Friday, May 17, 2013

Sun and warm breezes

I saw my first crocuses in bloom yesterday, so spring has officially arrived in my part of Canada (not far from Toronto, Ontario)  They were a deep purple (my favorite), and the sight of them really lifted my spirits.

I'm not a winter person...AT ALL. Winter tends to depress me. Due to some ongoing mobility issues, I tend to be housebound in winter, so by February, cabin fever is setting in. The days are so short, that exposure to any sunshine is limited. The frigid winter wind finds every crack and crevice, and the winds whip around my building like angry demons. The only consolation is the odd day of pristine beauty when it has snowed and the sun shines on the blanket of white making it glitter like so many diamonds.

So how nice it was yesterday to hop in the car, the sun beaming and filling the vehicle with heat. I was able to shrug off my jacket and actually feel the sun's touch on my skin. Heavenly. The spring breezes smell sweet. The tree on my patio (not sure what species...possibly Aspen?) is in bloom with delicate while flowers. There are buds on my lilac bushes, and my purple iris has bloomed. I feel somewhat renewed in energy and spirit. Now if I could just translate that to my writing.

I have so many writing projects planned for this year, and maybe that's the problem. I've spread myself too thin...have too many irons in the proverbial fire. I need focus, and a few good time management tips.  Over the next couple of months I need to get writing three shorts fo my next Hottest Heat collection, finish a first draft of a novella for an anthology project I'm partly in charge of, get going on my next interracial novella, plus keep up with my busy 'for pay' editing jobs. Oh well, I guess it's better to be busy than bored.
Till next time,
Paige

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Another acceptance

I'm so pleased. I was just offered a contract with Phaze Books for my erotic romance, Hot for the Handyman.

With this story, I did something a little different. I made my main character in her mid-fifties, and her love (lust) interest, in his early thirties. She's not a cougar in the generally accepted sense. She's never had the desire to date younger men before, although her best friend is a card carrying cougar. The hero, on the other hand, regularly dated older women, preferring their maturity and stability to younger women. When my heroine meets the delicious handyman, though, it's lust at first sight...for both of them.

Here's the blurb:

Fifty-three year old widow Yvetta Phelps is lonely. She had a great marriage with her late husband, and put her own life on hold after his death three years prior, but now she realizes that she misses the intimacy of a relationship with a man and needs to move forward. She has Byron, a fellow widower, whom she met at church. The two friends keep each other company and go out for dinners or to the theater. But Byron doesn't move her romantically. There's no spark there.

Enter, Ray Cameron, the young attractive handyman she's hired to build a deck on the back of her house. From the first moment they meet, the sexual tension is thick between them. Ray prefers the company of mature women and thinks Yvetta is the most beautiful woman he's ever met. Yvetta is likewise smitten, but fights the attraction due to her fears around their age difference and what people will think, most especially her twenty-six year old daughter, Tanisha.

Inevitably, they succumb to their attraction and spend a transformative night together, but it only fuels Yvetta's self doubt, and she almost loses Ray as a result. It takes forgiveness, and an understanding heart (and steaming hot sex) to bring the two of them back together. And in the end, Yvetta comes to realize that life is too short not to grab hold of the happiness that comes one's way.

Now that this book is done and accepted, I will move on to my stories for The Hottest Heat Vol.3, which is slated for a fall release from Cambridge Press US. In the meantime, Vols. 1 and 2 are available if you want a quick hot summer read. www.cambridgepress.us

 It's true what they say...no rest for the wicked! ;o)
Until next time,
Paige