Negotiating Skills now Available on #Audible

Hello All, 

For those of you who enjoy listening to audio books, Negotiating Skills is now available on Audible and other audio book markets.

You can check out the book and listen to a sample here.

The process of turning this book into an audio version was definitely interesting and a lot of fun. I hope you enjoy!

Get Audio Book

Talk to you soon, 
Laurel

The Romance Reviews Top Pick!

It looks like May is just a good month for me. In addition to getting my next book, Persuasion Skills, contracted by Evernight I had the happy fortune to receive a 5 star review for Negotiating Skills from The Romance Reviews and be labeled as a Top Pick! Color me stoked! I can't believe that only ten months ago I was still hyperventilating about the release for Negotiating Skills, and here I am only a few months away from the release of my second book, and I'm finishing up work on my third. What a crazy year!

Next on my to-do list is to finally get my home office up and officially running. The DH  and I moved into a new house this year and it's taken me much longer than I anticipated to get around to my office. In the past I've been able to write pretty much any where, but ever since I've become more strict about my writing schedule, a dedicated space is MUCH needed.

I'll post a few quick pics of my new space, soon. I've decided to decorate it in what I affectionately call a throw-up of color :).

Anyhoo, thanks for dropping in and reading my gushing rambling!

Talk to you soon,
Laurel

Spring Musings

Good Evening Lovelies,

It's the middle of April, and spring is officially in full swing. Admittedly I live in Miami so technically I experience a year long spring/summer, either way Happy Spring! I've been running around like crazy lately tiling soil, planting seeds, pruning bushes and what-not for my next book releases (hooray metaphors hyperbole...whatever!) This is what I get for trying to look smart. Anyway I've basically been busting my butt, making sure that I have at least three new releases for 2013.

The first book officially completed this year was Persuasion Skills, the second book in my Boardroom Acts series. This is a stand alone contemporary romance that shares the co-worker theme/trope from Negotiating Skills but with a whole new set of characters. I teetered back and forth for months trying to decide whether I was going to self-pub this book or submit it for publication, and finally decided to send it out for publication. Fingers crossed that it will be picked up because aside from the fact that I wrote it, I really do think that its a great story and has mile long legs to stand on. I'll let you know how it goes. According to experts/people out in the interwebs, I shouldn't talk about this. Mainly because it will look bad if the book doesn't get picked up. Thankfully not only do I think that's a load of bull, I also want to provide any insight into this process as I can for those of you embarking on your own journey into writing.

I finally figured out how to fix my How To Kill Your Immortal, dilemma and have decided  to release a few books set up in the HTKYI world, prior to releasing Dante and Jasmine's story. I've struggled with this for over a year. No matter how I looked at it, and no matter how much I love their characters, I just don't think Dante and Jasmine are ready for prime time. It's funny actually because a writer friend of mine told me I would have separation anxiety when it came to releasing my first book and she was sooooo right! Although Negotiating Skills was my first published book, HTKYI, was my first completed book. I hyperventilate every time I think about publishing it. It's crazy, I know. It doesn't make a lick of sense, but there it is. I'm absolutely terrified of putting my baby out there.  But, thankfully, I can't put it off forever. When I first came up for the idea for my current work in progress, Frosted Bites, it was intended to be a short three book PNR series, but somehow my characters found their way into Dante and Jasmine's world and wouldn't leave! Next thing I knew I had half a book completed with Dante and Jasmine doing cameos. Talk about my subconscious kicking my ass! The awesome thing is that it totally works and I'm crazy excited about it!. So sadly, my lovelies you will have to wait a little longer for HTKYI, but before you get it you'll have:

1.) Sweet Dreams (A Frosted Bites Prequel)

2.) Cupcakes at Midnight

3.) Death by Chocolate

4.) Whipped and Chained

Sweet Dreams is already completed and as soon as I have a free moment to edit the second draft it will be off to my editor. I'm also already two chapters into Cupcakes at Midnight. It was originally intended to be a short story, but after outlining it, I realized it will be another novella. *Sigh* One day I will master the short story. I swear it.

