#WriteTip + #Giveaway - In honor of her dark, #paranormal #suspense ADDICTION, Sofia Grey (@SofiaGreyAuthor) advises caution

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One of my Sexy to Go sisters in crime has a new release. With more than 20 titles under her belt, Sofia Grey knows a thing or two about the perils of skipping steps. In this short but sweet writing tip, she advises extreme caution. (Yes, I'm really killing this suspense pun, but it's been a long, promo-intense week...)

Oh, before I forget, Sofia has some swag on offer. Hurry, you only have until 14 December to enter! 

Giveaway


Proof-reading

by Sofia Grey

Always, ALWAYS, do a final read-through of the finished manuscript. It doesn't matter if you've had it professionally edited, and you've already spent a month staring at the pages, it can still have glitches and typos. I've published over 20 titles, with a number of publishers, and in every case, I've caught at least one error in the final version. 

Addiction

Talisman, #3

by Sofia Grey

Krista Inglewood’s addiction runs deep; she can't survive without a regular fix. Her Talisman bracelet, stolen when she was a child, was the only thing that ever kept the craving at bay. Until she meets Matty. He sneaks under her defenses and calms the incessant noise in her head.

Matty knows Krista is bad news, but he can’t get enough of her. His first instinct is to help, but when he learns her addiction is linked to the sickness crippling his sister, he has to face the ugly truth.

Finding her missing Talisman may be the only thing that can save Krista.

Excerpt

It was late, and my head spun with all the information Alex had shared. When he went to join Sylvie in bed, I slipped outside for some fresh air. Make that fucking-freezing air. The end of November was cold in Britain anyway, but here, in a remote part of North Wales, it felt bitter. We were close to the sea, and I’d naively thought the climate would be mild, but instead it was the kind of damp that seeped into your bones. I made a mental note to buy a down-filled jacket or stay indoors. That would work too.

When I stepped farther away from the house, out of the immediate range of the security lights, I finally saw the night sky and stopped in my tracks. I came from Manchester, where the only kind of Milky Way on offer was a chocolate bar. Here, the sky was so bright with stars, I could have been on a different planet. I gazed, open-mouthed, forgetting the cold, forgetting Janine, and everything weighing me down.

“Feels close enough to touch, huh?”

The husky female voice sent chills down my spine, and for a second I forgot how to breathe. A crunch of gravel beside me identified her position. I knew without looking it was her. Film girl. She had exactly the voice I expected. Low. Almost no accent. Sexy. I inhaled, catching a hint of a spicy perfume, and then I turned to face her. God. Up close she was even more stunning. Her wild dreads were tied back, and she wore a tight-fitting, pale, leather biker jacket. A motorbike helmet dangled from one hand. She was a biker? My inner lust monster sat up and took notice.

She’d spoken, this goddess of leather and hair, and I stood there like an imbecile. “I…” Words failed me. Stars. She was talking about the stars. “Yeah. Beautiful.” I studied her face as I spoke. My night vision had adjusted, and there was enough light leaching from the windows, to illuminate her eyes. They almost glowed, sparking with mischief and life.

“Thank you.” She stepped closer, light on her feet, and I had to work hard to make sure I wasn’t drooling. Multiple rings glittered in her ears, and I saw more metalwork in her eyebrows as well as a tiny jewel gleaming in her nose. Hang on. Did she think I meant her? Did I?

“You’re beautiful too.” Whaaat? My brain spun her words back and forth, inside-out, and upside-down, but they made no sense. I stood there, speechless, and when she moved closer and pressed cool lips against mine, I forgot my own name.

About Sofia Grey

Romance author Sofia Grey spends her days managing projects in the corporate world and her nights hanging out with wolf shifters and alpha males. She devours pretty much anything in the fiction line, but she prefers her romances to be hot, and her heroes to have hidden depths. When writing, she enjoys peeling back the layers to expose her characters’ flaws and always makes them work hard for their happy endings.

Music is interwoven so tightly into my writing that I can’t untangle the two. Either I’m listening to a playlist on my iPod, have music seeping from my laptop speakers, or there’s a song playing in my head – sometimes on auto-repeat.

Check out my image collections on Pinterest and my music playlists on Spotify.

