Christmas Close Down 2013

Good morning! Well, Christmas is nearly upon us and in the maelstrom that is Christmas shopping and preparations, I hope that you’re all staying safe and keeping tempers cool. I know exactly what it’s like when emotions flare, nerves get on end with the constant stream of cheesy Christmas carols burbling out of those tinny supermarket speaker, and children seem to need a firm hand when they act up in the aisle next to you.

I’m still job hunting *sigh* after four months of being out of work. I’ve never been unemployed so long in my life, even when I was on maternity leave with my first born. I have been on interviews but a lot of them are waiting until January to make decisions. I am lucky that in the meantime I can focus on my writing, and keep myself busy doing something I love. All my book deadlines have been duly met PRIOR to deadline date ( how wonderful is that!) so there is a silver lining somewhere in that black unemployable cloud.

So I’m trying merrily to keep up that stiff upper lip and see the future in a positive way. I firmly believe that what will be will be and when the right thing happens, it will be all the more rewarding.

I want to say each one of you, stay safe, be happy and enjoy the family and friends over Christmas and New Year. Look back on the year past and take with you the good things you remember. Try and look forward to 2014 with optimism and of course, always learn from the lessons of the past.

I wish everyone of you a wonderful and prosperous 2014. May it bring everything you hope for it.

I’ll be busy managing my new Christmas release ‘Worth Keeping’ which is due out on the 23rd December. If you’d like any details about it, here’s the book trailer

and a pre order link.

http://www.boroughspublishinggroup.com/books/worth-keeping

I hope everyone out there is feeling happy and festive, and looking forward to the holidays. These are just a few of my favourite pictures of that time, most of them taken in Austria when we were there plus one my hearth at home filled with Christmas presents.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE !!

My latest release ‘Worth Keeping’

Hooray!! It looks like I have a confirmed date for the release date of my new book, ‘Worth Keeping’. It’s the 23rd December so Nick and Owen (and Socks the monkey) will be here in time for Christmas. (Owen’s the dark haired one -sexy isn’t he?) And Nick’s yummy too. And even more exciting is that there will be an exclusive *Cover Reveal* with Shh Mom’s Reading (http://shhmomsreading.com/) on the 12th December with an Excerpt and Giveaway too.

Oh and don’t forget the bonus scene from ‘Saving Alexander’ with Alex and Sage with http://shhmomsreading.com/ on the 17th December along with their review as well. Wow, that’s lots to look forward to. It must be Christmas lol.

This is what ‘Worth Keeping’ is all about….

Abused horrifically as a boy, Nick Mathers has come to terms with his existence as a man. Mostly. Other days life seems a little much. Especially when Nick knows he’ll always be alone.

On those days his thoughts turn black. He walks the Norfolk coast and considers the frigid embrace of the waves. And then, one stormy night, he finds someone who’s tasted just that. The beautiful stranger on the beach is near death, and Nick rushes him home to slowly nurse back to health. As he does, he finds a love unlike any other. Owen Butler’s body is as warm as the sea was cold, his heart as big as an ocean. And Owen is a man who swears to repay the favor. Nick can yet be saved from himself, and he will see that he is indeed a man…
WORTH KEEPING

Lighthouse on the coast

Nick Mathers

Owen Butler

Socks, Nick’s pet

See all the pictures for this book on my Pinterest Board

Recent blog hops and winners of Stripped Bare.

Well, the TRR and Safari Heat blog hops are over now and I hope everyone had fun -until the next one at least. Thanks to everyone who stopped by and commented, your participation is really appreciated.

I wish everyone could be a winner of the e-book prize but unfortunately, that’s not possible. So without further ado, here are the winners randomly selected from the entries on the blogs.

Winning a copy of Stripped Bare – I decided to give two/three copies away as there was a great response.

The Romance Reviews Blog Hop

HB
Trix

Safari Heat Blog Hop

Jean
Catrina
Amanda A

I will be in touch by email to find out what format you’d like so I can send you the book.

In the meantime enjoy this very sexy picture and Happy Tuesday!

