Friday, August 29, 2008

Rogue Heart - On Sale Now!


Rogue Heart By Bernadette Gardner

A Chi-series-enhanced human, Onika can seduce any man, but the fatal flaw in her biological programming is that she falls in love with her targets. When Zed, the enigmatic scientist who created her, wants to see her, she chances a reunion, determined to convince him to change her biological programming and free her from her enslavement to chemical lust.When she finds Zed has been brutally murdered, she feels relief and terror. No one can save her now, least of all Aidan Fynn, the attorney assigned by Central Command to represent her. Given into Fynn's mercurial care, Onika faces the greatest challenge of her life to not fall hopelessly in love and lust with the former soldier once he learns the only way to gain her trust is to take her to his bed.

****

EXCERPT:

The first thing Aidan learned after being pulled from basic training and sent to study at Central Command’s legal academy was that both guilt and innocence were negotiable.

He’d waltzed into the prison in Yebec Cavern Settlement believing he’d be negotiating Onika Ramos’ guilt. After all, Central Command had briefed him on her history. She was Cy-Ops—a body reclaimed and rebuilt by Zed Lantrell in the early days of the man’s ambitious and somewhat psychotic bio-gen experiments. She had every reason to hate the man who’d plucked her from the comforting bosom of death and thrust her back into the Viliri war as a spy and a glorified sex toy.

Justifiable homicide would be easy to prove.

Now as he studied her from across the dimly lit interrogation room, he berated himself for not anticipating two things. One, that she’d actually seem indignant at the insinuation of guilt, and two, that even wilted from a full day in the custody of morons, her beauty would stun him.
Of course, she’d been made that way, designed by Lantrell to be irresistible to the opposite sex. He’d have to find a way to boost his immunity to her obvious charms if he was going to get this job done. He couldn’t afford to get sidetracked by those wide electric blue eyes, the silky curtain of hair, the perfectly seductive lips and skin like fresh cream.

He stood a little straighter and captured her sullen gaze. “We don’t have to work on your defense right this minute. Follow me. We’re going home.”

She tilted her head like a curious feline and smirked. “I don’t have a home, Mr. Fynn. Surely Central Command told you that. I go where I’m needed, stay until the job is done, and move on.”

“Well, right now, your job is to do as I say, and that includes going to my home—or at least my temporary residence here on Serilon. You’ll remain in my protective custody until your trial is over.”

The term “protective custody” seemed to startle her a bit. Here was a woman used to being owned rather than cared for. She rose shakily from the metal chair to which she’d been bound and paused to tug at the deliberately short hem of the tunic they’d given her. Aidan’s gaze followed her fingers as they brushed the tops of her thighs. Unbidden desire surged, and his cock gave an involuntary pulse.

If she were to reach above her head, the woefully inadequate garment would rise enough to reveal all of her secrets. Lightning fast, his mind provided a visual. She’d be smooth, exquisitely curved and delicate, and her ass would fit perfectly against his cock…

“I’m ready when you are.” She forced the words through a tight jaw and Aidan reined in his inappropriate thoughts. He didn’t fuck clients. At least not until he’d won their cases.

Onika Ramos was off-limits for the time being.

****

To find out more, or to order Rogue Heart, visit Ellora's Cave!


Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Danger Bug



In real life this massive, scary creature is a delicate butterfly we found resting on the pool ladder this morning.
I used my cell phone to take the picture, then e-mailed the picture to myself [if you know me, you know that's a major technological accomplishment!]. Doesn't he [or she?] look traumatically huge in comparison to the bedroom windows? LOL.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Coming out of my shell for a day


Being terminally shy, it's hard for me to come out of my shell sometimes. I'm a behind-the-scenes type person, hence why I chose writing as my profession and not acting or singing. [You can thank me for not chosing singing, btw. My voice has been known to make ear drums pop and small animals flee in terror.]
Anyhow, fellow author and Diva, Stella Price of the amazing Sisters Price writing team, invited me to join a group of authors at the Collingswood Book Festival on October 4th, and I'm going to go!
Now I'm all psyched about it actually. It should be a ton of fun and I hope anyone reading this who will happen to be in the area on that day would drop in and say 'hey.' I'd love to see you!
I'll be signing my Amber Quill print books and I plan to have lots of promotional goodies, so come by and get some loot.
I'll be posting reminders about the web between now and then, so spread the word around. A good time and some good books should be had by all. I promise to leave my shell at home that day.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Closure - I has it

I admit I'm a little behind the times, but I'm working on catching up. Last night I finally saw the final episodes of Charmed, Season 8 and now I've completed the series.

