This blog is for those 18 and older.

Sunday, August 31, 2014

Cover Reveal for CRUISE INTO EDEN

I'm so excited to reveal the cover of my newest release Cruise into Eden which is coming out next weekend. Most of this erotic romance takes place on a nude cruise in the Caribbean and then it moves to the planet Eden. What do you think?

Always, Lexi

Friday, August 29, 2014

Stupid Girl At Work…Here’s Your Sign!

Hey there!  I hope your week has been fabulous so far…mine’s been fair to middlin’.  But now I’m looking forward to the long weekend.   Wahoo!  Three days off!  Doing the happy dance here!!!  Oh yeah.

Alright, so what am I going to blog about today?  Well, I’m blogging about stupidity.  Whose stupidity?  Mine.  And what better to blog about?  I’m talking about my struggle with electronics…computers and phones, to be exact.  I just cannot figure out how we humans can allow ourselves to become so dependent on things that are so damned frustrating.

Okay, I guess if you’re gonna follow me here, I’m gonna have to go back to the beginning and tell you what has set me off.  It’s my computer…my lifeline.  I spilled something on it today and immediately went into a panic.  What did I spill on my computer?  Well, no it wasn’t my coffee or a Coke.  It was salsa.  Now, I don’t know why I should have been surprised.   It’s not like the computer was sitting across the desk or on the other side of the table…it’s not like I was being careful and smart.  Oh no…I was actually eating on top of the computer.  Like…laptop open and in my lap and I’m eating a cheese quesadilla and salsa with it sitting on top of my computer.  Then Stupid Girl was shocked when she hit the bowl of salsa and then reached to steady it and turned the entire bowl upside down smack dab in the middle of my keyboard.  Uh-huh…that’s what I did.  Stupid Girl at work!

Now, before you get upset with me for negative self-talk, I want you to understand that Stupid Girl is not me.  She’s my alter-ego…sort of like Sybil.  I like to tell people that I’m a very intelligent woman with moments of incredible stupidity.  And when I have those moments, I hate to take responsibility for idiocy like eating salsa on your laptop…so I invented Stupid Girl.  She’s the scapegoat…the person I can blame so I don’t have to own my stupidity.  I spill salsa on the laptop…Stupid Girl did it…not me!  Got it?  Clear as mud?

Anyway, back to the salsa seeping into the keyboard.  I flew into an absolute panic and immediately jumped up and ran to the sink to wash the salsa off.  Yep, you heard me…I was gonna wash it off!  Holy freaking hell, Batman, what was Stupid Girl thinking?!  So I run to the sink and turn the water on, just barely catching myself before I submerged my laptop under a waterfall.  Sheesh, that was close.  If the salsa didn’t kill the laptop, I’m pretty sure drowning would have been fatal.  So I flip the machine over and begin wiping salsa off the keyboard into the sink.  Then when I think I’ve got it all, I turn the machine over and immediately begin wiping it down with a handful of paper towels.  Then I get a butter knife and start digging little bits of tomatoes and chilis from around the keys.  So when the keyboard is as clean as I can possibly get it, I start looking at the screen to see if it even works still.  It does!  Yes, Matilda, there is a God!  So I immediately take it to my desk and start the backup.  Because when that salsa dries in there, I’m thinking there’s still a good chance the accident could end in a fatality.

Okay, so that was the big event for today and it got me to thinking about other times that Stupid Girl made my life much more complicated than it should have to be.  There was that time that she left my cell phone outside on the BBQ grill…in the rain…overnight.  It rains once every 25 years at my house and it had to be that night.  Two weeks in a bag full of rice and the darn thing was resurrected…until…yep, you guessed it!  Stupid Girl again.  This time she had it stuffed in her bra while she was irrigating and when she bent over to open the irrigation gate, she didn’t notice it slip into the ditch full of water.  Argh!  So…off to get a new phone.  Unfortunately, that one didn’t have a real long shelf life either.  But this time it wasn’t my fault…it was a defect in the genes.  You see, a couple of months before, I laughed my ass off at my cousin when she told me she had dropped her cell phone in her coffee.  OMG!  Who does that?!  Her husband and I absolutely tormented her over that one.  So imagine my horror when Stupid Girl puts her cell phone on top of her coffee cup to keep a fly out and two minutes later hits the phone and plops it head-first into a brand new, full cup of coffee!  My first call was to my cousin to tell her I’d just drowned my cell phone in my coffee.  Her husband roared and said it must be in the genes.  See…again, not my fault!

