Our New Baby Has Arrived…Get Your Copy Today!

Christmas In Garland Creek is available for purchase in ebook today!  This is Volume 4 of the Butterscotch Martini Shots Series, and we are excited to say that this set has four brand-spanking-new Christmas stories that will warm your heart on a cold winter night.  So get your e-copy today!

A print version should be available on Amazon by early next week, and we will let you know when that is up for order.

Remember, books in any format make great Christmas presents, and this one will set the tone for a warm, snuggly holiday.  Add this book to your Christmas list NOW.

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SOUND BITES…

WALKING AWAY WITH CHRISTMAS

by Tina Swayzee McCright

Carter stepped away from the holiday cheer. And away from the ghosts of Christmas past.

***

“I’ve got you!” The voice belonged to a man standing behind her, who managed to sweep in and catch her before her derriere, or her camera, could hit the tile floor.

***

“Coffee is always good.” This had better not be a game he’s playing to get me in the sack. For the sake of her fledgling business, she needed to find out. “I can meet you in the cafe in an hour.”

“An hour it is.” A Cheshire cat smile brightened his eyes.

***

“Another valuable piece of jewelry was stolen. This time a two-karat ring.” The angry voice projecting a sense of urgency belonged to the manager. Joe had an easygoing reputation as long as no one pressured him. A threat to the resort’s reputation qualified as volcanic-sized pressure.

***

“I don’t want to keep you.” Her voice softened with concern.

“You’re not. I’m finished.” He shot her a smile. “You can relax. I gave up on trying to date you.”

She blinked as if confused. “You did?”

“Yes. It’s too much work,” he stated matter-of-factly.

She laughed. “Well, that’s a relief. So, why are you sitting with me if you don’t want to date me?”

“I didn’t say I didn’t want to date you. I said I’m not going to pursue it.”

EXCERPT… 

Garland Creek Cowboy

by Kayce Lassiter

Myca slipped by the pair. “Come on, Colleen, it appears the bar is now open. “Let’s give it a whirl.”

Colleen followed her to the bar, where Myca ordered, “Two butterscotch martinis, please.”

The silver-haired bartender in starched Wranglers, a black jacket, and a red vest with a bolo tie, smiled. “Okay, ladies, but I’m just a volunteer. I don’t do this for a living.”

Myca smiled. “Seriously, Ben Monroe? We’ve known you since we were all kids together. We know who you are and what you do for a living.”

He winked. “Then you know I have no clue how to make a butterscotch martini. But tell me what’s in it,” he leaned forward flirtatiously, “and I’ll try anything for you, Myca.”

She froze and cut her gaze to the side to stare at him, then to Colleen, who gawked at Ben like he’d just pissed on the floor.

Myca put one hand on her hip. “Are you flirting with me?” She’d discovered a long time ago that the direct approach either made a guy back off, or made him even more determined. She wasn’t sure which option she hoped Ben would take. She’d decide how she felt about it after she saw which way he jumped.

Ben straightened and held her gaze as he announced, “I’ve been flirting with you since you were sixteen years old. It’s about time you noticed.”

Huh, really didn’t expect him to jump that way.

The only thing she could think to say was, “Well, let’s see how good you are at bartending. That might make up my mind.”

Then she turned to Colleen and growled, “You can close your mouth now.”

Colleen snapped her jaw shut, but continued to stare.

He picked up the drink shaker. “Shoot.”

Myca stepped forward and leaned on the bar. “Okay, four jiggers of Buttershots, four jiggers of Bailey’s, and two jiggers of vanilla vodka.”

He tipped his head to the side. “That’s ten shots of booze.  How many martinis am I making.”

Myca scowled at him. “You are making two martinis.” She extended her hand across the bar and pointed to the shelf below. “And you’re going to use the two large martini glasses I put down there earlier.”

He raised a brow, but said nothing, simply reaching for the martini glasses, which were much larger than the glasses the resort had provided.

Ben smiled. “Maybe I should join you,” he teased as he poured the shots.

Myca glanced up at him. “If you’re going to join us, you’d better put more booze in the shaker.”

Ben Monroe laughed as he dumped in some ice, shook the container, and poured two very full martinis. He slid them across the bar. “Enjoy, ladies.” Then he leaned close and lowered his voice as he addressed Myca. “And be sure you come back and see me when you’ve finished that drink.”

She could feel her face heat, as she shot back a snappy retort. “Of course, we’ll be back. This is only our first drink.”

* * *

Devin watched as his grandmother and Melayna’s turned away from the bar. “You suppose those two will stay sober tonight?”

Melayna laughed. “Not a chance.” She pointed at them. “Those glasses are way full.”

He groaned, then met her gaze. “I recognize those drinks. They’re butterscotch martinis, and they are all alcohol.” He shifted his gaze back to the grandmothers. “And it would appear they have brought their own glasses, which are twice the size of the martini glasses the hotel provided.”

Melayna snorted. She covered her mouth with her hand. “Sorry. I’m just picturing the two of them fighting over a toilet to puke in.”

“Oh, let’s don’t go there. I don’t even want to think about that.”

EXCERPT… 

her christmas wish

by Tia Dani

The area around the gazebo buzzed with activity. People milled about. The massive tree decorated with lights and ornaments glittered and danced. The band playing Christmas music had an energizing effect throughout the square. Minutes later, Sam joined them.

“Wow, this place got crowded.”

“Yep. Isn’t it wonderful?”

“Wonderful for Garland Creek, that’s for certain.”

The long blast of the train’s whistle broke through the sound of music. Sam turned to her. “Hey, the train’s coming. Let’s go take a ride.”

Kandee smiled. “I’d love to. If the line isn’t too long.”

“Won’t be if we hurry.” He grabbed her arm. “Come on.”

Kandee, Sam, and with Essy between their legs fell into line. While other passengers in front of them boarded, Kandee glanced down at Essy. “You know, I’d swear this dog intends to go on the ride with us.”

Essy, with a twist of his head, gave her a look as if he understood and agreed.

