Play by Kylie Scott

I didn't know erotica could be like this. Light and funny and heart wrenching, all at the same time. Welcome to Play, the second book in the Stage Dive series.

Malcolm Ericson is drummer and peacemaker for the group Stage Dive. He is also the clown, which is a good cover for his worries and the one great heartbreak he's forced to endure.

Our heroine, Anne Rollins, meets Mal at a party thrown by her neighbor's old roommate and her husband, another member of the band. Mal's feeling no pain and zeroes in on Anne, much to her confusion.


"Honestly, this whole monogamy thing. It takes so much getting used to, man." Mal set the distinctly cranky brunette away from him, the muscles in his arms flexing. He deposited her gently back down onto the floor. "Apologies. I'm sure you're very nice and all but my heart beats only for Anne."

Mal threw himself at my feet. I scuttled back in my chair in surprise.

"Forgive me, Anne! I didn't mean to stray."


Anne, whose roommate has absconded with the couch along with owing 2-3 months rent will lose her apartment, until she comes home from work one day and finds she has a new roommate, namely one Malcolm Ericson, and a new couch.

From this point on, I laughed my ass off at these two 'different' lovers. Romeo and Juliet they ain't. And while seemingly self absorbed, overbearing alpha heroes make me grit my teeth, I had no problem with Mal. I'm not even sure he's an alpha.

I'm a sucker for a sense of humor from anyone.

There's a deep, dark secret Mal is hiding which turns out to be not such a secret, but it still breaks his heart. Anne is there for him.

I cannot say how much I admire Anne. She not only puts up with all Mal's shit, she becomes his rock, the foundation of his life. It was a pure pleasure watching it happen.

Oh! This is what the cover looks like:

I totally loved this book. The erotica wasn't overwhelming and ... it was joyful. I can't say it any better than that. Mal was an unusual hero for this genre, but he captured my heart along with Anne's.

The first book in the series is Lick, David's story; the third book is Lead, Jimmy's story. And OMG, Lead just might be better than Play! Jimmy is so broken and we get to follow him as he overcomes his past and finds love in his present and future. *sigh*  The fourth book, Deep, Ben's story, is due out March 31, 2015.

Amazon Link

Shake It Off

Hawaiian Christmas

Christmas in Hawaii. A first time with more family, more fun and more misunderstandings.

I just started my new job but the patients were generous and gifted us all with a lot of fruit. A lot of fruit.

I made two banana  breads using different recipes. My first banana breads from scratch.

But then there were so many lemons (we have a lemon tree also) and I wanted to use them in baking. So I made lemon cookies. I altered the recipe for more lemon flavor (thank goodness), They were easy and delicious.

Lemon Cookies

1 cup butter
1 3/4 cup sugar

 Cream together and add

1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
Juice and zest of two lemons
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
a dash of salt
3 cups flour

Bake in rounded teaspoons at 350.

Delicious.

Merry Christmas Everyone from Lori and Carolyn

Happier Holidays

So I'm finally working. Talk about a huge relief. It was starting to feel like it would never happen and then it happened. A job I had interviewed for and not gotten called and I started the next day. (They hired someone local who didn't work out so they decided to let the commuting girl do it instead.)

Anyway, it's a Christmas gift to be able to go to work every day, talk to people and be productive. And make money. I especially like the making money part. And coming right before Christmas was perfect timing so I can afford to spoil my child a little.

I plan to write more about my job because it's fascinating to work in an environment I know so well (front desk of a doctor's office) but in Hawaii with all the strangeness and foibles of the people. I've only been there three days but so far:

I brought home three batches of bananas someone gave from their banana tree. And three avocados.

In three days we've had more walk-ins than I've experienced in my entire working life. No joke, people are so casual with appointment days and times they almost don't exist.

The patients take care of the doctor. This is the coolest thing ever. One patient is a professional masseuse and she gives him a message during his lunch hour (not daily... when she feels he needs it). Another brought food. Another is making him smoothies to detoxify him.

It's a super busy office and they do things differently than I've ever seen. So I'm going to have to learn to work more Hawaiian style. That should be fun.

As a side note: I have LOSING HOPE available free at Amazon and next week will be offering another title. Just a little Christmas gift to anyone interested.