So here I sit still worried that my laptop might not fire up in the morning once that salsa has had a chance to ooze all over the guts and dry, with little pieces of chilis hanging off computer chips like a jalapeno factory exploded inside the darn machine.  And I think even worse than the moment when I find the machine won’t turn on or it gives me the blue screen of death would be the moment when I might have to hand it over to a technician and admit that Stupid Girl spilled salsa on it.

Okay, it’s your turn.  I can’t possibly be the only person in the world who has spilled salsa on her machine or drowned her phone in the ditch or in her morning coffee.  What about you?  Leave a comment and share your Stupid Girl moment with us…puhleez!  It'll make me feel better.  :-)

That’s my story, saucy and stupid, and I’m stickin’ to it.  Hang on tight now ‘cuz we’re gonna go real, real fast!


Love ya, Kayce

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Paw and Order (A Chet and Bernie Mystery) by Spencer Quinn


 

Paw and Order is the seventh in its series and the characters continue to entertain in a light hearted and canine way.

Chet, dog PI extraordinaire, takes up the trail his owner Bernie, human PI, leaves full of loose ends. 

Chet takes great pride in riding shotgun in Bernie’s convertible all the way to Washington DC.  What a perfect place to solve a murder, amongst other crimes, and to fertilize the love between Bernie and his girlfriend, Susie, who moved to DC.Paw and Order: A Chet and Bernie Mystery

Susie, a reporter with a short lead on a story, finds herself smack-dab in the middle of Bernie and Chet’s case.  This provides an opportunity for Chet to work his licks and barks into Bernie and Susie’s relationship.

An engaging and fun novel, full of crime, mishaps, animal insight, and a romance encouraged by Chet and Bernie.  After reading this novel you’ll be sure to back track and pick up the former members of the series if you haven’t already.

Happy reading,

Dawn

 

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Interview with Mary Buckham and a Giveaway!


Alexis: Today we have USA Today Bestselling author, Mary Buckham visiting and she is giving away an ecopy of INVISIBLE FEARS to one lucky commenter!

Welcome Mary.  What are you working on now?

Mary: I’m working on the next full-length book in the IR (Invisible Recruits) series. This one is called INVISIBLE SECRETS and as the fifth full-length book in the series it has some major twists to the lives of the core IR team members. It should be released late September or early October. I’m also finishing up the final tweaks on my next non-fiction writing craft book—WRITING ACTIVE HOOKS Book 1 which will be released this September.

Alexis: Wow, you are busy. Where did you get the idea for Invisible Recruits?

Mary: Originally the idea came from noticing a speed trap and realizing that since a lot of law enforcement agencies use the same types of cars, some speed traps are really easy to spot. Same issue happens in undercover work, that criminals get very savvy about spotting a cop so what if you used agents who were not trained in law enforcement ~ that would be invisible to criminals because they’d look and act like the regular people they are—a kindergarten teacher, debutante, etc. Then I threw in the paranormal and preternatural element. What if you were a woman that hid your gift your whole life and now all of a sudden have a chance to use that gift to battle preternaturals in a world unaware that preternaturals exist?

Alexis: I love it! So what is your favorite trait of Kelly McAllister?

Mary: Kelly McAllister, former kindergarten teacher and current IR agent represents the good girl in most women. The way we’ve been taught to behave, to hold back, to acknowledge others’ strengths but not always our own. Placed in a position of leading her first mission I keep placing her in more and more danger, testing her mettle, putting her through multiple trials of fire. That’s when we discover who we truly are, not when things are easy but when things get tough. It’s a fascinating journey of self-discovery even as the reader finds herself rooting for Kelly even as they worry about her through each step of her story.

Alexis: What has been the best piece of advice you ever received for your writing career?