Okay those are the updates I have for now, hopefully in a week or so I'll have good news to share regarding Persuasion Skills. Either way I'll share with you my mental breakdown over query letters and the like soon.

Talk to you soon,
Laurel

An Apology For a Major Noob Mistake

Source

Hello All, 

Brace yourselves lovelies, it's major apology time featuring yours truly as the not so virgin sacrifice. As many of you all ready know I did something not really well thought out this weekend and of course it bit me on the butt! You can read about the reasoning for my insanity here. Simply put, I pulled Negotiating Skills from all online publishers and enrolled it in Amazon KDP select and immediately listed it as a free read for three days...Yes I did that with no planing...yes I know that was crazy and a very typical NOOB mistake. However, sadly that is not where the apology needs to be given.

Downloads of the book were doing relatively well (over 10,000 downloads in 3 days) when late Sunday morning an AWESOME reader was nice enough to message me that there seemed to be some formatting issues with the book. !!!!! Yeah I KNOW!!!!!! First a big thanks and shout out to Terra Nuit for letting me know about the problem. I immediately corrected the issue and resubmitted a corrected version of the book to amazon. Sadly Amazon takes 12-49 hours to list a new version, so the corrected copy of the book but it didn't hit the market until late Sunday afternoon after over 6000 readers had already downloaded the book. And THAT lovelies is where the apology comes in. 

To all of you fabulous readers who were willing to give my book a chance this weekend, I offer you a huge thanks and the sincerest of apologies. I always say that I'm a reader first and writer second. I understand what's it's like to have an afternoon or a few stolen moments of read time disrupted by formatting and editing mistakes. Regardless of whether a book is purchased or downloaded for free, as a reader you are investing your time into that author's story and that has value. No writer would ever disagree with that.

I've contacted amazon regarding the errors and they stated that they will notify readers who purchased/downloaded the book and these readers will be able to sync/update to the newest version. So hopefully this issue will be cleared up soon. 

Again, I apologize for the error...I'll be in the corner tied to a rock now *sigh*. 

Talk to you soon, 
Laurel

 

Hmmm... I Did Something A Little Naughty...

Hello Lovelies, 

I did something a little naughty tonight...No not that naughty :) On a complete and totally procrastination inspired whim, I removed Negotiating Skills from  BnB, Kobo and All Romance! What? o_O! Yeah I know! Since the sales for the book are winding down and I'm already in the midst of several other works in progress I figured it was time to see what the hoopla is all about for Amazon's kdp select. 

Yes I know for some it is the devil and for other's it is a godsend. Frankly I'm not really expecting much. I really just want to make sure as many readers get a chance to read it as possible while I works on getting my next few books out and published.

So I'll be offering my baby up for free starting today through Sunday! Yes I know I should probably do some promo of this right?  So I will. Would it had made more sense if I did it in advance? Most definitely, but since I'm really just trying to procrastinate my night away I'm going to do it any way. 

*Sigh* Yes I know I'm being belligerent but I've been re-writing the same final chapter for weeks now and I'm in serious need of a mini mental break. The twenty minutes of joy I got from searching out the James Van Der Beek gif for this post was priceless along with the knowledge that for the next 90 days I only have to worry about checking one publishing site :) So spread the word. Negotiating Skills is a free read via the Amazon Kindle market through to Sunday! Wish me luck smex monsters!

Talk to you soon,
Laurel

Literary Foreplay with Silken Sheets and Seduction

Hello Lovelies, 

The lovely and smexy ladies of Silken Sheets & Seduction were nice enough to host me today for an author guest post. Show some love and mosey on over there and play around.

The topic du jour is one of my favorites-you guessed it, tension in romance novels. Stop by and share your thoughts and while you're at it take a look around the Silken Sheets & Seduction website. These ladies know their smex and romance! Thanks to them I've already exploded my TBR budjet for the month.

Talk to you soon,
Laurel  

And The Winner Is...#HeartHop #eBook #Romance

Hello Lovelies, 

A special big fat thank you to all of you who participated in the Heartbreaker Blog Hop! It was a lot of fun reading all of your responses not just on my site but across the entire hop.

