Let's Welcome @KaraLeighMille1 to the Divas Blog!

Hello again, Bloggerverse! 

This is your resident Diva, Rachell Nichole. I'm writing to you today with some super exciting news! Nona, Danica, and I would like to extend our warmest welcomes to Kara Leigh Miller, our fellow erotic romance author, and a good friend to us all! Kara and I just spent a wonderful week together in New Orleans, and she and I will both be talking a bit more about that very soon. But for today, I've asked Kara to share with us a bit about herself, so I asked her 10 wonderfully probing questions. And here are her answers... 

1. So, Kara, what do you write? I write a variety of things including romantic suspense, erotica, contemporaries,and new adult. I've even dabbled a bit in the young adult genre but found I didn't connect with it very well, so I'm sticking to the adult market. lol. Writing for adults gives me the freedom to turn up the heat and let things get sexy, which is always so much fun. 
2. Why did you decide to join the Divas of Desire? I adore the Divas! Having the pleasure of knowing these ladies in real life, I think they're a great group, they have a lot of fun, and I'm a fan of all their works. Honestly, who wouldn't want to be a Diva?
3. What do you like about erotic romance? The sex! Okay, so not the actual physical act, but the emotions behind it and the consequences. Sex always changes things, and I love seeing how characters evolve once they've done the deed. And I really like erotic romances when there's some humor before, during, and after the sex. 
4. What are you working on now? Currently I'm working on a few projects. I have a new series of romantic suspense novels, and I'm busy writing book two while my agent sells book one. I've just begun a collaboration with an up and coming author to write a semi-erotic, new adult, dystopian thriller. 
5. Tell us a bit more about you when you're not busy writing. It seems like I'm always busy writing. lol. But when I'm not, I'm spending time with my husband and kids. We can often be found at the park letting our kids play and our dogs run, at the movies (I'm a closet comic book nerd), or playing cards with friends.
6. What will you be bringing to our blog? I'm sure there's lots to look forward to, but would you like to share a little taste of what you'll be blogging about? Right now, I'll be blogging "Man Up Monday" and "Throwback Thursday". Monday will be devoted to all things heroes, including some yummy and probably inappropriate pictures. On Thursdays, I'll be giving a throwback shout out to all the authors, tropes, and covers who've come before us and paved the way for what we do today.
7. How do you write? I'm one of those writers who, when I get an idea, I sit in front of my laptop and just start writing. I rarely do any plotting, and if I get stuck, I'll dig out a notebook and a pen and write the old-fashioned way. 
8. What's your favorite book/favorite author? Wow. Picking a favorite book / author is like picking which of my kids I like the best ;-) I'm not sure I have a favorite book, but my top three favorite authors are: Lora Leigh, Julie Ann Walker, and Ryan Winfield.
9. Boxers or Briefs? Boxers! Preferably silk. 
10. Where can our readers find you outside of the Diva's blog? I'm all over the place. Twitter: www.twitter.com/KaraLeighMille1 Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003571898300 My website/blog: www.karaleighmiller.com 

Well there you have it, ladies and gents! Don't worry, I'm thoroughly in the process of turning Kara into a plotter, so there's no need to fret, everyone. Please join us in giving Kara a warm Divas welcome! She'll have some great (and inappropriate) things to share with us all! 

We'll be ramping up the blog in the coming months, so be sure to stick around and hold on to your hats as we share some "Not suitable for work" content, some behind the scenes looks at books, blogging, sex, and all things erotic romance! 

~ Rach

'Tis (almost) the Season!

I'm very happy to announce that my next book will be out in just a couple months from Loose Id! It is a holiday book, which was so much fun to write. 

I just came up with the title a few days back and I wanted to share it all with you. 

Spicy with a Side of Cranberry Sauce. I'm very excited about this book and can't wait to share it in all its glory with you. Here's the premise...

When Mason goes home to his mother's for Thanksgiving, he's determined to make sure to help her through the first post-divorce holiday without much heartache. Ever since she split from his jerk of a father last year, she's been walking around like the shell of the vibrant woman he once knew. So when she calls him in a panic with a list of things she's forgotten at the store, he braves the only nearby store still open the day before Thanksgiving. He sees the last can of cranberry sauce and is on his way to get it when a beautiful blonde in black biker boots slams into his cart. Boy, did he not see that one coming. 

