Sydney Cougars

It's nice when you start seeing your work come together in a way that makes it real. After all the writing, contract signing and edits, an author can start to wonder why did I decide to do this. Then the book cover arrives, and you let out a little scream of delight. Yay, now I know why I do this, because I love writing and creating stories that might entertain and interest others. For me it's not until I see a cover that I realise I'm actually doing something tangible. I'm not just spending endless hours sitting at my computer playing author. I'm actually being what I want to be.

So, today the cover arrived for The Cougar Club, the first novella in my Sydney Cougar Series. Unlike the initial cover art for Finding Angel (which made me cry, because it was just so inexplicably horrid. It did get revised, thank god.) I screamed with delight when The Cougar Club cover landed in my inbox. Zeke looks like I imagined him and so does Jasmine. The are soooo sexy. I just want to hug them both. Well maybe I could do a bit more than just hug Zeke :)

Life sometimes takes you on a bit of a curve. You can go off on a tangent that sometime works out, other times the tangent leads to disaster. The Sydney Cougar Series, more specifically The Cougar Club was a tangent for me. I was trying to get Finding Angel contracted with a publisher. It seemed like that would never happen. As I was looking at submission guidelines for different publishers, I found Secret Cravings Publishing (SCP). They had a call out for submissions for a new line of books. Their new Hot Flash imprint. Stories about older women and younger men. Cougar stories up to 20,000 words. I decided to give my self a break from the endless grind and worry, write a story, then submit it and see what happened. Jasmine and Zeke came to life, so did the club, and there crazy friends. I had the best time working on the novella, it just basically fell out of my head onto the page in about 4 days. I submitted it, expecting a huge wait to hear back. OMG, a week or so later I had a contract. My first publishing contract. I decided it was fate. It was meant to be. I could use this as a learning experience for when Finding Angel got a home. It didn't work out that way exactly, because Angel got published and came out before this, but, oh well. I've still learnt a lot from SCP, they're a terrific company to write for.

And SCP is continuing to be a first for me. My tangent is paying off, they recently offered me a multi book contract. Three more of the Sydney Cougar Series novellas. I didn't intend for The Cougar Club to be part of a series, but it has. The secondary characters from the book grabbed my attention. They needed their own story. I wanted to let people know what happened to some of Jasmine and Zeke's friends. I mean 20k words doesn't give a lot of detail, inquiring minds (like me) needed to know more of what was going on. When I submitted the second novella, Catching a Cougar, to SCP they asked how many more were in the series. I replied two more unnamed titles. I know who they will be about, but as for how the stories will unfold, that's still jottings on paper. So, SCP offered me a multi-book contract for the remaining three novellas. How cool are they, and how excited was I? I'm still smiling.

I haven't got a definite release date for The Cougar club yet, but it is in February, so only a few weeks to wait. If you'd like to have a sneak peak at what the books about, visit my website. The link is on the right hand side of the blog page. I hope when your read The Cougar Club that you find it's just the right amount of good storyline and wickedly sexy fun.

Join the Cravings Club

As you know Secret Cravings Publishing (SCP) has contracted my Sydney Cougar Series, the first novella in the collection is due for release in February 2012. I've just finished the second round edits and the book is great thanks to my gifted editor, Kyle. There are some amazing authors being published through SCP and the company has just set up their readers club. The Cravings Club is the eClub for Lovers of reading and romance.

SCP is inviting readers to become a Charter Member of the Cravings eBook Club and receive Taming The Cougar* by Sandy Sullivan and Hunting Jaguar** by D. McEntire absolutely FREE!

As a club member, you receive four BRAND-NEW EBOOKS, specially selected by the Editorial Director, every month for a total price of only $9.99 for all four. This comes out to barely $2.50 per book, much less than the retail price and you’ll be able to enjoy your books even before they hit Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

As a club member, you will also receive:
· a monthly newsletter
· sneak previews of new books
· exclusive interviews with your favorite authors
· special offers not available to the general public

It's only $9.99 per month, once you join the program, you are charged automatically, through Paypal, every month. Your books get shipped within one day after the PayPal payment has cleared. You get to tell SCP what you like to read and a few other things at membership sign up. It's a great way to discover new authors and books that you may not find out about otherwise. You can cancel membership at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe button located on the Cravings Club tab at the bottom of the SCP website and you keep the FREE BOOKS as a gift.

It's easy steps to join to join. Just click on the link on the right hand side of my blog page and it will give you all the information you need.

About the free books:
*Taming the Cougar - a western, erotic romance:
Marla isn't looking for love or anything else from a man. Can Marla put aside her distrust of men for a younger man? Can Chris convince her he's not like other guys?