The winners for the overall hop have been announced here. And the winner for my stop is...

WINNER

K. April Holgate

April you totally had me at Mr. Darcy :) So Congratulations! You'll be getting a copy of my book Negotiating Skills in the eBook format of your choice. 

To all of you fabulous runners up, thanks again for joining in on the hop and don't despair. There are other upcoming hops with mucho gusto prizes! I also have a few giveaways lanned in the next few months so stay tuned...

Talk to you soon,

Laurel

 

Those Smexy Heart Breakers! #HeartHop #Giveaway

Hello Lovelies,

As you can tell by the super smexy picture to the left, I have an extra special treat for you all. I was lucky enough to join the Heart Breaker Blog Hop and the topic du jour is...Heartbreakers of course!

I'll be giving away an EPUB or MOBI copy of Negotiating Skills to one lucky commenter. What do you have to do for a chance to win? I want to know what your definition of a heart breaker is. Are they worth it ? So go ahead and comment away:)

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of tension when it comes to writing and reading romance, so when the question of what makes a heart breaker was presented I couldn't help but smile. Heart breakers are those men or women who make your skin tighten, your pulse race, your heart sigh and your soul pant. In other words they're the ones that keep you tense and achy for them.

Whether it's the shy guy next door, the brainy IT tech, the commanding boss, the mysterious detective, or the sultry musician, the simple truth is that the person you can make all of your senses pause in rapt attention is a HEART BREAKER! You never know what may float your boat, but when you find it be sure to go for it and hold on tight.

In Negotiating Skills it takes awhile for Veronica to realize that the bossy Victor Rossi is her perfect match, but hell if they both didn't have fun while she figured it out ;)

Negotiating Skills...

Blurb: Witnessing a private act leads to some interesting negotiations...Software programmer Veronica James is struggling to make her new business a success. After finally landing a major account, she's at risk of losing it all when she catches her new client Victor Rossi in a very compromising position. In an effort to regain the upper hand, Rossi insists on some sexy and compromising concessions from her that have Veronica reconsidering her hard fast rule of not mixing business with pleasure.

All Romance | Amazon | BnB | Kobo

---

There are three hundred bloggers participating in the Heart Breaker Blog Hop, each one posting about those hotties that can't help but be heartbreakers. Many of those bloggers, myself included, will be giving away loot and prizes so follow the hop, comment below and DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS in your comments.

But what's a hop without some AWESOME LOOT at the end of the linky rainbow? Don't worry we haven't left you hanging my little smex monsters. Follow the links found here and hop from blog to blog, commenting along the way. Again don't forget to leave your email address in your comments

1st Grand Prize: A Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet

2nd Grand Prize: A $100 Amazon or B&N Gift Card

3rd Grand Prize: A Swag Pack that contains paperbacks, ebooks, 50+ bookmarks, cover flats, magnets, pens, coffee cozies, and more!

Persuasion Skills #amwriting

Hello Lovelies, 

It's been a while since I dropped you all a note on my works in progress, so I just wanted to give you all a quick update. Here goes...

1.) I'm finishing up the final touches to Persuasion Skills (formally titled High Stakes). This book is next in the Boardroom Acts series that began with Negotiating Skills. Persuasion Skills is a stand alone contemporary erotic/sensual romance using one of my favorite tropes, friends-to-lovers. For those of you who enjoyed the tension and banter between Veronica and Victor in Negotiating Skills, you're sure to love the romance between Pepper and Jaxon. She's a savvy and successful business woman and he's a mischief making computer engineer. Trap these two together in a romantic cabin and smexy hilarity smoking hot encounters ensues. 

I'm still debating on whether I'm going to self pub this book as well, or submit it to a publisher. I keep teetering back and forth on it but, you'll know one way or the other :).

