marketing decision, weighed up with a careful eye toward reader appeal, with a dozen different criteria guiding the selection, including length, the initial letter of the title, the use or overuse of certain words and more.

Spell check and grammar check draft manuscript, then put book away to freeze.  (Get on with another book) I drift between not-very-good to terrible at following this step.  Oh, I spell check and grammar check the nuts off a script, no problems.  But putting it away and letting it freeze?  Yeah…not so good on that one.  But I do try, because I know how much more of a book’s strengths and weaknesses I will spot if I get just a little more distance from it.

Write blurb  This is a pretty standard duty for authors, but for me, there isn’t an editor or marketing department standing over my shoulder telling me if the blurb works or not.  So I sweat this task out, working and re-working the blurb, comparing it to best-selling books in my genre, tweaking until I think the blurb has the necessary come-hither quality.

Create book page on website and update site for upcoming book, etc. Again, another chore that was always mine.

Complete cover art questionnaire and send to cover designer.  Most authors get to fill in art questionnaires for their publishers, but I’m betting none of them have to provide the designer with printer’s specifications, spine width, trim allowances, bleed information, paper width and variations, the price of the book (which I have to figure out on my own, too), and more technical and graphic specifications of this sort.  I provide all this, along with the hero’s eye colour and the heroine’s full lips and pouty expression…

Read through book as a reader for impressions.  Mark up as necessary.  Here is where leaving the book alone for a while pays off.  I get to read it with relatively fresh eyes, and enjoy the read.  But often, if I haven’t left the book alone long enough, I’m reading and mentally editing as I go.  Still, I try to read like a reader…

Edit carefully.  Then spell check and grammar check.  Round two of the editing/checking/line editing/checking, typo-filtering process.  It’s here that I slide in professional editing or line-editing services if the book warrants it (it’s not a re-release, has never been edited before, or other circumstances).

Create Master manuscript with front and end matter.  It’s here that the publishing process really starts to depart from a normal author’s lot.  All the front and end matter that appears in a book I get to create myself, instead of the publisher doing it for me, because I am the publisher.  And I don’t get to invent it…it all means something.  This is where the acquiring of ISBNs (International Standard Book Numbers) comes into play, one for each version of the book – the Amazon, Smashwords, All Romance eBooks and Createspace version each have to have their own ISBN.  Then each have their own front copyright pages and copyright requirements.  Plus I’m also creating a “pretty” version as an Advanced Reader Copy.

Pour into Createspace template and format for page count.  This gets even more technical.  This is the two-page internal page layout for the print version, complete with bleeds, trim lines, folios (what you, the reader, calls a page number, but the printing industry gives a different name just to fool you), special fonts for the title page, justified text, kerning tweaks, and more.  This file determines how many physical pages will be in the print edition, which drives the price of the print edition, and also the spine width, which the cover designer needs to know to finish the cover.

Upload to Createspace.  The interior of the book gets uploaded to Createspace and waits for the final artwork, so I can hit the “publish” button on the print version and order a proof.

Create Amazon version from Master file and upload to Amazon.  Now I’m into full publication mode.  This task sounds simple enough, but there’s a lot of formatting involved to meet Amazon’s technical specifications, plus I have to resupply the same basic information all over again (Title, author, blurb, price, category, genre, tags, keywords, ISBN, bio).  Usually, each distribution platform wants the cover art formatted to their specific sizing, too, calling for a tweak of the original art files.

Format file for Smashwords and upload.  I admit I tend to procrastinate about Smashwords, because it’s technically the most fussy and difficult to meet the technical requirements.  They’re demanding, although they’re getting better.  Just like Amazon, I end up re-supplying the same basic information, re-shaped to Smashword’s specifications.

Format file for All About Romance and upload.  The fourth distribution outlet, and one of the easiest to deal with (except I usually end up forgetting to rename all my file formats and having to go back and re-do my book page anyway).

Send out requests for review and/or blog tour.  If the book is an Author Edition, or a re-release, I don’t do a blog tour.  If it has a huge number of glowing reviews already (like Lucifer’s Lover), I don’t even bother with the review requests.  Asking for reviews is a semi-new task for me.  Ellora’s Cave used to send out all their titles to a pre-set list of review sites, saving me the bother, until I built a list of other review sites that I liked and approached on my own.  Now, as an indie author, I have to find sites that will deal with indie published romances at all, and then do my own asking.

