standard ishue–Katie

The first volume of Seven Deadly Sins, A Young Adult Anthology, deals with possibly the most severe of all sins: Pride. Whether a story centers around magic, a crime, a scientific experiment or a night out that ends in disaster, our young adults need to decide if pride will be an obstacle they overcome, or if it will be the weakness that holds them back.

Thirteen stories, thirteen choices. One theme.

The Hazel Crayon by Wendy White Lees

A headstrong young girl’s attempt to prove her oddball classmate is a pirate results in a playground wedding, and a friendship that sails smoothly through adolescence, but is knocked off course in high school.

Good Intentions by Michael Donoghue

A genetically smart but bored 16 year-old boy sets out to solve an environmental problem, but he ends up in more trouble than he could possibly imagine.

Masterpiece by J.C. Davis

Avery is the best artist in her high school, but when her arch-rival Nora takes a prank too far, Avery discovers that art can destroy as well as create.

Quitter by Day Jamison

When a less than perfect test score prompts a driven perfectionist to sabotage her anchoring relationships, she must overcome her fear of failure or reconcile herself to loneliness.

Summer Rains by E.N. Loizis

When Violeta attempts to change Joanna to fit her idea of a “worthy friend”, Joanna must decide who she wants to be.

Balancing Act by K.T. Stephens

As a circus acrobat who knows perfection is a must to stay alive, Joey has to decide between his pride and the acceptance he craves, not realizing he can have both.

Seeing Better by Eliza Archer

A girl finds that sometimes the world as isn’t the way you’ve been seeing it all your life. It just takes looking at it with clearer vision.

Great-Great Aunty Edna by Anita Russo

When self-obsessed Amber is forced to clean her Great-Great Aunty’s squalid house instead of pursuing her love interest, her pride takes an unexpected reality check.

A Mother’s Pride by Teresa Bassett

Shy student Ruth can’t believe her luck when she is befriended by smart, popular Laura Mortoe. But on a weekend away, Laura’s façade crumbles—with tragic consequences.

A Wish from the Fountain by Alisia Faust

When rejected by her first crush, Stevie seeks counsel from her mysterious confidant in the fountain, but the advice she receives is not what she expected.

In the Name of Art and Love by Sylvia Heike

When a student couple hangs a love lock only to discover most locks stolen soon after, they must reconcile with the loss. Meanwhile, a girl in love with an artist questions the purpose of the theft they’ve committed.

Commando by Willow Becker

Jesse Malvino is on his way to becoming one of the great Rock Gods. Only a local talent scout, a raging principal, and an epic wardrobe malfunction stand in his way.

The Tasmanian Girl by S. Sadedin

Andy teams up with the class geek and his cat-eyed new girlfriend to win the science fair, but will their project literally go viral?

This brand new YA anthology will go on sale April 1, 2015! Stay tuned for interviews from the authors, editors and our illustrator, Luke Spooner.

Hello, fellow romance writers and readers!

I am pleased to be a part of a blog tour for fellow author Cait Jarrod, organized by Nicole Ulery of Books N Pearls!

I met Cait on the writing site Scribophile (where I meet most of my author friends) and immediately fell in love with her writing! So I jumped at the offer to have her as a guest. I’m going to start with a bit about Cait that I learned during her interview:

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself. I’m married to my best friend and am mother of three lovely daughters.
2. Do you have a special place you like to write? I like to write in my study or dining room. Kinda of depends on the day and how quiet I need my surroundings.
3. Do you have any quirks or processes that you go through when you write? Not that I’m aware of. My family may think differently.
4. Where do you get the ideas for your books? Most of my ideas come from a tidbit of a dream. Before I know it, I have a full plot outlined.
5. What do you find the most challenging about writing? The marketing side!
6. What do you think makes a good story? A plot that pulls the reader in, makes him or her feel like they’re a part of the story, and creates a plethora of emotions.
7. What future writing plans do you have? I just finished a novella, Faith, for the Girl Code Anthology. Now, I’m writing the sequel.

Breaking All Barriers

By Cait Jarrod

Release Date: March 13, 2015

Publisher: Wild Rose Press

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Can a single kiss change your life?

Businessman Cole Dunbar stays focused inventing the latest techno gadgets. When he learns of his deceased wife’s betrayal, he shuts the door on any personal relationships. There’s just one problem—the sexy Dina Wright who lives down the hall. He can’t keep her out of his thoughts and fantasies. When he sees her frightened on a New York City street, he tosses aside his reservations and reaches out to her.