I have to say, here's another series I would recommend even though Joss Whedon wasn't involved in it.

Aside from a cute concept, Charmed has the following going for it:

1. Character growth - the sisters do evolve over the course of the show which makes it worth watching to see not just their hair and clothing change, but to see them weather the emotional turmoils their charmed existence throws at them

2. Consistency - without stagnation. I at least found each episode, which was centered in the Halliwell Hollow to have a familiar anchor. The show had a calming effect [yes, I'm weird], but it was like visiting friends. Over the seasons the characters evolved, but the house was always the same and that made it comfortable without being boring

3. Closure - this is the biggie. Some people might have found it sappy, but I loved the epilogue feel of the last part of the finale. The three surviving sisters [minus Pru of course who was suspiciously absent from everything after Shannen Doherty's unceremonious exit from the show, bet she's still kicking herself] decide to add their experiences to the voluminous book of shadows and viewers get a glimpse into their happy future.

That was a bonus I think - and why I love to add epilogues to my stories, because knowing favorite characters get to live happily ever after, really happily ever after, is important. I know a lot of people complained about the end of Harry Potter's final book, but I loved that too. I crave the satisfaction of knowing all the strife characters go through is not for nothing.

Now I need another great paranormal show to get hooked on. Any suggestions?


Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Totally Awesome

This may be a bit premature, but it's so darn awesome I had to post it. Here's my cover art for my August 29th EC release, ROGUE HEART!


I don't get a lot of covers with women on them, probably about a third of my titles have more than one person on the cover, or the heroine on the cover. I love this because because I get to see Onika Ramos as well as her hero Aidan Finn. It's almost like having a movie cast and getting to see the actor who plays your lead character.
I think it helps readers too, in a way. Sure, I make up faces in my head to go with characters I read, but if there's a great picture on a book cover, I have a place to start. Sometimes I can't see the characters looking like the cover art, but sometimes it's dead on.
Stay tuned for ROGUE HEART - 11 days and counting!

Monday, August 18, 2008

The life of Sisyphus

Last night I went to bed contemplating the life of the mythical King Sisyphus. If you recall the early Red Bull commercials, he's the guy who had to push the rock up the hill for eternity, only to watch it roll back down.

From Wikipedia:
In Greek mythology, Sisyphus (Greek:[Σίσυφος] (help·info)) (IPA: /ˈsɪsɨfəs/), was a king punished in Tartarus by being cursed to roll a huge boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll down again, and to repeat this throughout eternity.
Today, Sisyphean can be used as an adjective meaning that an activity is unending and/or repetitive. It could also be used to refer to tasks that are pointless and unrewarding.




I felt like Sisyphus because I tend to notice periods in my life where I seem to have to work twice as hard as anyone else to get half as much. It's gets tiring.

This fit of self-pity was prompted by discovering the e-mail informing me that my next EC submission received title approval and can now be contracted went astray, and that I've been sitting around patiently waiting for information that already came to me, but was lost. After immediately getting to work on said contract, I realized I have the wrong version and need to have a new one sent to me, which could take some time. So something I was hoping to get done quickly and efficiently, now could take a while. Of course, now I have to wonder what other e-mails never reached me. I'm waiting on the answers to several other questions from people, and perhaps they got lost too, so I'm blissfully twiddling my thumbs wondering why no one has gotten back to me and maybe they have and are now wondering why I haven't gotten back to THEM.

It's no one's fault really, just the universe letting me know that things can't go my way too easily. I have to push that rock up the hill a few more times.

DH is checking the e-mail program today, though I doubt he'll find anything wrong. I get plenty of e-mails from people and very little ends up in my SPAM folder these days, which is nice. Of course, the stuff I'm waiting for never gets there either.

Ah well. I suppose I should look in the bright side. As soon as I get the proper version of the contract, I'll have another EC release, which rocks! It's one of my best stories, I think. [More about it later] ROGUE HEART will be coming out in a few weeks, I'm mailing in the contract for my historical novella today, AND yesterday I completed the draft of the proposal for my next single title.

Overall I shouldn't complain, but the frustration gets to me now and then. Off to roll my boulder.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

TBB becomes TBR

In an amazing turn of events I won a $50 Barnes & Noble Gift Card during the Romance Divas Divas Not Going To Conference Conference last week.

I know! I never win stuff. I also won the My Funny Valentine Anthology from fellow Diva author Kissa Starling which is next in line on my TBR pile. Color me tickled pink! I love to win stuff and I don't get to do it often enough.

