Greta is running a Week of Demons over at her blog. Lots of great guest blog posts and prizes!!  Go by and check it out! I’ll be guest posting tomorrow and giving away a copy of MIDNIGHT’S MASTER.  Today, the fabulous Jaci Burton is kicking off the demon fun!

I’ll be back later with some book talk…and another oldies giveway (today is Nora day!).

Starting next Saturday, you’ll be seeing something new here at the old blog…

I’ll be participating with a group of diverse authors to bring you tastes of our work.  Each Saturday will focus on a different theme or topic. I’ll post an excerpt to match that theme, then I’ll link to all the other authors so you can check out their excerpts, too. Different stories, different voices, different takes on the same theme.

Thanks so much to the fabulous Lauren Dane for thinking of this fun idea–and for including me in her Saturday Snippets!

Happy Friday!! Hope everyone has some great weekend plans!

BookMom has posted a review of my upcoming release, MIDNIGHT’S MASTER (thank you, BookMom!). If you get a chance, check it out!  It’s not very long at all now until Niol’s story hits the shelves.

I also thought I’d include another teaser excerpt from MIDNIGHT’S MASTER today. Yes, the excerpt below does contain adult material and, if you haven’t read MIDNIGHT SINS, well, there are some spoilers in here from that book, too.  So you’ve been warned!

* * *

Unedited Excerpt from MIDNIGHT’S MASTER (Kensington Brava, July 2009)

“You think…” Holly began slowly, then stopped and swallowed.  “You think you can threaten to fuck my mind…then try and fuck me?”

He didn’t speak. What would he have said?

“No.  I’m not one of your demon wannabe sluts, Niol.  I don’t want to jump you in the dark so that I can have the thrill of saying I screwed a monster.”

Hit.  The reporter obviously understood more than she’d pretended about the human women who came to his bar.

“I don’t want to play—”

“Yes, Holly, you do.”  Her heart still pounded too fast, her nipples were still pebbled, and her cheeks were flushed—all from hunger.

Need. For him.

“I’m not going to play.”  Her hand dropped. “I’m going to do my job—and find out what happened to Carl.  With, or without your help.”

He stared at her.  Such a shame.  They would have been good together. The sex, well, it would have been pretty phenomenal. All that fire she had—oh, yeah, phe-nomenal.

Pity.  Niol shook his head.  “Sorry, love, it’s going to be ‘without.’”  And then he did the only thing he could do.

He turned around and walked away from her.   As he stalked toward the SUV, he felt her eyes on him.  His hand lifted, reached for the door.

“Niol.”

Oh, but the woman’s voice could get to him.  It was the soft huskiness when she said his name.  Like a stroke right over his groin.  But he didn’t look at her.  Niol opened the door.

“You have to care.”  Her voice sharpened. “You play the bastard, but Carl, he was little more than a kid, and one of yours.  You have to care—”

The laughter escaped then.  He just couldn’t help it.  He stepped back and glanced over at her.  “Have you forgotten so soon, sweet?  The incubus who took you that night—he was one of my kind, too—and I burned him,” the fire had been so beautiful, “from the inside out.”

She flinched.

His lips were twisted in a smile that he knew could chill.  “I kill my kind.” The incubus hadn’t been the first, and he wouldn’t be the last.  “I don’t go out on a damn crusade to save them…or any humans who are dumb enough to get involved in a world they can’t understand.”

“You’re a cold bastard, Niol.”

So he’d been told.

* * *

Update:  Winner!! Congrats to Lisa F! Lisa, you’ve won THE CONQUEROR!

I talked about this author and her book on Monday, and now I”m super thrilled that the very talented Kris Kennedy is joining me today for some author interview fun.  Thanks for answering my questions, Kris!

1.    Please tell us a bit about yourself and the genre (or genres) that you write.

Hi Cynthia! I’m excited to be here today, chatting with you all!  Hi everyone.  🙂

Let’s see . . career-wise, I started out as psychotherapist, specializing in work with highly chaotic, suicidal and para-suicidal women.  It was incredibly rewarding work, but not ‘following my bliss,’ and I knew it.

Then, as I was working my way through the local library about 9 years ago (or thereabouts), I kept coming upon these ‘silly’ historical romance books.  I’d turn away—no, not those books!  Not those covers!  You’re above all that.  Look away!

But, alas, I looked.  I picked up.  I read.  I was . . . captured.  The night I finished my first historical romance, I was up until 3 a.m., writing.  And I haven’t stopped.

I write medieval romances right now, based in England and Ireland, although I do have a few half-finished beasties that may one day see the light of day.  A Georgian or 2, a could Revolutionary War era stories, as well as a few contemps.

2.    Describe your current release in 15 words or less.

Damn you.  15 words?  Or LESS??

