Friday, December 28, 2012

A Holiday Gift - Dangerous Flirtation

I promised you a second gift for Christmas, and hope loads of you found a fabulous new Kindle under the Christmas tree so that you can take advantage of it! You can, of course, read it on your phone or your PC.

Dangerous Flirtation is vintage Liz Fielding. One of my earlier books, I've given it a light brush up and a fabulous new cover and it's yours to download free from 28 December to 1 January.

Here's the blurb -


Rose has her life all mapped out. A job she loves, a thoughtful, reliable fiancĂ©. Everything is just perfect until a stranger with laughing blue eyes and a roguish grin bursts into her life and turns her life upside down with a birthday kiss. Jack Drayton offers romance, excitement and passion – and he challenges her to accept. Dare she?

And an excerpt


Reluctantly she lowered her window. ‘Why are you still here?’ she demanded. ‘Didn’t Anthony pay you enough to move on?’ It was hateful, but she couldn’t help herself.

       ‘There isn’t enough money in the world for that, Rosie.’ He smiled, apparently relishing the memory. ‘I told him he’d better put it back in his piggy bank and save up until he can afford to buy you a ring.’

       She stifled a groan. Behind them someone hooted politely. Jack ignored the hint and leaned on the roof of the car, staring down at her. ‘Where’s he taking you for your birthday treat? A burger bar?’

       ‘A concert and then dinner at Michel’s,’ she said, a little smugly.

       He let out an ironic whistle. ‘Just as well I wouldn’t take his cash. Which concert? The Jay Livingstone Trio is playing at the jazz club, or perhaps that isn’t quite his cup of tea?’

       She stifled a groan. She had wanted to go. It wasn’t often these days that such a group could be tempted into Melchester, but Anthony loathed jazz and she hadn’t even dared suggest it. ‘It’s not my jazz club,’ she retorted, disappointment lending a sharpness to her voice. ‘If you must know, we’re going to the Guildhall, The Shostakovich Cello Concerto.’

       ‘Wouldn’t you rather come and listen to Jay?’ he asked.

       ‘You have tickets?’ she asked, surprised. They had not been cheap.

       ‘No need. Jay’s an old friend.’ He bent down beside her window, examining her face under the lamplight. ‘What do you say?’    

       Her heartbeat began to accelerate again. ‘I...’ She tore her eyes away from his. ‘No. Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous.’

       ‘I wasn’t being ridiculous, Rosie. You’d much rather come with me. Admit it.’

       ‘I’ll admit nothing of the kind.’ She put the car into gear and glared at him. Laughing, he stood up.

       ‘Better run along, then. You mustn’t be late. I’ll see you later, cheer your soul with a little blues.’ He glanced at the instrument case in his hand.

       She stared, horrified. ‘You wouldn’t?’ 
       His eyes gleamed wickedly in the subdued light. ‘I think you know that I would.’

       ‘Haven’t you caused enough trouble for one day?’ she demanded.

       His eyes teased her. ‘Rosie, my darling,’ he drawled. ‘I haven’t even begun.’ And with that he stepped back, leaving her free to drive away, but she couldn’t. Not before he told her why he was tormenting her.   

       ‘What do you want from me?’ she demanded.

       ‘Use your imagination,’ he said, roughly.

       She gasped then. She wasn’t going to use her imagination. It was a dangerous thing, the imagination. It conjured up strong hands and warm kisses to torment her.

      ‘What do you want?’ she demanded again. He didn’t elaborate, refusing to make it easy for her, but it was there in the raw challenge in his eyes and she felt as if a trap were closing around her.

     The knowledge that she had sprung it herself offered precious little comfort. She only knew that if she stayed another moment she would lose everything she wanted. Peace, contentment, security. Precious things. All Jack Drayton could offer was momentary passion, a transitory, crazy sort of excitement that would destroy her peace of mind and when it was over, leave nothing but the misery and humiliation her mother had suffered when her father had walked out on them both.

She was going to marry Anthony and she didn’t know what she was doing even talking to this man.