Update my site.  The book is officially released now, so there’s a ton of changes that have to be made on my website to reflect that fact.  Links, cover art, book page updates, widgets in sidebars, and more.  I also upload a copy of the book’s cover into my Facebook page.

Blog post about the release.  And then, finally, after all that, I get to tell you about the release.  Talk about the tip of the iceberg, huh?

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BANNOCKBURN BINDING Now Available at Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Sony, Apple.

My MMF futuristic paranormal time travel romance, Bannockburn Binding, has just popped up on the Barnes and Noble site this morning.  Alas, without a blurb, story descriptor, category or anything to tell you what it is other than it’s mine.

I thought that, if it had popped up finally on Barnes and Noble, it might have generated on the other retail sites, so I wandered over to Sony and Apple to take a look and yes, it was there, too.  And lo and behold, it’s even at Kobo, which is usually weeks behind at getting books up.

So I’m linking you to the book’s page on my site, first, so you can read the blurb and excerpt there, before linking over to Barnes and Noble, or before choosing your preferred non-Amazon retailer.

Happy Saturday!

Cheers,

Tracy.

I’m at Manic Readers, Giving Away BLOOD KNOT.

Stop #6 of the Bannockburn Binding book tour.

Did you even know there was a blog at Manic Readers?  I only found it weeks after I’d been visiting the site and checking out the reviews and stuff  :)  Anyway, I’m there today, and wondering aloud about how much people might be willing to pay for paranormal powers…

Swing by for an excerpt that hasn’t been seen anywhere else, and drop a line saying hello.

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Also, Bannockburn Binding is now up on Smashwords, too.

 

I’m at Fang-tastic Books Today

Stop #5 of the Bannockburn Binding book tour.

I’m visiting Fang-Tastic Books, and yes, I’m talking about the undead again.  Given the blog’s raison d’être *is* the fanged ones, it seemed only appropriate to use them as my subject again.  The topic this time?  “Don’t Like Apple?  Switch to DOS and Become a Vampire.”  Obscure, huh? :)   Trust me, it all makes sense once you read the post.

There’s also another never-before seen excerpt (unless you’ve bought the book, but that doesn’t count), so do stop in and say hello.  And yes, I’m giving away books, still.

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Damn Good Romances – Part II: Romantic Tension

This post is part of a series.

Part 1: Damn Good Romances
Part II: Romantic Tension

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Romantic Tension

Romantic Tension is one of those invisible elements in a romance novel.  New writers are often told they need romantic conflict, characters, a plot, and sometimes they’re even advised that emotional intensity is needed – and I’ll be covering some of these in later posts in this series.

But most courses and most primers on romance novels slide right over romantic tension, or else they lump it in with romantic conflict – which it isn’t.

Romantic tension is also sometimes called sexual tension, but sexual tension is a subset of romantic tension.

A perfect example of romantic tension is the classic first meeting moment.  You get it in every romance novel…the moment when the hero(es) and heroine first lay eyes on each other.  Any romance author worth their salt knows the value of that first meeting and the effect it can have on you, the reader, so usually they won’t miss the opportunity to really crank up the tension for the hero, the heroine – or you.

One I particularly enjoyed writing came from Mia’s Return, and as the title suggests, it wasn’t technically a first meeting, but the hero and heroine were meeting after over ten years apart, and the heroine, Mia, though the hero, Alexander, had died (warning — explicit language and images ahead!):

The elevator stopped on the next floor, with more people getting on, but by then his animal instinct was crowding him, making the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He was being watched. His heart thundered.

He made no sudden moves. Instead, as people pushed onto the elevator, he turned so his back was to the side wall of the car, giving him an excuse to look at everyone if he brought his head up.

He lifted his head and looked around.

She was standing on the other side of the car, almost completely obscured by the other riders because she was only just over five foot.

Mia. Shamira Menendez of San Diego, California.

His first aching thought was You’re so fucking beautiful, Mia.

Then reality caught him in the chest. Mia was staring at him because she thought he was dead. She thought he died ten years ago, in San Diego.

And now she was watching him with tears in her eyes and all he could think about was his swelling cock and his exploding heart and how much he wanted to take up where he had left off…bending her over the counter, sliding his cock into her pussy, and making her scream his name.

“Are you all right, sir?”

He tore his gaze away from Mia. “Excuse me?” he said hoarsely. He looked down at the grey-haired lady next to him.

“Your breathing is all funny,” she said. “Are you claustrophobic?”

