Melani Blazer

You HAVE to read this book. No, really. Just for Trick. Honest.

Revenge is a dish best served bold…

Patrick “Trick” Mancini wants revenge. Not only has he learned that his boss, William Ormond, might be implicated in his mother’s death, he’s just found out Ormond has sent assassins after him. After sixteen years stealing for the good guys, Trick is prepared to turn bad if that means he can keep ahead of the assassins long enough to uncover some long-buried secrets.

Kate Crawford, Ormond’s niece, wants a normal life. Not that she knows what “normal” would feel like. When Trick drags her into his pursuit of the truth he threatens the last few things she still cares about. Forced to help him, she’s determined there are some secrets he won’t discover. Including the real reason she was compelled to break up with him ten years ago.

Now Trick and Kate are racing against time to find out what’s hidden in Ormond’s black files, fighting a passion that never went away…and trying to stay alive.

I’m diving in to his story again tonight to savor him. Hope you have the chance to do the same! If you haven’t bought it yet, stop by Emma’s Blog for a chance to win a copy!

I don’t know how or why I clicked that damn button.

Tonight I cut 10 pages, and wrote 3, revising chapter three to be more…geared toward relationship development and less about…manstuff. Don’t wanna spill the juice of the story, but just know it’s heavy plot stuff with nary a heart or flower in the vicinity. So I’m having this argument with my hero.

Me: Trent, I know you wanna fire the gun and blow shit up and do what you were hired to do, but can you please notice the pretty girl I gave you. Aren’t you supposed to be… falling in love with her?

Trent: Listen, lady, don’t know who you are or what you want with me, but I’m in a serious predicament here. The enemy has located our camp and we’re in deep shit. I can’t exactly fall in love when I’m more focused on firing this weapon at the bad guys. Get it?

Me: That’s the trouble. You filled chapter three up with your fire em up action and you basically treated the heroine like a scared child. I don’t think you thought about her for more than one page. That’s why I cut it. Now we have to redo this whole scene and this time, you’re going to have her by your side. Deal with it.

Trent: You want me to fall in love and you’re doing WHAT to me? Was what you did in scene 1 not enough? What crawled up your pant leg and bit you?

Me: You’re the one in a foreign land…desert even. Don’t make me stick creepy crawlies in your sleeping bag.

Trent: Better mine than hers. *pointing to scared shitless heroine*

Me: hmph. I’m not real thrilled with her. She needs to get a grip, but she’s got baggage she has to deal with first.

Trent: Whatever. Hey, maybe you could put a creepy crawly in her blanket, that way she’ll crawl over by me.

Me: Now you’re thinking.

Trent: AFTER I get us out of this enemy infested bloodbath.

Me: Can you do it before end of chapter 3?

Trent: Sigh.
—————————————————–

So, I win. Sorta.
Then, smiling with victory, hit the red X in the upper right hand corner to close the doc for the night.
“Do you want to save your changes”

Trent, I swear it was him, reached out and moved the mouse RIGHT over to the “NO” button and clicked it.
My blood went cold. My eyes bugged out and I mouthed “oh shit” at least thirty times.

I lost everything I’d done.

When I open this doc tomorrow, you’d better believe there’s going to be hell to pay….

And the winners are:
Sheila, Jodi S, Teoh, Ana Lisa, Deborah, Shuck Ying, Little Lamb Lost, Robin, Zara and Cathie! You will each get a deck of cards. I will be emailing you to get your snail mail addy.

Additionally, the left over names (remember, you could enter more than once!) were tossed into a pile and 2 names were drawn for a download from any of my backlist (any publisher)… those winners are: Wilma and Sheila

Finally, I’m sending a print copy of one of my books out to Valerie. Again, I’ll be emailing you for your address and choice of book.

thank you all for playing along!

TAMING ELIZA JANE
by Shannon Stacey

When a man sets out to tame a strong-willed woman, he’d best hang on to his hat.
Will Martinson, the town doctor, already has a heap of troubles on his plate, what with a pregnant whore, an ailing friend and a sheriff with a bad habit of shooting people. The last thing he needs is a strong hankering for a woman who think it’s her duty to turn a man’s life upside-down.