Sam shook his head. “If you ask me, I’d swear you and Essy communicate.”

“Of course, we do,” Kandee laughed.

It was almost their time to board the train when Kandee heard the familiar “Ho! Ho! Ho!”

Santa, the very realistic Santa with rosy cheeks and twinkling eyes, appeared beside them. “Merry Christmas, you two. Having fun?”

“Absolutely, Santa.” Kandee couldn’t contain her smile. She undoubtedly looked like a grinning fool.

“I second that,” Sam offered.

Santa beamed and reached into a felt pouch attached to his black, wide belt and retrieved two candy canes. He held them out. “These should make your evening even sweeter.”

“Oh.” Kandee accepted the candy and handed the second one to Sam. “Thank you.”

“Ho! Ho! Ho! I see you’re in good company.” Santa bent and petted Essy on the head. “How you doing, Eishund? Find some new friends? Good thing Harald is over in Pinetop today. No worries, eh? Well, good for you. Stick close to them, okay?”

Kandee studied Santa with bemusement. He apparently knew a lot about the dog. She opened her mouth to ask more but stopped by Sam hollering over his shoulder. “Let’s go, Kandee. We’re next. Or maybe I should say we’re last.” He handed their tickets to the trainmaster. “We’ve got the caboose.”

“Bye, Santa.” Kandee turned to board the caboose with Sam. To her surprise, Essy bounded into the front seat, forcing Sam and her to take the back one.

Santa walked up to the caboose. With another hearty laugh, he leaned forward and whispered in Kandee’s ear, “Don’t worry. You’ll get your Christmas wish.”

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Can you say Merry Christmas?

Well, folks, it’s almost here! The BMGs have a brand new Christmas box set coming out with four all-new stories from Kayce Lassiter Tia Dani, Tina Gerow, and Tina Swayzee McCright.  The expected release date is Friday of next week–December 1st, so keep your eyes open for the details on where you can get your copy.  In the meantime, here’s a peek at the new cover and blurb.  Put it on your calendar and start saving your pennies now–we will be offering it at a special (temporary) Christmas release price of 99c!!!  🙂

Christmas In Garland Creek–Butterscotch Martini Shots, Volume 4  

Four new heart-warming Christmas stories from the Butterscotch Martini Girls. This box set features a collection of new holiday tales of Christmas in Garland Creek, Arizona, from Kayce Lassiter, Tia Dani, Tina Gerow, and Tina Swayzee McCright.  The heat level for this set runs from sweet to low.

Garland Creek Cowboy by Kayce Lassiter

Devin Douglas finds his world turned upside down when his high school flame returns to town for Christmas after a sixteen-year absence. Melayna Gaines had turned down Devin’s marriage proposal and fled town like her tail was on fire. Now she’s back and the two must work together to save Devin’s fifteen-year-old daughter who has fallen off a cliff and is stuck at the bottom of a canyon with a mountain lion and a broken ankle. Can Melayna put aside her dreams of international travel to stay in Garland Creek with Devin? Is she prepared to take on another woman’s teenage daughter? Is Devin destined to pick up the pieces of another devastating rejection? Or will the magic of Christmas in Garland Creek give these two star-crossed lovers a second chance at love?

Her Christmas Wish by Tia Dani

There’s Christmas magic in Garland Creek and it comes from more than just the holiday season. Disillusioned with her life, architect, Kandee Harding, accepts an interview in Garland Creek, Arizona for a lucrative position with Anderson Holdings. Unbeknownst to her, there’s more coming than a career move. Sam Ralston, a restaurant supply owner, arrives at the same time to fix a problem at a newly-opened resort. Soon they become involved in a scheme of payback, a discovery of the past, and a deadly sabotage lurking behind the Christmas Spirit.

Mom for Christmas by Tina Gerow

Brock Turner doesn’t believe the holiday magic of the tiny town of Garland Falls can grant his Christmas wish, but fate works in mysterious ways. Brock’s wish is to have his mom with him through the holidays. However, she tragically loses her battle to cancer just days before Christmas… But not before she tells him he’s adopted. Her wish is for Brock to find his birth mother, and he promises he will do everything he can. Nurse Anastasia Callahan has been a Christmas angel to Brock as she helped ease his mother’s pain during her last days. Now Anastasia and Brock must work together to answer his mother’s dying wish and locate the birth mother he never knew. Brock and Anastasia grow ever closer as the holiday magic of Garland Falls weaves its spell and just might grant his wish in a strange and mysterious way.

Walking Away With Christmas by Tina Swayzee McCright

When a string of burglaries threatens to close the newly opened Garland Creek Resort, Gina Ferari, the resort photographer, discovers her aunt is the prime suspect. After a chance meeting, Gina finds an ally, and possibly more, in Carter Hayes, a visiting lawyer. But the situation worsens when an employee disappears, Carter’s future with his law firm becomes questionable, and Gina can’t get beyond her childhood loss to learn to trust again. Can a touch of magic bring back Christmas and Gina’s happily ever after?

Tina Gerow: New Year’s resolutions for smut writers…

Everyone I know has the more normal New Year’s resolutions – you know…lose weight, clean out their closet, exercise 4X a week…

Yeah – not my style. Not that those aren’t admirable resolutions to have, but they just aren’t on my list. And I would probably never keep them beyond January anyway.

 

So what IS on my list?