Let’s see . . .  How’s this?

A reluctant hero, a desperate heroine, & a passion that could destroy a kingdom.

Not 100% accurate, but close ‘nuff.  😉

3.    Definitely close enough! Okay, now use as many words as you’d like to describe your story.

Ha!  I was trying to go with my first responses, so I didn’t read the questions ahead.  Therefore, this question was a big relief.  🙂

THE CONQUEROR

England, 1152: After seventeen years of civil war, things are about to change.

Reluctant hero Griffyn ‘Pagan’ Sauvage is single-minded in pursuit of his mission: overthrow England. He disavows everything related to a destiny, as he’s rejected everything related to his brutal father. He veers from his quest only once, to rescue a brave woman from a midnight abduction.

Guinevere de l’Ami is equally focused, with an earldom to protect.  But Griffyn awakens emotions that will make her risk everything for a single night of unforgettable passion.

Their explosive reunion, a year later, follows betrayal and a bloody invasion.  Now revenge, the lure of buried treasure, and a deadly enemy closing in threaten a love that could unite a kingdom, or being it crashing to the ground.

129 words.  How’s that?
😉

4.    Which character do you like better from THE CONQUEROR—the hero or the heroine?  Why?

Ah, well, we do love our heroes, don’t we?

I love the heroine, because she is someone who has made real mistakes, not the ‘pretty’ kind, where she ‘thinks’ she did something wrong, but really, there’s no blame to be had.  Guinevere has made real mistakes, and others have paid.

It’s up to the reader to decide if Gwyn is making even more mistakes over the course of the story.

In part, it’s sort-of the question: Is it better (or worse) to do the wrong thing for the right reasons, or the right thing for the wrong reasons?

I won’t give any more away.  But this is reminding me, I need to get my Reader Discussion Questions up on the website!

Now, all that being said . . .I love Griffyn. I totally love him. I think he’s chocolate  icing.  His tortured-ness, his honorable nature that’s getting all twisted up. I love his sense of humor, his fractured confidence, his body—I mean.  His brain.  I love his mind.

🙂

5.    What is the most challenging part of being a writer?

Hmm . . that’s a good question.  And a tough one, which is the reason it’s good.

I think for me, it’s confidence.  I don’t know if I’m good enough.  And it’s such a subjective world, that for many readers, I won’t be good enough. Won’t float their boat.

Somehow, you have to remain confident enough to go on, get better, persevere.

You know what?  That’s true for all of us, everywhere, no matter what we do.  If we know it’s important or right in our gut, we just have to keep doing it.

6.    In a fight, who would win…Dracula or the wolf-man?  What? This question seems odd? Please, folks are dying to know this answer.

Totally, Dracula.  Because he’s always true to himself.  Sure, he has to avoid daylight and all, but he’s still a vampire when he’s in his coffin, or his basement watching DVDs, or whatever.

Wolfman is torn on a fundamental level, and so will always be weaker.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
😉

7.    What’s your favorite scary movie?  Come on, spill.  No explanations—just name it.  Let everyone else guess why.

OMG, let me tell you, when I was a kid, Poltergeist scared the bejeezus out of me.  Totally.

My grandparents got my brother& me each a TV for our bedrooms (I won’t even go into what a bad idea I now think that was—this was back in the day, late 70’s, when TVs were not so ubiquitous, the shows were more innocent, & there was only white static playing in the middle of the night.)

Anyhow, you know how those old B&W TVs, how the screen would sorta glow after you turned out the lights in the room?  The tubes or something . . .

Well, the glowing TV screen almost made my heart stop beating.

I’d squeeze my eyes shut, flip off my bedroom light, run and LEAP onto my bed.  I’d pull the covers up, eyes shut.  A few minutes later, I’d peek up.  As soon as the glow was gone, I was fine.

Quite a spectacle, for about 5 years there.  And no one knew.  I’m just realizing that now. My mom and grandparents had no idea how petrified I was every night between 9-15 y.o.  LOL

Aw, now see, Kris, you were supposed to let folks guess! But we’ll let you slide this time….

8.    Tell me the one thing you wish you’d known about being a writer, um, before you became  a writer.

As far as the craft of writing, I wish I knew the ‘less-is-more’ approach, to almost everything.

As far as the act of it . . . let’s see . . . I wish I’d worked out a lot more, so I could now rely on that fitness to get me through the HOURS and HOURS of sitting on my tush.  LOL

9.    What is your writing schedule like?

Ha!  Very funny.  ‘Schedule,’ she says.

It’s been so all over the map this winter and spring.   I was on a deadline, and was revising an entire manuscript from the bones up.   I was writing all the time, almost non-stop, aside from the mom-ing.

