Autumn Harvest Blog Hop

Welcome to my stop of the

Autumn's Harvest Blog Hop.

More than 200 Authors and Bloggers will share their favorite things about Autumn. And while we do that, we are EACH doing a giveaway. Yep. There will be over 200 giveaways on each blog hosted by that Author or Blogger.

On THIS blog, you have a chance to win

a $10 Starbucks giftcard.

But that's not all...

This blog hop has THREE grand prizes. You as a reader can go to EACH blog and comment with your email address and be entered to win. Yep, you can enter over 200 times!

1st Grand Prize: A Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet

2nd Grand Prize: A $50 Amazon or B&N Gift Card

3rd Grand Prize: A Swag Pack that contains 10+ paperbacks, ebooks, 50+ bookmarks, cover flats, magnets, pens, coffee cozies, and more!

Good luck, and don't forget to include your email addy in your comments! Then click HERE to see a list of the other 200 bloggers.

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My favorite thing about this time of year

The best part of this time of year, for me, is the food. Nothing says Autumn to me like a nice hot bowl of soup or stew. I love to make it in the Crockpot, so it’s waiting for us when we get home from work or school. Yummy and so comforting. Then I curl in front of a roaring fire, with my bowl of soup on my lap and a wedge of crusty bread in hand for dipping. Pure heaven.

If you love a hot bowl of soup this time of year, you might enjoy this recipe:

White Chicken Chili

(I double this because the leftovers are even better!)

2 skinless chicken breasts, cubed

2 cans of chicken broth (reserve ¼ c or so)

1 tsp cumin

1 garlic clove, minced (or more if you love garlic, as I do)

1 tsp white pepper (regular pepper will work too)

1 can cannelini beans, drained

1 can Great Northern beans, drained

(*basically, just 2 cans of whatever white bean you like)

½ to one small can of mild green chiles

*If I’m in a spicy mood, I’ll add a shake or two of Tobasco

1 tsp cornstarch

¼ cup light sour cream

½ cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

 

Bring chicken, garlic and chicken broth to a boil, turn down to simmer. (Don’t forget to reserve ¼ c of broth). Add the rest of the ingredients EXCEPT sour cream and cheese. Cover and cook for 15 minutes. Mix together cornstarch and reserved broth, pour into pot and stir so it doesn’t get lumpy.  Stir in sour cream and cheese.

Serve hot with crusty bread for dipping!

 

 

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If you enjoy sexy stories set in the fall, you might enjoy my novella, MIDNIGHT TREAT. It takes place between Halloween and Christmas. Here's the blurb:

It’s mistaken identity gone erotically awry.

Josh Panetti breaks into an apartment Halloween night, thinking he’s fulfilling the sexual fantasy of a woman he just met at a costume party. Instead, he’s broken into Cassie Snow’s apartment. Cassie realizes immediately his mistake—she’d seen him at the party with her sexy upstairs neighbor. She should tell him he has the wrong apartment and the wrong girl. But she’s always the wrong girl. Would it be so terrible to be the right girl for just one night?

 

Available now!

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords

Alpha Male Blog Hop

Welcome to the Alpha Male Blog Hop

Oct. 19 - 22

What is your favorite thing about Alpha Heroes? Over 200 Authors and Bloggers will share their favorite things about those sexy men we know and love.

 

And while we do that, we are EACH doing a giveaway. Yep. There will be over 200 giveaways on each blog hosted by that Author or Blogger.

 

But that's not all....

 

We have THREE grand prizes. You as a reader can go to EACH blog and comment with your email address and be entered to win. Yep, you can enter over 200 times!

 

Now what are those prizes?

1st Grand Prize: A Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet

2nd Grand Prize: A $130 Amazon or B&N Gift Card

3rd Grand Prize: A fabulous Swag Pack as pictured here

 

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WHY I LOVE ALPHA HEROES IN FICTION...

