Guest Blog - Say hello to Carlene Love Flores!

Is there anything better than a free book? If there is, I don't want to know about it. Today I'm delighted to welcome Carlene Love Flores to the blog to chat about her latest release from Evernight - which is, of course, a Free Read!

Hi Naomi! Hi Naomi’s friends. J I do believe it is hump day, a day for romance lovers to have fun and share, whether it’s sexy pics or steamy stories. I do believe we officially own this day of the week! I like to combine all the smexy book stuff with my other love, music. So I’m thinking of a Hump Day dedication, just for you all. I love Naomi’s tag line of “Begin in the Dark”. It gives my goose bumps. So I’m gonna go with this one… Kings of Leon’s “Revelry” from their Only by the Night cd. I hope you enjoy the song and the sexy, steamy Free Read I’ve brought today. It’s called Touch of Sin (A Sin Pointe Novel Free Read) and it’s all yours! Have a great day everyone! Xoxoxo, Carlene

Touch of Sin (A Sin Pointe Novel Free Read) Blurb:

Lonerby guitarist Luke Willoughby and his band are under tight scrutiny since a press conference was ruined by a band member’s sudden vomiting attack. They’ve been suspended from the Sin Pointe tour and Luke fears they’ve blown it for good. The last thing he expects is the cute management spy sent to observe him.

No-nonsense Sarrie Walker knows exactly what she’s there to do, and makes no secret of it. Luke is impressed—and powerfully attracted to Sarrie’s strong and sexy innocence. When they end up stuck together in close quarters, Sarrie becomes dangerously irresistible—and very much off-limits. Does she hold Luke’s second chance? And if he gives in to her powerful allure, what happens to his heart?

Read on for a snippet!

"The first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want."

So I'm back at the day job already. My time off seemed like a huge stretch in the weeks leading up to it, but now its been and gone, it feels like the blink of an eye. So many great works undone! So many ambitions unfulfilled! So many emails I don't understand/care about in my work inbox right now! I have this problem with taking time off work: I really love it. So much so that coming back to work generally leaves me a in a state of near-depression for a week or so afterwards. This past week I got to split my time between writing (I currently have three small projects on the go), perfume orders/shop management, and general lazing and self-indulgence and it was amazingly satisfying.

And then suddenly it's Monday morning, the alarm is blaring, the cat has peed on the carpet in the night, and work is inescapably in my face.

I can't do it anymore.

I mean, I can, because I have bills to pay and a horrible cat to feed, but I don't want to take it anymore. I've never been career driven. I work an office job because I have to and I have no interest in climbing the corporate ladder. I've always said that, and I've always said that one day I'll be able to quit. But, you know, it's really easy to say that when you're 25 and the rest of your life seems like a really long time in which to achieve certain goals...And then suddenly you're 31 and you haven't actually achieved them and how the hell did we get here so fast?

I'm not actually looking to quit the day job entirely; I like the security of a regular paycheck and having been in the position of choosing between bills and food once, I never want to be there again. But going part-time? That sounds good. That sounds awesome in fact.

So the next step is figuring out how to make it happen. At the moment my plan is a bit like this:

1. ???
2. Go part-time.
3. ???
4. HAPPINESS.

I think I need to work on this a bit more...

"You were born an original. Don't die a copy."

Today is my birthday! Cue cake:

tiverylucky

I've had an amazing long Easter weekend/birthday extravaganza courtesy of Kyle and some lovely friends. Kyle and I went out for Japanese food and cocktails on Friday night; we spent Saturday round a firepit toasting marshmallows and possibly drinking too much mango vodka on Saturday night. Sunday was a lovely, lazy day of cooking shows and pulled pork. Then yesterday we headed into Cambridge for a late lunch at a brilliant restaurant, and I received an early birthday present from Kyle (a Kindle! Yay!). As he's away for work today and tomorrow, it was fantastic to spent a long weekend with him doing things we love (ie, eating good food and watching TV shows about good food).

This evening I'm going to see my mum and grandparents, but before then there's loads going on that's nothing to do with my birthday but is awesome nonetheless.

First of all, Evernight Publishing is having a MASSIVE Earth Day Sale - 50% off all ebooks at their site.

That's pretty spectacular and naturally I'm going to recommend you go check out my books, but I also recommend you take a chance on some of the other talented authors over there - I personally love Ella Grey, Doris O'Connor, Scarlet Chastain and Kristi Jones.

Meanwhile, over at Common Brimstone Fragrances, I'm having a one day flash sale for Earth Day to raise money for International Wildlife Rescue. (I have to say, one of the things I value most about the income Common Brimstone brings in is that I can donate it to charity). I'm offering 15% of all 5ml and 10ml perfumes, so if you fancy treating yourself and doing something for Earth Day, go take a look at the shop!

So that's me! For the rest of today, I'm going to split my time between writing and playing Guild Wars 2 like a real adult.

"An unhurried sense of time is in itself a form of wealth."

Samuiblue

Bonnie Friedman

That most beautiful of times is almost upon me. Annual leave. It's a world of possibilities. I have the Easter bank holiday off work, then four days after that, so that's ten glorious, office-free days in which to do whatever the hell I want and damn the consequences! (Not that I'm planning to do anything with too many consequences really, but it's nice knowing the option is there*).

It's my 31st birthday on 22nd April, which is part of the reason I'm having the time off. April is a big birthday month for our family - me and both my brothers, all very quickly together - and I'm still not at peace with having these big family occasions without Dad around, so it's a relief to know I can spend my birthday at home in relative solitude to be sad if I want to, rather than at work pretending to be okay about it.

But I don't plan to spend the whole week moping. Or any of it, ideally. I want to finish my current WIP novella if I can, and I have a feeling I may be ready to start a novel after that. I can't decide what it's going to be - I've got three potential projects in mind, plus an already-in-progress Urban Wolf novel. So I guess whichever one calls the strongest will be the one I plunge into, and I may end up dabbling in more than one at the same time.

I also want to do some work on my perfume shop and tidy up some of the photographs there. A lot of the older photos are pretty crappy and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some good sunny days to retake them. And I have a few new perfumes to add to the shop while I'm working on it, as well as a ton of ideas and new oils to experiment with.

I'm expecting edits for PHANTOM FEARS anytime soon too, as that releases in May. I'm looking forward to revisiting Shannon and sharing a new piece of the Urban Wolf world with everyone. If I find time, I may make some limited edition perfumes as part of the release, so stay tuned for that!

And, you know, since it's my birthday, I plan to down a cocktail or two somewhere along the line.

*I am going to dye my hair pink, which may have some consequences.

Snippet Day!

Hyena reality

Since I signed the contracts for PHANTOM FEARS and UNDERTOW, I've fallen off the writing wagon a bit - but for a positive reason: too many ideas. I've got plans for the next Ethan Banning novel, an Urban Wolf spin-off, a couple of short stories for various anthologies, a return to the third Urban Wolf novel that I started last year, a f/f urban fantasy novella...And I just couldn't decide what to work on. In the end, I decided to just start writing and see what happened.

The piece I finally started was going to be a submission for this anthology, but I already know it's going to rocket past the word limit. I'm really enjoying writing it though, so I'm going to finish it up and see what can be done with it. And since I'm enjoying it, I thought I'd share a teaser with you all. What's it about, you ask? The picture is kind of a clue...

Happy reading!