Dina is high on life. Not only is she starting an advertising agency and her best friend is returning to NYC, an honest-to-God hunk is sending her spine-tingling looks. Despite past betrayals interfering, the budding romance picks up momentum, but Mother Nature spins her wrath. Amidst the chaos, Dina vanishes.

Like the book on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BreakingAllBarriersbyCaitJarrod

Excerpt:

The doorknob twisted easily under his hand and he peeked inside.

She reclined against the back of the tub as if asleep. He thought about leaving to give her privacy, but he had the niggling sense something was off.

Kneeling on the floor beside her, he set the glasses and beads on the floor. “Dina,” he said, lightly caressing two fingers to her arm. “Sweetheart.”

The stillness and paleness of her body sent a panic through him comparable to a blazing fire. “Dina, wake up!” He didn’t raise his voice but spoke stern and loud enough to get some sort of reaction.

Still, she lay in the tub of hot water comatose.

With each passing second, his thoughts worsened to the unthinkable. Pressing two fingers to the pulse point in her neck, he held his breath.

She jolted awake, backhanding his arm. Her other hand hit her chest. Water splashed over the sides of the tub. A long moment passed before her eyes focused on him. “Geez, Cole,” she gasped. “You scared the hell out of me!”

Relief washed over him in waves, knocking him onto his butt. He chuckled, the laughter rolling out of him in such a way he couldn’t control.

Buy it links:

Wild Rose Press | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

Don’t miss Cait Jarrod’s other works:

 About the Author:

From writing ‘every girl’s dream heroes’ to ‘strong, down-to-earth heroines,’ Cait Jarrod twists ‘cliff hanging plots’ and ‘clever, unpredictable sub-plots’. She loves diving into a good book as much as she loves writing one.

Mother of three gorgeous daughters, she’s married to her best friend, hangs out with the WWC—a great group of women, and loves a good glass of wine.

Cait’s debut novel, Kidnapped Hearts, won awards in the categories of Best Happily Ever After, Best Suspense, and Editor’s Choice. She also made the Amazon Best Sellers list.

Contact or follow Cait Jarrod:

Website | Email | Facebook Fan Page | Twitter | Pinterest | Goodreads | Google+ |Linkedin

Sign up for her newsletter here: http://caitjarrod.com/contact-cait-andor-signup-for-news-from-cait-newsletter/

Website: caitjarrod.com

Email: cait.jarrod@aol.com

Facebook Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cait-Jarrod-Author/500705936640529?ref=hl

Twitter: http://twitter.com/CaitJarrod

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/caitjarrod/boards/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6966274.Cait_Jarrod

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+CaitJarrod/posts/p/pub

Linkedin: http://lnkd.in/dV2sY2T

Joey, from Balancing Act, received his first interview today on Jena Baxter’s blog. Woohoo!! None other than her beran, Tolor, did the interview! Joey was a little reticent at first, but with Tolor’s urging, he warmed up considerably.

You can read the entire interview here. Show Jena–and Joey’s interview–a little love!

A little background info:

Balancing Act is a YA (Circus) story that will be part of the Seven Deadly Sins YA Anthology, releasing April 1, 2015. The anthology has been in the works for a while and we’re all excited to finally see the book coming out in print and as an e-book. We have thirteen authors (all members of Scribophile), thirteen stories, and for this volume, the theme is PRIDE. SDS will eventually add six more volumes to cover the other deadly sins.

We also have a graphic artist, Luke Spooner from Carrion House, who is working on the cover. We’ll release that as soon as we can! Dino Laserbeam is formatting the e-book and I’ll be dealing with the POD.

Keep an eye out here for more information as it becomes available. I’ll also spotlight each story in the next few weeks!

See how many of these SDS authors you know from Scribophile:

Teresa Bassett (Sylvia Stone), E.N. Loizis (Eliza Loizides), Michael Donaghue (Anita Anita Bath), Anita Russo (Anita MacNamara), Sonia Storm, Alisia Faust, J.C. Davis (Jenn Racek), Willow Becker, Sylvia Heike, Day Jamison, Eliza Archer, Wendy White Lees (Wendy Bristow), K.T. Stephens (Katie Stephens).

Yes, today is my birthday. January 9. I’ve seen a few; well, actually quite a few.