 

1. Write daily! I already try to do this, but end up on a pretty normal week only writing on 5 days and those aren’t always productive ones.
2. Read more! TONS of people have this on their lists, but as a writer, it’s pretty important. I often use reading as a  reward for reaching some word count goal in my current Work in Progress, and I can’t read in the genre I’m currently writing. I don’t want to start sounding like the author I’m reading. When I read, I get just as immersed in that world and those characters as when I write.  So often, I’ll read historical romances, comedy romances or even history or biographies.  But whatever I’m reading I NEED to read more in 2016!  I only read 13 books in 2015 (not counting the ones I critiqued for other writers) and that’s pretty pathetic for me.
3. Do more real time research! I do a lot of my research online, or even chatting online with people to get the information I need. But for my current series, I really need to wrangle the Butterscotch Martini Girls and go to a BDSM dungeon/sex club.  Hubby told me in no uncertain terms when I was offered the contract with Random House Loveswept that he would NOT be the one to go with me…LOL! But I’ll bet at least a few of the girls would be game!
4. Find a few more people who are active in the BDSM/fetish lifestyle to interview and get story ideas. Pretty self explanatory – more research from those who live that lifestyle will give me great writing material!!
5. Step up my sex scenes.  Yes, I can see some of you cringing because a lot of my sex scenes are already pretty hot, but I don’t want them to get stagnant or predictable so I need to keep striving to write better/hotter ones that also bring the characters together and bring the characters closer emotionally.
6. The BMG’s have been talking about getting Martini girl tattoos. I’m thinking about it. I have one existing tatt I need to get touched up, but I wouldn’t mind adding a small BMG one to the two I have. After all, I’m one of the founding members and it’s been a BIG part of my life for over a decade now. It would be a tattoo I would love forever, and I do still have a few places that won’t sag too much over the next 20 years!! No one wants a crinkly or suddenly 3 foot long martini glass….snerk!
7. I also do have some normal resolutions…like not to beat myself up as much when I have a bad writing week or get behind on word count.
8. To not compare myself to other authors’ writing output and feel bad about myself.
9. To be thankful every day that I can STILL write – even if it takes me four times as long as it did pre brain blowout.
10. The be more kind and compassionate
11. To always work to be a better mother and wife
12. To love myself more
13. To be less judgmental about myself and others
14. To be thankful for everything each and every day!
15. To make sure everyone I love and care for knows how I feel!
16. To find joy in every day!
17. Do my gratitude exercises every day as soon as I get up!

If you were expecting more X-rated resolutions – just head on out to my Cassie Ryan page and pick up a book or two…and definitely my latest – My Obsession. That’ll give you the X-rated you’ve been looking for! 🙂

But if you’d like to go sensual instead of erotic – head on out to my Tina Gerow page.

What are some of YOUR resolutions that aren’t on everyone else’s list?

Happy New Year!

Tina

 

I’m off to raise a Butterscotch Martini to a new year!!!!

5 Publishing Myths every new writer should know!

All of us were new at one time and had to learn the hard way what was actually the truth of things in the publishing industry. Lately I’ve heard each of these 5 Myths about the Publishing Industry and hope that this blog will save at least one new or aspiring author the pain and suffering that a lot of us went through before we learned this stuff.

Myth 1: Authors Don’t need to do promotions, their publishing company will do it all for them.

Reality: Usually that’s a big fat NO! In fact, until my current publisher – Random House – this has hardly ever been true for me. To be fair, my first series published with a new York Publisher (Kensington), they did pay to have my books faced out for the first month after release. I think that’s part of why my Seduction Series did so well and why Ceremony of Seduction went into a second printing – my only book so far to do that. Granted, I did a TON of promotions for it, but I have for every book I’ve released, even when I was still with a small press publisher. With a lot of the larger publishers, they simply have too many authors to outlay major money on promotions for each one. It’s usually not cost effective. You sink or swim on the strength of your own promotions and the strength of your author brand you’ve built even before you sold it to them.

But the bottom line is – you can’t count on a publisher to do all your promotions. Even with Random House spoiling me rotten – I’m still out actively promoting!

Myth 2: Every book published goes immediately to print and will appear in every bookstore.

Reality: Many books are either released in ebook only or need to meet a threshold of sales before they go to print. Ebooks have become very popular, so neither of things are really a BAD thing. Yes, several books do go immediately to print, but not all of them. It’s very important to check your contract before signing so you know what to expect. Also, a print run (how many books are printed) is set for every book based on a combination of factors – usually the strength of your author brand and how many the sales people for each of the outlets are willing to buy into their store. Smaller booksellers can request your title from Ingrams, but many don’t want to have take the risk on an untried author unless there is some major draw behind either the book or the author. Bookshelf space equates to money and if they aren’t sure they can sell your books and make money, they will pass and save that space on books they KNOW they can sell.

Myth 3: After I write my book I can just hire a professional editor and that will make it easy to sell it to a publisher.

Reality: Even a professional editor (and not all those who call themselves professional editors truly are) who uses the Chicago Manual of Style etc can guarantee that the line editing they suggest will be what a particular editor or agent will want. So you could end up shelling out a LOT of money for editing and either still not be able to sell it, or have to do edits all over again to meet the needs/preferences of that agency or house.

Best advice on this one. Get some beta readers to work out the pacing and the kinks in your story and find a friend, or beta reader who is good at spelling and grammar. Get the book to its best possible state under those conditions and submit, submit, submit. Once an agent or editor acquires the book, they will give you their own edits and then copyedits.

Myth 4: When I sell my book I’ll get to choose my cover, my title and have full say over all content in the book.

Reality: Maybe, but not necessarily. The marketing department of the publisher will weigh in on the title of the book, your cover, and possibly even your pen name. If you are lucky, they will ask you what you would like to see on your cover, what your characters look like – and you might even get characters on the cover that actually match the ones you’ve written. Titles are changeable and in fact I think I’ve only gotten to keep my originally suggested title on 3 out of my 16 published books. Luckily, Kensington liked my suggested Cassie Ryan pen name so I was able to keep that one after all my research to choose it. I suppose they do it that way so they don’t get something that sounds like your pole dancing name – which makes sense, but it surprised me when I found that out. I’ve been very lucky to have been given an opportunity for input on nearly every book cover, blurb, plot flow, title etc, but my ideas didn’t always end up as the one hitting the bookstore shelves.