       The person behind had clearly had enough and an impatient horn galvanised her into action. She eased off the handbrake and stepped on the accelerator. The car shot forward and abruptly stalled. She grabbed at the ignition key, but the car wouldn’t start and the irritation from behind had suddenly become a chorus of people eager to get home. ‘Idiot!’ she said, furious with herself. Why on earth had she even spoken to the man? She was going to be late and Anthony hated to be kept waiting. There were tears pricking at her eyelids when the door opened beside her.

       He took one look at her face and swore volubly, then put an ice cold hand on hers, stopping the desperate churning of the engine. ‘Move over, Rosie. You’re in no fit state to drive,’ he said, very gently.

       ‘And whose fault is that?’ she demanded, angrily.

       ‘That’s open to debate. You didn’t have to stop.’ He threw the saxophone onto the back seat and waited and conscious of the queue of cars behind her, she moved over. He pushed the driving seat back as far as it would go and climbed behind the wheel. The car, infuriatingly, started at the first touch. Everything would start at his touch, she thought, hopelessly. Even her. Especially her.

Here are some links, but it's available in English at Amazon worldwide; download it with my warmest wishes and tell all your friends!


Amazon US 
Amazon UK 
Amazon Germany

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Nicola Marsh returns to Love - and it's free!

Here's a treat for the Nicola Marsh fans who downloaded CRAZY LOVE in their thousands - another trip to the town called Love - where falling in love is an industry.

LUCKY LOVE will be free to download from 26th - 28th December, so fill your boots and tell all your friends. A not to be missed, hot read from a USA Today Bestselling Author.

Here's the blurb:

For perpetually single Jazmyn Harding, what's worse than being desperate and dateless?

Receiving advice from her brash, sixty-year-old aunt via Skype from Love, a kooky town in California.

Jazmyn has no intention to visit Love, but after one too many disastrous dates she agrees to Aunt Flo's challenge: if she's single in a month, she'll swap Sydney for Love.

Determined to find Mr. Right, Jazmyn plays the dating game with renewed vigour. But as the clock ticks down and her man drought continues, how far will she go to avoid Love?


And here's an excerpt from Chapter 1 -  

Aunt Flo’s tips to be lucky in love.
Google naked pics of the Magic Mike cast daily and aspire to these kinds of men.

I turn a page and there it is. The answer to my problem. MANHUNT. GO OUT AND GRAB THE MAN OF YOUR DREAMS. MAKE IT HAPPEN TODAY. It’s a tiny black box squeezed between the ads for vibrators and psychics and has one of those 1800 numbers that charge a small fortune. I was tempted for a second, before I remembered my maxed out credit cards. And that little thing called pride.

I flip through the remainder of the magazine, forgetting the coffee. By the time I take a sip it’s lukewarm and I spit it out in the sink. Very ladylike. Not only am I drunk, single and self-pitying, I’m turning into a slob.

My laptop pings and I jump. I’m not in the mood to chat with Flo but she’s always good for a laugh and I could definitely do with one of those.

I fire up Skype and Flo’s wrinkled face framed by frizzy gray hair fills the screen.

“How’s my favorite niece?”

“Your only niece is fine.” Drunk, but fine, and I can’t help but chuckle as she leans closer to her PC, as if she can see me better that way. “What about you?”

“Can’t complain.” Flo taps a cigarette out of a pack, puts it to her mouth and lights up. “Booked your flight yet?”

Flo asks me this almost on a daily basis. With my stomach roiling and One Direction rehearsing in my head, I couldn’t couch my response in vague terms.

“Hell no.”

Flo frowned. “By your bleary eyes, mascara remnants and the fact you’re answering me at three a.m. OZ time, you’re alone and sozzled. Again. Why don’t you visit Love? Can’t hurt—”

“We’ve had this conversation a hundred times before. I don’t want a holiday fling.”
Who was I kidding? With the man-drought I’d been going through lately I wouldn’t knock back a no-holds-barred, steamy dalliance with a hot Yank.

Flo shook her head. “A change of scenery will do you good. And maybe you need to surround yourself by Love to find love—”

“It’s too early for puns.” I pressed fingertips to my temples. It did little for the pounding. “Don’t you have customers at the diner to go terrorize?”