But let’s get away from that subject and on to something more meaningful: gifts. I love the holidays, giving and receiving gifts, trying to guess what would be appropriate for friends and family. But birthdays are a ‘gimme, gimme, it’s all about ME, ME, ME’ time of the year. Right? Of course.

“Oh, look, flowers. Aren’t they beautiful?” I adore flowers. My mother made my husband-to-be promise to send me flowers for every birthday, a tradition in my family. I’m not sure if it was a deal-breaker for the wedding if he said no, but no worries there. The main problem with flowers is that there’s only a few that will actually last longer than a few days this time of the year. [And I got a dozen roses in red, white, and yellow!!!]

“Wow. Jewelry. Perfect!” A gift never to be denied, I’ll admit. Shower me with jewels and silver. God, I’m such a girl.

“Clothes.” Well, to be honest, clothing has always been a normal birthday present for me. I wanted toys for Christmas, so it stood to reason that my wardrobe would be enhanced for my birthday. Another tradition that stands to this day.

“Cards and well-wishes through social media.” Sweet. I love to be remembered by my friends and family this way. It’s like the mailman knocking at my door a dozen times.

“Cake.” ‘Nuff said. Birthday without cake is like summer without the sun, a car without gas, an empty coffee cup. Horrors on all counts. Period.

“Dinner.” Of course, and at the restaurant of the special birthday person’s choice. Mine, Mine, Mine!!! This year, I can’t decide: steak or Italian? Decisions, decisions.

Then there’s that one gift, the surprise, the ultimate ‘gee, I would never have imagined this would happen on my birthday’ gift:  The trailer for Love Least Expected and all our names are mentioned in USA Today!!

I’m totally on cloud nine–on the ninth! My birthday wish to you, dear readers, is that you all experience a day like this many, many times in your lifetime.

I think I’ll have Italian. Yum.

I’m excited to announce the Love Least Expected trailer on Vimeo and YouTube! Thanks to fellow anthology author Kris Calvert for all her hard work on this! Pre-order is available right now for 99 cents. Here’s the link:

Love Least Expected Trailer

An excerpt from my story, Alphabetical Disorder

She’d known Sam for years, thought about him, dreamed about him. Why had he never asked her out on a date?

She probably wasn’t his type.

Susie faced forward again. She couldn’t date Sam anyway. She wasn’t to S yet. She needed to find someone whose name began with … what was the next letter? Oh, yeah, J. Better yet, someone with a name using all the letters between J and R. Maybe there was someone out there with the name Quapolkman, Jr. Then she could skip all the way to S without breaking the rules. But that would defeat her purpose, wouldn’t it?

“Um, Sam, do you know anyone—a man—whose name begins with J?”

“J.” A small frown creased his forehead. “Well, there’s Jason, over in the clown troupe. Then there’s Jonathan in the arcade. And Jarod—”

“Crap. I’m sorry, Sam.” Susie put her hand on his arm, turning him to face her. “I still can’t believe he’s dead. I mean, I know he was your friend, and—” She broke off, at a loss for words.

Sam looked away without speaking, but not before she saw grief and pain clouding his blue eyes from the recent suicide of the troupe’s Elephant Man. A muscle twitched as he clenched his jaw. She wanted to hug him.

So she did.

She put her arms around that handsome, perfect man and just held him. A moment later, his arms slid around her waist. They stood there for a few minutes, for an eternity, holding each other. His one hand slowly rubbed up and down her back. The other pulled her closer into his warmth. She lifted her head from his chest, and the next thing she knew, he kissed her.

Soft, sweet. A whisper of lips moving together, stroking over and over. Not one of those desperate kisses, with tongues and teeth clashing. Susie had never felt a kiss like Sam’s before. That feeling, brought on by the tenderness of his touch, fulfilled a yearning deep inside. She didn’t know if he noticed it or not. She became lost in the moment. Lost in him.

She lifted herself on her tiptoes, moved her arms up to surround his neck, caress his shoulders, pressing closer, wanting more. He never paused, just kept on melting her with those amazing kisses. Butterfly kisses. Angel kisses.

Minutes or hours later, Sam ended the kiss. Susie sighed as she opened her eyes and he smiled, his hands gliding down her arms, raising goose bumps.

“What were you saying about the letter J, love?”