Mary: Never give up. Never surrender. Oh, wait, that’s the motto from Galaxy Quest. Actually it’s very applicable. As a writer I have the opportunity, every day, to give up, to stop writing, to turn away and take another job that’s not fraught with so much insecurity and variables outside of my control. It takes a daily leap of faith to face a blank page, to assume there are readers that love the kind of stories I love to read and write, that all the time invested in learning how to write and write better and keep on writing, will be worth the time and attention. I’ve been very fortunate in finding a very receptive audience for my stories, who encourage me in so many ways, and, by taking the time to write a review or send me an email, reaffirm that the risks are worth it, that I can truly say I won’t give up and won’t surrender.

Alexis: Mary, thank you so much for visiting us here at Happily Ever After Thoughts. It has been so fun chatting with you.

Check out the blurb on INVISIBLE FEARS below.

INVISIBLE FEARS Blurb:

He’s a preternatural fighting for the humans.
She's a human fighting for the preternaturals.
Kelly McAllister’s Invisible Recruit mission in Sierra Leone is to locate and secure a threat to humans and preternaturals. Van Noziak is also there, with his own secret mission, one that’s on a collision course with Kelly’s. In deepest Africa the race against a deadly bloom reveals secrets, exposes fears, and forces unlikely alliances.


I love conflict. The conflict between dark magic and white. The conflict between beings
created with different needs and wants. Witches. Mage warlocks. Shifters, Weres, and demons all trying to co-exist against their natures. Bring it on!

I'm a huge paranormal and fantasy lover. Especially Urban Fantasy and any paranormal fantasy series that allows me to throw myself into magic and mystery page after page, book after book.

The paranormal world of the Invisible Recruits is built on women who must learn to embrace their preternatural talents to fight good and evil. Talents that they've hidden from the human population for fear of being different.

But because I love conflict I've dropped these women into a world where magic and fantasy exist side by side with humans intentionally kept in the dark about Shifters, Weres, warlocks, witches, and especially about magic.

Throw in a strong dose of romantic suspense, emotional relationships to add more conflict, and paranormal beings you've never heard of before, and you'll know why readers can't get enough of this fast-paced paranormal thriller series.

Friday, August 22, 2014

Nude Cruise Rules


My next release, Cruise into Eden, is coming out in two weeks and it takes place on a nude cruise. Actually, it is referred to as a “clothing optional” cruise and they do exist. What was so interesting about setting this story on a nude cruise was all the interesting “rules” that come with these trips. 

For instance, all the passengers must wear clothes when the ship is at port. I’m guessing this is out of respect for the various cultures it comes into contact with at its different ports of call. Another interesting rule is that the passengers must wear clothing if they dine in the main dining room or any of the various restaurants on the ship, but they don’t have to at the bars, nightclubs and casinos. Also, when the nude passengers sit anywhere, they must use a towel, a robe, or their own clothing to sit on. The cruise line will actually put out stacks of towels in many of the public places so the passengers can follow this etiquette.


There were other rules as well, but those are an important part of the story and I don’t want to spoil it :-) I have to say that setting an erotic romance on a nude cruise was incredibly fun! My cover reveal happens tomorrow for all my Update subscribers. If you would like to be the first to see it, sign up here http://eepurl.com/D3MqT  I can’t wait for this release!

Always, Lexi


Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Nanu Nanu


    Normally, this blog is about writing and reading and things book related (and yes, movie and television related too) but today….today I’m doing something a little different. I have to say I am stunned by the passing of Robin Williams. A talented man, and from all accounts, a gentle soul, I grew up watching and listening to him (I feel the same about Bill Cosby…funny, funny men).  I loved his stand-up routines (I would have loved to have seen him in person, but some things are better on DVD or VHS and I’ll tell you why…you can play it again, hit that rewind button and catch all the things you missed while you were laughing/crying (and yes, I will admit, there were a few times when I laughed so hard, I almost peed my pants!)
     His appearances on the late night talk shows always had me staying up later than my usual bedtime but I couldn’t miss them because you never knew what would come out of his mouth (and I loved how Johnny Carson and David Letterman would crack up! That in itself was a reason to watch). 
     Then there were his movies. My favorites are Mrs. Doubtfire (“My first day as a woman and I am already having hot flashes”), Jack, Dead Poets Society, and Aladdin. And of course, Hook.
      Not only did his movies make you laugh (as we know, laughing is good for one’s soul…it has healing properties) but there was always a life lesson hidden within the laughter.  
     Lauren Bacall passed away last week as well. A Classy Dame my father called her (coming from my father, this was high praise) and she truly was a class act. From Key Largo and To Have and Have Not (“You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve?”) to How to Marry a Millionaire and The Mirror Has Two Faces, she’d come on the screen with her distinct voice and beautiful face and you were mesmerized. At least, I was.  
     Both actors left an impression on me, both for different reasons, and I am grateful for having the opportunity to watch and be entertained.
     To quote Bob Hope (another great, in my opinion), thanks for the memories!

