Finally, it’s here – today’s the day that WINTER KISS, Dragonfire #4, goes on sale. It’s got a gorgeous cover – check it out in the sidebar – and I’m pretty much crazy about the hero, Delaney Shea. (I like those emotionally scarred heroes with noble impulses, don’t you?) I also like how Ginger Sinclair tells Delaney how it is, whether he wants to hear it or not.

Romance Reviews Today calls WINTER KISS “a terrific novel” – read more HERE – and we have two, count ‘em TWO, five blue ribbon reviews from Romance Junkies! The first says WINTER KISS is what epic love stories are made from,” while the second says “[s]izzling hot love scenes and explosive emotions make WINTER KISS a must read!” And of course, there was a great review right here on SSR from Penelope Fitzgerald – if you missed it, it’s right HERE.

Check out the back copy and an excerpt on my site HERE. It’s Delaney’s on sale date – do you have your copy of WINTER KISS yet? (Yup, I’m just a little bit excited…!)

Deborah Cooke
Alive & Knitting blog

Thanks to Michele Hauf for spotting my newest cover on Amazon. I know a lot of authors’ favorite part of the process is getting their actual books, but mine is seeing the cover for the first time. It reminds me why I do this. Which at the tail end of a writing project (finished a Nocturne yesterday, yay!) is always good.

Anyway, what do you think? I, for the record, think it rocks. I love that the hero is all big and burly as fitting for a hellhound. And I love the background; it really goes with the story. So, today is a happy day.

Oh, and it is also available for pre-order…

Hope everyone had a great, safe Halloween! AND that you all took good advantage of that extra hour of sleep last night.

First, I wanted to say that these wolves were actually celebrating their first Halloween at Wolf Howl Animal Preserve and this was their first pumpkin. These are sisters and the one is showing the other how to tackle the big orange thing.

But what if they are really werewolves in disguise? Sure, why not celebrate Halloween? Or any other holiday that they’d like too! Here’s a hunky wolfish guy having a little Halloween fun when not in his wolf coat.

And here’s what I’d like to be able to carve if I only had the talent!

Hope you have a wonderful Halloween! My daughter and her friends are coming over for scary movies and dinner–everyone’s bringing something so it should be lots of fun!

Doing anything special for Halloween???

PS–Did I mention Book 7 & 8 of the werewolf series sold??? Dreaming of the Wolf and Taming the Highland Wolf will be out in 2011. I’m working currently on Plight of the Wolf, Book 6.

Terry

www.terryspear.com

Starting today, and running all week, the VampChix blog is celebrating all things fangy with a VampBash.  We’ll be featuring guest authors, a scavenger hunt to win autographed books, more prizes, and lots of fun.

Find us at: http://vampchix.blogspot.com

First, for the great news! Book 7 and 8 just sold to Sourcebooks. More wolf tails, uhm, tales to come!

Jake’s story is Book 7, Dreaming of the Wolf, Darien’s brother in Destiny of the Wolf. And Book 8 is about a werewolf romance writer who has writer’s block. Now just think, would a hunky Highlander help unblock you???

Or…would you forget your mission?

This is a picture of Jake, by the way, before he shapeshifts. He has to remove his tag first. Doesn’t he have wolfish eyes?

Just like people, werewolves like to have hobbies. Or at least some of them do. It makes them more…human. But like any world you build, it has to make sense, fit in somewhat with the paranormal world. Of course, you can do the opposite of what readers would expect, and that’s fun, too.

The same with occupations. What if a werewolf was a ballerina? Doesn’t seem like it quite fits. The one more nature loving and agile, but in a wolfish way. The other, delicate, but sturdy, and…well, frilly to my way of thinking. Although ballet dancers can be very seductive, in more of fae like roles. I watched a bunch of different ballet dances like that…some very sexy and primitive, the costumes, silky and earthen tones–just the kind that would suit a werewolf dancer. So I guess, any occupation could work, as long as the job still seemed to suit the shapeshifting persona of the character.

What about hobbies? A respite from the normal way a wolf would behave? Sure. Although it might be hard to visual an alpha leader type knitting baby booties.

So the question is then, what does a Highland werewolf like to do as a hobby???

Hope everyone has a super Saturday! My computer crashed and so my son is here to the rescue.

Terry

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male–with a kilted hunk to boot!”

www.terryspear.com

What do I do when I’m not consorting with werewolves and dragon-shifters? I play around in the kitchen.

I love spice cookies. Now that fall’s here, I’ve been indulging my yen for them by testing this recipe for yummy, low-carb pumpkin bars. The bars are also relatively low-fat. And the liquid egg substitute speeds up preparation. All you have to do is shake the carton and pour.

Low-Carb Pumpkin Bars

• ½ cup butter, softened
• ½ cup canned pumpkin (not pie mix)
• ½ cup liquid egg substitute
• 1 cup Splenda
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• Pinch of salt
• 2 cups almond flour
• ½ cup unbleached white flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ cup raisins (optional)

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-inch square baking pan, and set aside.

2. In a mixer bowl, combine butter, pumpkin and egg substitute. Beat on medium speed until well combined. Add Splenda, vanilla, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Beat on medium speed until incorporated.

3. With mixer running, add flours and baking powder. Mix until well combined. Turn off mixer and stir in raisins, if using.