“My shift doesn’t start for another hour.” Flo glanced at her watch. “Plenty of time to hassle you and squeeze in a Castle re-run.”

“How about you go drool over Nathan Fillion and I’ll get some sleep—”

“How about this? If you aren’t in a steady relationship by the end of the month, you agree to visit?”

“Not interested in Love.”

The moment the reflex rebuttal fell from my lips, I knew it wasn’t true.

I wanted to fall in love.

I wanted to have a real relationship for once in my life, not one that involved casual sex or minimal communication or batteries.

I wanted to prove I could tie down a guy, beyond my book boyfriend Christian Grey.

“Everyone deserves a little loving.” Flo winked. “And I reckon you’ll find it in Love. Guaranteed.”

I didn’t know whether it was the late hour, the usual Friday night party circuit with lack of a date, or the fact I was staring twenty-nine in the eye, but I found myself reluctantly nodding.

“Fine. If I’m single in a month, I’ll come visit.”

“Good girl.” Flo grinned, an action that accentuated the laugh-lines fanning from the corners of her faded blue eyes. “Now you go get some shut-eye, because I have a date with the fine Mr. Fillion.”

“Maybe you should get a real guy too?”

She always chastised me for being cheeky when I said this. To my amazement, this time she blushed.

She waved away a cloud of cigarette smoke. “Gotta go, you’re breaking up.”

The screen went dead, leaving me to ponder the unlikely scenario my sixty-year-old aunt, who’d been widowed for countless years, might be on the prowl for love too.

And if she hooked up with a guy before me, how pathetic was I? 

Here's the link to LUCKY LOVE

And if you missed it when it was released, here's CRAZY LOVE

And come back on Friday when there'll be another freebie for you to download!

 

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Christmas is coming...

WINNER! Janet has won Michelle Douglas's The Nanny Who Saved Christmas. Get in touch, Janet and we'll get the book to you! 

Christmas is getting out of hand. My grocery order is now going to need a supermarket truck of its own. There is a pile of pressies on the dining room table for the grandbabies waiting to wrapped. The sun has taken the week off so my solar lights are not doing very much at all and I forgot to order to wholegrain mustard. Again.

But the decs are up, the tree is twinkling festively, the carol singers are on their rounds tonight and tomorrow - I hope the rain lets up for them - and I've finally found my electric can opener. (Moving home takes longer than you would think!)

Now if I can think of some exciting little extra to pop under the tree for the s-i-l (one of the world's least acquisitive souls) my work here will be done.

Meanwhile, here are some announcements.

First, thank you all so much for making the launch of Old Desires such a success. Thanks to all your blogging, reviews, tweets and FB support, it went zinging into the top ten on both sides of the Atlantic and even made a bit of an impression in Europe, where eBooks are still rarer than hen's teeth.

I hope you all managed to download it free, but it's still a steal.

At the moment there's a daily Under the Christmas Tree feature on the Harlequin Romance Author's blog, which is worth a look, if only to wonder at Shirley Jump's 12 ft tree. Of course there are books to be won!

There's Lucky Love a new "Love" book from Nicola Marsh for those of you who fell in love with Crazy Love earlier this year.


Sadly, the Riva series hit a bump in the road  and The Last Woman He'd Ever Date never got it's scheduled paper release in the UK, but the New Year will bring the launch of KISS in the US, which is where you'll find Anything But Vanilla in May. Have you downloaded Mira Lyn Kelly's Waking Up Married? It's free, but only available in the US, sadly. PW raved about it.

I don't have any more guests before Christmas, but there will be one last not-to-be-missed gift for you all as the year ends and 2013 rings in. It'll be here for you to pick up on 28 December so make a note in your diary. You won't want to miss it.

Oh, and if writing romance is on your list of New Year resolutions, don't forget to put a copy of Liz Fielding Little Book of Writing Romance on your Christmas list.







Monday, December 17, 2012

The Rules of Engagement...

