When the doorbell rang at 11:30 a.m. today (ahem, by the time most folks read this, it will have been “yesterday”), my husband and I both raced to the door (and, um, had a small scuffle as we each fought to be the first to open the door). Nick was hoping the FedEx truck he could see from the window was there to delivery his much anticipated camping tent. I was hoping to get my grubby hands on the ARCs that the Magnificent M told me would be coming soon.

Guess who the delivery was for? 🙂

Yep, that’s me in the picture, my previously mentioned grubby hands holding an ARC of WHEN HE WAS BAD (featuring Shelly Laurenston’s Miss Congeniality and my Wicked Ways). Oh, and, hey–that’s my new haircut, too! I know–you don’t care about the hair so much, but aren’t the ARCs cool? Jeez but I love getting those.

By the way, wanna read an excerpt of Wicked Ways? I’m in the process of updating my site–I’ve added excerpts for Wicked Ways and Blood Hunt, and on Friday, I should add more new info.

Hi!! Today I’m guest blogging over at the Romance Vagabonds. I’m talking about promo. If you’re a writer (published or pre-published), stop by–you might find some of my tips helpful!

Amber Leigh Williams has tagged me to reveal 6 unimportant facts about myself.

Here are the “Tagged!” rules:

1. Link back to the person who tagged you.

2. Post the rules on your blog.

3. Share six unimportant things about yourself.

4. Tag six random people at the end of your blog entry.

5. Let the tagged people know by leaving a comment on their blogs.

And, now, on to my unimportant facts:

Fact one:  At one point, I had a scar on my knee that resembled an airplane. Time has faded the scar, so it now just looks like a line. A line doesn’t make for an interesting story, but an airplane–that got more attention.

Fact two:  Last Halloween, I dressed up as a pirate for a my son’s party.

Fact three:  I like to go to the aquarium in New Orleans and watch the sharks swim. They soothe me.

Fact four:  I’ve broken several of my toes. Sexy, huh?

Fact five:  My favorite color is black.

Fact six:  I just got a new haircut so that means that I keep touching my shorter hair, about, oh, every two minutes.

Done! Thanks, Amber!

Now, I shall break the rules a bit (I should have said I was a rule breaker in my list!). If you’ve read this, yep, you’re tagged.

The first review of Hotter After Midnight is up at Simply Romance Reviews–and my book got a rating of “A+”–I’m so thrilled!

Here are a few snippets from Lynda Wamock’s (Thank you, Lynda!) review:

“I really enjoyed Hotter After Midnight and I can’t wait to read more by author Cynthia Eden. This story had me hooked from the very beginning and there were plenty of curve balls to keep me on the edge of my chair until the very end.”

“Hotter After Midnight is hot and Colin is so seductive you’ll wish he would take a bite out of you. You’ll be hungry for more of Colin and Emily long after you’ve turned the last page. I highly recommend this book it is witty, suspenseful and steamy enough to fog up your windows.”

If you’d like to see the complete review, it is available at Simply Romance Reviews.

Yay!!! Now, back to more synopsis writing. Jeez, I seem to be doing a lot of that lately, huh?

(Quick note:  I finished reading Sizzle and Burn–great book!! The first chapter had such a fabulous ending hook. No way could I put that down. Loved the characters, loved the paranormal powers, pretty much just loved it. 🙂  But, I wasn’t a total loafer yesterday, I did get 8 pages written on my WIP–not my usual 10, but still, not too shabby for a girl playing hooky.)

Now, for today’s blog topic, I want to talk about heroes. I often find that when I watch movies or TV shows, I tend to gravitate toward particular types of heroes (and I also write about a particular sort, too).

Here are a few of my favs:

1. Vin Diesel from Pitch Black. A true bad-boy character. Vin’s character was a convicted killer. He looked out for himself. He hunted. He had a sexy as hell voice. But…in the end, he fought for others. A killer with some good inside–gotta love that.

2. Spike from Buffy. (Zoe, I know we share a fondness for him!)  Again, another bad-boy. Once, a full-on monster, he evolved in the series and became a character who literally fought for his soul. Loved that evolution.

Hmmm…are you seeing a trend here? I don’t like heroes who are perfect. No one is perfect, and I certainly don’t want my heroes to pretend to be. I like heroes who’ve seen the dark side, who have the dark side in them, but can still–under certain circumstances–do the right thing.

3. Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser) in The Mummy. I really enjoyed this character–he had a troubled past, when the heroine found him, he was just about to be executed–oh, yeah, great opening. But, it was obvious that this guy was smart. He was tough. And, as I quickly discovered, he was very loyal. Great hero material.

So those are some of my favorite heroes…anyone else wanna share?