June 2016 Newsletter

IF YOU ARE A WINNER AND HAVE NOT LISTED WHICH BOOK YOU WANT,
I WILL SEND A COPY OF HOT ALPHAS/TANGLED

There's a reason for this gorgeous photo--it's one my brother Dave took not far from a cabin he has near the Columbia River in Washington State. I absolutely love it, and since I'm working on a story about my Chanku, it definitely puts me in the mood. I always think of my shifters running through a forest that looks very much like this one. I may have even shown you this picture before, but it's definitely inspirational!

Lots of things I need to tell you--first an apology for not doing a newsletter last month, but it's been a rough couple of months on a lot of different levels. Personally, I'm still not 100% after the ulcer, and the arthritis in my hands has been worse because I've had to cut back on the meds that control it. They're not good for the stomach, though oddly enough, typing helps keep my hands limber and I'm slowly adjusting to the lack of meds.

I started work on the newest book, tentatively called DARK TERROR about eight weeks ago. Honestly? I underestimated how long it would take me to get back into this world! It's been over two years since my last one, DARK REFUGE, and I've forgotten so much about the various characters that I've had to reread the prior books numerous times. It's moving better now, though still much slower than I expected, but I've got a feel for the characters and the story is coming together. Please don't give up on me!

I took some time to finally finish remodeling a bathroom that's been driving me nuts since we moved here four years ago. Sometimes doing something mindless and manual helps me think about my writing, and this seemed to help quite a bit. Doug and I did all the work ourselves--one major discovery we made is that toilets are a lot heavier than we remember! <snort> I'm 66, he'll be 67 next month and I imagine that has something to do with it, but the job is done, everything is new and clean and I can relax a bit about the house. Finally! It's a tiny little bathroom, too...should NOT have taken this long!

Biggest news I have to share, I imagine, is that AWAKENED comes out Tuesday, June 28. Right now that's tomorrow, and if I can get this finished tonight, it's all good. This is the final book in the INTIMATE RELATIONS series, and I think you're going to love Marc's story. Marcus Reed has been my favorite character from the very beginning, sort of a lost soul in spite of his financial success. The thing is, I had no idea what his story was until I started writing it, and it turned out to be more suspenseful than I ever imagined.

I think you'll enjoy learning more about Marc and why he is so terrified of intimacy with Mandy. And yes, they get past that issue fairly quickly--this is a romance, after all!​ 

But Marc definitely has his demons, and it takes Mandy's love to help him figure them out, and face them. If you haven't ordered and want to, there are links at the bottom of this post. (or by clicking on any of the book pics--they are all hot links to those titles) My SMP publicist sent the iBooks link this morning, so it's now live. All the others should work as well. Please let me know whenever you run across a failed link. Sometimes I just don't catch them.

And, in case you missed it, the second book in my FERAL PASSIONS series, WILD PASSIONS, released in an ebook duet on June 7. CLAIMED BY THE MATE, VOL. 2 with AC Arthur, is out, and it continues the stories of the sexy men of Feral Passions, the resort built by a pack of lonely werewolves hunting for their mates. 

I've got a first chapter excerpt up--this one brings four new women to the resort on a bridal party week of fun that turns out to be a bit more dangerous than the bride to be expected. I had a lot of fun matching up a few more sexy wolves with women willing to take a big chance on love!

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​I've read some wonderful books over the past couple of months--Susan Fox's RING OF FIRE, was terrific. If you're a fan of Robyn Carr's small town, community/family centric stories, you will love Susan's writing. This one is the story of a Canadian vet suffering from PTSD after serving in the Middle East. He's lost a leg, but he's dealing with that much better than he is the emotional scars of her service.

When part of his therapy matches him with a young boy with cerebral palsy in a therapeutic riding class, Major Eric Weaver thinks it's a huge waste of time, but spending time with a very brave young man and his tough but loving mom has a greater effect than Eric could have imagined.

Talking about Robyn Carr--guess who was very close to Healdsburg a couple of weeks ago for a book signing? I haven't seen Robyn in ages, so Doug and I went to Copperfield's in Santa Rosa and had a chance to catch up and talk books. She was there to sign WHAT WE FIND, her newest women's fiction, and an absolutely fantastic read! This one is the beginning of a new series set in the fictional Sullivan's Crossing on the trail that runs along the Continental Divide. Robyn's characters are always so richly drawn, her stories so damned believable, that I absolutely love

them. I've told you before that I tend to reread--I think I read this book about four times! Could NOT put it back on my keeper shelf until I'd just about worn the pages off!
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Almost forgot another terrific book I read--and would have mentioned in my May newsletter if I'd gotten my act together and actually had written one--is Jayne Ann Krentz as Amanda Quick's 'TILL DEATH DO US PART. Loved it. And again, just about read the words off the pages, but it's another book I couldn't put down. 