2.) Frosted Bites is a trio of paranormal contemporary short stories that will definitely be released April 15th via Amazon, BnB and All romance. These short stories just kind of happened out of the blue. I was sitting in yet another round of Miami traffic one day when the idea came to me. Each story focuses on one of three siblings in the Graves family. I had a lot of fun with these characters and I hope you will too!

UPDATE: Did I say definitely? I meant definitely, maybe, if my muse got her sh%! together...

3.) WIP#3:Title Unknown-I still haven't settled on the title for my third work in progress. However, this one for sure will be an industry submission. It is another paranormal contemporary that I plan on making a series. The heroine is a little quirky and was a little inspired by Samantha from Bewitched, Martha Stewart and Tank Girl. Yes you read that right :) I don't really have a timeline for this one yet, but I'm definitely hoping to have it ready for submission by August of this year. I know that seems like a long way out, but the storyline requires a lot of research and fact checking so yeah...

So for now that's it! I do have several other WIPs that are still in the outline stages and I'll let you know more once I decide to add them to my queue. 2013 is going to be a busy year!

Talk to you soon,
Laurel 

Virtual Book Tour: And The Winners Are...

Hello Lovelies,

First of all Happy Holidays and a prosperous New Year to all! I'm excited to announce the lucky winners who followed the Virtual Book Tour for Negotiating Skills. So the winners are...drum roll please...


1.) $10 Amazon gift card- Joanne B from the Harlie's Books post
2.) 4GB USB drive- BN100 from the Queen of the Night Reviews post
3.) I Heart Dr. Who mug- Catherine from the Sugarbeat's Books post

A special thanks goes out to all of you who followed along on the tour. Thank you so much for your comments and support. And a special thanks goes out to all of the tour hosts and to Goddess Fish Promotions for putting the tour together. I had a lot of fun! For those of you who missed the tour you can still catch all of the interviews and posts just check out the links below.

Date	Host
November 17th	* Rachel Leigh Romance
November 26th	* Sugarbeat's Books
December 3rd	* Harlie's Book Blog
	* Reviews by Molly
December 10th	* Bodice Ripper Novels
December 17th	* Words of Wisdom from the Scarf Princess
	* Queen of the Night Reviews

Talk to you soon,
Laurel

Virtual Book Tour: Final Stops!

Hello Lovelies,

I'm writing to you all today from beautiful and sunny Antigua! I'm on a cruise ship with my hubby and have very limited and spotty internet connectivity so please bear with me. Today are the final stops for the virtual book tour for Negotiating Skills. Today you can find me at Queen of the Night Reviews  and at Words of Wisdom from The Scarf Princess.This tour has been such a blast. Each host has been so great and I've enjoyed all of the questions and comments from readers. You've all been great. I cant wait to announce the winners! Anyway please mosey on over to my last two stops and show some love :)  The cruise ship internet network has deemed all things romance a banned site apparantly so I'll be checking in to those posts as soon as I can find an internet cafe onshore ;)

Talk to you all soon,
Laurel

Virtual Book Tour: Fourth Stop with Bodice Ripper Novels

Hello Lovelies,

Today is the fourth stop on the Negotiating Skills Virtual Book Tour! As I've mentioned before, the awesome ladies at Goddess Fish Promotions have set up a virtual book tour for Negotiating Skills. Today's stop is an interview with the lovely Terri of  Bodice Ripper Novels.

Follow me along on the tour and get a chance to be one of three participants who wins either a $10 Amazon gift card, 4GB USB flash drive or an "I heart Dr. Who" coffee mug!

You can find the full tour schedule here so please don't be a stranger and travel along :).  
      
Talk to you soon,

Laurel

Negotiating Skills: Four Star Review and Recommended Read!

Hello Lovelies,

I'm super excited to announce that Negotiating Skills has received a Four Star Review from Reviews by Molly and been labeled as a Recommended Read on Harlie's Books! Color me crazy, super excited!

It's so nice to read or hear that someone has enjoyed one of my works. These lovely reviews totally made an already amazing week rock even harder :)

Talk to you soon, 
Laurel

Virtual Book Tour: Third Stop with Harlie's Books and Reviews by Molly!