Keep laughing (and reading and writing)!
Marie

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Interview with Pema Donyo


Alexis: Today we have Western Romance author Pema Donyo visiting. Welcome Pema. I know everyone has their own writing process…how they come up with ideas, how they name their characters, how they choose the setting. Can you describe your writing process?

Pema: Ideas are definitely the most crucial part about that process and also the part writers have the least control over. Plots are inspired by all kinds of events – I watch a movie, I read a text, I notice some world event occurring. Daily life is a constant source of inspiration. Thankfully, I haven’t found a shortage of ideas to write about yet.

After I develop the book idea, I write the manuscript during school breaks. I’m still in college, so the bulk of my writing happens over winter and summer break. It usually takes me a month to finish the first draft, and then I’ll spend the next few weeks revising.

What always happens while I’m still revising is that random conversations will pop into my head or random events will happen to me that will inspire me to include a certain scene or strand of dialogue in my story. I have so many e-mail drafts that I’ve opened just to type, “Include this random part in the story…” and then I’ll describe it so I can flesh the passage out later. Inspiration occurs at all aspects of the writing process!

Alexis: What are you working on now?

Pema: I’m taking a break from historical romance and writing a New Adult contemporary. It’s a modern, Southern-California-college spin on Pride and Prejudice. As a college student, I can relate to so many of the scenes and so much of the dialogue.

I read so many New Adult/Young Adult books which are written well, yet at the same time are completely removed from a teen’s voice. I’m a huge advocate for more young writers to pursue publication. No one knows our generation better than we do – we’re currently living it! I started writing this NA contemporary to present a more realistic look at what college life is like.

Alexis: Where did you get the idea for One Last Letter?

Pema: A huge component of One Last Letter are the anonymous love letters cowboy Jesse leaves for plantation owner Evelyn. He finds it easier to express his feelings through pen and paper than in person. I actually got the idea from noticing so many people basing their relationships largely around text messaging. Texting is more or less the 21st century equivalent of letters; it’s a great way to communicate with other people and minimize distances.

I’ve also been pretty fascinated by the Western genre recently. I watched the Hallmark Channel’s adaptations of Janette Oke’s Love Comes Softly series and loved the movies. The Western setting adds an immediate sense of danger to the story. Living out there in the 1800’s was as dangerous as it was rewarding. A different kind of community emerged from the West – hard-working, honest, and innovative. I wanted to capture this backdrop through writing.

Alexis: What are your favorite traits of Evelyn and Jesse?

Pema: Evelyn Lancaster has two defining traits – her need to rationalize everything and her workaholic nature. She’s intelligent and even spent a year in an East Coast female seminary. But when she returns to Texas, she discovers her true career lies in helping to run her father’s ranch. The ranch work comes before everything else in her life – suitors, parties, dresses. She wants someone who’s as driven as she is, but at the same time her over-analyzation of every situation creates conflict in her love life. Her pragmatism was what caused her to turn away her childhood sweetheart when he proposed marriage.

Jesse Greenwood spent his teenage years being Evelyn’s best friend and being the ranch’s leading cowboy. He’s pretty silent most of the time; words don’t come easy to him. That’s why he leaves unsigned love letters for Evelyn. While seven years may have changed his friendships and cowboy status, he’s humble to the end. When he works as a ranch hand for free and offers to invest in the Lancaster’s ranch, he doesn’t tell any of the other cowboys he’s making the investment to get the ranch out of financial trouble. However, this modesty also results in him feeling inadequate about his social standing when he returns from California with acquired wealth. New money isn’t accepted in the town of Hamilton, Texas, and he’s aware that Evelyn’s blue-blooded upbringing was the reason she turned him away all those years ago.