I love a good alpha hero in my romance reading, particularly my erotic romance reading. I like to read about strong women (no wimpy, simpering girls for me), and a strong heroine needs a strong alpha man to complement her.

 

A great alpha hero is always in charge, in control and has a slight asshole edge to him. Alpha is mostly about attitude--self-confident, a bit egotistical, self-assured. Maybe even a little bit chauvinistic—he thinks it’s his job to protect the heroine, even if she’s certain she can take care of herself.

 

Like I said, he’s always in control...except when it comes to the heroine. Sexually, she can control him with a kiss, a touch or a lick. She can bring him to his knees with just a look. I love that.

 

 ...and apparently IN REAL LIFE, TOO

Way back when I was dating, I had a couple of rules:

 

1. I wouldn’t date anyone with arms smaller than mine or boobs bigger than mine.

 

2. If was ever threatened in a dark alley, I wanted someone who would have a good chance of defending me.

 

 

This wasn’t a rule, but I was also looking for someone with a strong personality, not a wimp like I can be at times.

 

Thus, I was looking for an alpha male. And I found one. But here’s the cool thing—we’ve been married long enough that I’ve tamed him. Oh, he still thinks he’s the alpha and still acts like the alpha...but we girls know the truth, don’t we?

 

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In my most recent release, MIDNIGHT TREAT, my hero Josh Panetti is most definitely an alpha male, especially in the bedroom. Here’s the blurb:

It’s mistaken identity gone erotically awry.

Josh Panetti breaks into an apartment Halloween night, thinking he’s fulfilling the sexual fantasy of a woman he just met at a costume party. Instead, he’s broken into Cassie Snow’s apartment. Cassie realizes immediately his mistake—she’d seen him at the party with her sexy upstairs neighbor. She should tell him he has the wrong apartment and the wrong girl. But she’s always the wrong girl. Would it be so terrible to be the right girl for just one night?

MIDNIGHT TREAT is available now

Amazon |Barnes & Noble | Smashwords

 

Thanks for visiting my blog! Leave a comment and your email address for a chance to win a $10 Starbucks gift card. Your comment also puts you in the running for one of those great Grand Prizes!

 

Visit our host site for links to all the other blogs. Every comment is another entry for a grand prize.

 

Bad dreams & nightmares

by Becca Simone

(Note: this posting first appeared on Eternally Books. )

In my erotic novella, DEEP BLUE, my heroine is kidnapped by the hero and taken to his undersea lair. When he tells her this, she thinks she’s in the middle of a bad dream or a major mind-fuck. It takes her a while before she realizes she’s not having a nightmare but living one.

I thought it might be fun to check the dream dictionary at Dream Moods (http://dreammoods.com) to see what the images she is seeing could mean.

According to Dreammoods.com, dreaming about the ocean “...is indicative of spiritual refreshment, tranquility and renewal.” That makes sense. Kate’s life is about to change and renew, for the better.

She is under the sea: “To dream that you are lost at sea suggests that you are drifting around in life without any direction. You are feeling overwhelmed by emotions.” She feels her life has no direction other than her career. And now that she’s met the hero, she is confused and overwhelmed with her emotions and feelings toward him.

To read the rest of the post, please go here.

The beauty and the beast mythology

(This post originally appeared in Carly Fall's blog. See link below.) 

DEEP BLUE, my recently released erotica novella, is an erotic and paranormal twist to the classic Beauty and the Beast story. In my story, the hero is cursed to live under the sea as a half man, half sea monster, unless he can find his true love. He has 100 years to find her, or he’ll live the rest of his life in the deep blue. Alone. When the story opens, he has just three days left, so he’s a bit desperate.

When you think Beauty and the Beast, you think of the Disney movie, don’t you? No, it’s not a trick question. That’s what I think of, too. But the beauty and the beast story dates back to mythology in the second century.

You can read the rest of the post here.

Hot Summer Nights Blog Hop!

Welcome to my stop of the Hot Summer Nights Blog Hop!