**Hunting Jaguar- paranormal erotic romance:
Rachel Hayes' Father set out to prove the existence of the Miloni temple and the Jaguar people. Tumi is a descendant of the Miloni race and is sworn to protect their secret with his
life. Will he be forced to uphold his vow at the cost of his heart and Rachel's life?

It's Amazing What A Younger Man Can Do For An Older Woman.

It's official.... I have just signed my first publishing contract! Yay.

*Insert mental picture of a chubby woman doing a happy tushie dance here*

My good friend Suzie has been telling me for too many years to remember, I should ditch dating the older aging hippies I'm usually attracted to and go for a younger man. Yeah, Yeah... blah, blah... has always been my standard response. Well on the fourth of September 2011 a younger man by the name of  Zeke made my day and I'm still reeling from the aftermath.

Get your minds out of the gutter.... please, what do you think I'm talking about here?

If you've read any of my previous posts, visited my facebook page, or had anything to do with me over the last twelve months, you'll know that I've been trying to get my novel "Finding Angel" firstly written and secondly, now that it's completed, published. It's been an interesting time. Angel still needs a home and I'm confident she will find one, we just need to be patient. But Angel is another blog for another day, today it's all about hot, young and very sexy, 28yr old.

Zeke popped into my head as I was looking at submission requirements for publishers to submit Angel's story too.

I happened to noticed a publisher (Angel's story didn't meet their criteria), was asking for submissions for a new line called Hot Flash. They were seeking short stories/novellas that centred on liaisons between older women and younger men. And there was Zeke, like a little light shining bright in my head. I must admit he was a bit pushy, wouldn't leave my thoughts and out of sheer desperation, in an attempt to simply get rid of him I started to write. Zeke and his love interest Jasmine made their way to the pages before me and, 5 days and almost 20 thousand words later I had written 'The Cougar Club'. I sought the opinion and quick editing  opinion of my two friends (Heps and Suzie, hi lovely ladies) who always help proof my work and then sent the submission off to the publisher. 

I wrote the story and did the submission, mainly for the experience. I had a friend tell me that Zeke was a mere distraction and I should get back to writing the follow up to 'Finding Angel' after all, Steve (the main character of the book) is more my age and he's a damn fine man to be involved with. I shouldn't be flirting and running off to play with a 28 yr old.... yeah right.

When the offer to publish and the contract arrived I was blown away. I sat at my computer and burst into tears, don't ask because I have no idea why. Crazy 45 year old woman hormones probably, or shock, who can tell. Poor Suzie thought someone had died when I rang her at the crack of dawn and gave her the good news. She ran around her house and did the happy tushie dance for me, as did my friend Heps because I admit it took me about 24 hours to get into dance mode... but I'm there now.

So, what of my flirtation with young men and have I finally returned to Steve?

I loved the experience with Zeke, it was a quick, flirty, lust filled affair, that's left me fanning myself in amazement. I get a warm shiver of excitement every time I think of him, but I have gone back to Steve. My heart currently belongs to him, he is more my age and he draws me in the most subtle of ways. He waited patiently for my return, he understood my need for distraction and now that I'm back with him we are having a lot of fun. He knows I'm loyal to him and will ensure his story comes to life in a timely manner. I have to confess though, Steve caught me looking at the door of The Cougar Club yesterday, he merely shook his head and laughed. He knows I have a wandering eye, he also understands that Justin, the clubs new assistant manager, needs my help to win the heart of Katie. 

I love you Steve and I'll be back soon.... Mwah.

Note: The Cougar Club, is being published by Secret Cravings Publishers with an expected release date of February 2012.

Thank you Secret Cravings, you are the best and here's a free plug.
I think everyone should waddle over to the Secret Cravings Bookstore and buy an ebook, of course it won't be my book just yet, but you can always revisit the site again in February. I'll be sure to remind you all.

In the meantime have a look and save the store in favourites. http://store.secretcravingspublishing.com/

Finding Angel Character Biographies Finished.

Well it has taken a little while but I have finally added the character bios to my blog site. After all, what else is there to do on a cold, rainy Sunday in Tahmoor.

There are four pages in total (one for each of the main characters). Just look at the page menu on the right hand side of this page and you should see the bios listed.

You can find out all the relevant information on Christian, Daniel, Steve and Angel. There is of course the basics of what each of them does and their physical appearance but I've also tried to give you an idea of the type of people they are. To help you get a better feel for the gang I've also included some personal quotes made by each of them in the book and a picture collage inspired by each character.  

Anyway I hope you enjoy the read, and don't forget to let me know what you think.

Looking for sexy men.

On Sunday night I started working on the bio's for the men from my novel Finding Angel. While I was putting the info together I decided you might like some pics to help you visualise my heroic hunks.

What a disastrous idea!

After many hours of research or depending on your view of things, perving at images on the net, I discovered an unknown truth about the male species. You see it is just as difficult to find fictional men (pictures of anonymous guys that resemble my hunks) as it is to find perfect real life ones. How disappointed was I? I always believed that you can find anything on the net, but Sunday night proved me wrong.