Heya

FREE ON AMAZON

I'm employed and things are a world happier now. However the commute is sucking the life out of me and I'm exhausted.

So have a free novel on Amazon and we'll talk later.

(Question: my computer has a key that doesn't work. Can you guess which letter it is?)

Nothing's Happening

Seriously, life is bland, boring and unmemorable.

Not reading, not writing. Started a story but it seemed to have too many lesbian overtones that ceased and desisted. Not cooking because my SIL is trying to see how many places she can put lime and start an anti-citrus crusade.

Still watching Gilmore Girls. Holiday shopping all done. Still unemployed.

Mollie and I in our Gilmore inspired life did stop and look at Christmas plans as decided by family and agreed that it wasn't what we wanted. So we're not doing. The family will be having Christmas dinner with the SIL's BFF while Mollie and I will do a spaghetti and meatball dinner at home just the two of us. With New York cheesecake for dessert.

I think we'll enjoy the time together more than being with non-family and trying to pretend we fit in.

Every book I'm starting is losing my interest quickly. I think I'll just be waiting for a magic realism book to show up.

Otherwise, nothing else to say. Hope everyone is experiencing some holiday madness of the fun kind.

Living La Vida Gilmore

The Gilmore Girls is on Netflix and I'm binge watching. It's a great show, almost like a romance novel appearing on the screen in front of you. I love it an embarrassing amount.

I told Mollie we should try to live like we're a TV show: witty repartee, adventures, enjoying ourselves. Of course in TV, everything is settled within an hour, good people always win in the end and depth is often missing. Still, recognizing that one is not on TV but living as such can still make life more fun.

And it's a lot easier to live that way when trying to just get along.

So last night we went to the Waimea Christmas parade. It was mostly a lot of large trucks decorated with lights but still...  It was local and something we wanted to experience. We got there almost an hour and a half early and it was already crowded. We found a place to park the car and then to park our asses.

It rained.

We sat in the rain for hours, one hour of it watching a parade. It was a soft rain but constant and by the end, we were soaked to the skin, shivering and mildly miserable. What would the Gilmore Girls do in that situation? We went to Tex's Drive-In and had hot chocolate and french fries. We talked to the people around us who also were soaked and happy. It was nice.

I intend to write more about life among the Gilmores later but right now I'll share some parade photos.

My favorite, Santa in an outhouse.

 Most of the parade was large trucks like this one decorated.

 This car was adorbs.

 And our roller derby girls were skating in the parade. Love me a holiday parade with roller derby babes.

Taylor Swift

I'm an unabashed Swiftie.

My daughter and I just recently discovered Tay-Tay (okay, we're really big fans) and oh my goodness, we completely found her at the right time.

Taylor is like a feminist icon. She's completely in control of her career, she's talented as crazy and she's reached a place in her life where she doesn't give a shit what people say about her, and in some cases, she's right back in their faces mocking them.

This video, Blank Space, is fabulous. She mocks the stories about her and then later in the video plays the crazy card. She brings a light to the cray-cray behavior she's accused of and totally owns it.. She makes crazy look good.

And she's all about empowering her fans. Mollie and I were reading some of her quotes and they were awesome. She calls herself a feminist, she says women need to learn how to be alone in order to be with others, she faces her critics and she's what she should all aspire to be.

She's just so awesome.

Writing Tics

It seems like just about every book I've read lately has the heroine biting or nibbling her lower lip. I can't say I've ever seen this habitually in RL. I've seen people catch their upper or lower lip between their teeth if they're in a quandary, but not very often. It's just not done often, especially if you're wearing makeup.


The think is, once you've seen it in a book, then it seems to happen every other page, or at least once a chapter. All I can think is that the heroine's lip must be very sore and raw and red.


Not a good look.


There also seems to be more whispering these days. Even the heroes have gotten into the habit. Couples have whole conversations in whispers. Very disconcerting. And what's the big secret anyway? They're usually alone, probably having or planning to have sex, and there's no one around to hear.


It might be meant to denote intimacy. But, if carried on too long, it gets me all upset. One day, one character is going to tell the other: "Would you repeat that? I couldn't hear you."


Ha.


I know there are more tics but these are the real biggies for me and I can't think of any others right now. But as soon as I start reading again, I'll come across one, sure as shooting.


How about you? Are there writer's tics that tick you off?