Guilty Indulgence Blog Hop

http://guiltyindulgencebookclub.blogspot.com/p/blog-hops.html

Here’s the thing. My debut novel was called Cassandra by Starlight and it included a fairly controversial topic abut female on male rape. I did a huge amount of research for the female on male rape scene as it was something new and appeared to be a fairly contentious issue. I came across some real life experiences and men’s views and one of them that really impacted on me was a story and some views by a man called James A. Landrith who’d been subject to this very thing.
James was matter of fact, truthful and at the time of my research, he was openly active in helping promote the awareness of male rape and disprove the misconceptions out there. I used James’ views and the research and blogs etc he’d done as the basis for my rape scene for my leading man, Bennett Saville. At no time did I make actual contact with the man and his material went into my ‘research’ archive in my Google mail account.
As is the practice being a self promoting author, Tweeted , Facebooked, Google +’d and blogged the news about my book all over the place in the hope someone was listening to me. Imagine my surprise when James contacted me via Twitter over this past weekend and gave me the links to recent posts and some more information. He’d seen my promotion post on Twitter somehow and decided to get in touch. We chatted online, had a few messages pass between us and James then surprised me with the fact he’d written a blog about it on his own site and would I mind if he published it, together with links to my website and my book. I also gained a new reader as he downloaded the book to read.
There are two reasons I said a resounding ‘Yes’ to this. One of them is a purely a selfish one – my book was getting exposure to people I otherwise might not have reached. The second one, and honestly, the more important one to me, was it was getting publicity in a way that really mattered – in the context of a really social conundrum that lent itself to discussion and debate.

So, to see a really controversial subject that I used in my book promoted and written about in the way that James has done, lends credence to the fact that we can also use serious topics in our romance books and that sometimes our writing does have an impact on others. It’s awe inspiring for me as an author to see my book written about in this way and I am truly grateful to James for giving me the opportunity to do so.
You can view James’ blog and his comments on my book here – he is a self proclaimed ‘left libertarian blogger, publisher, Marine and civil liberties activist.

http://jameslandrith.com/content/view/3904/79/

The first in the Starlight series of books

I’m now writing M/M Romance books although my Starlight trilogy is still going strong. For this blog hop, I’m giving away a copy of my latest best selling release, Stripped Bare (e-book only -available in mobi, epub and pdf formats) via random draw. To qualify you need to leave a comment on this guest post -you must include your email so I can contact you if you win. If you’d prefer the first book in the Starlight series, ‘Cassandra by Starlight’ leave a note in your comment and I can certainly accommodate that request.

You can purchase the book here

Boroughs Publishing Group http://www.boroughspublishinggroup.com/books/stripped-bare
Amazon.com http://amzn.to/16j78uL
Amazon.co.uk http://amzn.to/19wW6oO
All Romance ebooks http://bit.ly/18MvZHK
Kobo http://bit.ly/1cnHE1X
Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/339469

If you want to gain extra entries into the Giveaway, then you can do any of the following. (These are not mandatory, it’s up to you. But each one will qualify you for an extra entry into the draw)

Leave a comment – Please tell me whether you are a reader, an author and where you live
Follow my blog at https://susanmacnicol.wordpress.com
Follow me on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/susiemax77
Follow me on Twitter @SusanMacnicol7

Example of posting comment and detail needed to qualify:
Name: Sue Mac Nicol
Email: susanmacnicol7@gmail.com
Comment: Great Post
Twitter: Followed
FaceBook: Followed
Blog: Followed
Are You a Reader or Author: Author
Country You Live In: United Kingdom

To enter in the Rafflecopter and follow the hop, click the link below

http://guiltyindulgencebookclub.blogspot.com/p/blog-hops.html

Romance Matters – Making the genre more credible.

This is a direct appeal from Barbara Vey at Publishers Weekly

If you love Romance, then read along…

Dear Friends in Publishing,

Over the past 6 1/2 years, I have listened carefully to what you’ve had to say. The one thing I heard over and over again was how romance never received any respect. Many of you were thrilled when I started writing my blog because it seemed to make your genre more credible in PW’s eyes.

Well, I finally have managed to get a PW Romance Webcast off the ground. In the past, PW has done every other genre and even webcasts on Faith and Yarn that were highly successful.

The time has come for everyone to help support the romance genre. I really need everybody to sign up for the webcast (Sept. 17th Noon EST). Signing up does not obligate you to listen to the webcast. You can either listen live or later on iTunes if you’d like. It is absolutely free and listeners have a chance to win giveaways (because Romance is best at that!).

As you all know, everything is a numbers game, so we need the numbers. I’m attaching the logo with all the information in case anyone wants to use it on their websites, blogs or social media.

Here’s the link: http://bit.ly/13M3XeT

Please help me show everyone why romance is number one by registering for webcast and feel free to forward this email. It’s kind of like an election. Every single registration counts.