Myth 5: Once I sell my first book I’ll be able to easily sell everything else I write

Reality: Maybe. I’ve published 16 books to date between my 2 pen names. But even after all of that – Book number 14 I couldn’t sell. My agent said Sleeping With Shadows was the best book I’ve written to that point and she tried her best to sell it. But there were several things against it. First, that was a book I was selling as Tina Gerow. It wasn’t as hot and kinky of all of my other Cassie books but was a little hotter than my other Tina books. So the decision was made to publish it as Tina Gerow. Well, even though Tina has published several books, they were with small presses, so Tina had no New York numbers. But wait, Cassie Ryan has several sets of New York sales numbers, you say. Well, in New York, even though Tina & Cassie are the same physical person, apparently the bean counters look at the sales numbers and Tina doesn’t exist there so is a bigger risk to publish. Also, paranormal was on its way out, as were hotter books. So I self published Sleeping With Shadows – my only self pubbed book, but definitely the book of my heart. A smoking hot reincarnation with a twist story! But nope – couldn’t sell it, even with 13 published books under my belt – several with major New York publishers.

There are many more myths out there, but those are for another day. If you have any big ones, feel free to post them in the comments.

 

Tina

Book ideas from a hot woman on a gravestone?

Where do book ideas come from? Everywhere and anywhere! Join me for a discussion of some of mine…funny, snarky and even serious. 🙂

I’m always asked where I find my book ideas. This picture by Jon V Jones was the inspiration for my popular Maiden series so I thought this would be a great place to start. I don’t even remember WHERE I first saw this picture. It was back in early 2004, so it might have even been in a local gallery.

I fell in love with the picture and stood looking at it for quite a while. My mind immediately started playing “What if?”  You know…that game we all played when we were little and got in trouble for when we got caught playing it in class and not playing attention?

Or maybe that was just me.

I think the part that fascinated me the most was how the stone was slowly flowing up her body as if she WAS turning to stone.

POOF!  My gargoyle warriors were born.  Some more “what if” time and it became Stone Maiden, the first book in my Maiden series, about 900 year old female gargoyle warriors who can turn to stone to fight and heal. God created them during the crusades to protect those being downtrodden in God’s name.  To date, that is my most popular and asked about series.

Unfortunately, the publisher I started it with, imploded, and my series was orphaned after the second book, Fire Maiden, but I do still plan to write Ice Maiden and Chaos Maiden! So stay tuned!

For my Sisters of Darkness series, my husband and I were watching the History Channel. I don’t even remember the subject of the show, but they said that Lilith, the Demon who in Jewish Folklore was considered Adam’s first wife, made from the same dust of the earth he was. There are other folklore stories saying that she was the one who convinced Eve to eat the apple and then offer it to Adam in the Garden of Eden. For that treachery, that folklore considers her the first succubus.

That was about the same time I was trying to come up with a new series idea for my agent to shop around. So that little snippet fell on fertile ground…aka, my overactive imagination!

I started thinking what pressure that would be to be Lilith. Yes, per the story she convinced Eve to take the apple, but she didn’t MAKE her take it. And she didn’t MAKE Adam eat it, either. Humans were given free will. But Lilith ended up taking all the blame? Sounded like a bum rap to me!

So I started thinking about what a succubus would really do after that black mark on her resume…so to speak. For that matter, if they are immortal like many demons are thought to be, then what would they do with themselves as the world started to become more modernized.

What career path could you really go for when your only skills were temptation and killing men with too much sex? My snarky side first thought, “Lobbyist?” But that wasn’t really helping me with my new series idea. So I figured, if I were in that situation, with those jobs skills….I would probably go find a job at a high priced legal brothel. But then I needed some conflict for my book, so I started thinking that after living that long, they had probably pissed some other beings off. Thus, the Sisters of Darkness were born. The series is about 4 Succubus sisters in Hell’s version of the Witness Relocation Program.

 

For my Seduction Series, I had never written erotic before, and my friend and fellow critique partner, Brit Blaise, suggested I try my hand at one. My first thought was, what world can I build where it will be easy for my heroine to need lots of sex? After all, I like story with my sex in books, so it HAD to be integral to the story and make sense for my characters to need lots and lots of sex…LOL!

My son came home from school and said they were reading a book in class about how certain words became almost taboo in a culture. I don’t even remember what book they were reading now, but it ignited my imagination. I thought about the words I had issues with – which weren’t many. But I did find one that had always bothered me. In fact I saved that “C” word for the truly evil of the evil.

So, being my smart ass self, I decided to create a race of otherworldly witches whose life force is sexual energy. (Gives them a great reason to have LOTS of sex!). They started as one race on their home planet – they were called the Klatch. One faction called, yep – you guessed it…. the C%@*$, tried to overthrow the King and Queen and when they lost, they were banished to earth.  On earth the name of their race became synonymous with evil and betrayer…

I wrote the first three chapters and sent them off to Audrey LaFehr at Kensington. It’s a long story, but she bought a 3-book series off of that 3 chapter partial. She never blinked at my use of that word. I also used that offer to get my agent, Paige Wheeler, who also never blinked at that word.

I kept expecting somewhere along the way for someone to tell me I had to change it.  But nope…

In fact, Ceremony of Seduction is in its 2nd printing!! It is my best selling series under either pen name. I think that’s my most outlandish book idea story! And even better, it’s true!

Sleeping With Shadows came about because I was contacted by my first love who had found me on Classmates.com. He was older than me and in the Navy. My grandfather (a Navy SeaBee) had gotten his word that he wouldn’t do anything “dishonorable” with his granddaughter. They shook, and that was it. Anyway, I was too young and the intensity of emotion was too much for me to handle, and I broke up with him. But for a while there, I thought I had found the man I was going to marry. And many times after that as I grew up, got married, had my son, divorced, remarried etc, I thought about him and wondered what he was doing.

When we got back in contact we had a lot of catching up to do. We were both happy with our lives, but were grateful to have found each other again. In fact, he’s one of my oldest friends (no, smartasses – not in age!!) But once we were in touch again we kept in touch, emailing when our kids made some new milestone or we had fun things going on in our lives. My husband never minded me staying in contact, and in fact, when I was in the hospital for all that time just after my brain blowout, he called Phillip to let him know what had happened and so he could talk to me.

