Aphrodisia Authors :: Blog

My last deadline for writing was July 1. And since then? I’ve done jack. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Zero, on the writing front. It’s been delightful. My first break in almost four whole years.

The problem with taking a break is that you break your habit of writing every day. Ont he one hand, you want to break the habit so you can have a rest. On the other, getting started again and retraining yourself to write every day is paaaaaaaainful. So, that’s what I get to do starting Monday. Back to the grind, back in the saddle, back in the habit–whatever you want to call it.

Wish me luck!

Oh! I don’t think I shared these when they came in. I’ve got two new covers for books coming out later this year.

First is Under The Covers, the contemporary holiday anthology I’m in. I believe it comes out in September.

Then, we have Untamed, my post-apocalyptic shape shifter story that releases in October. It’s probably my favorite story I’ve ever written. And the cover is so lickable!

My book Take Me is out TOMORROW!!! (At least according to Amazon, some places still say the 1st, but I bet you can find it around!) Woo whoo, I’m so excited! So today, I’m giving away a copy of Take Me!

So I was thinking how I ended up here. Writing erotic romances that could singe the eyebrows off my more conservative friends/relatives. I mean, how did it happen really? Well, I came up with a sort of theory.

When I first started out eating ethnic food, or any food type really (for me it was thai food) I was like starting at 0 stars. I wanted it as non-spicy/bland as possible. And then…after awhile, I started to add a star. Kick up the spice. I was building up a tolerance. And pretty soon I was  up to 3 1/2 stars (out of 4!) on my spiciness. I had built a tolerance. What I started with wasn’t hot enough for me anymore. And oddly enough, the same process I can kind of see happened with romance novels. I started out reading books with the most mild love scenes, which at the time scandalized me, and then slowly began picking up books with a hotter heat level. Until I loved it HOT! And so when I started writing, I was already writing pretty spicy, and then the erotic romance market came in with a bang. It was just one tiny step (upping my tolerance) and I wasn’t just reading it, but writing it.

Today my love scene tastes run from spicy (doesn’t have to be erotic) to erotic. I can still read books with the not as spicy love scenes , but I do miss them.

So for a chance to win a copy of my book, tell me: have you always liked your love scenes hot? Or what is the heat level you prefer? I will draw a name tomorrow afternoon/evening!

Here’s a bit about my book Take Me.

After years as a slave to the pleasures of the powerful, Talia knows how to make a man mad with lust. But her pleasure counts for nothing—until a handsome, ruthless stranger appears. Ryder dares to look at her… to touch her… to awake in her a desire she’s never imagined. When he kidnaps her to learn her secrets, Talia vows not to let her passion take control. But soon she discovers that her captor’s intense gaze and searching hands can perform their own kind of interrogation, a sweet torture she finds impossible to resist…

Read an excerpt here.

Purchase here.

A few nights ago I was out at one of the finest traditions ever created: the girl’s night out. Ours is a group of seven women who trade off houses every month, we all bring food and play games, drink, eat, talk about writing, life and of course, men and sex. It’s a great stress reliever, I always laugh too much, eat too much, talk to much and my batteries are totally recharged when I walk out of there.

A few of our number are single, a few married, a few divorced and dating again, so we have a wealth of stories to talk about across the board, and those of us who are wearing the rings can relive our wild days and live vicariously through those out there on the front lines of the dating scene. And like most women when they get together like this, yes, guys, we do talk specifics. Which after the very detailed and vivid discussions from the girl’s night out, and coming back home to write a sex scene, made me wonder: How real is too real when reading or writing a sex scene?

After all, let’s be honest, sex, at least really good sex is messy. But really good sex scenes are kind of a combination of reality and fantasy. So how do we split the difference?

Let’s take a look at some specifics.

The wet spot – yes or no? For me personally, I don’t write in a wet spot. When my characters are done with the uber mind-blowing sex and cuddling, they aren’t having to put a towel down or scoot around so someone isn’t laying on the wet spot. And come to think of it, I haven’t read a lot of books where that’s been mentioned. But would that make the scene more real, or any more romantic? Not for me…. But could be for others.

