Some Men Have "IT."

Is it really my turn again? Seriously?
How did that happen?

Wait, I know.

I forgot all about it because I have a book due March 1st (almost done with it)
and galleys for two other books due back March 3rd (just finished reading them over)
and revisions on a book that just came in,
and line edits...
And ANOTHER book due June 1st.

Can you see me with my hands knotted in my hair! Argh!!!

So after a marathon of writing, and reading, and editing... I took a day off. I read Kresley Cole's MOST excellent, Immortals After Dark Book 6, KISS OF THE DEMON KING.
Oh la la! Just what the old brain needed.

Kresley Cole's books have it all. Super hunky alpha males (who, okay, happen to be creatures of lore) and sizzling sensuality, and FABULOUS romance, incredible conflict - with so much humor that I laugh out loud the entire time I'm reading. Good stuff.

In this book, Rhydstrom was especially seeeexxxxy. And Sabine knew just how to get to him.

I devoured the book, and soon as possible, I'll pick up another. Kresley's books never, ever disappoint me. I positively can not wait for Nix's book! I actually just joined her newsletter in hopes of finding out when that one will be released.

I also took in a few movies, and the combo of Cole's mega tough, but very protective and caring heroes, and the macho guys in the type of movies I prefer, made me think about how some guys have that certain something that qualifies them as the protective, caring, take-charge-and-handle-all-problems alphas, and some... don't.

It's not really about looks, though I appreciate a gorgeous guy who is also an alpha.

Before playing his role on 24, never ever would I have thought Keifer Sutherland had "it." But he plays Jack Bauer like nobody could, and he's a believable alpha - because he must have "it."
Clint Eastwood ALWAYS had "it."
John Wayne, too.
Harrison Ford. Oh yeah.

But... Mathew McConaughey... not so much. He's a great actor, but he's not a believable alpha. He's more a laid back beta.

Matt Damon? Hello! The Bourne movies? He's definitely got "it."

What about Eddie Murphy, Leonardo Di Caprio, George Clooney or Tom Hanks.

GREAT actors, but not Alphas.

What guys do you think have that certain "it" that makes them believable as take charge, crush all villains, defend the women and kids, carry good over evil characters?
Are there any guys who, like Keifer Sutherland, took you by surprise with thier alpha fit?

We can talk guys in books, or movies. In fact, I could probably name a perfect alpha guy for each of the authors on here. I think for my books, Joe Winston is one readers think of. Not sure what Joe had, but he's a favorite with my readers.

And by the way, if you haven't read Kresley Cole's Immortals After Dark series, unless you have a real strong aversion to paranomral, you should try them. Talk about ALPHA! Whew. The best of the best!
Vampires, Werewolves, (who aren't all hairy) Valkyrie, Demons... good stuff!

Happy reading folks! (And wish me luck with my many deadlines!)

ELIZABETH'S "NEW" BOOK

You'll have to forgive me if I dance around the place. I'm a bit excited.

Busted Flush Press has been trying for several years to reprint our (my husband's and my) mystery series, aka the Fiddler and Fiora and mysteries. Finally the planets have aligned, the good luck bunny has hopped, and the printing presses are running!

JUST ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE comes out in the first days of February. In it you meet Fiddler and a Fiora, a divorced couple who can't live with each other and can't live without. The series traces the growth of their relationship as they orbit around each other and the dangerous underside of southern California in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

We wrote as A. E. Maxwell because, at the time, women weren't particularly welcome in the mystery genre. My, how things have changed!

At least some things. Fear, greed, love, and danger haven't changed at all. They are part of human nature. Fiddler and the love of his life are nothing if not human.

See what other people have said about them through the years:

"The writing is lean and restrained, and Fiddler . . . gives Travis McGee a real run for his money." —Los Angeles Times

"If there is a 'new' macho, the epitome would be Fiddler, whose self-possession, subtle wit, electrifying speech, and personal honesty spell good news for mystery readers." —The Washington Post

"The most unusual, up-to-date private eye with the hard-boiled characteristics of the legendary Sam Spade." —San Antonio Express News

"Maxwell’s style is sexy and hard-hitting." —Publishers Weekly

"One of the most interesting and engaging private eyes since Robert Parker’s Spenser." —Advertising Age

"Weary of dreary police procedurals, morally ambiguous cold warriors, hypersensitive and much-too-introspective private eyes? Then you may just be man or woman enough to ride shotgun with A. E. Maxwell’s Fiddler." —Los Angeles Herald Examiner