But during all those walks down memory lane, he and I did have quite a few discussions about “What if things had gone differently.” Neither of us would want to give up the happy lives we have today, but it was firmly planted in my imagination. Sleeping With Shadows came out of all of that, but, I, of course, had to add a paranormal twist and a bad guy! This book contains some true stories out of my past as well as a whole lot of imagination. It became a reincarnation with a twist story, and yes, I did send him a copy of it when I was done and he said he really enjoyed it 🙂

After my brain blowout in 2010, I was trying to get back into writing, and my wonderful agent, Paige Wheeler, found an opportunity for me to try to break back in. Kensington (who had bought my Seduction series) was looking for authors to be in a futuristic erotic anthology. They had a big name author as an anchor for the anthology, but they were looking for others to fill out the rest. Paige asked if was interested, and I jumped at the chance. I had never written futuristic, but I had read a lot of it and knew my critique group would help me brainstorm something.

My friend a critique partner, Kayla Janz, suggested a space pirate, and that got the imagination firing. But I like to turn things on their head, so rather than having the normal male space pirate, My heroine became the infamous space pirate, Red Death. She spacejacks our hero and takes HIM as her sex slave!!

There’s more to it than that, since she also drags him into a war between two worlds and much more, but that was the main idea. One of my favorite characters to write in that book has both been raved about and panned by different readers and reviewers. The idea came from my friend and critique partner, Brit Blaise. I had Dani (aka Red Death) using a sex toy in one of the early scenes. When Brit critiqued it, she pointed out (rightly so) that in the future, there probably wouldn’t be VIBRATORS….so, the Pleasure Probe was born. And my heroine regretted buying the talking model!!

Needless to say, this thing can also fly, and enjoys taunting all the male characters–especially our sexy hero, to prove they can offer Dani better “equipment” than the probe can…LOL.

I have several other books published and each of those have their own spark of an idea. All book ideas come from somewhere! I have a growing file of book ideas, and I would have to live to be 250 to write all of THOSE!

How about you? Any of you have great book idea stories?

Tina

Typos and Boob Blabs: The life of one wacky writer…

Have you ever had one of those weeks where certain things follow you? Well, I’m having one of those months. Embarrassing typos seem to be stalking me!!

For those of you following any of my social media world lately, you’ve seen a TON of new stuff from the Butterscotch Martini Girls. The BMG‘s is my long time critique group, and we’ve recently changed our focus to become a promo group. We’re still a tight knit group of kick ass women, well, a few of our number still can and do literally kick some ass, the rest of us plot the destruction of the world and take our agressions out in the written word. Sort of like Pinky from Pinky and the Brain, but we have glamorous day jobs as writers…snerk!

Anyway, I digress. We’ve got a great new group logo, as you can see above, and will be unveiling our individual Butterscotch Martini Girls as the weeks roll by, so stay tuned.

As for the things that are following me – typos are stalking me like crazy this month! I’m having to read everything four or five times to make sure I’m not leaving them in my posts and my writing. ACK! And of course, my fast type and auto correct are NOT helping! I’m convinced those are dark plots to drive me more insane than I already am!! A great example is one of the new weekly activities for the BMG’s: The Boob Blab. Okay, it’s official name is the Book Blab, but I swear, no matter what I’ve tried to type this week, 90% of the time it has come out as Boob Blab so I’ve just given up and decided that’s what I’m going to call it. The BMG’s just chuckled and let me go on my insane way with it!
If you’ve never heard of the Boob Blab…er…Book Blab…it’s like a video chat on crack with some twitter feed thrown in for fun. You can go to their site and see and join gazillions of them in progress. Okay, that may be a slight exaggeration, but not by much!

And ours is taped so you can go back and watch the one we did on Wednesday. Our topic of the day was Worst First Dates, and they were a riot. You can check it out here – Blab.  I look sort of stoned during the whole thing, but I promise I was totally sober and not under the influence of anything harder than an iced trenta 8 pump black tea from Starbucks.

REALLY gotta work on the laptop camera angle for this next week…EEP. And might have to wear a different color shirt and actually leave enough time to put on some makeup so I don’t look like I have two black eyes for the entire chat.  Ugh…vanity – they name is Tina!

For a “fun” reference, you can see Rocky’s butt behind me on the couch. Rocky is our 18 pound Maine Coon…fluffy orange and white sweetness who likes to randomly jump into my arms while I’m writing, but decided to hang out and be in our Blab.

So stop by the Blab and have some fun. Don’t forget to scroll down to see some of the tweets that were live tweeted during the event.  total crack up!  We’re trying to do them weekly so stay tuned for more craziness!

Now back to my typos…yes, the boob thing….which someone on Facebook thought was a bad reference to the fact that all the BMG’s are women and most of us are a bit on the well endowed Tata’s side….  Nope, just my typo curse in action.

H.D. Thompson says it’s because of Mercury being in Retrograde. I hate that shit! Bites me on the ass every time it happens!

So more about my typos…

My current Work in Progress under my Cassie Ryan pen name is My Addiction, the 2nd book in my Club Desire series. I don’t have a cover yet so can only post the My Obsession cover that released on July 21st!

For those of you not up on what this series is about, it’s about the premier BDSM club in the Southwestern United States. It’s called Club Desire and is located in Phoenix, Arizona on the top of Camelback mountain. And there are smokin’ hot Doms and the strong subs who keep them on their toes, with some suspense to keep the blood moving – as if the hot sex doesn’t do that already.

Here’s the specific blurb if you’d like to check it out:

Running from a troubled past, Sandra Barry spent years hiding out in New York City’s BDSM scene, finding satisfaction and even a sense of community as a sub at a large dungeon. But when a stalker joins the dungeon posing as a Dom, he crosses her personal boundaries, giving her no choice but to return home to Arizona. Seeking refuge once again in the kink lifestyle, Sandra meets a sexy new Dom whose tutelage drives her wild—although there’s something familiar about him she just can’t place.