Amy's a bundle of nerves this holiday season. It's the first time her father's been willing to celebrate since losing his wife over a decade ago. She's thrilled that Dad's finally ready to rejoin the land of the living, but she's terrified that one little misstep and he'll never celebrate anything again. She's praying it wasn't a mistake talking him in to accepting an old flame's invitation for Thanksgiving, and dreading what could go wrong. So when the sexy man she bowled into at the supermarket turns out to be Martha's son, she has no idea how to focus on holiday cheer and keep her desires in check. 

I hope that sounds as exciting to you as it does to me. The book was a lot of fun to write and now I can't wait for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Guess I'll have to get through Halloween and book edits before then. 

So, what do you think of the title, everyone? Has it intrigued you?? I hope so. Let me know your thoughts. 

Check back soon for updates on the book and don't forget to check out my first erotic romance, An Affair Across Times Square featuring two lawyers on opposite sides of Times Square and a murder trial. 

Talk to you soon, 

~Rach 

Why Times Square? A Q&A with Rach

So someone asked me this weekend why Times Square? She was really curious as to why I set An Affair Across Times Square in NYC, specifically in Times Square. I didn't have to think much about that, since I really had a great concept of where the whole idea for the book came from. 

I was at a conference in NY and staying at a hotel in Times Square and I came back to the room one afternoon to change between sessions and I looked across the street and could see into the office building there! And an idea was born. In the opening scene of the book, Layla Morgan goes back to her hotel room, gets partially undressed and... let's of some steam, shall we say? In full view of the building across the square.  Then she does it again... while he watches! It's a hot opening scene and it was the germ for the whole rest of the book. 

It couldn't have been set anywhere else in the world. I wish I had a shot from inside the room into the building across the street for your viewing pleasure, but I do not. Instead, here's a shot of Times Square that I took about five years back during a trip to NYC. I've always loved Times Square and all the craziness that ensues there. So it was a blast to set a book eighteen stories above the craziness... separate from it, but also so much a part of it. 

I used this photo as part of the promo video for An Affair Across Times Square. Check that out below: 

An Affair Across Times Square is available on Loose Id, Amazon, Barnes & Noble. 

Thanks for stopping by. And don't forget to enter our Three-Way Giveaway Contest - follow us, be entered to win three free books! 

~Rach

Fifty Shades: A New Perspective

Hi everyone, 

I know that the Fifty Shades trilogy by E.L. James has been talked about ad nauseum, but I wanted to offer up something new that I don't think has been discussed before. 

I don't want to talk today about the specifics of the books, or whether they were "good" or "bad" or "well written" or how much money James is making, or the characters in the books or even the plot lines. I want to discuss something I've noticed about the industry since these books have hit the shelves in the states. I had never heard of these books until a few weeks after coming back to the US in May of this year and suddenly, it was all anyone was talking about. The books were in K-Mart and Walmart as well as all major booksellers, nation-wide. 

And here's what I've noticed in the past two months. The ramifications for the industry of erotic romance (my industry) is changing before my eyes. No longer is erotic romance shelved off on its own in the book stores. It's not hidden behind other books, it's not secluded in one corner, it doesn't make up the "naughty" section of an otherwise "upstanding" and "respectable" book store. 

In Barnes & Noble, there are three front-facing racks of "New Romance" one full rack is the standard paperback size ranging from Historicals to Paranormals and everything in between. The second rack is Harlequin and all of this month's titles. Again, ranging from Paranormals, Erotic Romances, and Suspense. Between these two racks is a third I haven't really seen before. The top row of this rack is new romances in hard cover. There are only 7 of these. Below that are trade-paperback sized books. If you've seen a copy of any of the Fifty Shades books, this is the size that they were published in. Of these 24 covers, eight are erotic romance. Many of these books are also modeled after the cover of the Fifty Shades Books - dark covers with the pop of one element to attract the reader's attention. 

This means that out of 24 new romances on this set of shelves, 1/3 are erotic romance. This is unprecedented. I don't think I've ever seen it before. 

Is EL James the best writer since Jane Austen? Probably not. But that's okay. I've seen a lot of negativity surrounding this book the past few months, and people will always criticize, that's normal. But for those of you readers and writers in the industry of erom, or romance in general, I just wanted to share what I have seen that I think is a direct result of the Fifty Shades trilogy. So for that, I thank EL James and her publisher for helping to make this genre more widely-read and for helping to bring erotic romance to the forefront of the industry. 

Romance According to Rachell: The countdown

I hope you all didn't miss me too much last week. My rugrats were keeping me very busy. 


I have an official release date for the release of An Affair Across Times Square. So I'm here to celebrate with you! The release date is exactly five weeks from tomorrow. August, 21, 2012. Let the countdown begin! 