Website | GoodReads | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter | Amazon


#99cents Sale + $10 #Giveaway: Jack Frost faces a shifter witch in this Xmas romance

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With the holidays upon us there are troves of books to curl up with by the fireplace. My paranormal romantic comedy goes great with mulled wine and cinnamon cookies. Part of Decadent Publishing’s 1Night Stand line, Frosty Relations features a young college graduate facing the complicated world of adulthood and confronting the frost mage she’s had a crush on for most of her life. Add some Christmas magic and Madame Eve’s renowned matchmaking service, and we’ve got the beginnings of an icy-hot love story.

In keeping with the holiday spirit, my publisher has discounted the book to $0.99 for a limited time on Amazon and ARe (the sale ends December 14, 1015). I’m also giving away a $10 gift card. To enter, leave a comment here and drop your details in the Rafflecopter widget. (If the blogosphere is giving you problems, you can drop me a line on this Facebook post instead). 

Frosty Relations, a Paranormal Christmas Romance by Tara Quan

 

$0.99 for a Limited time at

Amazon | AllRomance

Frosty Relations

by Tara Quan

Attorney Jack Frost never understood why holidays did weird things to people. His secretary went on vacation, his best friend ditched their annual Aspen trip, and the law firm’s stubborn human resources assistant refuses his clerical support request. What’s a warlock to do on Christmas Eve but go on a 1-Night Stand? But when an oddly familiar empath shows up as his date, this ice mage has a hard time denying the magic of the winter solstice.

Faced with an anemic employment market and financial woes, college graduate and former witch Mina Mao lands an HR assistant job at Frost and Sons. Having spent her day saving Christmas from Frost Junior’s Grinch-like behavior, she accepts the gift of Madame Eve’s service and heads over to the Castillo Capital. When her date turns out to be her childhood crush and workplace nemesis, she braces herself for the sexiest icy ride of her life.  

Excerpt

Jack reached over Mina’s head and tugged out the metal pins. As he placed them on the mantle beside her, one by one, he filled his lungs with the scent of cinnamon and cloves floating off her hair.

She sighed. “You have no idea what I went through for that up-do.”

“I never liked it when you tied your hair.” A few more pulls dislodged the coiled bun. The braid unwound into a long queue that reached her ribcage. Placing one hand above her head on the pillar, he reached around her waist and tugged the elastic free.

She stepped toward him, her head tilting up. Their breaths mingled, her midnight eyes hooded by a dark fan of lowered lashes. “You never seemed to give a damn about how I looked.”

“For an empath, you’re not much good at reading minds. I almost grabbed you by the ponytail one day with every intention of freezing off the godawful scrunchie. Those things went out of style in the nineties.” She remained motionless as he worked his fingers through the silken strands, unraveling the thick mane until it fanned over her back and surrounded her delicate shoulders. He wanted to see her like this, without a single stitch on her. “There. Much better.”

Her brows furrowed. “You never considered kissing me before. What changed?”

Hell if he knew.

Back Lot Beauties Hop - Dec 4 to 11 – Hop Aboard the #Romance #Giveaway train!

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A huge thank you goes to Hennessee Andrews for organizing the Back Lot Beauties Hop, which gives us romance authors an opportunity to dust off our back list titles to remind you of something we'd released over a year ago. Each stop has a giveaway at the very end, so don't forget to scroll all the way down to put your name in the hat for a $5 Gift Card to your favorite online eBook retailer.  All you have to do is comment, either here or this Facebook post.

For my stop, I’ve decided to showcase Flirting with Fire, an erotic paranormal romance featuring witches who turn into cute kitties. It's the start to my favorite series thus far, and it holds a special place in my heart since it led to the cat pictured on the right. After I wrote three romances featuring cat familiars, my significant other decided I deserved a kitten of my own. Moka, my personal  diabolical familiar, joined our family soon after the third book in the series was published. 

Moka, back in March, when he was tiny enough to stage disappearing acts!

Moka, back in March, when he was tiny enough to stage disappearing acts!

Flirting with Fire

Apprentice witch Catalina Gato is prohibited from assuming her human form in front of her new employer without his express permission. Since he doesn’t know he’s a warlock, he can’t give it, leaving her in a familiar’s limbo. To make matters worse, she’s barred from leaving his house, and her attempts to enlighten him of his true nature results in burnt notes, charred walls, and exploding laptops.

On All Hallows’ Eve, she gets one night of freedom. Deciding some no-strings-attached sex might take the edge off the intense attraction she feels for her clueless boss, she signs up for Madame Eve’s service. When she meets her masked mystery date at the Castillo Capital, she realizes she might have gotten much more than she bargained for.