As a teenager, Brent Weston was a nerd. Now he owns the hottest dungeon in Phoenix, enjoying the power and success he’s always craved. All that’s missing is the right woman to share it with. Then one day, Sandra, his secret high school crush, walks into his club. She’s just as beautiful as he remembers. She’s also scared as hell. Brent has been waiting for this moment, and now that Sandra’s in his sights, he’ll do anything to protect her, pleasure her—and prove that he’s the only master worthy of her devotion.  You can pick it up here.

But as I’m writing My Addiction, there are obviously certain terms in my “word arsenal” that need to be what they are. My Macbook and iPhone have decided that areola will now be airline, or sometimes, Ariel. Gah! I’ve had to add these to the dictionaries, but when you’re in the “flow” of writing, it’s a PIA to stop and do that stuff. And then there’s the email I sent to someone volunteering to guest blog on the challenges of book pubic. (er…publicity).

This whole Mercury in retrograde thing needs to go away!! STAT! I have enough problems keeping the fingers in sync with the brain without my tech conspiring against me!

Tomorrow is more writing, and I’m sure more typo gaffes, but hey, life is short and sometimes you just have to say, “DGAF!” A term I learned from my son!!

Good thing Random House has amazing copyeditors!!

Happy Friday, everyone! Hopefully I’ll see you at this next week’s Boob Blab!  “Boobed” and proud!!

And if you’d like to keep up on all the craziness of the Butterscotch Martini Girls, here’s where you can sign up for our newsletter!

Tina/Cassie

Butterscotch Martini Girls’ Latest Releases

My Obsession by Cassie Ryan

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In this story of temptation and total surrender for readers of Sylvia Day and J. Kenner, a powerful master gives his dream girl a new beginning in the dungeons of decadent ecstasy.

Running from a troubled past, Sandra Barry spent years hiding out in New York City’s BDSM scene, finding satisfaction and even a sense of community as a sub at a large dungeon. But when a stalker joins the dungeon posing as a Dom, he crosses her personal boundaries, giving her no choice but to return home to Arizona. Seeking refuge once again in the kink lifestyle, Sandra meets a sexy new Dom whose tutelage drives her wild—although there’s something familiar about him she just can’t place.

As a teenager, Brent Weston was a nerd. Now he owns the hottest dungeon in Phoenix, enjoying the power and success he’s always craved. All that’s missing is the right woman to share it with. Then one day Sandra, his secret high school crush, walks into his club. She’s just as beautiful as he remembers. She’s also scared as hell. Brent has been waiting for this moment, and now that Sandra’s in his sights, he’ll do anything to protect her, pleasure her—and prove that he’s the only master worthy of her devotion.

Call Down the Darkness by Tia Dani

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A vicious curse stalks the pristine Scarlet Canyon Ranch. Veterinarian Robyn Truesdale arrives for a business trip and triggers a battle of metaphysical beliefs with reality.

Architect Taylor Martin refuses to believe the Apache legend of a recurring 40-year cycle of life and death originated by a shape shifter’s promise…until he is possessed by a mysterious spirit determined to kill an ancient enemy.

After being forced to relive several past lives, Robyn and Taylor understand the need to overpower their relentless killer—one who can never die. Will they have the courage to face their supernatural assassin to free the Apache lovers…or will it cost them their own lives?

Clay by Cheyenne McCray

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Rancher Rylie Thorn loves everything about men, but she’s positively phobic about commitment. After growing up in a broken family and witnessing too many failed marriages, Rylie knows “forever” is just not in the cards for her.

Sheriff Clay Wayland has been called in to investigate a rash of crimes in the southeastern corner of Cochise County. But one night when he goes into the field to do some observation, he comes across a sensual woman who’s doing some investigating of her own. Rylie immediately sets his blood on fire and he knows he has to have her. And it isn’t long before Clay begins the job of taming this wildcat and making her his . . . for keeps.

Katie’s Rock by Kayce Lassiter

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Katie Schaffer is a single mother who slings drinks for a living. Her parents are gone, leaving her alone to care for her four year old son and a cocker spaniel with more energy than brains. When she meets Arizona ranchers Jake and David McAllister, the two handsome brothers both go into a full-court-press to win Katie’s affections. She quickly chooses Jake, but soon finds the road to love is a whole lot rockier than she expected. Jake is still raw from his divorce and is struggling with the pain of having his family torn apart. If she loses Jake, Katie stands to lose the entire McAllister family. Not only has she come to love them very much, but this would be the second family Katie has lost. Will Jake commit to Katie? Did Katie choose the wrong McAllister brother? If she loses Jake, can Katie survive losing her second family in three years?

Kissing the Frogman by Lisa Pietsch

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Jennifer Santiago can spot a special forces adrenaline junkie from miles away and knows the score. They’re great for a hook-up but lousy in the long-term relationship department. Lucky for her she was on the rebound and one of those junkies just walked into the casino.

Brian Allen had seen combat all around the world as a Navy SEAL and a paramilitary operations officer in the CIA’s Special Activities Division. When his team is given a cushy assignment as backup in Morocco, he quells the itch for action by taking a night to relax with a beautiful distraction. When she proved even more distracting, he was happy to take the Director’s call – until he realized his big distraction was the Director’s daughter.

Anxiety: Knock Knock by H.D. Thomson

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Jake Preston is on borrowed time. If he doesn’t stumble upon a miracle and soon, he’ll end up dead. And even if he does, he still might end up dead with a clever killer hounding his heels. He believes that the one miracle and antidote to save him is in Margot Davenport’s house, across the country and miles away from Boston. Somewhere locked in her home is the key to reversing an experiment that is killing him with each breath he takes.

Margot doesn’t particularly care if she ends up dead. She’s lost everything she’s ever cared for. A divorce and the loss of her job as a corporate lawyer has left her with little faith in herself or in anyone else. Most importantly, she’s lost the one person on this earth she’s looked up to and cherished–her brother, Johnny. His death in a car accident has devastated her, and she can’t find the willpower to pull herself from the chasm she’s fallen into. Her only solace is at the bottom of a wineglass. Having moved back to the small town in northern Arizona where she was raised, she’s made a point of isolating herself both mentally and physically from everyone other than a few chosen friends. Little does she know that her life is going to explode into chaos.