Others were looking at him now. Becoming the centre of attention was never a good thing for a vampire. Zack had drilled that into him. Seaveth was even more of a sergeant about it now vampires were assimilating into human society. He swallowed. “I’m fine,” he said.

But he wasn’t. He looked at Mia. She was still watching. She knew it was him. There was no way to deny it. No escape. No bluff he could use to fool her. The knowledge gleamed in her eyes.

“Give him room, please,” she said. “Everyone, stand back a bit.” She was stepping closer, taking charge.

They all shuffled back, clearing eighteen inches. Mia squeezed between them and stepped into the space. “Take a deep breath,” she told him, her voice low.

He couldn’t tear his gaze from her face. The tears in her eyes pooled and one fell down her cheek. Just one. But she didn’t wipe it, or show any sign of emotion. Cool, calm, controlled. “We’re nearly there,” she added, speaking for the others in the car, maintaining the illusion of a claustrophobe in full panic mode. She knew as well as he did it was nothing of the sort.

As the doors opened, the others stood back, letting them exit first. She grabbed his lapels and hauled him from the car. He let her, for he stood a foot higher than her and outweighed her by nearly a hundred pounds. But her scent alone was wreathing his head and making his senses reel. Something with vanilla and…grapefruit? He could feel his incisors trying to descend and his mouth filling with vampire saliva to deaden her flesh so she wouldn’t feel the first piercing of his teeth. And his cock was pounding with the agonizing need to slam her up against the marbled walls of the foyer and fuck her senseless.

He was almost hyperventilating with the dilemma.

Her hand rested on his chest. God, he could feel her heat through her hand. He swallowed.

“You’re supposed to be dead,” she whispered. No hello. No attempt to confirm who he was. She was that sure of him despite ten years.

Mia’s Return, 2009

While not a traditional romance novel in the strictest sense, a really great (and famous) first meeting scene can be found in Gone With The Wind.   The snippy exchange between the pair is priceless:

 Her hand dropped to a little table beside her, fingering a tiny china rose-bowl on which two china cherubs smirked. The room was so still she almost screamed to break the silence. She must do something or go mad. She picked up the bowl and hurled it viciously across the room toward the fireplace. It barely cleared the tall back of the sofa and splintered with a little crash against the marble mantelpiece.

“This,” said a voice from the depths of the sofa, “is too much.”

Nothing had ever startled or frightened her so much, and her mouth went too dry for her to utter a sound. She caught hold of the back of the chair, her knees going weak under her, as Rhett Butler rose from the sofa where he had been lying and made her a bow of exaggerated politeness.

“It is bad enough to have an afternoon nap disturbed by such a passage as I’ve been forced to hear, but why should my life be endangered?”

He was real. He wasn’t a ghost. But, saints preserve us, he had heard everything! She rallied her forces into a semblance of dignity.

“Sir, you should have made known your presence.”

“Indeed?” His white teeth gleamed and his bold dark eyes laughed at her. “But you were the intruder. I was forced to wait for Mr. Kennedy, and feeling that I was perhaps persona non grata in the back yard, I was thoughtful enough to remove my unwelcome presence here where I thought I would be undisturbed. But, alas!” he shrugged and laughed softly.

Her temper was beginning to rise again at the thought that this rude and impertinent man had heard everything—heard things she now wished she had died before she ever uttered.

“Eavesdroppers—” she began furiously.

“Eavesdroppers often hear highly entertaining and instructive things,” he grinned. “From a long experience in eavesdropping, I—”

“Sir,” she said, “you are no gentleman!”

“An apt observation,” he answered airily. “And, you, Miss, are no lady.” He seemed to find her very amusing, for he laughed softly again. “No one can remain a lady after saying and doing what I have just overheard. However, ladies have seldom held any charms for me. I know what they are thinking, but they never have the courage or lack of breeding to say what they think. And that, in time, becomes a bore. But you, my dear Miss O’Hara, are a girl of rare spirit, very admirable spirit, and I take off my hat to you. I fail to understand what charms the elegant Mr. Wilkes can hold for a girl of your tempestuous nature. He should thank God on bended knee for a girl with your—how did he put it?—’passion for living,’ but being a poor-spirited wretch—”

“You aren’t fit to wipe his boots!” she shouted in rage.

“And you were going to hate him all your life!” He sank down on the sofa and she heard him laughing.

If she could have killed him, she would have done it. Instead, she walked out of the room with such dignity as she could summon and banged the heavy door behind her.

Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell

It’s not just the first meeting that creates romantic tension.  As I mentioned earlier, sexual tension is one of the classic ingrediants of a romance novels — these days it’s sometimes the only romantic tension element used, possibly over-used.  Hormones are a major player in any romance, real or fictional, and their swirl and surges add delicious tension all on their own:

She did not seem to mind his interruption. Again, she tilted her head to study him curiously. “Did you think I was lying?”

“I think… you’re capable of it. You let Thorsby think we were close friends.”

“You played along with it. Doesn’t that make you as much a liar as me?” She put her hands behind her back, like a small schoolgirl reporting to her head mistress. “Do I not get my tour of the conservatory now?”

The linking of her hands behind her back had a remarkable effect on her décolletage. Stuart found his gaze drawn there, yanked there and held with invisible pincers, despite the fact that as a gentleman, he never looked directly at a lady’s chest in public. He could feel his heart begin to beat with the old excitement that came from the type of hunt he preferred. Was she doing it deliberately? Her breasts were pushed toward him, lifted up by the heavy boning of her corset and almost offered to him. She was petite but her breasts were lush, coffee-cream globes.

He wrenched his gaze away and looked into her eyes. The same amusement was sparkling there and he knew she had done it deliberately.

She was testing him.

Had she been testing him all along?

But now she had moved the game onto pleasurable territory he considered his own. He relaxed and smiled at her, feeling more sure of himself. “I would be honoured to guide you through Lord Dumfrey’s famed conservatory,” he said, holding out his arm.

The Royal Talisman, 2012

There are all sorts of ways to increase romantic tension in a romance, beyond using sex, and a good writer will use them all.  One of them is what I call “indirection” — the use of witty little interchanges between the hero and heroine, all while sexual tension boils and simmers just beneath the surface as sub-text — in a searing glance, a studied pose, the symbolic stroke of a fingertip along a jawline…

It’s not misdirection, because the conversation can certainly be going somewhere, too.  Most often the conversation can be serving a useful purpose:  solving a crime, unravelling a paranormal mystery, all sorts of thriller sub-plots that might be afoot in which the hero and heroine are embroiled.

But it keeps the romance firmly centre stage and the tension cranked up while the rest of the story unravels.

And who said the reader has all the fun?

Next: Romantic Conflict

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Working Notes – The Book You Missed and the One You Might Yet Miss

I don’t think I’ve ever hidden the fact that I write posts ahead of time and schedule them to appear here on the appointed day.  Most bloggers do this.   It’s a survival mechanism:  We’d all be in straight-jackets by week four if we had to manually post each and every post on the appointed day and time.  Life is too complicated and we all usually have other lives as well as our demanding blogs.

But this habit of posting ahead of time put me into a sort of leap-frog position, and I may even have leapt clear over two whole lillypads, too.

In these working notes, I like to talk about the current book I’m working on.  Right now as I type this note, I’m sitting in the Edmonton wrestling arena while the Monster Pro Wrestling crew are setting up for tonight’s show (which is in the past as you read this).  And right at this moment in time, I’m smack in the middle of formatting and uploading Lucifer’s Lover and releasing onto an unsuspecting public:  You.

Tomorrow, Mark goes on the road for a wrestling show in Moose Jaw.  The adage in our household is “While the wrestler’s away, the writer writes,” so there’s a pretty good chance I’ll get all the formatting completed.  (Except my daughter, who moved out of the house a week or so ago, invited me to go with her to see the second Sherlock Holmes movie, and you know me and Sherlock Holmes, so…)

I already have the cover for Lucifer.  It arrived this afternoon, and I got it on my cellphone…it’s gorgeous, divine and I’m over the moon.  I can’t wait to reach a wi-fi network so I can tell Dar Albert how much in love I am with the cover.

And that’s my problem.

I’ve got short odds on getting Lucifer finished tomorrow.

In between this Working Notes post and the last one, I also finished and released The Royal Talisman.

There’s my two lillypads.  There’s the two books you missed out on.  Because if what I’m predicting comes true, then by the time you read this, then what I’ll be working on will in fact be Byzantine Heartbreak, the second book in the Beloved Bloody Time series.

But let’s pretend I’m still working on Lucifer’s Lover and that it hasn’t been officially released yet, and you’re not staring at the lush cover to the right there in the column.

Because I know just the snippet I want to tease you with today:

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An Excerpt From: LUCIFER’S LOVER
Copyright © TRACY COOPER-POSEY, 2012
All Rights Reserved.