"Maxwell’s work is engaging and wonderfully articulated." —Robert B. Parker, best-selling author of the Spenser series

"The Fiddler novels are silky and sly and emotionally grown-up in a way that is exceedingly rare in American crime fiction. I highly recommend them." —David Handler, Edgar Award-winning author of The Sour Cherry Surprise

"Fiddler is to California what Spenser is to Boston and Travis McGee is to Florida. Tough, smart guys who know that sometimes, what looks like paradise, is pure hell." —Paul Levine, best-selling author of Solomon vs. Lord and Illegal

"A. E. Maxwell wrote one of the smartest, most consistent PI series in recent memory. Big plots, great villains, and a kickass private eye with plenty of humanity. The toughness of Robert B. Parker’s early Spenser novels blended with the wry humor and scope of Ross Thomas. Wholly original, endlessly entertaining. The books of A. E. Maxwell are a forgotten treasure." —Tim Maleeny, best-selling author of Greasing the Piñata and Jump


Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll just go back to dancing around the room.


If any of you have something that's made you smile lately, please share the dance!

People Who Need People

This was going to be a little piece about time and how there’s never enough of the stuff. There isn’t, but something else wants my attention for a bit.

This morning as I drove through the Arboretum (attached to University of Washington) toward Seattle I got a bubbling over sensation. When I woke up I was in my customary “Grr, it can’t be morning already” state, but an hour later when a little sun shone through the trees my heart became amazingly full.

What was this?

Why was this?

I felt optimistic and happy. We’re not supposed to feel like that at the moment, are we? Aren’t we supposed to be in a state of total panic and gloom because the world as we know it is coming to an end?

Hell, no!

Folks were riding their bikes, all tricked out in their black second-skin cycling outfits with wild, space-like helmets, and looking like healthy creatures from Mars with big grins and rosy red faces.

Others walked, alone or in pairs and groups, with and without dogs, with and without strollers, toddlers or various other offspring. Once more, these contrary souls were actually grinning, sometimes laughing and obviously determined to have a good time no matter what they’ve been told they ought to do.

What I felt was LOVE in the air. Good gracious, I’m a revolutionary. But what do you expect when I’ve chosen to spend most of my adult life looking for as many ways as I can find to write stories designed to make my readers (and me) bite their nails as they wait for disaster, while managing to stick to the notion that love is the greatest gift of all.

Love will conquer all. Just give it a chance, that’s what we’re charged to do. Of course there are and always have been hard times, sadness, loss, insecurity, but we don’t have to be alone through these trials. People need people. We need each other and only if we choose to bury ourselves alone in hard times will we face the bad stuff alone.

These are the thoughts that put a smile on my mouth today. I’ve allowed myself to see one face after another in my mind–people I know, or have known, people I’ve lost but still love. I thought about the experiences I’ve shared with these friends, present and past, and realized I’ve got a wagonload of memories to grin about, or laugh, or give a softer smile about.

We, all of us who come to RunningWithQuills to share (and we do this whether we actually write a blog, or comment, or not), have something in common: we’re people who need people. We need to reach out and touch someone (yup, the song titles and lines are flowing today:) regularly. I’m so glad we do come here and that what we initially had in common were stories about that favorite of all subjects for me: good overcoming bad–love overcoming all odds.

The stories we wanted and still want to read formed our bond and we continue to draw more friends to us, more friends who like other people and think optimism is a pretty good idea.

Blessings, my flowers :)

Stella

Q. Returning to what I’d intended to write about–shortage of time–what makes you
feel as if there aren’t enough hours in the day? And what helps you to cope? But it would also be lovely to know how you’re feeling these days. Do you believe in optimism against all odds?

FAMOUS FIRSTS are twelve books by twelve different authors who have written for Harlequin but who became known for single title, New York Times bestselling books. MOONTIDE is my book in this promotion and this month (March titles) I join Debbie Macomber, Linda Howard and Anne Stuart in the first group. Next month our own Jayne Ann Krentz and Lori Foster join Linda Lael Miller and Heather Graham for the second four books. May brings Diana Palmer, Joan Johnson, Carla Neggers and Barbara Delinsky. I hope you enjoy these stories.