4. With the back of a large spoon, spread mixture evenly in baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 28 to 32 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Cut into squares. Cookies will keep at room temperature, in the pan covered with plastic wrap, for two or three days.

Makes 16 squares.

First, I’d like to take a moment and introduce you to my new book cover!  Isn’t it pretty?  Lone Wolf is the sequel to The Moon: Tigress by the Tail and will be released in December with Tease Publishing!  I can’t wait.

Once the victim of scientific experimentation by the Government Control of Supernatural Activities (GSA), Damon doesn’t have a past, and he isn’t sure he has a future. He doesn’t even know if his ability to change from human to wolf is a virus, or magick. But the instant he lays eyes on the pretty cop from the local police force, he knows he has to learn the secrets of his past before they destroy her future.

Krystal is the best animal cop on the police force, hiding magickal talent beneath layers of excuses and quick thinking. For five years she’s tracked Peter Burke, a butcher who steals any form of canine to supplement his dietary needs. The day she saves a wolf from losing his head at the sharp end of an axe, her entire life changes.And then there is Damon, the mysterious, sexy ex-soldier with no memory of his past who awakens fantasies of dark and sensual nights.

But the GSA isn’t finished with Damon, and when the shadowy government agency joins forces with Burke, Krystal too finds her life in jeopardy, the target of men and women led by their own desires. Damon and Krystal must work together to stop evil and destroy years of illegal research.

Ok, please watch this video before you go further down on this post, otherwise you’ll never come back to it. Lisa will understand.

Next, I’d like to share my awesome news with a friend. Her name is Lisa Kristof. For the last couple of years, we have talked about the lighter side of life.  Okay, the darker side of romance novels, but the lighter side of life.  One thing our shifters never have to deal with is cancer. That’s not necessarily true about their human mates.

When I wrote Tigress by the Tail, our hero’s mother was dead.  She died of Cancer.  I never specified what kind of cancer, and for the rest of that story, you’ll have to read the books.  I remember one of my reviewers said how sad it was even in our fantasy worlds, the C word manages to break in and cause just as much pain there as it does in real life.  But there are reasons I chose cancer for Lance’s mother.

I met Lisa online. She was originally from New Zealand, living in Texas. She was an avid animal lover who worked for many years in canine rescue, specializing in the hard to place rottweilers. Several dogs found wonderful, loving homes because of Lisa.

Lisa was one of those rare people who developed cancer at age 32, long before the age 40 when our doctors start to at least watch for it.  So early in fact, her doctors insisted she did not have cancer, that the pain in her arm was not related to the lump in her breast.  She had to return to New Zealand for a family visit and see a doctor there in order to force the mammogram, where she was diagnosed with cancer, MONTHS after the physical symptoms. Lisa left us on May 6, 2008, after 7 years of fighting this horrible disease. She left with a strength of character that most of us can only write about in our books. She left a legacy of honor, strength, love and purity. Lisa, you shall always be missed.

October is breast cancer awareness month and I thought I’d share a video taken of Lis just before her death in 2008.  Her message:  Run Fast, Run Happy.  My message:  Don’t let youth stop you – if you find out you have a lump, please push your doctors for a more specific diagnosis. Don’t let what happened to Lisa happen to another.

Learn more about young women and cancer.

WEBMD about Younger women with breast cancer.

Lisa Kristoff, 1969-2008
Run Fast.  Run Happy

Congratulations to Colleen who won the prize from guest author Beth Caudill!  Please email Contests@bethcaudill.net to claim your prize!

Congrats again! And thanks to Beth for joining us and giving us such a great visit!

What a busy month! But I’m making progress on my To Do list, one item at a time.

First up this month was the opening reception at the Toronto Public Library. I’m the writer-in-residence there for this month and next month, the first time that TPL has offered a residency focussed on the romance genre. The opening reception went really well and I had fun meeting many other authors. Later this month, there will be an online chat hosted by the library as part of their Book Buzz program – that will be on October 28th. And throughout this month and next, I’m building a blog for the library, which is a resource for aspiring writers about writing and publishing in the romance genre. You can check out the blog HERE - I’ll add a link for the online chat closer to the date.

I also just got home from the Emerald City Writers’ Conference hosted by the Greater Seattle RWA chapter, where I taught two workshops and gave the opening keynote. It was a terrific conference, attended by 250 people, and I had a great time. The bookfair was wonderful, not just for the opportunity to meet attendees but because it was open to the public.

Another exciting event this month was a complete surprise. Eloisa James gave my second fallen angel book, GUARDIAN, a great review in her column on the Barnes and Noble site, and made it the feature book for October on the reader forum. I was the guest author on October 5 there, which was a lot of fun.

Back at the home office, Niall’s book has gone into Production. That’s Dragonfire #5 and it will be out next August. I’ll tell you more about it when Delaney’s book has had its moment in the sun.

Because, yes, WINTER KISS will be on sale in just a few short weeks! You can read the excerpt and back copy HERE, an out-take scene HERE, and reviews HERE and HERE. I love this book and hope that you all enjoy it as well.

What’s next on my desk? Rafferty’s book, of course. But no spoilers on that any time soon.

I hope your October is busy and happy, and will be back to talk to you on November 3, when Delaney makes his debut in the world.

Happy reading in the meantime!
Deborah Cooke
Alive & Knitting blog