That one is an Irish medieval (excerpt here, if you’re interested in hot, funny Irish heroes <g>, and I sent it off to my editor the last day of March.  A few days later, we went to Germany for a month.  I’ll just say that I didn’t get much writing done there.

We got back about a week ago, & it’s been all about the release of THE CONQUEROR and promoting it.

But, I have some good ideas, and really want to get back to writing.

Generally, I get the bulk of writing time a couple days a week, when my son is at daycare.  And I ask for some weekend time too, when hubby is home, and I usually get it.

Kindergarten starts this fall, though, although only half-day.  Still, it’ll be an every day thing, so that will be good.

10.    Tell me anything you’d like to tell me.

I’d like to say a big thank-you for the chance to come and visit!  I’d also love to ask your readers a question.
If you could go into any book, which would it be & why?    Like time-travel, only it’s book-travel.  🙂 Would you go and travel back in time, and experience life in an historical?  Forward?  Or would you go into a book with an altered, fantasical version of ‘now’?  Like Cindy’s awesome books.

Thanks for visiting with us, Kris! And for those of you in blog land…I’ll select one commenter to win a hot-off-the-presses (so to speak) copy of THE CONQUEROR!

Yesterday, Willa asked if I could tell more about my current WIP and I realized–I haven’t done a project update in a very long time!

So I thought I’d just take a little time today and update you on the projects I’m currently working on (or planning to work on soon!).  And if you have any questions about the books or books-to-come,  just leave me a comment.

Earlier this year, I was offered a contract by Grand Central Publishing (for the Forever romance line).  The contract was for three romantic suspense novels that focused on the SSD–the Serial Services Division in the FBI.  The SSD tracks and apprehends serials–serial killers, arsonists, rapists, kidnappers…

I’ve written the first two books in this series (with the tentative and quite possibly changing names of EVIL MINDS and EVIL DEEDS).  I still have revision and editing work to do on those tales, but in the mean time, I am working on the third book in the series, EVIL RISING (again, only a tentative title).  EVIL RISING focuses on a serial kidnapping plot, so right now, yeah, I’m in the middle of a kidnapping.  🙂

And again, this is tentative now, but I *think* we are looking at back-to-back (to back?) releases for these 3 books next year.  They’re sexy books, but dark.  EVIL MINDS was the darkest book I’d ever written, but I sure did enjoy writing my heroine.  She is one of my favorite characters.

Now, on the paranormal front, I have signed a contract to write 3 more paranormal books for Kensington Brava.  Go, paranormals!  Before I tell you about the paranormals that I am planning to write, I think I’llgo over the release schedule I have for the ones already written:

June 30, 2009…release of MIDNIGHT’S MASTER (thanks, Michele!!); the third book in my Midnight trilogy. Niol gets his story.

August 25, 2009…release of BELONG TO THE NIGHT anthology (with Shelly Laurenston  and Sherrill Quinn); my contribution to this anthology is a vampire tale; vampires vs. shifters!  If you read WHEN HE WAS BAD, then you’ve met the hero of this story–the vampire Liam.

December 2009…re-release of HOTTER AFTER MIDNIGHT in mass market form

January 2010…..release of ETERNAL HUNTER; the first book in my new paranormal bounty hunter series.  My hero is a white tiger shifter and my heroine–well, I guess you’ll have to wait and find out! I am a tease!

TBD 2010…(I’ll post a definite date in 2010 when I’m sure, promise!)…release of I’LL BE SLAYING YOU (tentative title).  Vampires, baby. Vampires.  This is the second book in my paranormal bounty hunter series.

Now, all of these paranormal books are written, my lovely editor has them at her office and even though I still have to do copy-edits and line-edits, I still list them in my “done” pile.

This is my “to-do” paranormal pile:

-The next paranormal book I write will be the third in my paranormal bounty hunter series. I absolutely know that I am writing this book.  I’ve got the characters in my head. I’ve got the plot ready to go. Actually, this book has been screaming at me while I did my RS writing, but it won’t have to scream much longer. As soon as my RS stories are done, I’ll go back to my bounty hunters. This story will focus on a demon and a fire-starter.

-For those of you who have written to ask me what will become of Lucas (the wolf shifter from IMMORTAL DANGER), rest easy!  My editor gave me the go-ahead to write his story.  So his book is on the list for me! And if you’re wondering about his book, I’ll tell you this…I know his heroine will be one charming woman. Okay, yeah, bad joke, but if you’re read my stories, you know what kind of Other she’ll be.

-The third book in my contract…no details yet for you!

And then, hopefully, I’ll have more contracts and I can do more sexy paranormals and dark suspenses.

If you’ve got any questions about stories that are coming up or if there are characters you’d like to read more about, let me know! Thanks!!