I received the gift card the other day and I went shopping, but not until making a painstaking list of must have books. I figured I would go with Diva books since there are so many I would love to read. Here's what I finally eeked out of the $50.00 plus a few extra bucks to be donated by DH.


Mutants and Masterminds: Wild Cards - All-in Adventure Anthology: Wild Cards - All-in Adventure Anthology - this one's for DH. He's been a fan of the Wild Card series for decades now, and to be honest, writing fanfic in this universe was sort of where I got my start

Faefever (Fever Series #3) - by Karen Marie Moning - this is a pre-order for September 16th. I cannot wait! I've loved KMMs work since cracked open the first of her Highlander series. She is absolutely and without a doubt my favorite author ever. [She's not a Diva, as far as I know, but we'd love to have her!]

The Darkest Night (Lords of the Underworld Series #1) by Gena Showalter - hot paranormal romance. I can't resist.

Charmed & Dangerous by Candace Havens - more hot paranormal romance. Do you see a trend here?

Everybody Loves Evie by Beth Ciotta - I love Beth's stories! I'm reading Romancing the West right now, and even though I've never been big on western themed stories, I'm really enjoying it. Her first Evie book, won a Golden Leaf at NJRW and it was a wonderful read.

Now I just have to wait for UPS to deliver all the fun.

What about the two dozen or so books already in my towering TBR pile? Uh...um...don't worry. I'll get to them eventually.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Where I am

This is where I am today, though I haven't done a lick of writing. I've been paying bills and now I'm fiddling around trying to upload said image to Romance Divas.


Thursday, August 14, 2008

Where I've Been

The view from the balcony of our room.




Signs at the entrance to Sunset Beach - a cool piece of history and the remains of a shipwreck.


Said shipwreck, still visible from shore.


I might turn this into a background. Searching for Cape May diamonds in the rocky sand.



A curious sea gull wonders if I'll feed him.




Thursday, August 07, 2008

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

I must protest



Let me start by saying I'm almost at the point where I might be convinced to do just about anything for money, but some people, IMHO, have already gone a bit too far.

Last night I caught a quick commercial while watching EUREKA that featured the latest Star Wars themed toy for kids. Now, its great that kids whose parents were kids when Star Wars came out can now play in the Lucas Megaverse, but I have to ask, why are the powers that be encouraging children to run around dressed as the often mindless drone-like, clone-like soldiers who were the BAD GUYS in the early movies?

Granted, it's wrong to discriminate against someone just because they're a clone, but hello - the stormtroopers were Darth Vaders evil army, and they were named 'stormtroopers' for a reason.

Now Lucasfilms wants our kids dressed up like lock-step marching, blaster-toting, identity-less minions?

Umm...what's the message here? Should someone go smack the captain of this moneymaking congolmerate on his noggin' and remind him that these were the BAD GUYS? Or am I missing something?

IN OTHER NEWS

I have officially forayed into historical fiction! With the acceptance of my pirate novel A Rogue's Reward [a JC title] by Amber Quill, I've taken a giant step back to the 18th Century. Stay tuned for more details. I hope you'll join me in the past for some plank-walkin' matey!

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Sunday, August 03, 2008

Wolfsbane 2 Releases Today!

Winner Announced!


Congratulations to
Gayle Oreluk!

Gayle wins a download copy of Wolfsbane: Aspect of the Wolf and a $5.00 Amber Quill Gift Certificate.

Congratulations Gayle!

I want to thank everyone who entered my contest, I had a wonderful response and I hope you all enjoyed the excerpt of Wolfsbane 2: Leader of the Pack, now available from Amber Quill Press/Amber Heat.


For even more on Wolfsbane 2: Leader of the Pack, join me at the Amber Heat/Amber Allure blog today for Wolfsbane Revisited!

Saturday, August 02, 2008

Wolfsbane 2: Leader of the Pack


I'm just posting the cover so I can get it into the sidebar - stay tuned for tomorrow's announcement of my contest winner!!

Friday, August 01, 2008

Only two days left!



I'll be announcing the winner of my contest on Sunday, August 3rd, so if you haven't entered yet, you still have time!

To enter, stop by my WEBSITE, read the short excerpt of Wolfsbane 2 posted on my contest page, then e-mail me the answer to the following question:

What percentage [or fraction] of werewolf blood does Vance Garrison possess?

Send your answer to jcolgan@newoa.com with WOLFSBANE CONTEST as the subject.

Randomly chosen winner will receive a free download of Wolfsbane: Aspect of the Wolf by Jennifer Colgan and a $5.00 Amber Quill Gift Certificate.

Winner must be 18 years or older to participate and will be announced on August 3rd 2008.