Thanks so much for your support over the years and please let me know if you have any questions.

Barbara

Barbara Vey
Contributing Editor, Publishers Weekly
Beyond Her Book blog
PO Box 438, South Milwaukee, WI 53172
Twitter
Facebook
Barbara Vey Reader Appreciation Luncheon
Barbara Vey Website

TRR Blog Hop – Sept 13 -21st

I’m showcasing two books on this Blog Hop , all books that I’ve really enjoyed and will definitely read again. They are Sarah Madison’s ‘The Boys of Summer’ and Lou Harper’s ‘Spirit Sanguine’

THE BOYS OF SUMMER BY SARAH MADISON

Sarah Madison writes a wonderful story of romance and love and the two MC’s, David and Rick are just beautiful together. One of the things I love about this story (and there were many) was the humour between the men. I really enjoy a reading journey that makes me laugh as well as cry. And I did weep, but I’m not telling you why. You’ll have to find out for yourself by reading it.

It was a sensual read and when the sex does happen, it’s intimate, wondrous and emotional. I loved the two stories twining together in this one to make a whole and you get a real feel for the developing relationship between these two men.

I reviewed this book for TRR and you can find my full review and the details on this book at the link below.
http://www.theromancereviews.com/viewbooksreview.php?bookid=9567

And now for Lou’s book…

SPIRIT SANGUINE BY LOU HARPER

Funny, often irreverent, sometimes tongue in cheek and damn sexy read is how I’d list this one. The story of Gabe , a vampire slayer, who meets Harvey, a rather camp but oh so sexy vampire. The two meet, the proverbial stakes fly, they work together to defeat a common enemy and in the process, have hot, raunchy sex, get to know each other and realise that yes, they were meant to be together.

There were places when I chuckled out loud and my husband growled at me to ‘Shut the hell up, no book could be that bloody funny’ -well it was after midnight 🙂 But yes, I did find myself with a few more laugh lines after reading this.

It was warm, sexy, pure fun and another book I will read again. I reviewed this book too and this is the link to follow if you want to find out more.
http://www.theromancereviews.com/viewbooks.php?bookid=8969

All the rules and how the hop will work it listed on TRR site. Follow the link below.
http://www.theromancereviews.com/hop.php
****************************************************************************
Giveaway – I’m giving away a copy of my latest best selling release, Stripped Bare (e-book only -available in mobi, epub and pdf formats) to a random winner who comments on this post. Please make sure you leave me an email address to contact you.

You can also buy the book here-

Boroughs Publishing Group http://www.boroughspublishinggroup.com/books/stripped-bare
Amazon.com http://amzn.to/16j78uL
Amazon.co.uk http://amzn.to/19wW6oO
All Romance ebooks http://bit.ly/18MvZHK
Kobo http://bit.ly/1cnHE1X
Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/339469

If you want to gain extra entries into the Giveaway, then you can do any of the following. (These are not mandatory, it’s up to you. But each one will qualify you for an extra entry into the draw)

Follow my blog at https://susanmacnicol.wordpress.com
Follow me on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/susiemax77
Follow me on Twitter @SusanMacnicol7

Example of posting comment and detail needed to qualify:
Name: Sue Mac Nicol
Email: susanmacnicol7@gmail.com
Comment: Great Post
Twitter: Followed
FaceBook: Followed
Blog: Followed

To keep hopping follow the link below.
http://www.theromancereviews.com/hop.php

Safari Heat Blog Hop Sept 11-16th

All the rules and how the hop will work it listed on the Safari Heat site. Follow the link below.
http://safariheatbooktoursandauthorservices.blogspot.com

I wanted to do something a little humorous for this blog hop. So I thought maybe a quick text conversation between my two characters, Shane Templar and Matthew Langer might fit the bill. Shane is a cheeky hacker, whose favourite tool (apart from his own) is a laptop called Bushwhacker and Matthew is a more reserved, responsible lawyer with OCD tendencies. He likes neat and tidy.

