Feature: On The Rocks by Elizabeth Morgan

I'm playing a crazy game of "catch-up" at the moment, and damn, I have fallen behind with stuff. *le sigh*

On a completely awesome note I have a date for my short and sexy erotic paranormal book, "On the Rocks." This baby is a part of Decadent Publishings "The Edge Erotica Series" and is due for release November 2nd, which is this Friday. *bounces around* I'm super excited since this is my first release with Decadent: my first short story, and my first f/f book. Lots of firsts!

So, I though that I would share a little excerpt with y'all today, and basically do a nice little feature type post in preparation for the release of this lil' number.

I hope you enjoy!

~ * ~

On The Rocks
(The Edge Erotica Series)

BLURB:

On the Rocks is the hottest club on South Padre Island, and Meghan’s new workplace.

If the warped mermaid uniform isn’t enough, the fact that she can’t stop thinking about the club’s singer, Zenzie, is. Everything about the female gets Meghan hot, but when she finally gets her shot with the temptress, it turns out Zenzie isn’t as perfect, or as human, as Meghan thought. 

BUY LINK: Coming November 2^nd 2012 - http://www.decadentpublishing.com/

~ * ~

EXCERPT:

Her warm breath skated down my neck causing a shiver to curl around my spine. She straightened then slid her hands through my hair. My eyelids fluttered at the feel of her fingertips stroking over my temples and along my hairline.

“I saw you watching us.”

I stared at her. “Excuse me?”

“Do you like watching?” She retrieved a few items from the vanity table, twisted two sections of my hair, and pushed the hair clips into place. “It’s all right. You can tell me, Meghan.”

My body tightened at the husky way she said my name. The knot between my legs pulsed under her piercing stare. I had no idea how, or even why she managed to get under my skin, but God, I wanted her.

“I’m not a pervert or anything.”

“I know you’re not.” She slid a chain of small red flowers into the black mass of my hair.

“I just heard a noise. I guess my curiosity got the best of me.” I shifted on my seat. “I’m sorry—”

“Don’t be. I liked you watching.”

My nails dug into my knees as her hands moved down my throat. Her skin like satin—her touch, soft. She ran her fingertips over the top of my breasts.

“I would have asked you to join us, if you hadn’t run.” Her gaze caught mine again while she slid her hand inside my skin-tone bra. “Will you run now, or will you do what we both know you want to do?”

~ * ~

BIO:

Elizabeth lives in a small country village in Cheshire, England, with two cats. You will always find her on the computer, blasting music and writing away. She started life wanting to be an actress because she loved performing. She enjoyed nothing more than being able to make people laugh, to distract them from reality for a few hours. She studied Musical Theatre in college, but during her second year, her mind started to overflow with ideas for scripts and she began writing plays. Slowly over the following three years, she was writing more and more, channeling her imagination into more detailed manuscripts...

Here she is, years later, hiding away like a hermit, writing like crazy and loving every minute of it.

Where to find Elizabeth Online:

Website: www.e-morgan.com
Blog: www.xxxxmyworldxxxx.blogspot.com
Twitter: @EMorgan2010
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/ElizabethMorgan
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Elizabeth-Morgan/e/B006WR1WLQ/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1351550906&sr=1-2-ent
Blog: (Shared with Dianna Hardy): http://notjustastiffupperlip.blogspot.co.uk/

The "true" Alpha hero?

I heard this song on the radio this morning...



and it got me thinking about Mr Bond. Ah... the delectable, secretive, sexy Mr Bond. And probably the greatest Alpha hero of all time (in my opinion, anyway).

It got me thinking, that "Alpha" heroes have been around since forever, but only in more recent decades have they been pigeon-holed into romance novels. Before the romance genre got big, they were the adventurers: James Bond, Indiana Jones, Han Solo, Richard Sharpe, any Clint Eastwood cowboy... sure they had love interests, but that really wasn't the point of their existence.

It made me realise that I watch, and used to watch, a hell of a lot of adventure films. Funnily enough, I've never liked romance films all that much. They were okay, but always a bit chick-flicky for my liking - give me Indiana any day, or a good horror - oh, I LOVE a good horror hero (Bruce Campbell, anyone?), because they end up always being the "nerd" that transforms into a kick-that-evil-butt-to-the-curb, don't-mess-with-me dude, and I love seeing that transformation :)

So, yeah, I heard this song and thought that it's sort of a shame that whenever anyone thinks of the Alpha male nowadays, they always slot him into the romance genre. A shame because I would never want to "catch" an Alpha male - I even find it hard to write it in fiction (I'm not 100% sure I have actually) - sometimes hard to read it. In my heart, the true Alpha will always be the adventurer that CANNOT be pinned down - by any woman (or man) - ever. He can love them, he can protect them, but he'll never stay with them. That's actually what makes him Alpha - in the end, leadership always means standing on your own - even when surrounded by a million people, a hundred friends, and the love of your life.