Eliza Jane Carter is a woman on a mission. She’s going to improve the lives of the women in Gardiner, Texas before moving on to the next town. But when her finances take a turn for the worse and her chaperone heads for the hills, Eliza Jane is stranded in a town full of riled up menfolk, a gun-happy sheriff and one handsome doctor who makes her question everything she ever believed about the love between a man and a woman.

Taming Eliza Jane, by Shannon Stacey, is now available from Samhain Publishing

Excellent Western Historical. Made me laugh, made me cry. Shan was a little worried about the second part.

I think her reaction was something like… it did what? It was that bad? Er, no, that GOOD.

I hear a lot of clamor for more historicals. If you’re one of those people, who, like me, grew up reading those “bodice rippers” set in centuries past, don’t read any further. Get thee to buy this book. (handy link here) Shannon Stacey hasn’t disappointed me yet, and I’m not just saying that because I’m lucky enough to be her friend. (If she wasn’t my friend, I’d hate her for her talent). She creates characters that are real, flawed, motivated and ones you want to befriend. They remind you of people you know, and deal with real issues. She is a true storyteller. She often told me how much she loved this book, and it shows. Enough of me gabbing, go get it, read it for yourself.

That’s my mantra for the day.

I’m writing this… actiony, guns and…fighting and well, without giving away too much of the story, it’s one of those in which the plot threatens to become some giant, mutant pacman and gobble up all the allocated word count without letting me get in much more than a kiss and hint of the romance to come.

But it never comes.

This has made me think about a couple of things. Don’t mind my rambling or seemingly unconnected thoughts here, I *Am* still on cold meds…
(more…)

I’m still sick. Tried work yesterday, they booted me and sent me home to hack here. Up again today and determining factor will be if fever is still with me. It’s either doc’s or work from there.

That said, I’ve still been trying to wrap the braincell around writing and finished Ch2 yesterday. *note: this is bronchitis. If I lay down, I cough and cough and cough. I have to sleep sitting up. So I’ve been propped up in my bed with laptop on my lap (or in my puter chair, reclined with laptop on lap), so please don’t go… huh, she can write but can’t work. ’sides, I have no voice and my job entails talking to clients in person and on phone. Not so possible…
(huh, me, defensive much? eh, well,…)

One of the reasons I did want to blog was to give recognition to Tony Stewart and a couple dozen other professional drivers who took a night off from their busy schedules to go charity racing last night. (Tony put it together, owns the track and from the sound of it, footed a ton of the bill.) The event was televised on pay per view, and all the money went directly to the Victory Junction Gang Camp (www.victoryjunction.org). This has always been a very important charity for me, and if you’ve read Trophy Girl, might have guessed it was the inspiration for Molly and Zander’s meeting place.

Anyhoot, I’m off to take the kid to school then diagnose my own day. Thanks for the get well wishes. Smiles make me feel better. (It’s the laughter that’s hell on the throat)

Why I feel this is the scariest cold/flu/sinus infection/sore throat overall ICKINESS evah…

1) I went to bed Sat night feeling okay. Woke up several hours later, wondering if I’d been abducted by aliens and then redposited back in my bed. I was fevered, my eyes were matted shut, my ears were popping and my jaw was….stuck. It ached terribly and brought tears to my eyes to finally work the stiffness out. When I did, my ear started draining.

2) I coughed so hard I was afraid my eyes would pop out. Then I coughed so hard I thought I might need Depends.

3) When I finally fell asleep this morning, I had the covers pulled up to my chin (was shivering). I woke up to a pin prick on my lip. A sharp, painful pinprick. Opened my eyes to find my cat, Hurricane, reaching out with his paw, nails slightly extended. Damn cat must have an insane sense of humor. ’specially because when I closed my eyes again, he repeated it.

I swear he was laughing when I croaked out some choice names…and of course, he was on the floor near the end of the bed, licking his paws, acting all nonchalant.

I’m actually thinking about writing. THAT, my friends, my prove to be the most frightening prospect yet.