Shelli Stevens

So I went out of town yesterday. Kind of a last little overnight to the parents’ cabin before the kid starts school. There’s no internet, so I get lots of writing in and the kid gets some fishing and beach time in. I hit a bunch of YES!! moments in the book I’m working on. So excited for it. Plus I’ve got a couple projects in mind to work on next. All are so different that it’s a bit exciting. Fortunately I write at a decent pace.

Anyway, I came home and was inspired to check my Amazon statistics. I found myself in a very lovely Lora Leigh/Jaci Burton and Nora Roberts sandwich in the top 100 romance best sellers. Amazon is fickle and changes pretty quick, so why yes, I did take a screen shot (you can click to make it big!). I’m still bouncing.

This is my cat Neo.

This is my cat Neo after the kidlet has play time with him…

I’d say I have a pretty patient cat. :P

My friend and chaptermate Susanna Fraser has her very first book out with Carina Press! I’m so excited for her because I know how talented she is and how awesome this book will be! So here’s a peek at her release and the info on where you can buy it! I’m hearing lots of buzz on it and it’s downloading to my Kindle right now! There’s also a lot of buzz on her website ;)  http://www.susannafraser.com/

Highborn Anna Arrington has been “following the drum,” obeying the wishes of her cold, controlling cavalry officer husband. When he dies, all she wants is to leave life with Wellington’s army in Spain behind her and go home to her family’s castle in Scotland.

Sergeant Will Atkins ran away from home to join the army in a fit of boyish enthusiasm. He is a natural born soldier, popular with officers and men alike, uncommonly brave and chivalrous, and educated and well-read despite his common birth.

As Anna journeys home with a convoy of wounded soldiers, she forms an unlikely friendship with Will. When the convoy is ambushed and their fellow soldiers captured, they become fugitives—together. The attraction between them is strong—but even if they can escape the threat of death at the hands of the French, is love strong enough to bridge the gap between a viscount’s daughter and an innkeeper’s son?

Buy links:

Direct from Carina Press

Amazon Kindle Store

I’m really excited to say I’ve accepted an offer from Carina Press for my book Negligee Behavior. I absolutely love this book. Love! And I’m so glad it’s found a great home.

Though the contract isn’t signed yet and there will likely be some changes, I posted a peek at the premise of my book (or the blurb I sent when I submitted!). Of course I’ll keep you updated on when this’ll come out and all that good stuff!

“Lingerie heiress” Brandy Summers is trying to live the simple life. But when her boyfriend Gordon suggests a quickie wedding while they’re in Vegas, complete with Elvis impersonator and inflatable arch, Brandy has second—and third—thoughts. Being thirty and single has to be better than marrying a reality show dentist who only loves her for her perfect teeth.

Kyle Vargas has given up the rat race to open a bar with his friend—determined to live a more uncomplicated life. Until he’s hijacked by a runaway bride who takes over his motorcycle…and starts to take over his life. He swore he wasn’t going to get involved, especially with a good girl wanting to turn bad, but he’s finding Brandy harder and harder to resist.

Now they’re both on the run from Gordon, who’s become surprisingly aggressive in his pursuit. As Brandy starts to let loose, she realizes that maybe being a bit naughty isn’t as horrible as she thought. But how long can a good girl be bad? And is Kyle really all he seems?

I’m blogging at the Bradford Bunch doing a summer wrap up and giving away a book off my backlist! Hop on over to comment for a chance to win!

http://www.thebradfordbunch.com/

Welcome to another Snippet Saturday! Today’s theme is ‘Characters Interacting’. My snippet is from my most recent book Going Down. Check out my excerpt and then hop on by to the blogs listed below.

Holding Out for a Hero, Book 1

Eleanor Owen needs to get out of Chicago and quick. It’s not that she doesn’t want to obey the subpoena to testify against her drug-trafficking ex-boyfriend. It’s making it to the witness stand alive, should a dirty cop make good on his threats.

Tiny, remote Wyattsville, Oregon looks like the perfect place to disappear, but it’s hard to blend into the woodwork when one of the town’s infamous namesakes sends her heart racing. Worse, Mr. Tall, Hot and Packing is the town sheriff, which means she should stay as far away from him as possible.

