by Laura K. Curtis | Feb 20, 2015 | Books, Writing |
Over at the Book Boyfriends Cafe they have a Friday feature where you post a brief scene to suit whatever their weekly prompt was. I’ve never tried it, but I thought this week I might give it a shot! This week’s theme was “a hot encounter,” so here we go. In this scene from Toying With His Affections, Evie—a sex toy saleswoman for Goody’s Goodies—is…showing off her wares to her old crush, Sheriff Griffin Barstow.
~
Evie set the papers aside and reached back into the box. This time, she held up a pair of pink, fuzzy handcuffs. “Want to take these on patrol with you, Sheriff?”
“Uh…not particularly.” He grinned, though, imagining the faces of some of his deputies if he showed up with those hooked to his duty belt. The next item wiped the smile off his face. Black and almost evil-looking, it was circle with small rubber spikes all around and one larger protrusion so that it looked a bit like the symbol for Mars. At the end of the prong, however, a perpendicular spike gave the impression that someone had twisted the arrowhead of the symbol to stand straight up.
“What is that?”
Again, Evie’s fair cheeks reddened. The contradiction between the woman who could passionately defend the use of creams and toys and the one who blushed attempting to explain the actual use of such products entranced him.
“Uh, that’s for men. I mean, it’s nice for women, too, if the guy wears it, but it’s more designed to increase his pleasure than hers.”
“Please tell me this doesn’t sell.”
She’d regained her composure. And her starch. “Everything sells. But no, that’s not a top ten item.”
“Thank God for small favors.”
She handed him a tube of something else. “This is, though.”
He practically choked as he read the name aloud. “Staze-Long?”
“Yep! Between that and the numerous offers I get in my email every day, I can only assume many men in this country have a premature ejaculation problem.”
“I don’t think I can take this.”
She dropped her head and glanced up at him through the screen of her thick lashes. “I didn’t say you could. I need it.”
He dropped the tube and rubbed his hand against his leg. “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”
“Yeah, but you’re so easy to tease. Who’d have believed that under the bad boy of Fairview High lay a closet prude? Your reputation has suffered here today, Barstow.”
“Is that a dare, Bell?”
She cocked her head. “It may be. I’ll think about it.”
His heart pumped harder and he felt more alive than he had since the day he’d moved home to Fairview. You’ve always been addicted to danger, Bub, and it’s never done you a lick of good. Stay the hell away. But he had a sinking feeling he wouldn’t be able to take his own advice.
~
Head on over to the Book Boyfriends Cafe to read some other fun and sexy scenes!
by Laura K. Curtis | Jan 28, 2015 | Books, Writing |
In about six weeks (on St. Patrick’s day—talk about lucky!) my new book comes out. It’s called Echoes and it’s officially the first “Harp Security” novel. (Pay no attention to what it currently says on Amazon—the title’s wrong and there’s no picture yet.) If you read Lost, you’ve gotten a glimpse of Nash Harper and his security specialists, but in Echoes you’ll see a lot more of the organization and get to know Nash a bit better.
Echoes is a big departure for me. Where Twisted and Lost took place primarily in Texas, Echoes goes international right at the outset, beginning in St. Martin, a little island in the Caribbean. From there, it moves to New York, where Harp Security has its home base. Calliope Pearson, our heroine, lives just outside of “the city,” as well, so the second part of the book is decidedly urban.
Given that Harp Security Enterprise will have a whole series, it probably needs its own logo and slogan. I’m going to have to do it sometime, right? It should be on the door, stuff like that. So here’s what I have so far. I think it would look pretty good embroidered on a shirt or whatever. I’m undecided about the lettering, though. I might just like the abstract harp with the extra “leg” to make the H.
What do you think?
When I first conceived this, I wanted to use “Harp Security: We go where angels fear to tread” because I liked the “harp” and “angels” combination. But then I realized that people might think they were rushing in, which would make them fools.
Nothing else came to me in terms of angels, so I decided to go for a more justice-oriented theme. I am partial to Disraeli’s “Justice is truth in action,” but there’s also William Lloyd Garrison’s “as harsh as truth and as uncompromising as justice.” Something along either of those lines would do. Or something like “In Your Darkest Hour.” Basic.
So I’m asking for help: thoughts? ideas? Bueller?
by Laura K. Curtis | Dec 30, 2014 | Stuff!, Writing |
Dropped the ball again!
Last year, I wrote a little about why I don’t believe in resolutions.
A long time ago I gave up making New Year’s resolutions and switched over to giving myself goals. That may sound like mere semantics, but the two things seem fundamentally different to me. A resolution is a destination; a goal is a journey. If I make progress on my goal, I can count that as a win whereas all I can do with a resolution is fail. I mean, I suppose I could succeed, but I haven’t yet.
2014 was not a good year for me. In many ways both personal and professional, I leave the year feeling decidedly worse off than I began, and I don’t see a particular end to the problems that have cropped up.
So, yeah, if I had set a bunch of resolutions for myself, right now I would would be feeling even worse. But I made it through and now I have some goals for 2015. But I also have new plans on how to achieve more of what I want to achieve for the year. I was fascinated when my friend Bria mentioned “Flexi-Goals” and begged her to talk about it. So she did. And I think it looks great. I am totally stealing it.
I also bought myself a planner. For years I’ve used a Filofax A5 size planner, but I don’t love the paper (in fact, I hate it, so I took to printing out my own calendars and cutting/ punching them to fit) and after the ruptured discs in my neck in 2013, I gave up carrying it because it was so heavy with the leather cover and all the stuff I would stick in. This year, I bought myself an Erin Condren planner. I don’t love the paper in this one, either (I know, I am picky), but I do really like the layouts. For those of you who also want to get organized and productive this year, you might want to check out my Pinterest board of planners and organization.