Over 100 erotica authors and kinky bloggers are participating in this blog hop, chatting about hot summer nights and giving away lots of great prizes. This hop is specifically for erotica books, so you like a lotta sex, you’ve come to the right place! Thank you Skye Warren for putting this together.

Grand Prize #1: $100 Gift Card to Fun Online Sex Shop EdenFantasys

Grand Prize #2: Grand Prize #2: Digital Gift Basket with 50 Erotica Books

Visit each stop on the blog hop for chances to win a different individual prize as well as be entered to win one of the grand prizes. Click HERE to visit the other bloggers.

A winner from THIS blog will win a copy of my newest release, MIDNIGHT TREAT. Leave your comment on this blog for a chance to win here and be automatically entered for the Grand Prizes.

ADDING SOME CHILL TO YOUR SEXY THRILLS

There’s nothing much sexier than getting sweaty with your sweetie under the sheets on a hot summer night. But what if it’s too hot? I don’t know about you, but nothing cools my libido more than being too hot (in a temperature sort of way).

Some fun ways to add some chill to your thrills:

1. Prop a fan at the end of the bed, directed toward the mattress. There’s nothing quite like a cool breeze on your naughty bits to fan the fires.

2. Take turns running an ice cube across each other’s body, blowing hot air onto the skin in the ice cube’s wake.

3. Hold crushed ice in your mouth as you go down on your honey. He’ll never be the same. Trust me.

4. Take a cool shower or bath. Together. Then take turns drying each other off, or whatever else you feel like doing as you're naked.

So TMI here, what are your favorite ways to stay cool on hot, sexy nights?

Don’t forget to leave a comment on this blog, then click HERE for a link to the other blogs.

When they're good, they're very very good...

But when they're bad...

Bad boyfriends. We’ve all had them. You know the ones. They come in many variations, from slightly bad to really bad. Maybe he never complimented you, or he belittled you in front of his friends. Or maybe he was nice to you in private, but a dick to you in public—or vice versa. Or maybe he made snide comments about your weight or appearance. Maybe he belittled your sexual skills, even if he was a lame-o in bed himself. Maybe he wasn’t faithful to you. Maybe he hit you.

This blog first appeared on Erotica For All. You can read the rest of it here.

Great review for DEEP BLUE

"This was a beautifully written and mysterious new story that will leave you wanting more."-- Katie from Curse of the Bibliophile blog. You can read the rest of her review here.


For the other stops on my blog tour, please check out CBLS Promotions.

My indie journey, part 5

Midnight Treat has been for sale for 3 weeks now. I made the decision last week to increase the price from .99 to $2.99. I'm still doing little to no promo--I purposefully haven't done much just because I wanted to see the results of doing, um, nothing. :)

Week 3:

Smashwords: 5 copies

Amazon: 18

Barnes & Noble: 21

Total: 44 sales

Week 2:

Total: 37 sales

Week 1:

Total: 24 sales

My sales are low, but I'm averaging about 2 books a day if you look at the total three-week period. That's not bad for a relatively (okay, almost completely) unknown author.

But now it's time to kick it up a notch. I plan to pick one area of promo/social marketing to focus on at a time. I'm currently on Triberr and Facebook and some indie boards, but I am not too active on them. So this week, I will focus on Facebook. I will post a status every day (right now, I'm lucky to post once a week) and will comment and like others' statuses on the Home page each day. I'm also going to start blogging more. How? Not sure yet. What will I blog about? Not sure yet. But this is my week to figure that out.

Will these two things generate sales? Check back next week to find out. I'd love it if you followed me on Facebook, too.

Happy writing. Happy reading.

:)Becca

My indie journey continues, part 4

I considered not writing an update this week, because my sales haven't really sped up, but I started writing this series so anyone thinking about self-pubbing could go through the process, good/bad/ugly, with me.