How to handle the come. For me personally, I do write come as an erotic addition into my sex scenes. After all, it is kind of one of those “turn on” type things. It happens, it’s a desired outcome and there are bodily secretions involved. In real life, I’ve always thought it was kind of funny for a woman to spit rather than swallow – after all, it’s already been inside your mouth at that point! So, yes, my heroines swallow and even enjoy it. And I guess since I view giving a blow job as very erotic, and laced with feminine power, so do my heroines. For my heroes, giving oral sex (and yes, they are damn good at it!!) is an integral part of the sex and they very much enjoy their heroine’s generated secretions. I even have the heroes kiss the heroines after giving her oral sex, and the heroine tasting herself on his lips. This may be a little too real and “in the face” (sorry, no pun intended, even though it made me giggle when I realized it was here…) for some people, but to put it bluntly, come happens….so how do you want to read about it?

Male stamina & quick rebound time. I’ll admit, my heroes have some pretty decent stamina and some good rebound time. I usually have the heroine coming first and the hero after her, or the good old simultaneous orgasm. Granted, in real life, I’m sure everyone has experienced the oops where the guy comes too quickly and you’re not even close to getting there—but since that’s not something I want to read or fantasize about, I don’t write that in my scenes. Now, to be fair, I don’t have the heroes turning into little sexual Energizer Bunnies and going for eight hours straight, or rebounding ten times a night in one minute intervals. (I think my poor heroines would not only be sore, but would hunt me down and break my laptop!) But having a guy so turned on by you that even though he’s already come once, a little kissing and cuddling can get him ready to go again is not only sexy—but makes us feel sexy, too! So why not have that in our sex scenes?

Location, location, location. Now I’ll admit that I’ve been adventurous in the past and had sex in some different locations. It’s fun, sexy and the thrill of doing it somewhere you’re not supposed to, does make it more hot somehow. That’s no different for my heroines. Although in this arena, they do tend to be much more adventurous than me. For example, I’ve never done it on an alter in front of twenty-one naked men and one woman (Ceremony of Seduction), in a public pool with another woman (Vision of Seduction), or had a six way with five of my closest women and men friends in a throne room where many of the male populace of my planet watched (Trio of Seduction). But that’s part of what makes reading a fun fantasy where we get to live vicariously—just like hearing about the escapades of others during the girl’s night out

So, come out and play. What do you like in your reading sex scenes that you don’t like in your real sex life and visa versa. What do you like to read, but don’t like to do? What do you wish you were brave enough to try in real life that you’ve read? Time for an online girl’s day out…and guys…you’re welcome to play too.

So pick up a martini (or your drink of choice) and spill. I’m waiting

Cassie

Btw – don’t forget that Trio of Seduction, the third book in the Seduction trilogy, releases on July 29th!

Good morning all! I’m just back from the RWA conference in Washington, where I got the opportunity to meet several of my favorite Aphrodisia authors including Kate Douglas, Susan Lyons, Crystal Jordan, Lydia Parks and Shelli Stevens-there were more, but my brain is still overloaded with names and faces, so forgive me if I met you and didn’t name-check you

It’s always a pleasure to get away from the kids and meet up with other writers who kind of understand my crazy writerly ways much better than my family. It’s also a chance to celebrate-while I was at RWA, I found out that I won first place in the RWA Passionate Plume contest for published historical erotic romance with ‘Simply Sinful’-yay!!

When I got back I found the cover for an upcoming anthology for Aphrodisia in my mail box:

Isn’t it lovely? And I’m thrilled to be the first to show the cover off and also thrilled to have such great Aphrodisia authors in the anthology with me. It’s my first contemporary erotic romance for Kensington, and my novella has the same title as the anthology SOME LIKE IT ROUGH so I hope you all like it. It’s due out in March 2010. I’ll have a full-length contemporary out with Aphrodisia late 2010, if not 2011 because I still have 2 more historicals to publish before I get to that one

And I’m not sure if I showed you all the cover for my upcoming ‘Simply’ book yet? It’s due out in late September/early October and is the fourth in the series. It’s all about Anthony Sokorvsky and it;s called SIMPLY WICKED. Please go and check out my website where there is a excerpt and blurb.

Take care everyone and I’ll be back next month with an excerpt from SIMPLY WICKED!
Kate x

We all find inspiration — for writing, life, work, love — in different places. As an author, I’m often asked where I find stories. I’ve got to tell you, I don’t. Stories find me. (I know, it sounds stupid, but it’s true. Ask any author you know and I bet you’ll get the same answer 9 out of 10 times.)