From Wolves to Demons...and Demon Hunters

I’ve started work on my new paranormal series for Kensington Zebra, tentatively called Demonfire, though since I recently noticed that Emma Holly has a book out called Demon’s Fire, that may get changed...titles are strange things. As an author you can be highly invested in a title and yet someone else will get to it first, or the editor will think it’s horrible. Need I say who generally wins this one? That happened with my Wolf Tales series, when I called the overall series, while it was still an online serial, Wolf Tales, but gave each story a new name: Stefan, Alexandria, Anton, Keisha, etc.

When Kensington bought the series, they decided to call every novel Wolf Tales with a Roman Numeral to designate which book it was, but now that we’re up to IX they’re talking about going to Arabic numbers—personally, now that I’ve figured out how the Roman Numerals work, I hate to see them change, but it’s out of my hands. Point being, using Wolf Tales as the overall title has worked really well, though I know my readers get confused when I have to explain that the series continues in the Sexy Beast anthologies, where all my titles have “Chanku” in them—but I digress. I was talking about Demonfire!

This new series is going to be something totally new for me. It’s not erotic, but it is a sexy paranormal. Picture Earth as the fulcrum holding the world of Eden (Good) and the world of Abyss (Evil) in balance. However, demons from Abyss have been invading Earth in ever growing numbers, until now, it’s reached a tipping point where Evil might be in a position to take over all three worlds.

The good citizens of Eden can’t fight, even to protect themselves, but they know something has to be done to stem the flow of demonkind into Earth’s dimension. They hire a fallen demon to do their work for them. Dax has been booted out of Abyss—he’s got a streak of good, though he’s far from perfect. He agrees to do the Edenites’ dirty work for a chance at Paradise. They give him a human body and a tiny will o’ the wisp named Willow to help him adjust to the strange dimension called Earth, and send him off to save mankind—with exactly seven days to get the job done before he gets zapped back to the void where they found him.

Unfortunately, Dax gets hit by the powerful curse from a demon the moment he sets foot on Earth. He ends up unconscious in Eddy Marks’s potting shed, where her dog Bumper discovers him. Eddy’s a pragmatic soul, but it’s hard to deny the existence of a demon when there’s a little Tinkerbell clone flitting around, and the snake tattoo that runs from this absolutely gorgeous man’s thigh to his chest seems to have a life of its own. I did tell you he’s naked when she finds him, didn’t I? Oh, well, he is...and, uhm, you can see where this is going, right?

I absolutely love starting a new story that’s set in a totally unfamiliar world. I’m about eighty pages into this one and it’s beginning to open up for me. It’s lighter than Wolf Tales, with a little more humor and a lot of action. I think readers will identify with both Eddy and Dax—and Bumper the dog. Poor Bumper is a case of odd breeding. Picture a pit bull crossed with a standard poodle—she looks like a pit in a blond Marilyn Monroe wig, but she’s loyal and brave, and with Willow’s help, often finds her own voice.

I’m not exactly sure where this story will take me, but it’s the first book in a series of four that, unlike Wolf Tales, will end after the fourth book is written. We don’t have a set release date, but I expect Demonfire (or whatever it’s called) will hit the stores by Spring of 2010, which, in the publishing world, isn’t all that far off. In the meantime I’ll be splitting my time between writing stories about my demon hunters and my sexy Chanku and trying to keep everyone straight.

So my question is, do you have a problem when authors change genres? Wolf Tales is definitely erotic, but Demonfire most assuredly isn’t. I’m hoping readers will be open enough to something new from me—it’s time to stretch my wings a bit and make the move from trade paperbacks to mass market. I’d love to hear what you think.

Higgins stole my RITA, but I'm digging her writing anyhow.

That's the quote I sent when asked to give one for Kristan Higgin's Too Good To Be True. Don't know why they declined to use it.

Okay, okay, if you wanna be picky, I sent two quotes and Tracy Farrel, the senior editor at HQN did say she was determined to use the RITA one somewhere.

RITA smuggled me a picture shortly after Higgins absconded with her. It was accompanied by a note that read: Help. Am in the hands of Yanks. They just don't get West Coast chicks like us. Come get me.

Then....nothing. So, I suppose the little gold traitor acclimated. Sucks for me. But, hey! I got the next best thing --Kristan's agreed to join us today.

Cuz the truth is, I do dig Higgin's writing. So join me in welcoming her to Quillsville, everyone.
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Hello! Thanks to the lovely Susan Andersen for inviting me to be here today…interesting and little known fact about Susan: Give her a cosmo, and suddenly she’s belting out a saucy rendition of “Baby Got Back.” (And by the way, Susan…I forgive you.)