 My next guest helping me to celebrate my 20th anniversary is Ally Blake. Ally is more than a friend and colleague, she is also my webmistress, helping me keep in touch with readers around the world. She picks up the things I miss, finds links for me and goes the extra mile every month when she updates my site. It's a real joy to welcome her to tell you about her latest book, The Rules of Engagement.  Over to you, Ally...
Thanks so much for having me over to celebrate your 20th anniversary, Liz!  It reminds me my ten years comes up next December.  You've been such a support, a wonderful ear, and a lovely writing friend these past years, I am blessed to know you.  You'll be first on the invite list for my party, I assure you.
And it's extra kind of you to have me since I don't even have a Christmas story on the shelves!  In fact, I've never written a Christmas book, and THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT  - out now from Harlequin Presents Extra - is no different.  But if you're after  something to warm up your holidays if you're in the snowy north, or to add some sizzle to your sweltering summer if you, like me, live down south, then this could be your luck day ;).
I was meant to be writing another story, one of those tricky ones where every word on the page was written in blood, when I heard Robert Palmer's Addicted to Love on the radio.  And that was that.  Caitlyn March was born - a woman so addicted to love, when we first meet her she's just getting over her fourth failed engagement.  And from that moment this fun, frothy book near wrote itself.  It was such a joy I dedicated it to fairy dust.
Here's a taste

The house lights slowly lifted, encouraging the dregs to stumble on home.  Panic set in.  Caitlyn's hair would be a mess, her lipstick bitten away, her mascara ever so delightfully smudged.  Yet Dax's expression didn’t change.  The glint in his eyes if anything grew.  Quickened.  Scorched.
Oh God.  Oh God!  OH GOD!
And for a girl who in the past had lived for the adrenalin brought on by the mere possibility of a new relationship, she felt like she was free falling into those hot hazel eyes.
In the past, being the most important part.  She wasn’t looking for that brand of blistering intensity that could sweep a girl off her feet before she knew what was happening.  She wanted fun and frivolity.  She needed...
Sorbet.
All of a sudden parts of herself began to click and slide, like the tumbling open of a combination lock.
What she needed most was emotional catharsis.
What she wanted was to clear the bad taste in her mouth that her most recent failed engagement had left behind.
Sorbet sex.
What kind of sorbet sex she couldn’t be certain, since it was her first time going down that route.  Sorbet came in a million different flavours, and if hers came in the guise of a tall dark handsome stranger she had no doubt could wipe away the memory of every man she’d ever met, well then who was she to argue?
‘Closing time,’ Ivan called out, dragging Caitlyn to the present.
Her breath shook as she wondered how exactly one went about picking up a sexy stranger in a bar by asking for no strings sorbet sex.
‘Hungry?’ she asked, before she even felt the word coming.
‘Ravenous,’ Dax said without missing a single beat.
Well, she thought, as he slid his hand around her waist, resting it possessively on her hip as he led her towards the door, even that gentle touch making her feel like lava was sliding through her veins, that’s how.

Ally Blake is the bestselling author of twenty-three fun, fresh, flirty romances for Harlequin Mills and Boon.  Her latest Harlequin Presents Extra THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT has been purported to have “So much sizzle you could toast marshmallows on it!” 

Grab the paperback from The Book Depository (free delivery worldwide!) or the ebook from eHarlequin.

For a free online romance, given to you in daily bite sized pieces, "like" Arabella Rose’s journey on www.facebook.com/50dayswithrose.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Kindle freebie

It's been a great week, with wonderful guests, and it isn't over yet. Tomorrow, Barbara Douglas will be here to tell us about her new book, The Nanny Who Saved Christmas.

Today though, is the final day of the free Kindle download of OLD DESIRES at Amazon US and Amazon UK - actually Amazon everywhere! - so I wanted to talk a little about how that's gone.

Actually, it's been amazing. I've had an unofficial Street Team helping me get the news out there and OLD DESIRES shot up into the top 20 Kindle free downloads on both sides of the Atlantic and is still in the top10 contemporary romances as I write, so a huge thank you to everyone who has tweeted the news, put it on Facebook or hosted me on their blog

I know this is a bit irritating for those of you who read on a Nook, or Kobo or Sony eReader but I promise that in February, when my deal with Amazon is done, I'll post a free promo voucher for Smashwords on my blog so that you can all get the same deal.