(And I apply exactly the same concept to the Alpha woman.)

Lol. Sorry if I've bummed your view of the Alpha male. Not my intention - all of this is just my own view. Maybe I should write adventure novels instead :p

What does the Alpha hero mean to you?

Have a great Thursday, everyone :)

Dianna x

Upcoming Releases!

Isn't it funny how one minute you're just bobbing along, and then everything kinda explodes and suddenly there feels like there aren't enough hours in the day?

That's how things feel at the moment, which I'm kinda glad about since being busy pushes me to be busier. I know, it's sheer madness, but I find I'm more productive when I'm stupidly busy.

So, this is basically an update type post. The reason why I am nice and busy is because I have two books being released any time from now till the end of November. I'm still waiting for release dates so as soon as I know you will.

First release - which you may have heard me mention a couple of times - is my first every sweet contemporary romance novel, "Stepping Stones." This book is practically virginal compared to every other book I have written. There is no violence, no sex, there isn't even any swearing. Shocking, I know. :-P

I received the cover for SS this week and I have to say I am totally in love with it. I mean, it's just so pretty and Christmas themed.

Blurb:

There's nothing like a wedding to bring the family together . . . .

And if it wasn't her baby sister's wedding, Margaret West wouldn't be returning home at all.

Why else would she go back after six years, knowing full well that she has people to face, and explanations to give?

If her parents interrogation isn't bad enough, the fact that she has to be civil to her foster brother, Adrian, is. Best friends since childhood, they haven't spoken since he went to America . . . The day before Margaret was supposed to be getting married.

And to make matters worse, her ex-fiancé, William, is the Vicar who will be conducting her sister's wedding ceremony!

All want an answer from her, and they aren't taking "no" as one of them. Why did she run in the first place? Why has she been so angry with, Adrian? Why didn't she marry, William?

Margaret isn't even sure that she knows the real reason any more.

~ * ~

The next book I am excited about because it is my first release with Decadent Publishing, and is part of their "The Edge Series."

I have to say I had a lot of fun writing "On the Rocks." Mainly because a) it wasn't plot heavy, which is refreshing because it was nice to concentrate one a story that is b) sexy, but it is also a little dark and twisted, and c) it's my first F/F book, which again was refreshing and different for me. But I love both the girls, and I hope that you all will too.

Blurb:

“On the Rocks” is the hottest club on South Padre Island, and Meghan’s new workplace.

If the warped mermaid uniform isn’t enough, the fact that she can’t stop thinking about the clubs singer, Zenzie, is. Everything about the female gets Meghan hot, but when she finally gets her shot with the temptress it turns out Zenzie isn’t as perfect, or as human, as Meghan thinks.

~ * ~

Other than that I have been cracking on with my lil' WIP "Let Me In." The original idea was to have a sexy trilogy of short stories with an ongoing and light plot. But I have to admit the more I sit and work on this, and think about it, I'm starting to wonder if it would work better as one longer story. I guess I will just have to crack on with it and see what happens. I will keep you posted. :-)

Authors Interacting With Readers... Is it a good thing?

It's one of those tricky subjects, but one that has become essential to think about since the boom of eBooks and online networking. It's so easy to interact with authors nowadays, even New York Times bestselling authors.

But it's something that's still hard to get right, or maybe even to understand.

I interact with readers (and other authors) the most via Facebook, Twitter and Google+ - especially Facebook. When people purposely Like my author page, I make a (possibly wrong) assumption that they would also like to interact - at the end of the day, they can choose whether they do or don't.

I find Goodreads much harder to fathom. It was originally built for readers, not for authors, but has become a huge author playground. From what I can gather, some readers on there like this interaction and some readers don't. I don't go on Goodreads much. I admit there have been a couple of times when I have tried to interact with readers via Goodreads (even just pressing that Like button on their reviews), and I'm not sure that I've done the "right" thing. Maybe you all just want to be left alone to read on Goodreads without knowing that occasionally I do get on there and see your awesome reviews ;)

And I stay as far away from Amazon forums as possible - those places are Hell on earth!

In short, aside from on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ where my readers invariably make the first move at interaction, I have decided not to try and engage with readers so much.