I'm still not really doing any promo for this story, so the slow sales reflect that. But my goal this week is to come up with a promo plan and actually follow it. :)

My sales after 2 weeks:

Smashwords: 5

Amazon: 14

Barnes & Noble: 18

________________

Total: 37 sales

I learned yesterday that Midnight Treat was approved for Smashwords' premium catalog, which means it'll now be available at Apple, Kobo, Sony. Hopefully, that'll translate into more sales.

WEEK 1

Smashwords: 3 copies
Amazon: 8 copies
Barnes & Noble: 13 copies

______________________

Total: 24 sales

PRICE CHANGE:
After reading some interesting blogs about how Amazon is reconfiguring their algorithms (don't ask what that means, cuz I really have no idea), and how lower-priced ebooks might be affected, I decided to try an experiment. I upped the price of Midnight Treat from .99 to $2.99. Which means I'll get 70% royalties rather than 35%. Which means I'll make more money selling fewer books. But it could also mean I'll sell fewer books period.  I'll keep it this higher price for 3-4 weeks and see what happens, if anything.

As always, I'll keep you posted.

Part 3...Dipping my toes in the indie waters

Well, I did it. I uploaded my story and it's now "out there" for everyone to see and buy. :) I was afraid about the learning curve for formatting for nothing. It was actually very easy to upload on the three main sites (Amazon, BN, Smashwords)--all three just require a .DOC file. Each has a few different specifications, but it was quite simple to do. Whew!

Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Smashwords

Available now for just .99!

My problem? I uploaded before really having a promo plan in place. I think I was in such a hurry to get something out there, that I rushed things a bit. So, I'll share with you my numbers for the first week, but keep in mind the only promo I've done is to announce it on my Facebook page and once or twice on Twitter.

My sales after one week:
Smashwords: 3 copies
Amazon: 8 copies
Barnes & Noble: 13 copies

Yes. I'm putting in my 2 weeks notice at work. Not.

Considering I don't really have a name yet, thus nobody knows me (yet), I'm okay with these sales. Did a little part of me hope my story would jump right into the Top 100 lists? Well, of course it did. But I didn't really expect that. Really.

Chocolate & Roses Blog Hop

Welcome to the Chocolate and Roses Blog Hop & Giveaway.

May 5 - 9, 2012

To enter, all you need to do is leave me a comment on THIS post, and tell me about a time that someone gave you roses and/or chocolate. Then you'll be eligible to win a copy of my newest release and a Starbucks gift card.

Be sure to scroll to the bottom of this post to see the links to other bloggers. They're each giving away something on their blogs, too.

Chocolate makes everything better

My story has to do with chocolate and love, but not the romantic kind of love. A few years ago, I was going through a particularly rough time in my writing career. My young teenage daughter knew how much I loved chocolate and remembered me making the comment, "Chocolate makes everything better."

So she had my husband drive her to the local sweet shop, and used her own money to buy me my favorite chocolate. They put the chocolates in a simple white bag. She wrote on the outside, "This will make everything better, Mom."

And you know what? It did make everything better. I still have that bag, by the way. But the chocolates? Long gone, of course.

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Here is a sneak peak of my newest story, an erotic romance that releases this week.

The man hooked his hands under the frame and tugged upward. She gasped. He was coming inside! He swung his leg quietly over the windowsill, his foot touching carpet.

“You told me you were on the fifth floor,” he said as he swung his other leg inside and unfolded to his full height. His voice was deep and raspy. His white teeth flashed in the dim light as he grinned.

Oh. My. God. He was in her apartment. “I, ah—” He must have seen her through the window and thought she was the other Marie. Again. Her insides fluttered with possibilities.

Tell him! He stalked toward the bed like a wild animal hunting its prey. He eased the sword from its sheath and leaned over her, holding it above her face. She, Cassie Snow, was smack dab in the middle of another couple’s naughty fantasy. Her eyes widened and need pulsed between her legs. Tell him he’s in the wrong apartment!

