New cover for Unfinished!

With overwhelming support for the "corset cover," your suggestions really helped! Some folks didn't like the tagline placement, and others wanted a splash of color. My editor pointed out that Lilith is a blond, not a brunette.

So here we go!

I need opinions on the cover for "Unfinished"!

Chime in via comment -- please give your opinion! Which one is better?

Legs, Unfinished, and Kindle only (for 90 days)

I've decided to enroll both Legs and Unfinished in the Amazon.com "Select" program for Kindle. For readers who don't know how this works, enrolling both books means that they will *only* be available for Kindle, for sale on Amazon.com, for 90 days.

No Nook, no PDF -- just .mobi through Kindle.

90 days after I enroll them, though, I'll add them back to Nook and on other sites. For those who use a Kindle, the *great* news is that enrolling the books in Select means I can have FREE days, days when you can get the books completely free as a promotion.

Unfinished and Legs are both in the formatting stage right now (Legs has been massively revamped). Watch for more details.

RWI's More Than Magic Contest is banning same-sex romance entries

So time goes backwards (and not in a good way) for some romance contests! Who knew?

Romance Writers Ink, a Tulsa, Oklahoma-based RWA chapter, is holding its Magic 2012 contest. Check out the first rule:

ENTRY DEADLINE: March 2, 2012 – Books must be received by March 7, 2012

RULES:

1. All entries must be book-length romance fiction.
Includes novellas of at least 15,000 words.

– Note: MTM will no longer accept same-sex entries in any category.

Heidi Cullinan brought it to everyone's attention. Courtney Milan is calling for a boycott. Kari Gregg talks about the RWA's definition of "romance" (hint: it's not discriminatory). Sarah at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books takes on the subject as well.

Kari Gregg emailed RWI and asked why same-sex romance was banned. Here's how she tells it:

So…I emailed the contest organizer to ask why this change was enacted. The contest organizer replied that RWI chapter members were “uncomfortable” with accepting same-sex contest entries. “Same-sex was just too much.”

Your judges may be "uncomfortable" with reading same-sex romance, but so what?

Plenty of folks are "uncomfortable" with your bigotry.

I'm an RWA member. You're an RWA chapter.

Act like one.

And, because outrage always inspires an internet petition, here it is. 616 signatures so far.

Sign up for my New Releases email list -- get the prequel!

I have a new email list -- I'm so 2002! You can sign up with one simple step here: CLICK ME! CLICK ME!

I'll ONLY announce new releases, which means you'll get 2 emails from me this year if I write fast! "Unfinished" is the name of the prequel to "Legs," so it will be the first notice you'll get. Learn when it goes live on Kindle and how to get it right away!

I'll never spam you or share your information with others.

"Unfinished" is finished!

::happy dance::

I just finished the draft for "Unfinished," Lilith and James' story. It's in the hands of my editor now!

Readers can look forward to a very revised version of Legs, plus the new Unfinished eBook, coming out on Amazon within the next 4-6 weeks. Watch here for more!

A sample from "Unfinished Business"

I'm very close to finishing, so here's a sample to keep you interested. Historical fiction with romantic elements, set in Boston in 1912:

Alone now, James looped through the memory of the morning meeting. Lilith's dress had been conservative, a high-necked white cotton Gibson Girl shirt and v-cut jacket made to emphasize broad shoulders Lilith lacked. The gray heather jacket, made of a fine cloth James couldn't afford even if he spent a year's salary, nipped in tight at the waist, her ribs narrowing to a point so simple in diameter that he wondered if he'd even need both hands to close the space. The three-quarters sleeves showed she was a modernite, not afraid to show wrist, and James wondered how free thinking she was in bed.

Her skirt dropped off from under the tight waist, made of a fine white materials that he thought was linen, as it was an off-white color and slightly wrinkled. Three horizontal stripes along the hem of the skirt, perfectly matching the heather tone of her jacket, finished the look. She was a fashion plate, but an odd mixture of old-fashioned Boston style and progressive dress.

The woman was as tiny as he was big. He was close to triple her weight, he assumed, and would just as well be able to eat her entire head as plant a passionate kiss on those poisoned lips. He wondered what she looked like without the armor, or wearing a simple, flowing silk dress. Again, arousal plagued him, and he cursed his lack of undergarments. The morning had been a blur of hangover and plying last night's woman from his bed, and in the rush to do his hair and find a presentable business suit he'd found himself without anything clean. The thick wool of his buttoned suit pants scratched against his hard bulge and he willed thoughts of Lilith Stone away, thinking instead of the night's lecture before him. Dr. David Burnham was in town, talking about Ellis Havelock's findings on the sexual invert and its importance in human development and society.

The erection lingered until he found himself on the edge of an enormous hole in the middle of the road, nearly pitching down a good twenty feet into an open sewer pit. That did the trick. Construction on the Charles River Dam had been ongoing for months now, and his bosses bemoaned the interference in the roads, making the commute to the office damn near impossible.

The water table rose and runoff from Beacon Hill flooded some of the lower parts of the Back Bay, leading to flooding. Getting from South Central Station to the common was hard enough. Avoiding these unmanned pits was harder. What wasn't hard, anymore, was the other brain James' body used for the wrong thoughts at the wrong times. He thanked God he hadn't absentmindedly fallen down that enormous hole, for he'd surely have broken a leg. Or worse. Such an ignominious way to harm oneself while being distracted by Lilith Stone.

Note: like that little dig at Seth? Heh.