Hooray! Three Nights with a Scoundrel, the final installment in the Stud Club trilogy, is in stores today! I wish I could be online more, but I’m traveling today from California to Florida for the RWA conference, so I’ll be in transit for most of the day. But I want to say thank you to everyone who has been reading this trilogy and looking forward to Julian and Lily’s story–I hope you enjoy it!

If you want to read an early review, check out this one at The Romance Dish. Reviewer PJ was a Julian skeptic, and she’s now one of his biggest fans. 🙂

I’ll be tweeting and updating Facebook from conference, so if you follow me on either of those social networks, look out for news and pics! … Read More »

Congrats to Babs, lucky #15 as drawn by Random.org. You win the prize package of three autographed Silhouette Desires! Please use the contact form to send me your mailing address. Congratulations!

I’m packing my bags for RWA as I type… well, okay. Not exactly as I type, because I am not that good at multitasking. Let’s just say the room is a mess. 🙂

As always, I am so excited to be attending National Conference – this year in Orlando, Florida! Conference means getting to see old friends and make new ones. It means business lunches and publisher parties and inspiring keynote addresses and informative presentations and …eek, high heels.

If you’re in the neighborhood but not attending the conference, the Readers for Life literacy signing is open to the public. It’s Wednesday evening from 5:30-7:30 PM, and it’ll be me and …. oh, like 500 other authors of romance! For anyone registered for the conference, I’ll also be signing books at the Ballantine Bantam Dell signing, Saturday morning at 9:00 AM.

I’m also excited to be speaking on two panels during the conference. On Wednesday, aka “Librarian Day”, SuperLibrarian Wendy and I (but mostly SuperLibrarian Wendy) will be expounding on the topic of Romance Collection Development to a group of our peers – librarians!

Then on Saturday, from 3:15-4:15 PM, I’ll be on a panel entitled “Digital Publishing for the Print Published Author”, along with authors Kristen Painter and Shiloh Walker, and Samhain Editor Lindsey Faber.

On both of … Read More »

Last week was my local RWA chapter meeting, and I had the pleasure of signing books with several of our chapter’s published authors. What struck me was that three of them all had Silhouette Desire books out this month!

If you’ve read books from the Desire line (or even looked at the titles), you know the heroes are usually super high-powered businessmen. They have wealth, power, and of course, good looks…everything but the right woman in their lives. I don’t know about you, but I can never get enough of that storyline: the strong, uncompromising Alpha hero who won’t be ruled by anything or anyone, until love turns his world on its head. (Spencer of One Dance with a Duke being a case in point!) Evidently I’m not alone, because these books sell like deep-fried hotcakes at the State Fair.

Here are OCC’s home-grown Desires for the month of July:

The Millionaire Meets His Match, by Kate Carlisle

The CEO of Duke Development had been on guard since he discovered his mother’s diabolical plot to marry him off. Him and his brothers. And when his desirable new assistant, Trish James, hinted she wanted more than just a business relationship, Adam figured she was in on the scheme. So the boss decided to play along and seduce the secretary…then put a stop to his mother’s meddling marriage plans once and for all. But even Adam could not have guessed Trish’s true agenda for wanting him in her bed….

Claiming Her … Read More »

Or maybe I should just say, longer excerpt posted?

Anyhow, I can’t believe it’s just one week until the release of Three Nights with a Scoundrel! I previously had part of Chapter One posted as an excerpt, but this morning I’ve expanded it to all of Chapter One. So a few more pages to tease you. Click here to read it!

Summer has been keeping me so busy, but I’m going to make up for my lack of blogging with some great giveaways. Look for a particularly desirable contest tomorrow. (That’s a hint. Admittedly a very nonspecific one, but it will make sense tomorrow.)

Also, tomorrow I’ll be a guest on the Borders True Romance blog.

Hope summer has been treating you well!… Read More »

A few days ago, a very alert reader wrote to let me know that Goddess of the Hunt wasn’t available for the Nook (Barnes and Noble’s e-reader), even though all my other books were. But when I tried to email this very alert reader back, the return email bounced.