What are your experiences engaging with either authors or readers? Do you enjoy it? Do you make the first move? Do you keep yourself to yourself? Do you wish anything about social networking for authors and readers was different?

Have a good weekend, folks ;)

Dianna xxx

Points of View

I finally got my butt in gear and started concentrating and working on my lil' side project last week. I managed to write 1.2k and as sad as it may seem I was super happy about that. The reason being that - as you may already know from reading any of my previous posts - I've been settling in to a new job, and then I've had some crazy personal/family problems that have been getting me down, and basically sucking the energy out of me.

So, I sit down and write 1.2k. I go to bed feeling good, wake up feeling great. I get to work with a plan to come home and continue and what happens . . . I hit a wall. Fantastic.

I don't know about anyone else, but not being able to write - especially when you would love too - plain sucks, and kinda makes you feel a little crazy. Well, it makes me feel a little crazy, especially when I have had such a long break between projects, and have books that I both want and need to write since a couple of them are in series.

Needless to say I didn't get much else done last week.

I started late today, because it was my day off and I had company, but when I finally did sit down at the computer I figured out what was basically bugging me was the POV.

Now, I have written two stories and a short in third person. I can write it, and I can make it work, but I find I really do prefer first person. Don't get me wrong I enjoy books written in both POV and as I just said I can write both, but there is something freeing about first person. There is something intimate about being in the characters head. I mean, maybe I am just really nosey and/or controlling because I love being at the heart of a character. I love picking them to pieces, and although I know all my characters very well I don't feel that connection with characters written in third.

Does that make sense? Do you find you favour one POV more than the other; that one is easier?

The good news is I did manage to add 500 words to my lil' WIP because I spent most of my time today changing the POV, but hey, 500 words is better than none, right? I'm hoping that now I have changed the POV it will be smooth sailing, or rather, writing. The project will only be a sexy short story at the length of 3/4k. So, I could actually finish it within the next day or so, which I will really like.

Wish me luck! I am up to the part where my heroine is about to lock eyes with a sexy stranger; one who turns out to be a demon in bed. ;-p

Perceptions and Deceptions: The Drunk Lady and The Lost Swan

I had nothing to blog about last night. This morning I thought, "Powers That Be, please help me out here - my mind is blank - I don't want to spend every blog  post talking about how much I hate pigeon-holing my books into genres!"

They listened :)

I was walking my daughter to school today, and we were walking through the car park of her school, which is also the car park of a very large park, with a huge pond to the left, where you find ducks, geese, swans and some other birds...

And there in the middle of the car park was a cygnet. Probably a "teenager" in swan years - it still had its baby grey colouring, but was almost full grown swan size. It was clearly lost and trying to find its way back to the pond and its mother. I slowed the pushchair down so as not to scare it - swans are known for attacking if they're frightened or angry. Of course, my daughter was intrigued.

To my left, there suddenly appeared a drunk man, looking fairly pissed off to be awake first thing in the morning, strutting / waddling into the car park with a beer can in one hand and a humongous beer gut. My first reaction was "Ew..." followed by, "I have my daughter sandwiched between a could-be unpredictable swan, and a could-be unpredictable drunk man."

As the events played out in front of me, I realised that I had made a huge error of judgement. Huge. Which, although maybe understandable because I was thinking about the safety aspects with my daughter around, was also mildly annoying because I like to think I'm not a judgemental person... Firstly, the drunk man was a drunk woman (my bad!). Secondly, the drunk and the swan immediately formed some kind of connection. She started to speak to it and coaxed it back towards the pond. I immediately thought of the story, The Ugly Duckling. The drunk woman, maybe because she was drunk, had no fear of the swan and no barriers up at all. In return the swan gave her its trust and followed her back to the pond. The drunk woman was the ugly duckling - she had been a little girl once, undoubtedly playing make believe that she would one day be a princess, or the superhero... For a split second there, she sort of was the superhero...

We form so many judgements about everything, based on what we are conditioned with - based on what we think we should see; on what others want us to see... It stops us from seeing the truth. I wonder, when the time comes, who will actually be the one to destroy The Witching Pen, or if it will even be destroyed at all.

Let's hope so... because it's time to wake up. The drunk woman and me are not that different - we both have a problem fitting into society. But whereas I immerse myself in writing, she immerses herself in alcohol. The only difference is the reaction; the response to life; how we cope. I wonder if any of us are really that different from each other.

Families!

Yesterday was crazy. And I don't mean in an awesome, amazing, super fabulous things happened yesterday kinda way. It sucked on a personal level. Family stuff went crazy. There were tears and a lot of stress and by the end of it all I fell in to bed with a monster headache.