Hello Lovelies,

Today is the third stop on the Negotiating Skills Virtual Book Tour! As I've mentioned before, the awesome ladies at Goddess Fish Promotions have set up a virtual book tour for Negotiating Skills. Today's stop is a double header with Harlie's Books and Reviews by Molly :)  

Follow me along on the tour and get a chance to be one of three participants who wins either a $10 Amazon gift card, 4GB USB flash drive or an "I heart Dr. Who" coffee mug!

You can find the full tour schedule here so please don't be a stranger and travel along :).  
      
Talk to you soon,

Laurel

Virtual Book Tour: Second Stop with Sugarbeat's !

Hello Lovelies,

Today is the second stop on the Negotiating Skills Virtual Book Tour! As I've mentioned before, the awesome ladies at Goddess Fish Promotions have set up a virtual book tour for Negotiating Skills. Today's stop is with Sugarbeat's Books :)

Follow me along on the tour and get a chance to be one of three participants who wins either a $10 Amazon gift card, 4GB USB flash drive or an "I heart Dr. Who" coffee mug!

You can find the full tour schedule here so please don't be a stranger and travel along :).  
      
Talk to you soon,

Laurel

Negotiating Skills: Book Tour Schedule

Good Morning Lovelies!

I'm super excited to announce the blog stops for the Negotiating Skills Virtual Book Tour! The tour will begin on November 19th and end on December 17th. I've been running around doing happy dances all weekend, ever since I got the first booking confirmations from Goddess Fish. The ladies there have been amazing! 

Since I've got a crazy amount of work of get done and last time I checked there are still only 24 hours in a day I better get to work. Arghhh! I'm super excited and feel like vomiting all at the same time. Hooray for my Gemini nature (blar). 

Anyhoo, show some love for my lovely hosts and stay tuned! I'll be giving away some great goodies at each stop so mark your calendars and stop by to join in on the fun and free stuff. 

	DATE	HOST
	November 17th	* Rachel Leigh Romance
	November 26th	* Sugarbeat's Books
	December 3rd	* Harlie's Book Blog
		* Reviews by Molly
	December 10th	* Bodice Ripper Novels
	December 17th	* Words of Wisdom from the Scarf Princess
		* Queen of the Night Reviews

Talk to you soon,

Laurel

Negotiating Skills Free on All Romance!

Good Morning All,

Negotiating Skills is free today through Wednesday October 17th at All Romance (ARe).  Yes I said free so go forth and download!  I just got confirmation of my first few book tour stops last night so I'm in a hammer time dancing kind of mood, which nicely translates into a free read for you. I would have done the same for Amazon and BnB but it sadly is not allowed.

I'll post a little later this week about each tour stop. By then I will most likely have moved on from hammer time to the cabbage patch so please just be forewarned :)

Talk to you soon,
Laurel 

Virtual Book Tour!

Good Evening Everyone,

I'm excited to announce that Negotiating Skills will be heading out on a virtual book tour in November! The lovely ladies at Goddess Fish Promotions have set up a tour for the book.

So what is a virtual book tour you ask? A virtual book tour is a tour where an author (moi) tours different blogs around the internet instead of bookstores. I get to have guests posts and interviews with different book bloggers and review sites that and get exposure to their readers and audience. It's a great way to get exposure and to  meet other bloggers.

I super excited and can't wait to get started! I'll be posting all of the tour stops soon and keep you all updated, so stay tuned.  

Talk to you soon,
Laurel

Negotiating Skills, New Excerpt

Good Evening Lovelies,

Today I was preparing some excerpts from Negotiating Skills for a guest blog post I'll be dong in a few weeks (more on that in another post) and decided to share. For those of you who haven't had a chance to read the book yet, enjoy!

Talk to you soon,
Laurel 

Excerpt...

With her decision made, she straightened her back and locked her gaze firmly onto Victor’s cold green eyes.

“I won’t sleep with you,” she said calmly.

“I don’t believe I asked for that pleasure,” he replied, quirking his eyebrow in a way that Veronica was finding increasingly annoying.