Alexis: What has been the best piece of advice you ever received for your writing career?

Pema: It’s from Meg Cabot, and she said: “Write the story you would like to read. People will give you all sorts of advice about writing, but if you are not writing something you like, no one else will like it either.” The passage is so true! I write the stories that I would want to pick up and read. The moment I notice my work is taking a wrong turn into something I would be disappointed in as a reader, I take a step back and re-evaluate how I can still salvage the story.

I think the biggest thing to keep in mind about writing is not only to never give up, but also to write for the writing aspect. You don’t pursue creative writing because you want to, you do it because you need to. It’s because you can’t imagine a life where you’re not creating new worlds; it’s because you long to flesh out stories and relationships and express all the potential situations you want to read about.

Alexis: Pema, thank you so much for visiting us here at Happily Ever After Thoughts. One Last Letter sounds like a great read!

Check out this excerpt from One Last Letter


Evelyn Lancaster wanted to run away as fast as possible.

It was a mistake. It was one colossal, gargantuan mistake. Worse than Athens ordering the death of Socrates. Worse than Persephone being kidnapped by Hades. What did she think she was going to do? Seconds ticked by as she found herself unable to say anything more. Her mouth felt dry. What was she supposed to say?

He’d changed, more than she would have ever imagined possible. The boyish frame was filled out, and extra years working on the ranch had defined the muscles in his arms under his coarse brown shirt. He’d even grown taller—past six feet, she guessed. His shoulders were broader, and his cheekbones seemed more pronounced than before. His face carried even more of an aristocratic air, but his body seemed undeniably more masculine.

Yet the expression was the same. Jesse Greenwood’s same reticent, admiring expression hadn’t changed as he continued to stare at her like she was hand-blown glass. His brown hair still flopped lightly in front of his eyes, causing him to brush it away.

“Hey, Eve.”

She winced. She hadn’t heard that nickname since she’d left Hamilton, Texas, for the female seminary in Massachusetts. No one there ever called her Eve. During classes she’d been “Miss Evelyn” and “Miss Lancaster.”

She cleared her throat. She’d anticipated the awkwardness but not the simple difficulty in forming words. “I returned home a few hours ago. I thought I should stop by and say hello. Is Preston here? Are any of the other ranch hands here?”

Jesse blinked. He didn’t respond for a few seconds. The adoring expression morphed to one of disbelief. “Eve, did you get my letters?”

She bit her lip. “I did.” Evelyn resisted the urge to embrace him. Doing so would only make it harder to answer his questions with a lie. Instead, she stood rooted to the spot. She wouldn’t move a muscle; there was too much she could regret. “They were nice letters. Thank you. But I burned them.”

His eyes became cool steel, all traces of admiration in his eyes melting away. “Burned them? But you . . .” His jaw was set. “Eve, why didn’t you write me back?”

“I was busy.” She tore her eyes away from Jesse’s searing gaze and tried to look behind his shoulder. The sinking feeling in her chest was surely no more than an echo of the past. She needed to leave before all rationality left her. “Just let all the other ranch hands know I stopped by.”

“Stop. Eve, I said stop.” Strong hands grabbed both of her shoulders, and she looked up in alarm toward his furrowed brow and confused expression. His voice was so much deeper than she’d remembered. “That’s all? You couldn’t once respond to me?”

She struggled to push against him, but he held her in place. His tone was rough. It increased in volume, rising with each word that tumbled out of his mouth.

“What about the promise I made to you? When you told me that you wanted to marry—”

“Enough!” Evelyn yanked herself out of his hold and glared. She breathed deeply, as if the extra air would give her the courage she couldn’t truly conjure up. “I remember what you are referring to. I did receive your letters. I thank you for them. But I did not respond to you because whatever we had before I left for school . . .” She gulped. The polite tone of indifference faded. “This has to end.”

 
About Pema:
Pema Donyo is a coffee-fueled college student by day and a creative writer by night. She currently lives in sunny Southern California, where people wear flip-flops instead of Stetsons and ride in cars instead of carriages. As a rising sophomore at Claremont McKenna, she’s still working on mastering that delicate balance between finishing homework, meeting publisher deadlines, and… college. Black coffee, period dramas, faded book covers, and peanut butter continue to be the driving forces in her life.