One of the most fun things I get to do now and then is attend writers’ conferences. Since I work as an engineer, it’s always a blast for me to be surrounded by writers. Last week, I spent time with 3,000 of my favorite romance writers. All that wonderful energy attracted stories like you wouldn’t believe. I swear, I think I saw some floating around in the bar looking for homes. I grabbed as many as I could and stuffed them in my brain for the trip home. One or two may have dropped out (joining a few days of life) when we were trying to land in Denver on Sunday and hit wind shear over the runway. Yow! But the rest arrived with me and I’m making notes between dinner and laundry.

I was fortunate enough to hear Janet Evanovich, Linda Howard, and Eloisa James speak (ended up in tears for two of those talks), and I had a chance to meet Kate Douglas, Sharon Page, and a bunch of other wonderful Aphrodisia authors. We drank, ate, and talked books. Too much fun for one person to handle! And BadBarb made my day! (Hey!)

Now that I’m back in my real life, I have to look for inspiration in the usual places: books, newpapers, television, neighbors, family…life in general. There’s so much out there! I’ve warned my family to be careful what they tell me; some version of it may end up in a book. My friends and coworkers are fair game.

I hope my books will inspire you in some good way. Maybe your evening with your SO will be a little hotter? That possibility makes me smile.

Need a new read? I have copies of DEVOUR ME, which is due out September 1st. I’ll give one away here. I have a number between 1 and 50 (it’s written down, so I can’t change it). I’ll give a signed copy to the person who gets the closest in a comment before tomorrow (Thursday) evening at 6:00 pm MT.

May your tomorrow be full of inspiration!

Taming The Cougar isn’t hitting the stands until the end of Sept but I so love the cover that the devil made me plaster it here. So there.

Hmm. Now what does Vonna mean when she brings up the word LENGTH? Ha, I bet I know what you’re thinking, but you’re wrong, at least this time.
The deal is, I’ve been thinking about the various length stories I write, asking myself whether I have a favorite and why I’m content to bounce between shorties of no more than 5 thousand words and books such as Taming The Cougar that run around 80,000 words. I’ve only done a couple of the really short eroticas and don’t see any more on the immediate horizon but remember them as equal parts fun and challenge. The fun part is a given: I can write the rough draft in a couple of days. The challenge comes in handling a plot under those tight constraints. Sad to say there has to be more than 5 thousand words of sex. Readers and writers alike need to know something about these two (or more) people and what brought them together. Where are they in their lives, how did they get there, and what’s going to happen to them in the morning?
80,000 words of course makes those concerns non issues in that there’s plenty of time to explore characterization and craft a hopefully intriguing plot. I love working with a large landscape which can include throwing in fascinating minor characters, some world building if I’m so inclined, plot twists and turns. For me the most exciting part is giving my characters room to grow and change. It’s the whole ‘come to realize’ thing. Not much time to sit back and look at oneself on the way to maturity in a shortie. In a book my characters can screw up, admit the error of their ways, and receive their just rewards, if you get my drift.
At the same time, a novel can be a scary process. Can I pull off this tangled mess of a plot or even come up with enough of one? Do I care about my characters enough to hang with them for the long run and even more important, can I make my readers give a damn? Given my short term memory issues can I remember why I started the darned thing and why I thought I could pull it off?

Fortunately I’m in a position to mix things up, both with Aphrodisia and the two epublishers I work with. I’ve of course written a fair sized pile of books for Aphrodisia and have contributed to a number of anthologies. (For specifics, if you’re curious enough, all that’s on my web site ’cause otherwise Id never be able to keep it straight) The Aphrodisia anthology contributions run around 25 thousand words and are always part of a themed collection such as cowboys. (I’ve done three of those)
These days I write slightly shorter stories for both Ellora’s Cave and Loose-ID including one freebie at EC. Most of them dance the capture/BDSM dance but occasionally something totally different grabs my muse which as much as length differences keeps me excited about what I’m doing.

A question as I head off to buy a newly minted 10 year old girl a pair of shoes for her birthday, do you have a length you prefer to read or are you inclined to mix it up?
Vonna
www.VonnaHarper.com

After years of managing to keep my right forearm blank, I decided at age of 43 that it was time for a new tattoo. Those of you who know me are already aware I have several, including a nice piece that covers my whole back. I’ve also done up my left arm, and the upper part of my right arm. Out of the blue it hit me that if I were going to have any more work done, I’d better get it finished before 50 set in. The skin changes as we age (ugh) and I’ve heard that tattoos are more difficult to take once you hit a certain age–not that I like being in my forties. (Note: There is no evidence saying that anyone over 50 can’t get a tattoo or shouldn’t. It is my own personal cut off point.)