Jayne always manages to perfectly balance her romance and suspense, and I love her heroines. They don't take any crap off anyone! So much fun to read a tough, smart, woman in an historical setting. You KNOW there were smart, strong women then--they just didn't get credit!​
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This is what happens when I don't do a newsletter for a couple of months--I really love to tell you about the fantastic books I've read, and end up talking more about everyone else's and forget I'm supposed to be giving you the "buy my book now!" pitch. Thing is, I figure that if you're reading my newsletter you're at least interested enough in my books to take a look, so I really hate going for the hard sell. And I just thought of two more I have to mention--Elizabeth Hoyt gets the prize for taking one of the most unlikeable characters EVER and turning him into a hero in THE DUKE OF SIN, another in her Maiden Lane series.

If you've read any of her series, you've probably met Valentine Napier, the Duke of Montgomery, who's been happily blackmailing members of the aristocracy all over London, but he makes a mistake when he blackmails the mother of his bastard housekeeper, who is bound and determined to find the proof the Duke is holding over her mother's head. It's such a fun story--the Duke is well aware he has a spy in his household, but he's so intrigued by Bridget Crumb he's more than willing to play a game of cat and mouse. It's just flat out fun, and I actually ended up liking the rotten SOB!

I also read Sylvia Day's ONE WITH YOU, the final book in her CROSSFIRE series. I am really going to miss these characters! What a fantastic story that hits every emotional button going. I may have to go back and read the entire series, though I have no idea when I'll have the time.

And then there's the book I just finished reading last night, and the reason this newsletter didn't go out yesterday--Nalini Singh's Allegiance of Honor, the latest in her Psy-Changeling series. This one is absolutely perfect, a terrific recap of what all her characters are doing now, the introduction of new characters, some ongoing threads tied up, and a perfectly segue into what the future holds for the trinity of human, psy, and changelings. Nalini's world building is superb, her characters so well-defined that they are unforgettable from book to book.If you've been reading this series, don't miss this newest addition. I fully intend to reread it--probably more than once.

By the way, my links to other authors' books will take you to their websites, not to Amazon or any other retailer. I figure you'll want to see excerpts, and most authors will have them up.

Oh...there's one more reason I'm running slow on everything--our three grandchildren who live in Hawaii are in town for a couple of weeks, so we've been spending time just basking in kids laughing. We are so lucky to have six wonderful grands from age 4-14 who are all terrific kids. They get along, they don't argue or fight over anything, and it's a joy to have them all together. I find myself sneaking out of the house to be wherever they're all hanging out...makes it hard to get any writing done! But, the book is coming along and I'll post some excerpts once I've got a scene I can share that won't give too much away. In the meantime, I'm giving away a couple of copies of GROWL and HOT ALPHAS, with TANGLED, the first in my Intimate Relations series. (I figure that if you read that one, you're just going to have to get the rest of the series!)

Be sure and note which book you want--if you're happy with either, put the one you want most, first. That way if you're a winner, I'll send your preferred choice, but if you already have one of the books, just don't add it to the entry form.

That's about it for now. I hope you'll take a look at my INTIMATE RELATIONS series because I think that you'll really enjoy each of the books--I honestly miss these characters, and I'm thinking of writing another book for a secondary character who showed up in AWAKENED. Jenner Don Stirling (JD for short) works with an HRD (Human Remains Detection) dog, commonly referred to as a cadaver dog. Bones, the dog, really caught my attention when he showed up, and so did his owner. She's a tiny little thing who does one of those jobs that rarely has a happy ending, and I've already got lots of ideas spinning around. We shall see...

On that note, here's to a safe and happy 4th of July, to those of you who are facing horrible weather, please be safe and dry where it's raining, and just be safe where there are fires burning. It was 102 here today, and already the hills around us are tinder dry.

Will hold the good thought for each and every one of you. Take care, and if I don't respond quickly to your comments, it's probably because I'm hanging out with the grandkids. Uhm...no. I'll be writing. Really. Writing really good stuff, right?

Best to everyone,
​Kate