Please note there are some sexual innuendos and chat in this conversation so if you offend easily, please move on …:)

Shane Morning, lover. Hope you made it to work okay after this morning. You totally spiked my traffic this morning. I love morning sex.
Matthew Hell, you are dreadful, Shay. Where the hell do you find these sayings?
Shane I have my ways and means. About this morning – I love playing on your laptop, you know that.
Matthew Sex with you is always a pleasure. I can’t think of anything clever to say like you, I’ll have to Google something. But you have this of mine ♥
Shane Love you too, babe. Fancy doing a little peer-to-peer saliva swapping later? I’ll buy wine. Oh by the way don’t freak out when you get home. I didn’t line up the towels the way you like them. I left them on the bathroom floor, all wet and scrumpled.
Matthew Ha bloody ha. You wouldn’t do that. You know how much I hate it.
Five minutes pass
Matthew Shay, you were kidding, right?
Five minutes later.
Matthew. Bastard. I’m going into a meeting now, so switching off the phone. See you tonight x
Shane Actually I was wondering if you’d like to go back to My-Space, so I can Twitter with your Yahoo, until I Google all over your Facebook?
Matthew –OMG. You are insatiable. I love it. See you later, and then I’ll hack your kernel..
Shane Found the cheesy pick up line site did you? Have a good meeting. Love you x Oh and I was kidding about the towels. But I did mix up the tins in the cupboard…:)♥

Pick up lines and jokes courtesy of http://www.pickuplinesgalore.com/computer.html
****************************************************************************
Giveaway – I’m giving away a copy of my latest best selling release, Stripped Bare (e-book only -available in mobi, epub and pdf formats) via random draw. To qualify you need to leave a comment on this guest post -you must include your email so I can contact you if you win.

You can purchase the book here

Boroughs Publishing Group http://www.boroughspublishinggroup.com/books/stripped-bare
Amazon.com http://amzn.to/16j78uL
Amazon.co.uk http://amzn.to/19wW6oO
All Romance ebooks http://bit.ly/18MvZHK
Kobo http://bit.ly/1cnHE1X
Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/339469

BLOG HOP PRIZES

The GRAND PRIZE is a Kindle Fire HD 7″. Second prize is $100 Gift Card to Amazon or Barnes and Noble. However smaller prizes will be given away daily. See the Safari Heat blog hop link at the start/ end of this post for further details.

Please note that bloggers are not eligible to win prizes- this wouldn’t be fair and is one of the rules of the competition.

Physical books can only be shipped within the US and Canada, so please don’t enter for these prizes if you reside outside of these countries. E-books will be sent worldwide, of course!

If you want to gain extra entries into the Grand Prize Giveaway, then you can do any of the following. (These are not mandatory, it’s up to you. But each one will qualify you for an extra entry into the draw)

Leave a comment – Please tell me whether you are a reader, an author and where you live
Follow my blog at https://susanmacnicol.wordpress.com
Follow me on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/susiemax77
Follow me on Twitter @SusanMacnicol7

Example of posting comment and detail needed to qualify:
Name: Sue Mac Nicol
Email: susanmacnicol7@gmail.com
Comment: Great Post
Twitter: Followed
FaceBook: Followed
Blog: Followed
Are You a Reader or Author: Author
Country You Live In: United Kingdom

To keep hopping follow the link below.
http://safariheatbooktoursandauthorservices.blogspot.com

Fellow author Eric J Gates’ Blog

I was fortunate enough recently to be featured on the blog of Eric J Gates. Now I’ve mentioned before somewhere that Eric doesn’t appear to be a man you want to mess with. He writes thriller novels and he used to be a Management Consultant working internationally and specialising in IT Security and Contingency as well as Cyberwarfare. He’s also a martial arts expert holding 14 separate black belt degrees in various traditional fighting arts. Now you might want to run into him in a dark alley and take your chances but I sure as hell don’t. Who’d want to meet this frightening specimen of sheer power?

Having said that, Eric is a true gentleman and he loves to post interviews with fellow authors about the subject of writing. He’s passionate about his craft, and has been a real boon to me in getting my name and my work out there. So if you want to check out my guest post, as well as the fascinating post by Stephen Leather (yes the Stephen Leather) and other authors like Fleur Ferris and John Dolan, then head down to the link below and prepare to be entertained and perhaps even enlightened.

http://my-thrillers.blogspot.com.es/2013/08/my-guests-14-outstanding-authors.html

Blog Hop for my friend -Kindle Alexander ‘The Current Between Us’

My friend and great author, Kindle Alexander, has a blog tour going on at the moment. Now I have to tell you a little something about Kindle. She’s not only a great writer who writes books about men loving men and has the greatest characters ever with some of the hottest scenes, Kindle is also a very great lady. She’s kind, she’s funny and she’s helped me on my way to becoming a writer of M/M romance more than she can ever know. She’s been supportive and encouraged me every step of the way. So I owe her a debt of thanks. So as a favour to me and everyone who follows my blog and likes what I post (because why else you would be following me?) I’d love it if you could pay her a visit on her blog tour and leave a comment, maybe buy one of her books and generally just show her some love.