Deadly Obsessions by K.T. Roberts

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BASED ON A TRUE CRIME
Three bodies and counting . . . a manifesto with a long list of names . . . an abducted child, and the killer is using a familiar MO that was the trademark of a serial killer still at large. Is it possible this so-called copycat spurred the Red Reaper into a jealous rage and he’s doing what he does best . . . killing? Or is this someone who’s having too much fun impersonating him and killing everyone on his list?

When two unrelated killings take place, it sends the detectives into a tailspin . . . and now it’s a race against the clock before he kills the next person on his list . . . Detective Jesse Kensington!

And Kayce Lassiter, K.T. Roberts, and H.D. Thomson were recently included in a box set release!

Pure Romance Box Set

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Protecting Katie – H. D. Thomson
Morgan Stone will do anything to keep his daughter, Katie. But would he steal? Lie? Cheat? Most definitely. Caught in the middle of a battle between two men, Kristin doesn’t know whom to trust. She finds herself falling for Morgan, her fiancé’s enemy. But when it comes to loving Kristen, will Morgan be willing to give up everything, even Katie?

Elusive Justice – K. T. Roberts
Book Two of the Gerard-Kensington Series. Two detectives, two cases…seemingly unrelated until a baffling discovery entwines them forever.

Loons of a Feather – Kayce Lassiter
Book One in The Delta Jane Series. One woman, two men, an inept fairy godfather in pink cowboy boots, a redneck fairy godmother on a Harley with lips tattooed on her ass, and a love-match in the making. What the hell can go wrong with that?

What inspired my books @TinaGerow

I remember stumbling on a link to Jon V Jones‘ website on My Space – yup – it was that long ago…LOL! My first book, Into a Dangerous Mind had just been published and my mind was wide open for new book ideas. And then I clicked on the link which would change my life! 🙂

This picture captured my imagination and this beautiful woman with large black wings who was slowly turning to stone became Ariel in Stone Maiden.  I started thinking about women who turned to stone. What world would that be, why would this happen….and my writer brain kicked in from there.

From this picture came a race of female gargoyle warriors created by God during the Crusades to protect those who were being unjustly persecuted in Her name. Now it’s modern day and these 4 are the last gargoyles left of a large army. So what do 4 women who have fought and protected people for 900 years do in modern day Texas?? They hire themselves out as body guards!!

But when the Angel Gabriel asks them to protect a country music songwriter who is being targeted by all the local paranormal beasties they find themselves embroiled in prophesy and using their cunning and fighting skills once again. That simple spark of an idea from that beautiful picture became The Maiden Series. So I owe that series idea to Jon V Jones!

I was recently looking for the picture above – Coveted Dreams and couldn’t find it on his site since it’s an older one. I contacted him and asked him about it and he dug out the link and sent it to me. He’s a REALLY nice guy and I sent him Stone Maiden and Fire Maiden and when I eventually get to write Ice Maiden and Chaos Maiden I told him I’d send those too. And now I have a beautiful copy of Coveted Dreams to frame and hang up! 🙂 I’m mesmerized by his art and I’m sure there are more great book ideas lurking in there!!

For The Sister of Darkness Series I wrote for Berkley, that idea spark came from the history channel. I don’t remember the name of the show but it was talking about how they think Lilith was considered the original succubus.  I had written succubus characters before in the Maiden Series and had a Succubus serial killer in Vortex Blues, so I was already sort of fascinated by that species. And really, let’s be honest, if you’re writing a paranormal erotic – what better character could you have than several succubus? Talk about motivation to have lots of sex – uh….you die if you don’t have it? Yup – great characters for an erotic. Throw in some Archangels some demons and the 3 horsemen of the apocalypse and you have a story about 4 Succubus in Hell’s Version of the Witness Relocation Program. Berkley only picked up the first two books, Seducing the Succubus and The Demon & The Succubus, but as I get time in between paying projects I’ll write the last two in this series too.

Two orphaned series (Maiden & Sisters of Darkness) means I’ll have to get those written as soon as I can!

My Seduction Series started because I wanted to try my hand at writing erotic. Before that my work was purely sensual. My buddy and the lady who started my critique group, The Butterscotch Martini Girls, Brit Blaise was already writing erotics and doing quite well. Multi published and kick ass in her genre. So when I said I wanted to try it out she was more than happy to help me. So I searched for an idea that would give my characters plenty of motivation to have sex. After all, I like plot with my sex, not just mindless sex. If a hero and heroine are being chased by bad guys and stop to have sex, they deserve to die a horrible death. That makes them what we call TSTL (Too Stupid To Live) lol…

So after watching a show on the Salem Witch Trials, followed by Practical Magic, my twisted mind came up with a race of otherworldly witches whose life force is sexual energy. LOTS of motivation for my characters to have LOTS of sex!!

I wrote the first chapter and gave it to Brit Blaise to critique and her feedback was that I needed to have the heroine masturbate in that first chapter to get the story moving…LOL! I laughed at that but took her advice! And the first book in that series, Ceremony of Seduction went into a second printing and is my best selling book of all time. 🙂 So I owe my Cassie Ryan success to Brit Blaise!! Thanks, girl 🙂

Take It Off was actually written for an anthology with 3 other authors that never happened so it was published as a standalone book. At that time it was the hottest Tina Gerow book (it was pre-Cassie Ryan) It was just a fun idea that came to me after watching some episodes of Cat House on HBO 🙂

A woman and a man have a hot one night stand but feel a definite connection and promise to “call.” Her mother has a health emergency and calls her daughter back to run the family’s legal Nevada brothel while her mother recovers. He goes to a bachelor party at that same legal Nevada brothel and assumptions abound on both sides.:) That was VERY fun to write!