Meanwhile here's an excerpt of Old Desires to whet your appetite -

‘Ready to go?’  Holly nodded and he pulled on the helmet for her and fastened the strap beneath her chin.  ‘Very fetching.  Don’t forget to hold tight.’  He put on his own helmet and then climbed on an enormous black machine.  She sat very primly behind him, her hands scarcely touching the sides of his waist.  Then he started the machine and without further warning moved off and she threw herself at his back and clung on for dear life.
    Roaring up the lane, the stab of the headlamp into the dark the only source of light in a black world, was bad.  As dreadful as it could be.  But it was nothing to do with the noise of the bike, or the speed with which the hedge flashed by them.  It was her body pressed against the supple leather of his jacket, feeling the steady reassuring hammer of his heart against the crazy counterpoint of her own, beating much too fast.  It was her arms around his waist, her hand clasped desperately under his ribs.  That was what she feared.  The unavoidable closeness and what it was doing to her.
    Then it was over.  They were in front of Highfield and she was sliding quickly from the machine in an effort to escape, her legs wobbly as she had known they would be.  She fought desperately with the uncooperative strap of her helmet to remove it before he could help her, touch her.  But her fingers couldn’t, or wouldn’t, find the release and after he had removed his own helmet he bent to do it for her.

      She shivered.
    ‘Are my hands cold?’ he asked.
    ‘No.  Yes.’  With his long fingers brushing against her neck she couldn’t think clearly.
    ‘Well?’ he asked, pulling the helmet off and putting it with his own on the seat of the machine and leaning back against it. ‘Which is it?’
    ‘They’re cold,’ she managed before turning quickly away, determined to get inside before she betrayed herself totally. ‘Thanks for the lift, Joshua,’ she said, from the doorway.
    ‘Holly?’  His voice grated against her spine and she stopped and turned slowly back to face him.  He hadn’t moved.
    ‘Yes?’ she asked, from the safe distance of her porch.   
    ‘There was something else.’
    ‘Can’t it wait?’  She fumbled desperately in her pocket for her keys.
    ‘I don’t believe it can.’  Her margin of safety proved illusory as in a stride he was beside her, his eyes smoky dark as he searched her face.  It was a look that seemed to touch her, stroke her, burn her up until she thought she would cry out.  After a moment, or it might have been an age, in which she felt as if she was suspended at the top of a roller-coaster, waiting for that dizzy freefall plunge, he spoke.  ‘I don’t believe it can wait another moment.’ 
    She closed her eyes in an effort to blot out the desire in his eyes, not quite trusting it, but knowing that it was far too late for her to fight the echoing response he must all too clearly see in hers.  Knowing that she was helpless to resist.
     He took her face between his hands, tilting her face upwards and holding it cradled in his long fingers, until she could bear it no longer and her long lashes fluttered open.  ‘Please…’ The word, barely more than a sigh, escaped her lips, but whether she was begging for release or capture she scarcely knew.  Until he kissed her and by then it was too late.
    His lips were cool as they began to feather her face with butterfly kisses, each touch to the delicately veined lids of her eyes, her temples, the smooth curve of her jaw  the gentlest, teasing caress, that gradually turned her bones to jelly.
    She was trembling as at last he slid his hands inside her jacket and pulled her tight against his chest and held her there.  
    ‘What are you doing?’ she whispered, her eyes jet dark in the sudden shaft of moonlight breaking through the clouds,
    He laughed, very softly.  ‘If you have to ask, my darling Holly, I must be doing something wrong.’  But he wasn’t doing anything wrong, she was quite sure of that.  In fact as his lips continued their philandering progress, she had the very definite impression that he was an expert.  Then he raised his head and she moaned very softly. 
    ‘Don’t stop,’ she protested.
    ‘I haven’t stopped.’  His arm tightened about her waist, drawing her so close along the length of him, that suddenly she didn’t have any breath for words.  And then that was no longer a problem, because she had something else to occupy her mind as his mouth claimed hers and she knew he had spoken nothing but the truth.  He left her in absolutely no doubt of his meaning.    
     Her lips parted under the sensuous prompting of his tongue and she responded with an urgency that at once shocked and elated her, her arms snaking around his neck, pulling him down to her until with a groan he wrenched himself free.
    His ragged breathing matched her own as they stood just inches apart, staring at one another in stunned amazement at the reality of what had just happened to them both.
    ‘Holly ...’
    She shook her head.  It wasn’t a time for words.  Her hand fastened on the cold keys in her pocket and she held them for a moment, clenched tight in her fist.  Then, her cheeks flushed with bright colour, she extended her hand and offered them to Joshua.
    For a heartbeat they hung from the tip of her finger, glinting in the fitful moonlight between the two motionless figures, then he reached out and his fingers closed around them and she surrendered them into his care.  He turned to the door, fitted the key in the lock.  The sound of the lever drawing back in the mechanism was like the crack of a pistol in the unnatural silence and then the door swung open.



Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Christmas is Cancelled...

I have another guest today, helping me celebrate my 20th anniversary. Aurelia Rowl is an online friend who has been a wonderul supporter of my books and it's a huge pleasure now to be able to be able to talk about her Christmas novella - Christmas is Cancelled. I love that title ad the cover is gorgeous, too!

I've asked her to tell you a little about her book and for those of you who wonder how a writer's brain works, here's how the story came to be written.

...


Christmas is Cancelled is one of those stories I didn't plan. I was actually in the middle of a different story, and I was about to go off on a Summer family holiday abroad, but then I saw it...a submission call for Christmas stories up to 15K words, with the deadline just after I returned from holiday. "I can do that," I thought to myself, "and I might be able to get it done before we go." Ah, those immortal words. The laptop ended up coming on holiday too, of course, but I'm jumping ahead of myself. Having made the decision to 'give it a go', I fired up Scrivener and stared at the blank page. I had no characters, no setting, no ideas and certainly no outline. 

But then came the spark...my heroine was having a really bad day and to top it all off her train was cancelled, leaving her stranded on Christmas Eve with nowhere to go. And then came the hero...he's had his share of trauma all right, but even I didn't realise just how bad things had been for him until half way through the book. That same book which has already passed the story limit and deadline for the initial submission call, but it demanded writing nevertheless. Taking my chances with the curve ball I'd be thrown--by turning it into a New Year story instead--it was even known as 'A Resolution Too Far' for a while. Except I wasn't being true to the story. 

I decided to let the other deadline go, and left the manuscript languishing on my laptop, two-thirds complete, with the ending mapped out in my mind. The school summer holidays had landed and writing time was almost non-existent. I gave no thought to writing until I saw the final call for Breathless Press for 'Holiday Cheer' stories; something I'd seen previously but discounted because of the heat level it demanded, but then I decided to go for it anyway. Not to mention the characters wouldn't leave me alone, always perstering...nagging...demanding to be heard. Lesson learnt - never ignore your characters! 

I happened to comment in a group on Facebook that I was 'going for it', and the editor herself offered me lots of encouragement to get my manuscript sent in, even though I didn't believe it to be polished enough. All I had to do now then, was finish it. The editor at this point dropped the bombshell that the deadline was in just a few days, not the end of the following month as I thought. And it was still the school holidays. Great! Cue several late nights, then almost to the minute of the deadline, I managed to hit send. Less than a week later, the contract arrived and I am delighted to share the resulting book with you today...


Here's the blurb

Matilda 'Tilly' Carter didn't think her day could get any worse, but even Christmas had just been cancelled.

The one girl Dean Watson has sworn never to have—never even expected to see again—just flared back into his life and into his home—his sanctuary—like she belonged there. Christmas would certainly be more bearable with Tilly around though…



And an excerpt...



Tears welled in her eyes, clouding her vision. She turned and wandered blindly toward the exit as the first tear escaped, forging a track down her cheek for the rest to follow. Tilly took in a lungful of air and then another. Having made a spectacle of herself once already, she really didn't want to be the cause of yet another scene.