To celebrate this event, I put up a little snippet of the book on my website. Click here to read the excerpt. 


There's also a bit on that site about the process and idea for An Affair Across Times Square. So I thought I'd share a little more with you all about the book. Here's the little teaser that goes along with it...

Layla Morgan is tired of getting into trouble, and getting hurt. And she fears her wild nature is going to strike yet again. But maybe this time, she’s finally met the guy that can stand close enough to touch her inner flames, and not get burned. The man across Times Square seems enthralled by her wildness instead of scared in the face of it. He can’t seem to look away as she shows him just how much fun she can have… with herself.

After one glance of silky skin and talented fingers, Tyler Lachlan doesn’t stand a chance of resisting the delicious distraction of the mystery woman from the Marietta Hotel. He’s sure there’s more to her than her sultry voice and mahogany thighs, but he doesn’t know if he’s willing to risk his career to find out.

Could what began as a voyeuristic affair across Times Square develop into something more? 

And what better way to celebrate than by giving presents???? I'll be doing some giveaways here and on some other blogs over the next five weeks. I'm still scheduling my guest blogging spots, but check back here next Monday for the schedule and even maybe the first of my give-aways. 

~Rach 

Romance According to Rachell: New Cover

Good morning bloggerverse and welcome to the Divas of Desire! 


This week I want to share something awesome with all of you (don't you feel special?) I got my cover art! My artist's name is Valerie Tibbs and she rocks my socks. It's very difficult for an author to let someone visualize something that's been living inside your head for so many months (or years). In my case, Tyler and Layla were partly based on a model and an actor, so I had images in my mind of what they should look like. 

I was asked to give physical descriptions and some other information to the cover artist and also put in a decent-sized excerpt from the book for inspiration. I sent her a spicy little scene from the first section of the book and it did the trick! The cover is gorgeous and nice and hot! It's a great realization of the characters inside my head and inside the book. 

I quite like it and I hope you will all feel the same. So without further ado, here it is...

What do you think?

Romance According to Rachell: First signing

I just got back from Seton Hill University where I had my very first signing this past week. It was put on by the Writing Popular Fiction alum and it was a fantastic event. Lots of people stopped by to get some signed swag. Here are my pretty little post-cards that I signed that night. 

I had a blast! Lots of friends and fans stopped by for the cards and I held a short reading of chapter one later that night. It was a blast. I should have a short audio clip to post in the near future. Check back next week for that one. 

In other news, two new book ideas in the mix that I should start working on eventually. I'll be sure to share all the naughty details with you all soon. 

And I got to spend some great time with my editor from Loose Id, and a bunch of other friends last week at Seton Hill. :-) 

"Her Perfect Man" Releases Today!

Hi Friends!

Today my third erotic romance "Her Perfect Man" is being released by The Wild Rose Press. It's about Kim Hansen, who appeared in "One Good Man" and "Take This Man". I'm happy that she  finally has a love story of her own.

Blurb:

Kim Hansen has terrible luck with men. When her sexy downstairs neighbor shows a more-than-neighborly interest in her, she's suspicious. She's been burned too many times, by too many guys. Charlie Keller is smart, hot and successful--so what does he want with her besides a few nights of pleasure?

Though Kim does her best to shut him down, Charlie's not put off by her attitude. He doesn't scare easy. Kim thinks she's clever, using sex to keep him off guard and to maintain her emotional distance. But Charlie sees through her prickly exterior to her tender heart beneath.

But Kim needs to be won over. Sure, their bedroom action is awesome, but given her past mistakes, she's convinced that Charlie is too good to be true. Just too perfect. But if Charlie has his way, he'll prove that he's the perfect man for her.

****
If you visit my website, you'll see the tagline Edgy ~ Emotional ~ Erotic. I think my newest story fits this description perfectly.

It's Edgy because Kim has a knack for hooking up with men who don't appreciate her. When a nice guy like Charlie seems to like her, she doesn't know how to react. She has to look at herself and her choices in a new light.

It's Emotional because Kim has to face her past and come to understand why she made so those choices in the first place. She also has to open up to Charlie in a way she never has before. And Charlie learns that being with Kim can be, shall we say, challenging.

And it's Erotic because…well, while part of Kim wants to be careful, the other part wants to get Charlie into bed and burn up the sheets with him as often as possible. Sex is easy for Kim—it's emotions that are complicated.

I hope readers will be touched and entertained by Kim's story. I certainly enjoyed writing it.

To purchase "Her Perfect Man", click here

To learn more about Nona and her books, please visit www.nonaraines.com