So for the benefit of all and sundry, I will post the reply here. I’ve emailed my publisher, and they are on the case…hopefully GotH for Nook will be available soon! Thank you for your patience.

Speaking of patience, the last few weeks have been Mr. Dare Appreciation Month in this house. Of course, Mr. Dare is always appreciated. But lately the darelings and I are discovering new levels of appreciation for him, because he is not here. He is far, far away, visiting old friends and relatives, and I am happy for him, but I miss him like PB misses J. I am also developing a profound sense of wonder and awe for all single parents, spouses of deployed soldiers, and others caring for children on their own. I raise a glass to you. (Not that I’m doing a lot of drinking after the kids go to bed. No, not at all. 🙂 )… Read More »

Hooray, it’s release day! Twice Tempted by a Rogue, book two in the Stud Club trilogy is in stores today. Sooo exciting! You can read the first chapter and find buy links here. You can enter to win an autographed copy here.

This book was a challenge for me in many ways. Rhys is by far my most tortured hero yet, and Meredith needed to be a strong, resourceful heroine to be his match. But the joy of writing the book was in developing these two strong individuals and letting them reveal their vulnerabilities to each other. Rhys has spent most of his life destroying things, including himself; but now he wants something he’d never dreamed could be his – a real future. Hardworking Meredith cares for her father, an inn, and pretty much a whole village, but she secretly years to be nurtured and protected for a change. They are two characters I loved spending time with, and it made me ridiculously delighted to give them a happy ending together. So I hope readers enjoy reading their story as much as I enjoyed writing it!

In other news, the discussion of One Dance for a Duke for Sarah’s Sizzling Summer Bookclub will be tomorrow night, 10 PM Eastern time. I’ll be joining the end of the discussion to answer any questions. Check out the details here. Hope you can make it!… Read More »

Book Two in the Stud Club trilogy, Twice Tempted by a Rogue, is in stores today! RT Book Reviews has deemed it “a great book that deserves a place on your keeper shelf.” Read an excerpt and find order links here. … Read More »

It’s been a busy few days since I blogged last. Friday evening and Saturday were full of RWA chapter events with the fabulous Sue Grimshaw of Borders. Sunday, the Dare family trekked on down to the San Diego Wild Animal Park to enjoy the beautiful weather and catch glimpses of rhinos, giraffes, lions, and more. Then on Monday, my eldest dareling…*sniff*…graduated from kindergarten. I can’t believe it.

Tomorrow – eek, we all go to the dentist!

But I wanted to come check in and say hello. I can’t believe it’s almost Release Day again. Twice Tempted by a Rogue comes out in less than a week!… Read More »

It’s less than a week now until book two of the Stud Club trilogy, Twice Tempted by a Rogue, hits bookstores! You can read the full chapter one here. In other fun news, rights were recently licensed for Indonesian editions of Goddess of the Hunt, Surrender of a Siren, and A Lady of Persuasion!… Read More »

First, announcements! I’m a guest today at The Romance Dish, where I’m blogging about the importance of books and reading, in life and romance. Please come share your thoughts. My post includes an exclusive excerpt from One Dance with a Duke!

Also, tomorrow I’ll be attending my local RWA chapter meeting, and if you’re anywhere in the area, I’d invite you to come too! Our all-day guest will be Sue Grimshaw of Borders Group, Inc., who buys all the Romance books for Borders stores. And I will be one of the Ask-an-Author participants and signing books over the lunch break. More information here.

Moving right along…
The title of my post refers to my new favorite TV show, as of last night. If you follow this blog, or my Facebook or Twitter feeds, you’ve probably gathered that I’m a fan of reality competition shows like Top Chef and Project Runway. Sure, I love them for all the typical reality TV reasons: big personalities, big drama, only one can win, etc. But I love these particular shows because I’m fascinated by the creative process. Whether they’re designing a dress or creating an entree, the participants are artists in their chosen media (fabric, food).

So imagine my delight that Bravo has a new show featuring…artists! It’s called Work of Art, and it’s a PR/TC-style show for visual artists. Here’s the promo (embedded from Bravo’s site, so apologies if there’s a commercial on the reel).

… Read More »