After being gifted a one-night stand from his annoying best friend, attorney Leo Difuoco reluctantly ventures to the Castillo Capital to celebrate Halloween. When he meets his oddly familiar green-eyed date in a Cat Woman costume, flames literally ignite, sparks magically fly, and life as he knows it changes forever. 

Excerpt

Cat chose this moment to return. Plunking down her plush bottom with her front legs straight and her heart-shaped face tilted up, the little minx stared up at him with a comical approximation of puppy-dog eyes. “Meow.”

Keeping a straight face took significant effort. “Feeling guilty, are you?”

Those uncanny eyes grew even wider, her long, dark tail wagging in a slow, hypnotizing pattern. He found his muscles relaxing, all tension and anger melting away. Unnerved by the almost-magical effect, he picked the creature up and held her in front of his face. “Your little tricks won’t work on me. I’m not letting you get off so easily. What you did was very rude.”

Her claws sheathed, she batted at his nose with one paw. “Meeeow.”

His resolve melted. He’d grown soft over the past six months, and the damn cat had learned to use it to her advantage. “Fine. I accept your apology. Now, run along. I need to wash up and get ready for work.”

When he set her down, she padded after him to the master bedroom, which he’d refurnished as soon as he moved in. Aside from not wanting to sleep in his great-aunt’s bed, the gothic decor had given him the creeps. What kind of old Italian-Gypsy used black sheets and installed a massive upturned crescent moon as her headboard? The memory of the blood-red carpet, emblazoned with weird black spirals, circles, and stars, still made him shudder.

He’d banished everything from the room, including a wall-sized, cross-bisected circular mirror, several dozen candles in all shapes, sizes, and colors, and multiple bouquets of odd-smelling herbs to the Salvation Army. He’d no clue what they’d do with it all, but he liked clean, sleek lines and modern furniture too much to have such bizarre items in his house.

Cat had been none too happy with his decision. Her housewarming presents were claw marks on every corner of his bed’s leather base. The rest of his furniture, including his chrome desk, rolling ergonomic office chair, and black IKEA chest of drawers all met with similar fates. To his relief, the feline soon grew tired of vandalism and started bothering him in other ways.

Accompanying him into the bathroom was a good example. While unaffectionate, the cat never ventured more than a few feet away. She had the decency to stay outside until the shower came on, but the sound of cascading water seemed to act as a trigger. Within seconds of him rinsing off, her sleek dark head would poke into the stall. His great-aunt must have installed some weird hi-tech cat sensor on all the internal doors. The creature roamed every nook and cranny of the three-story brownstone as if locks didn’t exist.

Testing his limits must be on today’s agenda since a black streak crossed his line of vision before he could shut the bathroom door. Already behind schedule, he crouched and jabbed his forefinger between his pet’s green eyes. “You know the drill. No coming in until after I strip.”
In lieu of an answer, she jumped to sit on the new granite sink. Unlike his furniture reshuffle, Cat had no beef with his bathroom and kitchen remodels. His stainless steel appliances, copper fixtures, and terra-cotta tiles all escaped the wrath of her claws.

Rising, he swept his arm toward the open entryway. “I don’t have time for this. Out you go. I mean it.” When his stern warning failed to achieve the desired effect, he heaved a sigh. Past experience taught him a chase almost never ended in capture.

Not bothering to close off the room, he hooked his fingers under his boxers’ waistband. “You’re a little pervert. Can’t you at least act like you’re not looking?” Very few sane people had lengthy conversations with their pets. He needed to get a life.

His audience of one lay down on her stomach, her face resting on her paws. The first couple of months, she’d pretended to be interested in something else—his assortment of fluffy white towels, for example. Now, she watched him shower like it was nobody’s business. Sighing, he took off his shorts and tossed them into the hamper, his aim perfect enough to remind him of his basketball-playing days. She meowed and nodded, as if in approval.

He stepped into the glass enclosure, feeling oddly self-conscious. With a twist of the handle, water fell like rain over his head. As he scrubbed, he continued to address the cat. “I’m going out tonight. It’s Halloween, and the guys are beginning to think I’ve turned into a hermit.”
The ensuing meow was pitched higher than usual. Though he hesitated to read too much into feline noises, his brain somehow interpreted the sound as an expression of enthusiasm. The plan he’d been lukewarm about gained appeal. “Besides, costume parties are great places to pick up chicks.”

He cringed at a loud crash. Poking his head out, he took stock of the damage. Ceramic shards from what used to be his soap holder covered the floor, along with globs of shiny translucent liquid. 

Find a list of the other participating authors here