“You said you like to be scared,” he growled, right before he clamped a hand over her mouth and pressed the back of her head into the pillow.

He held the long silver blade in front of her eyes. “Make a sound and you’re dead. Understand?” She nodded and immediately stilled. She knew she should tell him he had the wrong girl. But she was always the wrong girl. Was it so horrible that she wanted to be the right girl for a change? Was it so wrong that she wished, just for one night, to be someone else? Someone who acted out naughty role-playing?

Barnes & Noble|Smashwords|Kindle

Available now!

All you have to do to enter the giveaway is leave me a comment on this post telling me about a time someone gave you roses or chocolate.

I will randomly choose a winner on May 10. Good luck!

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Here is a list of other Chocolate & Roses blog hop participants. Visit their blogs for a chance to win more great prizes!

1. Lea Barrymire 

2. Michele Hart

3. Rose Leigh Woods

4. Carolyn Rosewood

5. Rita Bay

6. JoAnne Kendrick

7. Becca Simone This is me, so you don't need to click here again. :)

8. Siobhan Muir

9. Camile Carson

10. Wendy Soliman

11. Kasey Dean

12. Alicia White 

13. Lynn Tyler

14. Hennesee Andrews

15. Christi Bart

16. Nicole Morgan

17. Missy Lyons

18. Jan Graham

19. Casey Crow

20. Simone Sinna

21. Lea Kinkade

Dipping my toes in the indie waters, Part 2

If you want to read the first installment of my little series about my foray into self-publishing, please go here.

Okay. It's been about two weeks since I got my rights back to my short erotic romance. I honestly thought it would be uploaded and "out there" by now. I was so naive. Sigh.

Here's what I've done so far. I have a sexy new cover. Check this out!

Isn't it gorgeous? And hot? Thanks to the fabulous Tamra Westberry for designing the perfect cover for a reasonable price. Her turn-around time was quick, too. I highly recommend her.

I rewrote the blurb, changing it just a bit from the original.

Midnight Treat blurb:

Josh Panetti breaks into an apartment Halloween night, thinking he’s fulfilling the sexual fantasy of a woman he met at a costume party. Instead, he’s broken into Cassie Snow’s apartment. Cassie realizes immediately his mistake—she’d seen him at the party with her sexy upstairs neighbor. She should tell him he has the wrong apartment and the wrong girl.

But she’s always the wrong girl. Would it be so terrible to be the right girl for just one night?

*****

But now, the hard part. Formatting. Again, my naive little mind thought I'd read an article or two about how to format, then I'd take a couple of hours and format my story, and voila, it would be done.

Yeah. In my dreams.

Considering that I'm a techno-dork, I have a steep learning curve. I'm reading a series about ebook formatting at Author E.M.S. (a great resource for authors, by the way), and this blog post by Cameron Chapman. I don't know yet if I'll learn all the answers here, but I'll keep you posted.

Damn. I hope the next time you hear from me, it's to give you the buy links to my newly uploaded story.

Real orgasms with real men are better than the alternative

Welcome to Sunday Snippets, courtesy of the sexy and sinful Red Lipstick Journals. Last week, you read part of my opening and met my cursed and haunted hero, Thaddeus. Today, let's meet his heroine-to-be, Kate.

Kate Hargrove moaned as his tongue flicked across her clit and his fingers pinched her nipples. Ungodly pleasure radiated outward from her core, curling her toes under the sheets. Her body arched off the mattress as the orgasm ripped through her and a scream of ecstasy burst from her lips—

Dammit!
Her eyelids popped open. She was dreaming. Her studly lover wasn’t real. But her sated body told her the orgasm was real. Her pussy walls still throbbed in the aftermath.

"Holy shit," she muttered, scooting to a seated position in the bed, wiping the sweat from her forehead with the back of her wrist. Why couldn’t real orgasms with real live men be as good as that one?

Because great sex required meeting a man, which required dating or at least getting out more, neither of which she had time for.