She pressed her lips together firmly. He was behaving like a jackass. She couldn’t believe that she had spent all that time fantasizing about such a ruthless jerk.

“And no one else will be aware of this…arrangement except the two of us,” she continued.

“I’ve never been one to discuss private business matters with outside parties,” he said with a slight smile playing across his lips.

“Fine,” she said as she dropped her gaze from his and reached into her purse to pull out a pen. She pulled the contract forward and signed the bottom page with hands she fought to keep steady from shaking. After she placed the pen down, she couldn’t prevent her hands from clutching tightly on the cool glass top of Victor’s desk.

She pulled in a shaky breath and raised her gaze back to his. She kept her eyes steady on him as she pushed back her chair and began to raise her skirt.

“Not so fast,” he said harshly, his words halting her movement.

Veronica let her skirt fall back down to her knees. For a split second, Veronica again thought that Victor had changed his mind, but his eyes remained cold and she knew that wasn’t the case.

“The deal is that you would show me yours, so come here,” he said gesturing to his side of the desk.

If it weren’t for his cold gaze Veronica almost believed that his voice had grown huskier. She locked her knees to keep them from trembling as she made her way around his desk.

“Continue,” he said when she reached his chair. She watched and struggled hard not to reach out and slap his smirking face as he leaned back in his chair and rested his folded hands across his flat stomach.

Veronica felt her knees tremble and her stomach quaver at his focused stare and tried not to let her surprise at her body’s reaction show.

As pissed off as she was at his demands, it seemed as if her body had yet to receive the message that the recent object of her obsession had turned from a sexy crush to an arrogant ass. Even now standing in front of him about to submit to his ludicrous demand, she couldn’t keep a warm flush from spreading throughout her body and a lick of desire settle in her stomach.

She didn’t know who she was angrier with at this point, herself for being so aroused, or Victor for putting her in such a demeaning position.

“Sometime this century please,” he said arrogantly. He no longer looked in her eyes. Instead he kept his eyes fixed squarely below her waist.

Steeling herself against the need to physically hurt him, Veronica kept her gaze trained on him as she clasped her skirt in her fists and pulled it up to her waist. She saw Victor stiffen and hoped that he was just as uncomfortable as she was.

She held her skirt up with one hand and reached down to hook her fingers into the hip of her blue lace thong with the other. She paused only briefly before pulling it down over her lips and releasing her fingers to let the patch of lace pool at her feet.

She was about to smooth her skirt back down over her hips when Victor’s hands reached forward in a flash and grabbed her hips firmly in his hands.

“I gave you more than just a few seconds worth of a look last night,” he said huskily.

“I’m pretty sure I’m owed more than just a quick peek now,” he said as he moved her over slightly.

Veronica felt the cool glass top of his desk graze her ass as he shifted her over. Her muscles felt frozen. The moment his hands clasped her hips she felt such a rush of heat she was afraid to speak. It burned so quickly, she struggled to keep it from fogging up her mind completely.

She stood quietly, locked in a shocked haze of heat, as his hands leaned her back against his desk. The movement caused her legs to splay open slightly, just enough to give him a full view of her pussy.

His thumbs stroked across her hips and down slowly to the crease of her inner thighs. He kept his touch light, his fingers never touching the aching juncture between her legs.

“I wouldn’t have figured you for the clean shaven look,” he murmured.

NEGOTIATING SKILLS now available on ARe | Amazon | Kobo | Nook | 

A Brief Moment In Time

Hi All, 

For a brief moment in time today I cracked 20,000 in Amazon's Sales Rank. It was a very brief moment, but a moment nonetheless and I took a moment of my own to screen shot it and do a little happy dance. It was somewhat awkward considereing I was at work at the time and my boss happened to walk through the my door in the middle of my dance, nut the awkward moment was totally worth it! 

Things like this totally make my day. I know for some this may not seem like a big deal, but it was a huge milestone for me. Especially being a self-published author. Anyway I'm off to bask in the glow of a moment long #16,539 . 

Talk to you soon,
Laurel