I love Kelly Armstrong’s work. BITTEN is an absolute “keeper” with Clay being one of my all time favourite heroes. 

So of course I squeeed like the fan girl that I am when she agreed to take part in our behind the book series of guest blogger posts.  

Kelly has just started a new YA trilogy—The Darkest Powers—with the first book,  THE SUMMONING, already released earlier this month.  For more on THE SUMMONING, check out ChloeSaunders.com where Kelly has the first two chapters posted.

Come back on Wednesday for her post!!

Book trailer

A big Hola to Mis Southern Fried Chicas!

I am so honored that you chose to have lil’ ol’ me drop by to spill some behind the scenes secrets about my upcoming book, FURY CALLS (Nocturne March 2009).  FURY CALLS is part of THE CALLING vampire novels and I can tell you that it’s going to be sexy and full of surprises!  The hero and heroine are characters I first introduced in 2005 in TEMPTATION CALLS.  You also may have read about sexy antihero Blake in DESIRE CALLS which is a free novella at eharlequin.  You can check it out at this link:  http://www.eharlequin.com/article.html?articleId=1262

Yes, 2005 and for the last three years they have been screaming and demanding that I finally write their story!  The nerve of these secondary characters who don’t want to stay in the background!  LOL!

Seriously, sometimes that does happen when you’re writing.  Someone who is the sidekick or even starts as a throwaway characters becomes something more.  That definitely happened with Blake and by the end of FURY CALLS you may find there’s another character or two that emerge as totally needing their own story.  When you’re writing a series, you’re always thinking of ways to add to the special world of your series and the characters who inhabit it.

Much of the action in FURY CALLS happens at a new location I created – OTRO MUNDO.  OTRO MUNDO (which means ANOTHER WORLD) is an upscale restaurant in Soho which caters to a very hip and wealthy crowd as well as a lot of vampires who wanna-be more human.  I based OTRO MUNDO on the New York City restaurants that I’ve been lucky enough to visit, either on special occasions or business dinners.  New York is amazing in how many different restaurants there are in all the different neighborhoods and I’m lucky to be able to check them out myself.  That always helps add authenticity to the scenes when I’m writing.

To get a little bit more on the flavor of OTRO MUNDO you can visit click here

I also love to cook (and eat! VBG) so making the heroine, Meghan Thomas, a chef was a no-brainer.  This is actually the fifth book I’ve done where the heroine (or a friend) is a chef! I never get tired of having my chefs create wonderfully exotic and exciting meals as part of the stories.  Food is so sensual.

Since I like to cook, I sometimes share some of my recipes on my blog and website and you can check them out here

I’ve always thought that if I wasn’t an attorney and writer, I’d love to be a chef and writer (notice how I can’t lose the writer part!)  I could even imagine owning a small inn where I could write, give classes on writing and cook up a storm for all my guests.  Sounds heavenly doesn’t it?

Blake and Meghan get to enjoy OTRO MUNDO in FURY CALLS as well as Blake’s interesting “apartment” which overlooks Gramercy Park.  If you haven’t been in the Gramercy Park area, take a moment to POP by, but don’t count on getting into the park unless you’re a resident with a key.  It’s not a public park!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this behind the scenes look at FURY CALLS which will be out in March 2009 from Silhouette Nocturne!

Leave a comment and Caridad will be giving away a copy of TEMPTATION CALLS–one of her favorites! 

I know I know I have a lot of favorite authors who are kind enough to come and play with us at SFC…including Wednesday’s guest blogger, Caridad Pineiro! I first met Cari in a chat for fellow author Shelli Stevens and we both had the best time getting to know her AND picking her brains about writing for Silhouette Nocturne. heeeeh! Not only does she write for Silhouette, she’ll be doing some romantic suspense for Grand Central in 2010 AND she writes in one of my fave sub-genres–Latina lit!

You can check out her blog here. And check out her books here and here and um here *ggg* (If nothing else, just go enjoy drooling over her website).

See ya Wednesday!