Genre: Paranormal erotic romance
Length: 24k

Available now at Bookstrand

Coming soon to other online bookstores!

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Find other steamy Sunday Snippets here.

DEEP BLUE Sunday Snippets #1

Welcome to Sunday Snippets. This is my first time on The Red Lipstick Journals. I hope you enjoy this snippet from my newest release: Deep Blue, available now at Bookstrand, and coming soon from most online bookstores.


He lifted his nose and sniffed the air. Over the strong, oily smells of the ship’s engine, he breathed in her scent. Her light, floral perfume couldn’t mask the sweet, musky smell of her sex. He closed his eyes and inhaled, focusing his thoughts between her legs.

Her soft moan cut across the waves, over the ship’s engine, and her startled eyes widened. Her hips shifted slightly, and he knew she felt his desire.

He smiled. She was the one.

"Good night, Kate," a couple said as they passed her. They said something else to her, but he no longer listened.

Kate.

If he still had a human heart, he might feel guilty, knowing what he was about to do, realizing the woman’s fate.

Death, for her, would likely be a blessing.

* * * *

Genre: Paranormal erotic romance

Available now|Bookstrand

To read some more great snippets and excerpts, go here.

Dipping my toes in the indie waters...

So easy a caveman can do it? We'll see.

I've been following with interest the journeys of my friends and fellow authors as they've decided to try their hands at self-publishing. Some of them have published original works and some have re-released stories that were originally published elsewhere.

Well, it's finally my turn. I just got the rights back to my erotica novella/short story MIDNIGHT TREAT, originally out with The Wild Rose Press in 2008. At first, it sold pretty well and garnered some great reviews, but now it's just selling 2-3 copies a month. On a good month LOL. I still plan to write for TWRP as they're an awesome, author-friendly publisher, but this story is making neither of us any money right now, so why not try self-publishing it.

MIDNIGHT TREAT has a Halloween theme, but other indie authors convinced me to release it now. Even though it's nowhere near Halloween.

I know next to nothing about self-publishing, so I thought I'd journal about the process on my blog. You can learn with me as I go.

The first thing I did, as mentioned above, was ask for my rights back from my publisher. I looked in my contract and realized they owned my rights for two years. It's been almost three. Your contract should specify how to go about getting your rights back. In my case, I just sent a simple email to the editor-in-chief. No big deal at all. I had the rights back within about a week. I was a little concerned about asking for my rights back when I hope to continue publishing with them, and mentioned this in my email to them. They were very kind about it -- no bridges burned there. Whew!

Next, I want to hire a cover artist. I asked around for some names, and already knew of some myself. I checked out their websites and portfolios, then contacted my top three choices. One immediately wrote back and said she's booked out and isn't taking on new clients. One never wrote back. But the third is available--yay!

Tamra Westberry was actually my first choice, so I'm really excited to work with her. She sent me a cover art questionnaire, which I'll be filling out ASAP.

What are my next steps?

1. Choose some stock photography that might look nice on my cover. This is easier said than done. Any idea how many zillions of photos there are out there? Holy cow. Trying to find one that suits my story is going to be a challenge.

2. Find out if I can use the original blurb, or if I need to rewrite it. If I need to rewrite it, then...

3. Rewrite the blurb

4. Read over the manuscript and make any necessary changes. After it was originally published, there were a few things I wish I'd written differently. Well, here's my chance.

5. ???? I don't know enough about this process to know what comes next. So, I guess I'd better start asking around, eh?

Until next time...

:)Becca

Welcome to my naughty little world

Welcome to my new blog. I figured it was about time I had a blog of my own, eh? I don't know how often I'll post. I guess when I have something to say, I'll post.

My exciting news of late is that my newest release, DEEP BLUE (see cover right over there. See it?) just came out with Siren-Bookstrand. It's available only at my publisher's website for about another month, then it'll be available at most online bookstore.

Thanks for visiting!