She was still trembling when she got behind the wheel of the car to drive home but it was a heady mix of elation and relief, not the undiluted fear she had been feeling before. She tried to push the key home twice and failed.

Luke’s hand rested on hers a moment. “I’ll drive,” he said. “You relax and recover.”

No one had ever driven her car before except her but she silently climbed out and moved around to the passenger side, handing Luke the keys as they passed in front of the hood.

The drive to Luke’s place was silent and in the silence and the warmth from the car’s heater, she felt her body relax, her mind quiet and her nerves go off-line. By the time he halted the car in front of his apartment block, she was actually sleepy, tiredness gnawing at her.

“It’s nice,” she said, as he turned the engine off.

“What is?”

“You know how to be silent. And when. I didn’t realize that until tonight. You always seemed to be running off at the mouth whenever I saw you before.”

“Thanks. I think.” He handed her the keys. “It’s nerves,” he added.

“What is?”

“When I run off at the mouth.”

“You? Nervous?”

He shrugged. “As unlikely as it sounds.” He went to get out and paused, his hand on the door handle. “Is it true, about your father?”

“You mean the rocket scientist bit?”

He smiled. “Yes.”

“It’s true. He’s retired now. He makes furniture for charities.”

“That’s quite a change.”

“According to my father, building and creating things is more profound than physics, which merely describes the things he builds. I believe him. He gets very involved with his projects.”

He opened the door and Lindsay shivered at the cold rush of air. She opened her own door and went around to the driver’s side. Luke was already a few paces away, preparing to leave.

“Well…” he said. “It’s been an interesting date.”

“I’m glad you got your money’s worth.”

He put his hands in his coat pocket. “I don’t think I’m the only one who did that,” he said, his breath fogging the air.

True.

The impulse struck her suddenly, without warning. She crossed the crisp snow to stand in front of him and reached up to grasp his lapels. She felt him pull his hands out of his pockets and thought for a moment he was going to push her away but he laid them on top of hers. His eyes were completely black in the light.

She tugged a little, trying to pull herself up and him down.

“You don’t have to do this,” he said.

“I know.”

“It wasn’t a real date. Not in the proper sense. I tricked you into it. You know that.”

“I know.” She pulled a little harder.

“Just so we’re perfectly clear on this. This isn’t part of the fake date thing, is it? Or is it some sort of thank you?”

“No.”

“It’s just that I wouldn’t want to take it the wrong way. That could lead to all sorts of ugly complications—”

“Luke, you’re running off at the mouth again.”

“God, yes,” he said, his voice low.

She pulled again and this time he let her. She kissed him, exploring his taste, the shape of his mouth, the novelty of the kiss. Then, from an unknown quarter, an intense, heavy, sweet wave of pleasure spilled through her and all the intellectual curiosity about the kiss washed away beneath it. She was drawn into it, coherent thought scattered to the four winds.

She lost sense of time. When the kiss ended, it was very much like she was reviving from a drug-induced haze. Her lips were swollen and her whole body throbbed with unfulfilled tension. Luke’s arms were around her, holding her up, lifting her to his lips.

She held her breath for a second, then pushed it out with a heavy sigh.

“What happened?” she asked.

“You kissed me.”

“Is that what it was?”

“I think so.”

She licked her swollen lips, tasting his lingering flavor just a little. Sense was beginning to return. “I have to go.”

He nodded. His hands cupped her face and his fingers smoothed their way down her cheek, caressing it. His eyes were very dark. Unrevealing.

“We’ll freeze,” she said.

“I’m not cold.”

Neither am I, she thought.

She stepped back. His hands reluctantly dropped from her face.

“’Night.”

“Yes.”

She climbed back into the car and tried to fit the key back into the slot and failed again. Her hands felt big, clumsy and heavy. She concentrated and slid the key in and started the car.

Luke was still standing there and watched her leave.

Now what? she wondered, exploring her lips with her fingertips as she drove.

The kiss changed everything.

_______________

I’m at Vampire Romances today – win a copy of BLOOD KNOT

Stop #4 of the Bannockburn Binding book tour.   Today I’m at Vampire Romance Books where I’m spilling my guts about what terrible pilots vampires make, in “Vampires…Natural Space Travellers?”

Swing by for an excerpt that hasn’t been seen anywhere else, and drop a line saying hello. I’m giving away a copy of Blood Knot today, too!

____________

Also, Bannockburn Binding is out in print on Amazon, now, too!

 

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