The crowds swarmed around her, with students and family members heading home for the holidays only adding to the usual rush-hour melee of commuters. They jostled past, threatening to swallow her whole, as they rushed en mass in the opposite direction, using their briefcases and suitcases as a battering ram.

It was suffocating. She had to get out of there. Breaking into a run, broken heel or not, she raced through the doors and out into the biting December chill. Her waterlogged eyes struggled to adjust to the dark, dreary sky after the bright station lights, but she didn't dare slow down, desperate to escape the throng of festivities and merriment.

Carol singers assembled outside burst into a jovial rendition of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," full of joy and happiness. Didn't they know Christmas had just been cancelled?

"Ooof!" Tilly smacked her shin against the edge of a low bench, too dark to see as she tried to dodge the growing audience. She ended up sprawled across the bench, dropping the handle of her suitcase with a loud clatter.

At least the pain shooting down her leg gave her an excuse to be crying. Unfortunately, it meant she had to stop running too. Not good. Whenever things got too tough, too intimate, or too confrontational, you could rely on her to make a run for it. Running away was what she did best...

A tall figure loomed in the edge of her vision, something vaguely familiar about the man's loping gait. In an effort to see him more clearly, she wiped her eyes with the back of her hands, then cringed inwardly at the black streaks now etched all over them. Great. She could add impersonating a panda to her day from hell as well then.

The mascara stung her eyes, rendering her unable to focus properly. She blinked furiously as the man strode past her, talking into a mobile phone in a deep voice that resonated throughout her body and made the fine hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. A surge of adrenaline rushed to her legs, numbing the pain as her subconscious told her to run. Now!

The cloaked figure stopped mid-stride as if he'd heard her gasp. "Mike, I've gotta go," he barked into the phone, hanging up instantly. He backtracked until he was standing right in front of her, his tone changing from a growl to one of surprise. "Basmati?"

Great. She hadn't heard the nickname for years—nine years, four months and...sixteen days, to be exact—and even then, only one person had ever actually used it. She screwed her eyes tightly shut, shaking her head from side to side. No. No way. There was absolutely no way this could be happening to her. Not now. Not today of all days... Talk about kicking a girl when she was down.



And finally - a trailer!



Christmas is Cancelled is available to buy here 

To find out more about Aurelia, or to check out what projects she's working on right now, you can visit her website www.aureliabrowl.com

PS Don't forget OLD DESIRES is free to download from Amazon until midnight PCT on Thursday! It made the top ten in the UK yesterday!











Sunday, December 09, 2012

Celebrating with a Kindle freebie!


It's Sunday so it's time for another "Six" but this week it's a very special one. December 2012 is the 20th anniversary of the publication of my first book by Harlequin Mills & Boon, An Image of You.

I don't have an online version of that to give away to mark the occasion, but I have just republished OLD DESIRES and as a gift to all my readers, I'm giving it away free this week (from 9th-13th December) at Amazon. The link here and on the sidebar is to the US, but you'll find it on whichever Amazon you use - US, UK, France, Germany... the list goes on

But just in case you need a little more incentive, here's my "six" taster.



She closed her eyes in an effort to blot out the desire in his eyes, not quite trusting it, but knowing that it was far too late for her to fight the echoing response he must all too clearly see in hers. Knowing that she was helpless to resist.
He took her face between his hands, tilting her face upwards cradling it in his long fingers until she could bear it no longer. ‘Please…’ The word, barely more than a sigh, escaped her lips, but whether she was begging for release or capture she scarcely knew. Until he kissed her and by then it was too late.


For those new to this, the rules are simple:
1) pick a project – a current Work in Progress, contracted work or even something readers can buy if you’re published
2) pick six sentences
3) post ‘em on Sunday
See? Easy. Want to play? See the site for information on how to do just that: Six Sunday
If you have a Twitter account, you can add the hashtag #sixsunday to your tweets when you tweet a link to your Six Sentence Sunday post. If you’re a writer (regardless of published/unpublished status) come join us!

And you can read brief excerpts of dozens of other great books at Sunday Six