A small explosion inside her brain, like the magical poof as the rabbit disappeared, brought her back to reality. “Crap. I have to go.” She pulled back and headed for the stables, annoyed for breaking the rules.

Disappointment winged through her, and she wished again that she fully understood what the prophecy and cards had told her. Then maybe she could give up this half-assed alphabetical curse and concentrate on the man she wanted.

Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy New Year! I’ve probably missed a few salutations, but it’s only through ignorance and not malice. I’m writing today to wish you and yours the happiest of holidays, no matter your religion or celebratory inclinations.

This time of year is both joyous and melancholy for me. Instead of gathering with noisy crowds/family/friends, partaking of spiked eggnog, I find myself staring at the lit Christmas tree while random thoughts pass through my brain. I suppose this comes with age, memories of those who have passed, and remembrances of traditions that no longer exist. The odd moments of quiet contemplation sooth me, though.

During the season, we hear about the prosperous versus the needy. Those who spy a bright red bow wrapped around a white car sitting in the driveway versus the much needed, second-hand coat found on the front porch in a Walmart bag. The extraordinarily expensive diamond ring in a gold foil box under the Christmas tree versus a handmade greeting card in childish handwriting next to the kitchen sink.

I blame marketing and big business for visions of dozens of packages under the tree, each one costing more than the last. Bah, humbag! The evils of consumerism need to be stifled.

It’s refreshing nowadays to see simple pleasures take precedence.

• A child, excited with a special treat of powdered donuts for breakfast that her mother had fashioned into snowmen by using gumdrops for a hat and pretzels for arms.
• The silent, rapt attention of a young child attending The Nutcracker for the first time.
• A note from a 10-year-old, thanking her Gramgram for teaching her to sew because when she was ‘little,’ she had to use markers to make sock puppets and now she can sew on buttons for eyes.
• The sweet, clear sound of a children’s chorus, dressed in green and red, singing holiday carols.

Do I think the season is for children? Absolutely. And I hope there’s a child in all of us: the excitement of giving and receiving, making memories and traditions, meeting new people, sharing with old friends, being kind.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

I never thought much about pen names. I’d read a book and at the end I’d be surprised the author’s name was a pseudonym for another author that I enjoyed reading. Sometimes, I’d notice that an author would use one name for historical romance, one for sci-fi, one for contemporary works. Okay, it’s genre related. Pretty cool.

End of story. Until this weekend…

Let me give you some back story. I chose my pen name for several reasons. One, it’s different from my real name. (DUH!!!) No, I mean really different, because in my previous life, I wrote curriculum and educational material for teachers and students. I’m envisioning the parental outcry as they address the Board of Education:

“It’s pornography, sir, plain and simple. She uses that word in her writing.”

“What do you want us to do, Mrs. Smith?”

“Burn the witch! Burn the witch!”

Well, it wouldn’t be that bad, but I’d like to keep parents focused on the important stuff, like their child getting a quality education.

So the pseudonym I chose honors my two kids: Katie and Stephen. Hence, Katie Stephens. Voila!

Fast forward to this weekend. You’ve all seen the entries I’ve posted about the romance anthology. As we’re getting it on sites for pre-orders, I get this frantic Facebook message from Valerie:

“There’s another author named Katie Stephens. I need a middle initial!”

Umm, I don’t have a middle initial. It’s a pseudonym.

Once I stopped laughing, I told her to add the initial ‘I.’ Something about having my initials read “KIS(s) my ass” tickled me. But I really don’t like the way it looks. Katie I Stephens. Meh. It might as well say Katie ME Stephens, yeah? But it’s only for the All Romance site, I believe.

Then I got to thinking. How about a complete change to KI Stephens? I’d still have the KIS going for me. I like the look of it.

Katie has that young, fresh, naive connotation, right? Would you read pornography by Katie? Would I write it? With KI, I could do anything, be anything, write anything!! I’d be free, free, free!

Comments welcome 🙂

Love Least Expected is alive and well and living on Amazon in pre-order status. Woohoo!!! Our team is working hard to get it up on other sites, such as All Romance, Kobi, Barnes & Noble, and others. I’ll put up a complete list soon.

Enjoy anthologies? Love romance? Then you need to be following Love Least Expected on Facebook! The page is starting to heat up with all kinds of stuff: pre-order information, launch parties, giveaways, blurbs, and previews! Check out the author list for someone you might know and push a like or two. We’d love to see you.