With that in mind, I drove down to the artist whose been doing my work for the past 20 or so odd years and had a new piece put on my forearm a couple of weeks ago. Once again I decided to stick to my ongoing theme of death, specifically the Grim Reaper. I can’t say why this mythical figure that inspires shivers in most people fascinates me, but it does. I absolutely love the Grim Reaper and there is no better subject for a tattoo than the grand old daddy of doom. The pix in the post is of the tattoo. Forgive that it’s not the best angle. I shot it myself, LOL.

Saner people may wonder why anyone would want to treat their skin as a canvass. I can’t say why tattoos appeal to me. They just do. My mother has told me I’ll be wearing them the rest of my life and may come to have regrets in my older years. So what? It’s not like I’ll carry them for all eternity. Come the day when the reaper really visits me, this skin will be history and the guys in the morgue will have something really cool to look over as they get me ready for my final roasting place… (Oh, stop cringing. It’s a part of life, and the last thing you’ll ever do on this earth.) For those of you who have not guessed it, I’m a dark person. I love things with a dark slant. If it’s gloom and doom, I’m happy.

Speaking of doom… What I’m really here to blog about is that Kensington has so generously sent my author copies of my late August release, Possession, a month early. That means I’ve got some copies to give away. Possession, of course, is dark. Here’s a little blurb:

Enter the midnight world of Devyn Quinn, there passion has no limits and danger rules every desire…

Embrace The Dark Side

Opening a rare book on demons in an occult collection, Kendra Carter trembles before the power she is about to unleash. A man like no other has been awakened, but is he more than human. From his first caress, Remi guves her incredible pleasure she’s never felt before…

Night after night, in his secret chamber, Kendra explores her most intimate and hottest sexual fantasies. His passion for her is a supernatural force. He controls her body. He steals her soul. He is her demon lover…

Stephanie K. at Romantic Times has kindly given me a peek at the review that will appear in the Sept 09 issue: “What makes this story work — other than a surprisingly sweet love story and steamy, thoroughly satisfying sex scenes that span multiple chapters — is a believable and sympathetic heroine struggling to keep it together amid overwhelming forces, both supernatural and grounded in reality. It’s a romance with well-executed elements of suspense and mystery. Altogether, a deliciously hot page-turner. 4.5 Stars!” Romantic Times

If you’d like to be entered in the drawing to win an advance release copy of Possession, just a leave a comment. Winner will be chosen Monday, July 20th, 2009. Please make sure you put in an email address so that you can be contacted!

Meanwhile, I’m off to figure out what my next tattoo should be. That reaper on my arm looks a little lonesome!

Here I am in Washington, DC, in the middle of the Romance Writers of America national conference. Along with 2000 other women and a handful of men.

For an introvert who’s used to spending her days at the computer playing with imaginary friends, it’s pretty wild – and overwhelming! I’m living in some weird state that’s half adrenaline buzz and half stunned exhaustion.

Here are some conference highlights so far:

- DC itself. The drive in from the airport was the nicest I’ve ever seen: all water and parks and flowers. Georgetown is charming and the hotel is situated so you can wander outside and walk a block to cute little restaurants. The sunshine is lovely (we won’t talk about the humidity, which is quite an experience for someone who lives by the Pacific Northwest ocean).

- Hurray, I won a Booksellers Best Award for SHE’S ON TOP. Very cool!

- I’ve had a chance to sit down for nice long talks with both my Kensington editor and my Berkley editor, and they’re warm, intelligent, charming women. I am so lucky to be with editors like them.

- Both the bookseller of the year (Rosemary from Rosemary’s Romance Books in Brisbane, Australia) and the librarian of the year (Deborah Schneider from the King County Library System) are women I’ve known and respected for several years now, and I’m delighted to see them honored this way. They so deserve it.

- It’s so nice to actually recognize a few people amid the 2000 registrants. The first year I went to an RWA National, I knew my roommate. Period. Each year I go, I know a few more people. It’s especially great to talk to some of the other Aphrodisia authors in person rather than by email.

- At the literacy signing, real live readers came along to tell me they loved my books. That’s something I will never get tired of.