Yes, there are lots of pictures of sexy men on the net. Google them and up they pop. Loads of them, just not ones that I needed. Story of my life really, lots of men around, none that I'm interested in. Of course there were some criteria that limited my search.... the pics needed to be stock photos, royalty free and not cost a bomb if there was a fee attached. Then there was the physical characteristics of the men I was looking for. A blond wavy haired sex god with brown eyes, a dark haired dominant hunk with nearly black eyes and a long haired lean muscled guy with tats.

Easy I hear you say, what's she bitching about? 

Well here's what I found out. Sexy blond haired men don't exist if you want them to have long or shoulder length wavy hair. Straight hair, short hair... no problem. Sexy men with dark short hair are in abundance (which you would  think gave the character of Daniel a leading edge.... wrong). They are in abundance with light coloured eyes not dark brown, nearly black. Most blond men have blue eyes, men with really dark brown eyes that are nearly black must never allow people to take pictures of them. Men with long hair of any colour who have tattoos either look like drug addicts or Satan.

Some of the men who, in the thumbnail images, looked like they might have a sexy dominant appearance usually turned out to be an illusion. Once the image was enlarged they looked like they were trying to pass a rock. If they weren't passing a large item out their bum then they just looked like they'd slap you if you offended them. Finally, about 10pm, I found three pics that I thought would be perfect. Yay me. Unfortunately perfection costs and I refused to pay $200 AU for the right to use the pictures. Like an unpublished author has that kind of money to throw away.... NOT.  So I did the only thing I could think of that might be of use. I enlisted my best friend, the gorgeous Lady Macbeth, to help me (much to her husbands' amusement).

One long distance telephone call later and she was on the phone telling me it can't be that hard to find what I was looking for. After assuring her hubby she was not looking at porn, we set out again to find Christian, Daniel and Steve.  At about 1am, after searching men who were too thin; too young; too old; muscles too big (yes this is possible); men who looked mean, sappy, gay, violent, drug addled; wrong colour eyes; hair not long enough; hair not wavy enough or OMG how many times was he hit with the ugly stick.... I finally called it a night. Disappointed and frustrated I went to bed... (again, not a new feeling... it's the story of my life really).

Monday morning with a new determination I finally found images that, even though they aren't exactly what I had in mind, they'll do. Yes... I settled. Just like so many of us do in real life I found men that weren't exactly what I was looking for but they'll do. I guess it's true that beggers can't be chosers.... even when your looking for an imaginary man.

The Virgin Blog or How to Lose your Virginity at 45.

This is the monumental virgin blog... meaning my first on this site. For all those dyslexic people who are thinking I'm a virgin and I'm writing a blog all I can say is.... lol, yeah right, I'm 45 yrs young....you're too funny.

Anyway, I just spent the last few hours trying to figure out what I'm doing (a tech head I am not) and hopefully now I've got it all sorted out. Well it's all sorted until I hit my first problem where something doesn't work properly.

So why am I doing blog I hear you say? Well for a few reasons, some of them based on technical incompetence, others on the need for a presence on the net and simply because I think it could turn out to be a bit of fun. 

Safety tip number one: never say you'll do something before investigating if you can do it.

I've ended up with this blog by accident. Initially I set up a facebook page to promote my work as an author. I had a few people who liked the page suggest that I put character profiles and some chapters on it so they can read bits of the novel. Good idea I replied, I'll do it!  Then I couldn't figure out how to do that on the facebook page.... mmm, yes technical incompetence. I had to admit that I jumped before looking and I overestimated my ability again. So, after much thought and beating myself around the head, I decided to set up the blog and link the facebook page to the blog.... no applause needed.

So, for those that know me on facebook, I'm still there and all you have to do is click the link I provide and you'll find me here, blogging away in my PJ's while eating pringles :)

The second reason for setting up the blog was to have the ability to include the blog spot and the facebook page links in submissions for publishers. I can't understand why publishers require an online presence when you're unpublished but according to some submission guidelines they do.  So given that a web page is so out of my reach on both a technical and financial basis, here I am.... Blogging.

My final reason for blogging is a simple one..... I think it might be fun. I am looking forward to being able to hop on here in the early hours of the morning when I can't sleep (yes happens often) or I'm bored (happens sometimes) and dribbling incoherent shit all over the page just to amuse myself. Oh, and of course hopefully amuse you guys as well.  I will begin the character profiles from the first novel 'Finding Angel' within the next few days so stay tuned. I'll then post some of my favourite bits from the novel so you can all get titillated. Finally I'll do an update on the second book and keep you all posted as it progresses.

Well that's all for now, the pringles have run out and I need a cuppa.... ciao for now.