Someone also suggested a bone-simple way of organizing your goals/tasks that I love. Write them down on sticky notes, one per note. Then in your notebook/planner/whatever, put the most urgent ones on the left page. Everything else goes on the right. As you accomplish the things on the left page, you can toss the notes, making room for the ones on the right.
This is an example of a system, which brings me to the last thing I am going to say on this topic. One one of the pins on my board of organization, one of the pieces of advice is “create systems, not goals.” That is, focus on the journey, and not the destination.
And have a happy, healthy, productive 2015.
by Laura K. Curtis | Nov 11, 2014 | Books, Freebies & Giveaways, Writing |
Several years ago, I was part of a charity anthology. (You can still buy it on Amazon—Feeding Kate—the profits go to the Lupus Foundation of America. Click the picture at right to see all the fabulous authors who contributed!) The original intent of the anthology was to help a friend of the crime-writing community get jaw surgery she needed that was not being covered by insurance, so many of them were food-related.
The story I contributed was called the Jaws of Life. It’s not about food. But I’ve now put it up for free here on the site in case you are interested in checking it out. It’s right here: The Jaws of Life. Enjoy!
by Laura K. Curtis | Oct 24, 2014 | Writing |
This is what I’ll be up to on Sunday. I hope you’ll stop by if you’re in the area!
This news is from the Hamlet Hub.
by Laura K. Curtis | Oct 22, 2014 | Books, Romance, Writing |
Back when I was writing cozy mysteries, my favorite conferences were Sleuthfest and Crimebake. Since I became part of the romance community, however, I’ve attended chapter meetings (very local) and national conferences, with nothing in between. National conferences are so expensive that I really had a hard time justifying the financial outlay for anything else. But for a few years, I’d been hearing about the New Jersey Romance Writers “Put Your Heart in a Book” conference and I’d always intended to go when I could.
And then I got really lucky—I’d submitted a proposal for a workshop on branding and it was accepted! I didn’t have to pay the conference fee! I could go!
I live less than two hours away from Iselin, where the conference was held, and I am under deadline, so I decided to drive home rather than spending Saturday night, but I understand the party was hopping!
Anyway, with the national conference in 2015 being in New York, I have a feeling some people will say “why bother with NJ?” Well, having been to both, I figured I’d write a post on that now, while NJ is still fresh on my mind. Here are some reasons to think about NJ next year:
- Cost: I’m not saying you should necessarily judge what conferences you attend based on price, but face it, most of us have to consider our finances!
- Access: This has a couple of meanings. First, because the conference is just a train ride from NYC, you get access to some great agents and editors. I wasn’t looking for either myself, but I had a lovely conversation with a couple of Harlequin editors at lunch. Second, because the conference is slightly smaller, you have more access to the people who are there. I had a fabulous chat with Madeline Hunter, which I cannot imagine happening at nationals where everyone is running around like a lunatic.
- Democracy: This is sort of related to “access” I love Nationals, and I’ve said—repeatedly—that I think people should go to them if they can. However, huge conferences are often where authors who are friends online see each other for the one and only time all year. They are also places where people are somewhat desperate for networking (see my post on Conference Tiffs and the Polite Lie). Because there are fewer people, it’s easier to chat with people, especially those you might be nervous about approaching otherwise. (Like Madeline Hunter. OMG. Madeline Hunter.)
- Accessibility: This is an odd thing to notice unless you’re trained to pay attention to it, but one of the things I can appreciate about the Renaissance Woodbridge, where the NJRW conference is held, is that it’s very accessible. There are guest bedrooms on the main floor, which makes it easier to get to a lot of the events if you have mobility issues. (Not all events are on the same floor, but most are on the main floor.) The hallways are wide, so even if the “goody area” has table set up on both sides for people to put their stuff, there’s still room to maneuver a wheelchair through. And most of the sessions were in rooms that had plenty of egress and aisle space (which are things I notice now that I’m married to a firefighter).
- Talent Pool: one of the reasons I like going to conferences is that I come home re-energized to write and to put into practice all the stuff I’ve heard. Obviously, national conferences have even more people available to them, but I was very impressed with the level of workshop at NJRW. Possibly because the conference has been around a long time and it’s well-known and respected, so they get good speakers.
- Book Fair. I don’t know too many other conferences that have this and make it available to self-published authors. Book fairs are real problems for those of us who already have way too many books, but I can’t ever resist them! Running around, seeing all the good stuff people have out, finding new authors…so much fun! Making friends with the people on either side of you if you’re selling books…priceless.
K.M. Jackson with her Golden Leaf Award
For myself, I really enjoyed meeting people after my own workshop and I appreciated that they took the time to come and talk to me and tell me their thoughts. There were a couple of panels I really wanted to get to but missed anyway (it always happens), but the ones I did get to were high quality. I got to spend time with people I’d met once or twice but never really sat down with, and met others who I hope I will be able to continue a relationship with in the future. I connected with one author who writes romantic suspense and we talked at length about doing some co-promotion. Again, something that doesn’t happen when people are frenetically rushing from one event to another.
Of course, I had an especially good time because my friend K.M. Jackson won the Golden Leaf award for her novel Bounce. Lots of joy and happy tears! That always makes a conference better.
All in all, I’d highly recommend this conference. Even if you’re planning on going to nationals in NYC. If at all possible, I’ll be at both!
Over at the Book Boyfriends Cafe they have a Friday feature where you post a brief scene to suit whatever their weekly prompt was. I’ve never tried it, but I thought this week I might give it a shot! This week’s theme was “a hot encounter,” so here we go. In this scene from Toying With His Affections, Evie—a sex toy saleswoman for Goody’s Goodies—is…showing off her wares to her old crush, Sheriff Griffin Barstow.