Which is the main reason I am so idiotically late with posting. I physically couldn't do anything yesterday evening. It was a nightmare.

I guess if there is one thing decent out of the mess of yesterday it was that it gave me an idea for posting - that and a nice email off my editor.

Families. We love 'em. We hate 'em. We could live without 'em, but at the end of the day your family is your family, and despite all the bad stuff, harsh words, idiot actions . . . you can't not love them.

I have a big family, and despite the fact that I don't get to see half of them most of the time, and the fact that I don't always get along with some members, or others infuriate me; I still love them and support them in all they do. And at the end of the day you have to, or more to the point you should, because that is what your family is for; support.

Margaret - Maggie - West, the leading lady of my sweet contemporary romance, "Stepping Stones," forgets that. She makes a spontaneous decision, and runs away from her family over a matter and then cuts herself off from them for six years. When she finally goes back she has a lot to answer for, and things that she needs to figure out.

I had the idea for this book a good couple of years ago. It was actually a dream I had where I was playing Maggie's part. This story is practically innocent compared to every other I have written, but in a lot of small ways - and thinking about it after the events of yesterday - this book is probably the most personal to me. There are a few similarities in relationships, and some of the thoughts she has in regards toward her family, well, I have had them myself, if that makes sense?

I'm not going into detail about that, mainly because it is indeed personal, and also because if you decided to read it you will probably be trying to figure out which parts I'm talking about; and I think I want to leave you all to guess. Yeah, I'm mean like that. ;-P

Anyway, fingers crossed this book should be released by the end of the month. I wish I had a book cover to show you, but I don't. So for now I am going to leave you with the rough blurb:

There's nothing like a wedding to bring the family together . . . .

And if it wasn't her baby sister's wedding, Margaret West wouldn't be returning home at all.

Why else would she go back after six years, knowing full well that she has people to face, and explanations to give?

If her parents interrogation isn't bad enough, the fact that she has to be civil to her foster brother, Adrian, is. Best friends since childhood, they haven't spoken since he went to America . . . The day before Margaret was supposed to be getting married.

And to make matters worse, her ex-fiancé, William, is the Reverend who will be conducting her sister's wedding ceremony!

All want an answer from her, and they aren't taking "no" as one of them. Why did she run in the first place? Why has she been so angry with, Adrian? Why didn't she marry, William?

Margaret isn't even sure that she knows the real reason any more.

Yucky Feelings and My New Book Trailer.

I missed last night's post because I was riled up and went to bed with a bad taste in my mouth. No, I really should not write blog posts when I'm feeling yucky, so I didn't. I had horrible dreams about people spitting in my hair. Isn't it fun being a creative soul? Isn't it fun having an emotional nature? The skill and art of detachment is a life-long process, let me tell you...

Anyway... if you haven't seen it or had enough of it yet, I am posting here my new trailer that I made for one of my current WIP The Last Dragon - something I do not feel yucky about in the slightest :)

(contains spoilers for The Witching Pen trilogy)



And I got some writing done last night too... So I've decided that today is going to be a good day :)

Have a great Friday, everyone! xxx

Small side project(s)

So, this post is a little late. Mainly because I wasn't a hundred percent sure what I wanted to blog about today. This last week has been rather slow. I've had a cold, which hasn't been fun, and I've been feeling a little eh today. Not sure why, but hey, what can you do? Tomorrow is another day.

Last Monday I mentioned a small side project that snuck up on me. I'm still in the early stages with it and don't have any excerpt that I'm happy with to actually share, but I can tell you that it features an Incubus. Oh yeah, sexy demon time. ;-p

A little inspiration found with the help of google images.

The story is going to be short, and in two parts: part one: Let me in, and part two: Let me stay. I can't see either story being longer than about 4/5k and that is basically because they are more on the dark erotic side. No happily ever afters, well, at least not in a romantic sense any way.

I'm actually enjoying how sexy and uncomplicated this little number is. The story hasn't got a heavy plot. It's interesting without being complicated, and it's sort of refreshing from everything else I have written to date.

Unfortunately, I find it rather difficult to write more than one story at a time, but I kinda get why some writers take breaks from bigger projects to do a little something on the side. Snaps the knots which are so easily created sometimes when planning bigger books.

But yeah, I'm creating my own brand of Incubus and a way in which his kind work. Although, his victim may soon regret locking eyes with him in a crowded room. Sex is fun, but if you're not careful, it can be deadly.

*Cue evil laughter*

Hopefully by next week I will have a tasty excerpt that I can share. :-)