Hello SFC and Company,

For those of you who don’t know me my name is Emma Petersen. I write inspirational contemporaries, paranormals and eroticas. Okay, so maybe not eroticas. And maybe my contemps and paras aren’t “inspirational” in the traditional sense but I’d like to think my work is still rather inspiring.

I’ve been writing with the intent of publication for about 2 years now but always remember loving the written word throughout my life. My first published story, Branded was released in August two years ago and with that story I started on my journey to my journey to a career as a novelist.

I say Branded started me on a journey to get to my ultimate journey, because like my heroine in Branded, I was a novice. Unlearned, untied, pure. (Ha. Okay, not pure. I don’t think I’ve ever been pure.) I came into this like a baby colt unable to get my legs under me to take the first couple of necessary steps. (What is up with me and these analogies? Seriously. Baby colt?)

It’s now two years later and what has that little green girl who wrote a dirty book about barnyard sex learned?

1. In this genre you either bend or you break.
2. The only thing consistent in this genre is change.
3. And nothing worth having comes easy. (Le sigh. I have a dirty mind because writing the words comes and easy together made me snicker. Don’t pretend you didn’t too. Okay, so maybe you didn’t. You’re probably a little or lot more mature than I am.)

These are the best lessons learned in my journey because to be honest, I don’t easily bend, am extremely resistant to change and haven’t really had to work for a damn thing in my life.

But ooooh boy have I worked for this writing thing. I’ve put in work (hehe) like a drunk guy at a Applebee’s. (Forgive me. Tasteless inside joke.) I’ve put in work and I’ve bent and I’ve changed. At times I wanted to throw my hands up and quit. Whine that it was too hard, too random, too unfair. (Hell, who am I kidding? I have whined about it. Ask Amie.) And even though I’ve quit a thousand times something keeps calling me back. Because in spite of the self doubt, fear of failure and success (Hush. I know I have issues. And no my therapist doesn’t help.) I can’t stop. Believe you me, I have tried yet…

I can’t quit you. Well, not you, the writing. I’m sure if I loved you as much as I loved (hated.) writing I wouldn’t be able to quit you either. And it’s amazing because despite the rejections, slap downs and general fucknuttiness (Can I say fucknuttiness?) this genre can put a person through, this is who I am. What I am. A romance writer and whether I never make it to New York (I am going to make it to New York.) I’ll keep on writing. I’ll keep on changing, evolving and I’ll keep on enduring the fucknuttiness because that’s what I was born to do.

Whew, that was a long post wasn’t it? And what was up with all the parenthesis? Anywho, once again I’d like to thank the spicy, crunchy chicas for welcoming me into their home. Before I go, please share with me. What have you learned in your journey?

This post has been brought to you by the letter F (fucknuttiness) by parenthesis ( ) and the insanity that is Emma Petersen. If this post scared you and you’d like Emma to continue therapy you can support her by buying her dirty inspirational little tale, Master of the Game. Coming from Ellora’s Cave July 18th. You can read an excerpt here. Leave a comment (today only) and you’ll be entered to win a copy of her upcoming ebook, Master of the Game. Visit Emma Petersen here.

(more…)

One of the joys of being a writer is being surrounded by a lot of super-talented people. And when I say talented, I ain’t BS’ing folks. One of those people, the lovely, delightfully wacky, and neurotic Emma Petersen will be joining us on Wednesday to talk about her very first Ellora’s Cave release, MASTER OF THE GAME.

Story ideas are funny things. You start with a kernel of something. Maybe it’s a theme, a news story that sticks in your mind, a bush that looks like a demon. It could germinate for awhile, simmering in  your subconscious for weeks, months, even years. Or it could be a whole scale excavation of that little bit of whimsy you stubbed your creative toe.

The idea behind Felicity Stripped Bare was a bit of excavation. Sometimes I found myself digging in the wrong spot, sometimes I hit gold.

I knew I wanted to write a romance, and I wanted to write hot since my favorite types of romances were fairly sensuous (although not at the heat level of many of today’s erotic-romances).  That decided, I figured Harlequin’s BLAZE imprint would be a perfect fit. Besides, a short category length would be easier to write than a single title length book, I reasoned.

Can you tell just how much I had to learn?

(more…)