You can see a wonderful, entertaining interview below with Gage and Trent, the two hunky men from The Current Between Us at the link below.

http://twinsietalk.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/the-current-between-us-kindle-alexander.html

Older woman, younger man – May December love affairs

The first in the Starlight series of books

Bear with me on this blog post, and I will come to point of the title in a little while…
It will come as no surprise to anyone that knows me that I started writing ‘Cassandra by Starlight’ because I had the hots for Benedict Cumberbatch and the only way anything was going to happen in that arena was if I cloned him.
I’m no scientist so that was unfortunately not an option. However, the next best thing to having divine Cumberbatch cells cultivating in a petri dish, or the man himself being replicated in some futuristic cloning machine just for my own personal pleasure, was to create a fictional character modelled on him so I could have my evil way with him. *shivers at that thought*
Enter Bennett Devon Saville. (See what I did there –the name?) Thirty seven years old, debonair, sexy, auburn haired, green eyed, laconic, sophisticated, hot as hell London actor and thespian. With loads of money to boot. And a red Jaguar XKR convertible. In short, ladies and gentlemen, my hottest fantasy come true. Now I know there are people who know me out there rolling their eyes and tut-tutting in sheer resignation as I express these base desires. Sorry, chaps. I’ve never kept it a secret and it makes me a little sad but I’m prepared to suffer the consequences.
Now, it’s a little difficult to get down and dirty with a fictional character, however tasty they may be. There’s only one way to do that. You have to create another fictional character to take up the slack you yourself can’t get to grips with. And so Cassie Wallace, age forty seven, was born. Well she had to be my age, didn’t she, so the fantasy could play itself out in the most realistic way possible. And the two characters meet, like the look of each other, go to dinner, have a night of passionate, steaming sex and the rest – you’ll have to read the book to find out.
And now we get to the crux of the matter on the whole ‘older woman, younger man’ affair. There’s a ten year age gap between these two. Bennett is man who needs a little stability in his crazy, show business life. He finds Cassie’s maturity, her outlook on life, her calming presence and her feistiness a real attraction. Cassie finds Bennett sexy, attentive, willing to overlook the age gap, and downright horny for her. What woman in her right mind wouldn’t want this in a man?
I’ve read various posts and articles about the allure for these types of relationships.
The man likes it because
• The woman is self-assured
• She has life and sexual experience
• She has faced her insecurities
• She may have money
• Some men aren’t looking for long term commitment and think this is a way to get that
The woman likes it because
• She has a younger man on her arm, one who may physically be in better shape than an older one
• They have stamina
• They’re in their prime
• He makes her feel younger
• Some women aren’t looking for long term commitment and think this is a way to get that

There are countless reasons these couples may be attracted to each other. It’s not all about the older ‘Cougar’ going out to nab a man so she can showcase him on her arm like eye candy. But it’s a perfectly valid reason for some. And hell, if you can do it, why the heck not.
Bennett simply finds Cassie attractive –she’s a curvy size 16, but goes to gym, is a beautiful, mature woman who takes care of herself and has a sex drive to meet his (which is pretty rampant). He loves the fact she’s a self-made business woman, intelligent, sexy and grounded.
Cassie finds Bennett extremely attractive, attentive, suave, intelligent and funny. He’s a man who has a lot of ambition, the drive to get him there and he can take charge when she needs him to- both in and out the bedroom. He’s also warm and loving and protective.

Below you can find some links with articles to this topic, all giving different point of views. There is no right answer or motivation. The bottom line is that if you like being with someone, it should make no difference what their age, gender, religious views, or colour is. You’re just two people enjoying each other’s company. And to hell with anyone who says differently.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/6240396/Younger-men-dating-older-women-makes-perfect-sense.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/fashion/15women.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Linda Franklin, author of ‘Don’t Ever Call me Ma’am!’ http://www.sheknows.com/love-and-sex/articles/815463/older-woman-younger-man-benefits-and-pitfalls-1/page:2

To buy the books featuring Bennett and Cassie – ‘Cassandra by Starlight’ and ‘Together in Starlight’
http://www.boroughspublishinggroup.com/authors/susan-mac-nicol