Vortex Blues was sparked by a simple weekend trip to Sedona.  Sedona is known for its energy vortexes, which lends itself very well to paranormal.  So add in a Succubus Serial killer a Cop who isn’t warm and fuzzy with “paranormals” and a sexy Succubus who has to help him track down the killer and you have a really fun story! 🙂

My latest Tina Gerow release, Sleeping With Shadows, was sparked when I was contacted out of the blue by my first boyfriend, Phillip. Oddly enough we met when I filled in for the Sun City orchestra pit for Guys & Dolls. Their clarinet player was out and they called my high school band director who suggested me to fill in. Phillip and I literally clicked at first sight. And believe it or not I was 14 and he was 19. He was in the Navy and my grandfather, who was a SeaBee in the Navy, got Phillip’s word of honor that he wouldn’t do anything he shouldn’t with me 🙂 And he didn’t. Although I did get my first kiss and some great memories from Phillip.

Life happened and after dating for a year or so I didn’t see him again until I was in college and 21. We clicked again with that strong connection snapping back into place, but I was already moving to Texas to be a band director and moving in with my first husband (well, he wasn’t my husband yet…) Although I admit I was extremely tempted to scrap those plans and explore things with Phillip. We had always had this unexplainable connection and I think it scared both of us a little. So once again we drifted apart. Then one day out of the blue I got an email from him. He had found me on Classmates. I was married to my current hubby, Jon, and back in Phoenix. He came to Arizona often to see his grandma and once again we both felt that electric connection but were both happily married to others, so nothing came of it but a renewed friendship. Anyway – that ignited my writer’s brain and it became Sleeping With Shadows, a reincarnation with a twist story. Which explores that intense connection and the idea of soul mates and finding them in our many lifetimes. I think that’s the best book I’ve ever written and is my only self published book.

There are more books and ideas, but you get the idea. Book idea sparks come from everywhere, and writer’s brain will have me writing until my last breath 🙂 Have I mentioned how much I love my job???

Tina

Writing Love Scenes Class at Savvy Authors starts in Nov! @TinaGerow #hotsex #writingcraft

I’ve written a few hot and kinky love scenes in my writing career.  Okay – I’ve written several.  And yeah – my Cassie Ryan books are kind of off the charts.  Okay, let’s be honest, when I have my Cassie Ryan hat on I’m kind of a freak…

That’s probably why Savvy Authors asked me to teach a class on Writing Love Scenes.  The last time I taught this class I had a full house and it was a TON of fun!!  So I’m hoping lots of you hop on board for this one too!

Here’s the info!!

 

Writing love scenes is much more than describing whose lips are where doing what.
Good love scenes should read smoothly, clearly, and communicate who is doing what to whom as well as when and how, but without sounding like a How To manual. It should also convey emotions, passion, reveal new insights into the characters as well as advance the plot. Sound like brain surgery or rocket science? Nope – no Doctorate’s degree required – I promise! Come join us for some no-nonsense discussions about how to thread all of this together into love scenes that readers will devour and you will love to write – regardless if you write sweet or smokin’ hot.Level: Beginning/Intermediate Where:  The Savvy Forums Cost:  Premium Members $15 / Basic Members $20
Tina Gerow is a multi published author under two pen names. She writes sensual paranormal romance as Tina Gerow and erotic paranormal romance as Cassie Ryan. She’s also an experienced line editor and a public speaker on many topics both motivational and writing related. So basically she’s a slacker ex band director with an outgoing personality and an overactive imagination who has been put to work writing for the safety of herself and others 🙂   Sign up here Can’t wait to see you all there!

Tina

Tina Gerow Special Edition @TinaGerow

Tina Gerow Special Edition

Tina Gerow Special Edition published by Books We Love contains three complete novels.

Into A Dangerous Mind (Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best Small Press Contemporary Paranormal)

What happens when saucy, independent musician, Cassidy James, finds herself with newly discovered psychic powers and must rely on handsome, maverick FBI agent Zach Hatcher to keep from becoming a psychic serial killer’s next victim? Cassidy must learn to control her powers to help stop the killer while learning that relationships between people with psychic powers are just as confusing, but much more steamy than normal ones. Zach fights to control his growing attraction for the killer’s intended victim, while overcoming his past, which has caused him to be leery of relationships with women who possess psychic gifts.

Stone Maiden
In Stone Maiden, Ariel Knight, a nine-hundred year old gargoyle and ex-warrior for God opens a present-day bodyguard agency with her three sisters. At the request of the Angel Gabriel, they take on protecting Logan McAllister, playboy country music songwriter, who has suddenly become a prime target for all of the evil supernatural beings in the area. While Ariel tries to unravel who is behind the mysterious attacks, she is also battling a growing affection and attraction for him. To make matters worse, Logan’s business manager turns out to be a master vampire who broke her heart two centuries ago and still seems to have feelings for her. Nothing like finding out your lover is a soulless bloodsucker to ruin a relationship.
(eCataRomance Reviewer’s Choice Award; Desert Rose Golden Quill Finalist)

Fire Maiden
Prophecy is a fickle thing. Kefira Knight and her three Gargoyle sisters had hoped they were done with prophecy after Ariel’s pregnancy with the son of the blood (see STONE MAIDEN). But it seems that Kefira is to play a part in the prophecy as well. . .

Kefira’s sharp temper ignites when her former lover, Paladin Dagan Grayson, shows up on the doorstep of the ranch she and her sisters are sharing with Ariel’s new husband. Kefira still bears deep emotional scars from the loss of their child when she turned to stone for healing. Meanwhile, Jeslyn, Queen of the Succubus clan, has a nefarious plot afoot to halt the rise of Good. Kefira must choose a path- will she choose Good or Evil?

“Tina Gerow surpasses all expectations with FIRE MAIDEN. In fact, this book may even be better than the fabulous STONE MAIDEN. Tina Gerow demonstrates with FIRE MAIDEN that she is definitely an author to look out for in the paranormal genre. ~ CK2S Kwips and Kritiques

Buy it now!