- At a luncheon I sat beside a very nice young woman and found out she was Kris from Love Letter, the German romance magazine. A while back, she asked me to do an article on Vancouver, BC, since my Awesome Foursome series is set there, and it was great to have a chance to chat with her. (By the way, if anyone wants to read the English version of the article, “Awesome Vancouver,” it on the Articles page of my website at http://www.susanlyons.ca.)

- I’m looking forward (nervously!) to presenting a workshop called “Look Who’s Talking: Mastering POV and Tense.” Oh my gosh, I’m actually presenting a workshop at RWA National! And it’s being taped for posterity. Yikes…

- And I guess really the biggest highlight is knowing that there are 2000 great women (and a handful of men!) who are writing romance, whether they’re published yet or not, who respect the genre and are working on their craft and business skills, and are investing the time and energy to get together at this conference. The energy is amazing and the mutual support is terrific. And Romance Writers of America is an incredible organization. I think the majority of us at this conference would say that our careers wouldn’t be what they are today if we hadn’t discovered RWA.

I’m back to one of my favorite books, FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE SEX: 101 SENSUAL ACTS NOT EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW HOW TO DO. Living up to its title, its pages describe predictable things like anal sex and autoerotic asphyxiation.

And then I flipped to this page. “7. Behave like an Eighteenth Century Rake.”

I LOVE this. I so want to behave like a Rake! Okay, here’s the definition (from page 25): A rake was a rich young man of he 18th century, who dissipated his youth and fortune on gambling, drinking, and above all, womanizing. (Okay, I’d man-ize, but still.) The author, Clare Bailey, then makes a complete list of what one would have to do to become a Rake. Being a horse lover, I particularly like step 4: Go for a ride in a fashionable park. (Yes, you will need horses and, if possible, a carriage. Alternatively, a convertible Ferrari or Aston Martin will do.) When I become a Rake, I’m taking the horses. I think a lovely set of matched bays would serve me very nicely. I wouldn’t know an Aston Martin if it bit me on the ass.

Step number 1 is pretty good too. Step 1: Come into an inheritance or endowment that generates an annual income of at least $400,00. That sounds easy.

But then we come to the final step, step 10. (See how easy it is to become a Rake? Ten easy steps!) The last one’s a doozy, though. Step 10: Repeat until ruined, syphilitic, sclerotic or killed in a duel. It wouldn’t be hard to kill me in a duel, at least if the duel was with swords or something. If it were hand grenades, I might have a chance. I can really pitch a ball.

But what the heck is ‘sclerotic’? Does it have anything to do with ‘erotic’? Wait here a minute while I look it up. Oh, here it is–sclerotic: adjective: of or relating to the sclera of the eyeball (“Sclerotic tissue”). So if you become a Rake, you get eyeball-ish? That doesn’t make sense. Wait here while I check out the other definitions. Ah. This might be it: adjective: relating to or having sclerosis; hardened (“A sclerotic patient”). That seems closer. Maybe if I look up ‘sclerosis.’ noun: any pathological hardening or thickening of tissue.

So, I guess being a Rake might harden my tissue. I suppose my level of concern would be directly correlated with exactly which tissue got hardened.

I started blogging here and in myspace to introduce new readers to my books. And although I’ve been sidetracked about becoming a Rake (I still might try it–damn the sclerosis!), the introduction continues. I have eight books on the shelves right now with another coming out in November. All but one of them is a paranormal romance. You can order my newest book WHAT SHE WANTS on Amazon.

Today, I’m giving away an autographed copy is up for grabs to a random commenter. Leave a comment, and I’ll pick a winner on Friday.

And keep your eye on this blog and my blog at Myspace. The FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE book has many more interesting pages for me to blog about, and I have a stack of paranormal romances by many authors to give away. I just gave away a copy of BRANDED BY FIRE.

Best,
Lucinda

Ok, so you’re sitting alone at the counter at your local diner, drinking a Diet Coke, when the younger, totally hot Native American stranger on the next stool propositions you. Do you:

1) Stare blankly and say, “You wanna what? With me?”
2) Look around frantically to see if anyone you know heard him
3) Say, “Oh, no, I’m not that kind of woman.”
4) Say yes and have the time of your life in a no-tell motel room.