Dearest Susan invited me here to chat about my fourth romantic comedy, TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, which hit the shelves this month. The story centers around Grace Emerson, whose ex-fiancé has recently started dating her younger sister (I just hate when that happens, don’t you?). To keep everyone from obsessing about her love life, Grace whips out a fake boyfriend. A completely imaginary man…the best kind, some would say.

I am a big fan of imaginary friends. Mr. Goober and Sally were my first imaginary friends, and they’d keep me company as I sucked my thumb and held my special soft blankie (this was back in my turbulent 20s, you understand). As a child, McIrish, my dear husband, had Fifi and Tuckery who lived in the drain of his bathtub. My daughter had Violet, a thumb-sized moose; my son had Di-Di-Dah. We’re still not sure who Di-Di-Dah was, but he kept our boy happy on long car rides.

Like my heroine, I often imagined having a perfect boyfriend back in the day (and even now, when I’m feeling crotchety). How pleasant to imagine a wonderful man — some magical combination of Tim Gunn, Rhett Butler and Clive Owen — bringing me a glass of wine!

And yes, like my heroine, I’ve faked a boyfriend. In my case, it was to avoid hurting the feelings of a would-be suitor, back when I sported big hair and a sweeter disposition. “Oh, you’re so nice to ask, but no, sorry…I’m seeing someone. Otherwise…” My voice would trail off, and I’d bat my big brown eyes in feigned regret. Now, of course, on those rare and happy occasions when a guy hits on me, I bask in the moment for a sec, soaking up the details so I can torment my husband later on. Then I flash my wedding ring and simply say, “Save it, bub. Married.”

But in TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, Grace makes up a boyfriend for different reasons. See, she really adores her younger sister, who, through no fault of her own, fell in love with Grace’s fiancé. No one set out to hurt anyone or steal anybody…it was just an unfortunate twist of fate. Grace wants Natalie to find happiness, and to alleviate her sister’s guilt, she pretends that she’s seeing Wyatt Dunn, M.D. And it does the trick. For a while, anyway.

In TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, it’s pretty obvious that Grace’s family means everything to her. She’ll do anything for them…to a ridiculous degree. It got me to thinking — we’ve all done dopey things for those we love. There was the time I robbed the…oh, wait, my parole officer said I shouldn’t discuss that. Well, there was also the time my sister made me pretend to have car trouble so she could chat up a certain gorgeous mechanic. I had to sit in the driver’s seat, revving the engine while Sissy ogled the poor guy as he bent and probed under her hood (her car hood of course, get your minds out of the gutter).

So here’s my question for you. Have you ever done something vaguely questionable to help out someone you loved? How’d that work out?

Leave a comment, and I’ll pick someone at random and send them an autographed copy of the book.

All the best,

Kristan
www.kristanhiggins.com

JAYNE DOES ARCANE MATH

Okay, I'll be the first to admit that math was never my strong point in school. I struggled through addition and subtraction and barely made it through multiplication — thanks to rote memorization and a teacher who believed in flashcards. But division was fuzzy math to me and after fractions it all became a blur. Lately, however, people have been asking me to count. Fortunately, only to 6.

I'm getting a lot of email from readers who want to know the order in which my Arcane Society books were written.

Now, rest assured, I write every book in the series so that it can be read as a stand-alone. But that doesn't satisfy a lot of readers. They like order and sequence. So, I dug out my calculator (didn't want to mess up the math) and here goes:

SECOND SIGHT # 1

WHITE LIES # 2

SIZZLE AND BURN # 3

THE THIRD CIRCLE # 4

RUNNING HOT # 5

THE PERFECT POISON # 6 (coming in late April)

Whew. Now that's over let's discuss just why the sequence of a series is so important to all of us. Most authors I know write their series books as stand-alones and I'll bet most readers don't even discover a series until it is two or three books along. In fact, a lot of authors will tell you that a series doesn't usually "catch fire" until the fourth or fifth book. But as soon as it does everyone wants to go straight back to the beginning and start reading from Book I.

I think this is fascinating. Hey, I do the same thing as a reader. But I wonder why it matters so much. What about you? At what point did you get hooked on your favorite series and when you realized you were hooked did you go back to the beginning of the series? And what do you do if you come into a series and discover that it has been running for quite a while and that you've missed a lot of books?

Inquiring minds....
-- Jayne