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. : )

NOT UNTIL YOU SURRENDER is here!

I'm on my way to RWA Nationals today (yay!) where I'm up for a RITA award (double yay!) AND I finally finished my draft of Kade's story NEED YOU TONIGHT (*rolls around in confetti*). Let's just not talk about last week when I wrote 30k words. I think I'm still recovering my brain cells because most of them melted. But I didn't want to forget to remind you that Part 6 of my e-serial, NOT UNTIL YOU SURRENDER, is out today!!!

We're almost to the end of this journey (so those waiting to read them all at once only have two more weeks to wait, lol.) And I wanted to thank everyone who's posted reviews or spread the word so far. *hugs* I'd love to have more of that help this week since I won't be able to get near my computer very much. So if you feel so inclined, I'd love for you to tweet about the release or leave a review on Goodreads or the retails sites. Those things are huge helps.

And I hope you enjoy this segment! (Be prepared though, the black moment is nigh. *hands over wine and chocolate*)

NOT UNTIL YOU TRUST is out! (And an Author/Agent Chat Announcement)

So it's Tuesday again! Boy, the weeks go by fast, don't they? Today we've reached the halfway point in the serial, Part 4, NOT UNTIL YOU TRUST. This installment has one of my favorite sexy scenes in the book, so I hope you'll check it out.

Also, my agent Sara Megibow and I are doing a Twitter chat tomorrow night at 8pm central to talk about behind the scenes of NOT UNTIL YOU. We'll be using the hashtag #behindthebook. Sara's going to be asking questions and such and you can peek in. We'll also be taking questions from readers or other writers as part of the chat too. So I hope you'll pop in!

That's all for now!

Naïve Cela has gotten a peek into the world of BDSM. But, as Roni Loren’s titillating Not Until You series continues, will Cela really take the plunge and leave her vanilla life behind?

Despite desperately wanting to satisfy her curiosity, Foster is not about to introduce Cela to his true dominant side. For one thing, she’s far too innocent to participate in that kind of lifestyle; for another, he doesn’t want to get attached when she’ll be leaving town so soon. But when he comes home after a frustrating day and finds Cela hanging out with Pike, all of Foster’s possessive urges rise to the surface. 

Cela is left breathless and shaken after getting a glimpse of Foster’s dominance unleashed. Maybe he was right, and she isn’t ready for something so intense. But when she can’t get her mind off their nights together, she comes up with a daring plan to see just how much they’re both willing to risk…

Buy it on Kindle or Nook

Is This the Writer's Version of Nesting? On Deadlines and Pantries

If you follow me around the interwebs, you probably know I'm right at the end of my deadline with book 5, NEED YOU TONIGHT, which is Kade's book. That means inside my head is all chaos and buzzing and blinking panic buttons.

So what did I do this weekend? Write? You would think. But no, I try not to write on the weekends. I write 6-8 hours a day five days a week. So in order to maintain some semblance of sanity, I reserve weekends for family time, fun stuff, and errands/housework (you know, that pile of...everything that builds up during the week when I'm in crazy writing mode.)

And this weekend I was feeling particularly motivated to organize EVERYTHING. That's usually not my style. No one would ever give me a housekeeping award. But I felt this compulsive need to pull everything out of my pantry and fridge and clean it out. And I realized it's because everything is so crazed and frantic with my writing right now. My inner chaos needed outer order.

I guess I'm nesting but instead of birthing a baby, I'm about to birth another book.

So here's one of my projects from yesterday. 

PANTRY BEFORE: (hmm, kind of looks like how my brain feels right now)

The De-boxification process (like editing except you get to throw stuff on the floor):

PANTRY AFTER (what I hope my book structure looks like when I'm done):

Ahh, that's better...now back to writing.

So am I the only one who starts nesting when it's time to finish a book? Or if you're not a writer, what do you do to center yourself when your feeling chaotic?

NOT UNTIL YOU RISK is out! What secret will be revealed?

Hey y'all! Sorry I've been a bit scarce on the blog. Having a release once a week while trying to write another book has proven to be quite a crazy schedule. 0.0  But I wanted to pop in and remind you that Part 2 of my serial is out today!

I hope you're enjoying the serial and am excited to share the next part in Cela and Foster's journey. Here's the info:

NOT UNTIL YOU RISK

Cela’s daring side started to expose itself in Not Until You Dare. Now Foster and Pike are determined to push her limits and let her wild side loose…

Cela’s sexy game of Never Have I Ever with her neighbors has turned into a night of Truth or Dare, with her revealing her deepest desires and letting go like she’s never done before. After some seductive dancing, the trio decides to move to a more private location: a swanky hotel where Foster is determined to explore Cela’s wildest fantasies.

As the heat between the three begins to sizzle, Cela finds herself drawn to Foster, whose dominance over her is almost too much to handle. But Cela’s got a secret she hasn’t yet shared, something that could bring their passionate encounter to a screeching halt…

Who's reading along with everyone? And who is buying them all and waiting to read them all at once?