Books in my Mailbox & Fun Stuff Happening Next Week

My heart is heavy today with all that's happening in the country and what happened in my own town last night, so this is going to be a brief post. But I wanted to share the books I've picked up this week and also give you a heads up about the RWA conference.

I won't be blogging next week because I'll be heading to San Diego for the Romance Writers of America conference. If you're around the San Diego area, there's a giant charity book signing that will be happening Wednesday night. I'll be there along with hundreds of other romance authors. Stop by and see me. :)

There will also be our fancy romance writer awards (The RITAs) on Saturday night, which will be broadcast live online on RWA's website. I have two books nominated. BREAK ME DOWN is nominated for Best Erotic Romance and NICE GIRLS DON'T RIDE is up for Best Novella. So if I'm lucky, I'll get to test out if I can actually walk and not fall in the high heels I bought. o.0 I'm having outfit angst because me and dresses don't get along. But I promise I won't show up to the ceremony in jeans.

All right, on to the book haul for the week. Though I like ebooks and have read about half and half on ebook vs. print over the last five years, lately I've been on a print kick. And oddly enough, on a hardback kick, which is new. But anyway, here's what I've got in my stack:

The Bourbon Thief by Tiffany Reisz - Full disclosure, Tiffany and I share an agent and are friends, but she's an autobuy for me because of her writing. This one is Literary Fiction and not romance, but when I like an author, I trust them enough to follow them to different genres.

The Sun In Your Eyes by Deborah Shapiro - Also Lit Fic, which isn't my usual thing, but I've been in the mood to read some lately. I'm not sure where I saw this book featured originally, but the blurb captured my attention. It has rock 'n' roll, a road trip, intense female friendship in college, and then what happens when these two women meet again later in life. They pretty much had me at the road trip, rock 'n' roll thing. Plus, I find best friend female friendships fascinating and not unlike romance in their intensity, especially when we're young.

Lady Isabella's Scandalous Marriage by Jennifer Ashley - If you saw my blog post on the first book in this series, The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie, earlier this week, this won't be a surprise. I loved book one, so of course I had to buy the next. :) Steamy, smart historical romance.

Also, a quick reminder that WANDERLUST is only a week and a half away! If you' haven't pre-ordered your copy yet, grab one for only $3.99! This is a full length novel (Harlequin length) and stands alone from my other series, though you may get a wee glance of Pike pre-CALL ON ME. ;) 

Get your copy:

 Amazon | B&N | Kobo | iBooks | Google Play 

READ CHAPTER ONE here

All right, that's all I've got for y'all today. I hope you all have a good weekend. 

Photos from RWA and a New Release!

Hi, everyone! Well, I'm back from my fourth RWA Nationals. It was a fantastic trip, and it was so much fun to meet so many people I only know through the Interwebs. First a quick reminder, NOT UNTIL YOU BELIEVE, Part 7 of my e-serial is out today. We're almost to the end! So for those of you waiting to get them when they're all out so you can read them back to back, next week is the week! :)

Here are some highlights from the trip...

On Wednesday, I had the pleasure of speaking on a panel with Darynda Jones, Eloisa James, Debra Holland, and Robin Convington at the Golden Network Retreat (a chapter of RWA for Golden Heart finalists). The lineup for teh retreat was fantastic. It kicked off with a great talk from Susan Elizabeth Phillips and then a lunchtime speech from, yes, the Nora Roberts. Here's Nora during her speech:

Then that evening was the HUGE booksigning for literacy. Thank you to all who stopped by and said hi to me or bought a book! :) The event raised over 50k for literacy charities, so it was a great success. Here was my view from my spot. (Isn't my RITA flag pretty? It's now sitting on my desk.)

On Friday, I did my BDSM 101 for Writers presentation with the lovely Tiffany Reisz (and her sock monkey). We had a full room and a great audience. It was a lot of fun even though we had too much info and ran out of time. Here's a picture courtesy of author Miranda Baker:

Then, of course, on Saturday night I was a nervous wreck because MELT INTO YOU was up for the RITA award in Single Title Contemporary Romance. For those who don't know, the RITAs are like the Oscars for romance writing, so it's a big, exciting thing to be nominated. 

Here I was before the ceremony when I still had hope, lol...

Alas, I didn't win, but I truly was just over the moon to be nominated. An erotic romance has NEVER been nominated in that cateogory so that was a huge deal for me. Here was my view from my spot in the audience. My one goal if I won was not to vomit standing up there on that stage in front of 2000 people. o.0

After that, it was time to fly back home with my big pile of new books:

And though I was sad to leave all my friends for another year, I did have a nice surprise waiting for me on my doorstep when I got home. Look at the pretties...

So now back to my normal life of no makeup, living barefoot, and typing away on my keyboard. : )

MELT INTO YOU is a RITA Finalist!!!!

So today I got some of the best news I've ever heard in my writing life.

One of my books, MELT INTO YOU, is a RITA^® Finalist for Best Contemporary Romance Single Title!!!

See all the nominees and categories here.

For those of you who don't know, the RITAs are held by the Romance Writers of America and are like the Academy Awards of romance writing. So this is a huge honor. And even more special is that it's THIS book. Historically, erotic romance has had a nearly impossible time breaking through in the RITAs because there is no specific category for erotic romance. Therefore, you have erotic romances up against sweet ones up against comedic ones, etc.

So the fact that any of my books finaled is huge, but MELT INTO YOU is definitely my most non-traditional romance because it's M/M/F menage romance with m/m scenes included. So I was downright STUNNED that this was the book. Stunned and FREAKING EXCITED! And it really makes it extra special to know that this contest is judged by other published authors. There's something so rewarding about being recognized by your fellow writers (who are often the toughest readers and critics.)

And boy am I up against some great authors and books. I can't even believe I'm listed among them. And I get to go to the black-tie ceremony in July in Atlanta and wear a fancy dress and all that jazz. So yay!!!! 

Team Jace and Andre for the win! ;)

*happy dances*