You probably won’t have to guess which option Diana Grant chooses, given that she’s my heroine in “Long Hard Ride,” but believe me, she was not expecting her day to go that way! She’s just learned that the bank is foreclosing on her ranch, because paying for her late husband’s liver transplant totally drained their accounts. Worse yet, the bank prez is really after her land so he can develop it into resort condos, and his wife has already decided she wants her luxury digs right where Diana’s cozy home now sits. The bulldozers are poised, ready to rip the guts out of the Montana horse ranch she and her husband Garrison have loved for twenty years.

I knew that much shortly after my Aphrodisia editor invited me to write a story for an upcoming cowboy anthology (TEMPTED BY A COWBOY, out in July), but then I had to get past the premise and actually concoct a story for this gal! As often happens for me, I sorta set my brain out of gear for the next week or so and the pieces of backstory and research came at me from several different directions! It’s a process that just happens for me, mainly because I’ve come to expect it…and because I now believe it’s how the Universe works for me when I invite it to.

So, I had this premise in my mind, about this beleaguered widow around my age…and I decided I was in the mood for a Native American rodeo rider. Used to live in a rodeo town, so I love the sport and am familiar with its inner workings. And hey, if the fantasy of broad shoulders, cinnamon skin, and long black hair works for me, it works for millions of women, not? Was flipping through my assortment of folders and saw one with a white horse on the front. Ta-DA! Michael White Horse became my hero!

Then I ventured to the RT conference and saw my writer friend, Diana Groe. We caught each other up on our current projects, and she proceeded to tell me about the Indian Relay at the rodeo in Sheridan, Wyoming. And as she described all these young red-skinned guys riding bareback at breakneck speeds, wearing only loincloths and body paint, I knew I had to include such a scene in this story! Got a few pertinent details from her, as research, and my imagination was off and running!

Day or so after I got home, I mentioned the premise to my old college flame, Jack, with whom I exchange the occasional email. So happens Jack, an accountant, used to do the books for a Native American casino on a nearby reservation in upstate New York, and he couldn’t wait to tell me how totally messed up the accounts were. Seems the guys in charge were more bookies than bookkeepers: they went from running a penny-ante Bingo hall to managing a casino that brought in hundreds of thousands each week. Large sums went unaccounted for—or were spent for questionable causes—and Jack, as a white guy, knew damn well he was not being told everything that should’ve been reported.

So voila! I had Michael’s back story and a family conflict he wasn’t at all comfortable with: he’d quit keeping the books for his tribe’s casino. Went back to riding saddle broncs before he got too old to realize his dream of winning at the ProRodeo championship in California. He’s on his way to his first small-time event when his truck breaks down, in the pouring rain, and he’s waiting for the tow truck in the local greasy spoon when Dejected Diana plops down on the stool beside him.

But it’s not enough to assume the rest of the story happens at that nearby no-tell motel, even if this is erotic romance! To make your characters real—the kind readers worry about–they have to have an issue or two that seems insurmountable.

So happens, my oldest brother had just left his job to go on total disability, in preparation for a liver transplant. As we heard about the preparation process, and the way his anti-rejection drugs would run him $6,000 a month in addition to the expenses of the transplant, I was gobsmacked. Unless you have really good insurance (not part of the package for the very small company where my brother worked, unfortunately) how can you even dream of undergoing an organ transplant? Yet if you’re his forty-something wife, how can you not insist that he sign up for this life-saving procedure?

So Diana’s backstory and present conflicted situation was partially drawn from what I was hearing about a real-life family situation. I’m very thankful my brother is still hanging in there, awaiting a donor match. Diana’s husband underwent his transplant, but didn’t fare so well. And after he passed on, his expenses did not: not only is Diana a worn-out widow from being a caretaker, she’s about to lose her home, too.

And Michael, bless him, is a sucker for a damsel in distress. Even if she’s a forty-something damsel with red-rimmed eyes who wears careworn clothes and has a crass bank president posting auction signs on her property.

I did a little online research to figure out Michael’s rodeo circuit route, and to place Seven Creeks ranch in Wolf Point, Montana (where there just happens to be a Native American casino), and from there, my story wrote itself.

Well, practically! I got by with a little help from my friends Diana and Jack, tossed in some real-life financial crises, and when the pieces fell nicely into place I entitled it “Long, Hard Ride.” Seems Michael and Diana play that title from a lot of angles, and I hope you’ll enjoy their story!

Thanks for coming along for this ride! And your reward for reading clear to the end? Ask very nicely…tell me how YOU would respond to the question at the beginning, and there could be a signed book in it for you!