Tyson Wyatt is positive the sexy new girl in town is hiding something. Question is, what? He vows to feel out her secrets—including what she feels like beneath him. Preferably naked. Until then, he’s not buying the story she’s selling.

Their chemistry is sheet-melting hot, and Ellie realizes much too late that the man with the badge is as dangerous to her heart as her ex is to her life…

Now Available at Samhain Publishing

Buy on Kindle

Buy at Books on Board

Buy at Barnes and Noble

EXCERPT

After climbing out of the patrol car, Tyson headed to the shop and then ducked slightly to get his tall frame under the pink overhang that was supposed to resemble the frosting on a cupcake. He entered just in time to hear his brother begging for food.

“Come on, Kate, just one chocolate cupcake,” Todd pleaded with his most charming grin. “Besides, have you supported your local firefighter today?”

Tyson rolled his eyes and approached the counter, wondering how many times his brother had used that line to get free food from Kate. Although, it probably didn’t help that Kate had been nursing a crush on the youngest Wyatt brother for years now.

And Kate’s scowl wasn’t convincing, because her cheeks were flushed as she muttered, “I support my local firefighter every day of the week! If I give you cupcakes all the time, Todd, I swear to God, I’ll be working for free.” Still, a moment later, she reached for one of the frosted treats.

“I’ll support the firefighters today,” Tyson intervened with a grimace. “Just put it on my tab, Kate.”

“Ty, when did you get here?” Todd turned away from the counter, cupcake in hand and flirting with Kate forgotten.

“Just dropping in for a few,” Tyson murmured, feeling a twinge of sympathy for Kate when disappointment flashed in her gaze. But then she lowered her head and busied herself with something behind the counter.

“Coming in for breakfast?” Trevor, the oldest Wyatt brother, called out from where he sat by the window, reading the paper. He’d driven down for the weekend from Fort Lewis in Washington State, where he was currently stationed in the Army.

“I would, but some of us work for a living.” Tyson grinned and scratched the back of his neck. “Got a question for you guys, though. Anyone know anything about the new gal renting the Bakemans’ place?”

Trevor shrugged, but didn’t lift his gaze from the paper. “Heard she’s hot.”

“Wait, what’s this about a new hot chick in town?” Todd asked, pulling out a chair at the table.

Annoyance had Tyson’s smile tightening. Usually the fact that Todd flirted with anyone with breasts amused him, but thinking about his younger brother dropping by Ellie’s place wasn’t quite as funny this time.

“Don’t know much about her. But I’m planning on remedying that,” Tyson admitted.

Trevor lowered his coffee mug as his brows rose. “Interesting. I do believe our brother just staked claim on the new chick.”

“Suck it, Trevor. I’m just saying—”

“That you think she’s hot and we should back the hell off. We got it, bro,” Todd inserted before taking a huge bite of his cupcake.

Tyson stared at them in disbelief, heat stealing up his neck. Staking his claim on Ellie? Hell, he didn’t even know her. All he knew was she was a stranger in town who ran from law enforcement. Which was not a good sign.

“Shit, you guys are impossible,” he grumbled. “Let me know if you hear anything about her.”

Then he turned to leave the shop and head back to his patrol car to see what dispatch had discovered.

Lauren Dane
Mari Carr
McKenna Jeffries
Shelley Munro
Taige Crenshaw
Vivian Arend
HelenKay Dimon
Jody Wallace
Shelli Stevens

I’m off again. I only have a quick second to check in and say… see ya! Off to Disneyland with the kid. Hope everyone’s having a great summer!

So I think I mentioned I was going camping, right? Well…it was pretty fun. For the most part. First let me say, I’m a half-arsed camper. I am. I enjoy sleeping in the tent and bonding with nature. But I’m not crazy about the mosquitoes part and I do want my Starbucks in the morning. Oh, and I MUST. HAVE. A. BATHROOM.

So here’s the break down of my trip. I took the kid and niecelet over to Eastern Washington. We camped at Wenatchee State Park which was just beautiful and had a great lake! Yes, I dragged them away from the campsite daily to shop in quaint town of Leavenworth where I could also get my Starbucks fix. We did some mini hikes, went swimming, the usual camping stuff. And one day, we decided to drive for an hour or so to visit my niece’s grandma in Lake Chelan. Heck, I hadn’t been in awhile and it’s beautiful there, right?

Well…it was. Until these weird dark clouds started rolling in. And we’re like…hey, those kind of look like thunder clouds, but they weren’t in the forecast, were they? Yeah…anyway. So we decide to head back to the campsite. That’s when the thunder and lightening start. And then the rain. And it’s raining hard and fast. Soon we hit the main highway andtraffic starts to slow way down. I look to the side of the road and what do I see? These giant crates just floating–floating–down the street. Or pretty much river.  And within minutes, it’s pouring into the street.

It was kind of surreal, because I recently wrote a flash flood in one of my books. So I’m staring at this going WTF? Then I went…oh my god. I know what this is! And cars were turning around and trying to drive through it. And this river of mud was just pouring down the street. And I’m in this small Honda while all these trucks around me are just thinking they’ll wait it out. After a bit of panic I manage to steer through it and you can see the side of my car from the result. I’ve realized I’m a bit of a reporter, because as I was doing this, I was taking tweeting and taking pictures with my phone, or having my niece do it (kid (6) was freaking out in the back seat).

So we turn around, make it back to Chelan and try to wait it out in a pizza joint. But it never stops. And we come across some lovely people who offer to lead us on another road out (because the road we knew was soon closed due to the flash floods).

We made it out, driving in massive thunder and lightening and rain storms. And it was so fascinating and exciting. And not as scary once we weren’t trying to drive through a flooding street. My niece took pics of the beautiful sunset and now wants to become a storm chaser (yeah, my brother thinks I’m GREAT now).

But we survived and I’m totally excited to share the pics and blog! Yay!

My book Going Down has been hanging out the past few days at #2 on the best seller list at MBAM! Thanks so much to all who’ve bought it and I really hope you’re enjoying it! It’s also on sale at Amazon as well and has no reviews yet. If anyone has read it and wants to leave a review, I wouldn’t protest :P

So I’m heading out of town again. Camping with the kid and niecelet! I’m not the best camper, but I do all right. I’m kind of excited, actually. No internet (whoa…not even my computer to write) and just bonding with nature. My daughter’s front tooth is very loose, and I’m REALLY hoping it falls out before we leave. Because I so don’t wanna have to explain to her how the toothfairy couldn’t find her whilst out camping.

On the writing note, I’m super excited because a book I’ve been working on to target a certain publisher has been revised and sent back to my agent. Then hopefully back to the pub soon. Fingers crossed. Though I know I’ll be waiting for a bit, so back to more books in progress.

Anyway, off to knock off some things on my To Do list. Have a great week, all! And to those in Orlando for RWA, please know how bummed I am not to be there this year and I hope you have a great time!

So I went away for a few days with one of my good friends to Whidbey Island. I mean she is the best. I’ve known her for thirteen years. We have fun together. Crazy fun sometimes that I can’t talk about on the internet. She’s always challenged me to be a better person and have more fun in life. I watched her get married two weeks ago today. It was a small courthouse wedding, and it was awesome. So much love between those two, they didn’t need to invite a few hundred people or spend a lot of money. I was with her the night she met her Navy man during one of our impromptu little I dare you moments in a bar. And I was with her after she just sent him off on the boat for almost a year.

We had a girls’ weekend (with the kids–we were both single moms, until she got married!) We hit up a local winery, sat up on the beach watching the sunset and drinking Farm Boy. Talked life and love. We hiked. We walked. Hit the local Farmer’s Market. We ate. Gah. Don’t get me going how we ate.

There’s been times in our lives where we went almost a year without checking in with each other (I blame her–I’m always online!) but we pick right back up when we’re done. Because we’re that close. She’s my sister (she calls me her white sister, or culocha–which I thought meant ‘curly haired’ but when I just Googled it it came up with ‘fire in the p*ssy’ in Spanish.  Hmm. Gonna have to ask about that. Maybe I’m spelling it wrong).

I write about love, but you’ll also see I write about friendships a lot (like the Chances Are series). Friendships aren’t perfect, they can be just an convoluted as any romantic relationship. Friends are huge part of my life and always will be. I cherish all my friends. Wouldn’t be where I am without them.

Today I wanted share how special just one of them is to me.