It’s Contest Time

Steve’s Story released today, and to celebrate I am holding a contest!

You can win one of two $5 gift vouchers from Books On Board.

Winning is sooo easy.
Just email at:
jess@jessdee.com
And tell me the names of the three main characters who make up the “Circle of Friends” Series.

I’ll pick the two winners randomly and announce them on Friday.

Good luck!

Jess

Steve’s Story: Now Available

OMG. I cannot believe the day has finally arrived. Feels like I’ve waited forever for this book to release.

So, today, April 28th, I am happy to say:

Steve’s Story, Book 2 in the Circle of Friends Series, is now officially available at Samhain Publishing and MBaM.

Yes, I have to show you the cover again. How can I resist this opportunity?

Circle of Friends: Steve’s Story – The Blurb

When love is threatened by truth, every moment counts…

Steve Sommers is having a gut-wrenching week.  His fiancée has left him, the woman who broke his heart is back in town—and they’re all gathered at the bedside of his best friend, who’s in a coma. The emotional ties between them are strained to the breaking point.  Like it or not, it’s up to Steve to find the strength and compassion to support the four of them through the toughest ordeal of their lives.

In the midst of the turmoil and trauma, passion unexpectedly flares anew between Steve and the woman he loves. Suddenly the future he’d believed lost lies within his reach. But she still carries the secret that once tore them apart, and determined to protect Steve from the truth, she fights their rekindled relationship every step of the way.

Now the fragile bond they’ve developed hangs in the balance, threatened by a reality that love may not be strong enough to overcome…

Warning: This book might just make you cry, but it’ll make you smile as well. The story will probably get you all hot and bothered too. It contains naughty activities in the car, sex on the kitchen counter (and up against the wall), a quickie in the garden—oh, and some hot loving in the bedroom.

Ready for an excerpt?

Well, okay then. But don’t read this if you’re under 18!

Steve’s Story – Excerpt

He leaned back against the door and crossed one foot in front of the other. Then he hitched his thumbs through his belt loops too. “What don’t I understand?”
The movement drew her gaze downwards, and this time it wasn’t so easy tearing it away. She stared at his groin, forgetting what she wanted to say. A low-grade ache started up between her legs. A tingling sensation she couldn’t ignore. She bit her lip.
“Penelope?”
Lift your eyes, woman. Look into his face.
God knew she wanted to, like she wanted to tell him why he’d got it all wrong, but for the life of her she couldn’t move. She couldn’t put two words together. All she could do was stare at his cock as memories of that other life suffused her. Memories of how she’d loved him—and how he’d loved her.
“Fuck, Penelope,” he rasped. “What are you doing?”
He didn’t move, but beneath her gaze the soft denim of his jeans shifted and pulled tight across his groin. She didn’t suppress her groan this time. It had nothing to do with the pain she caused him and everything to do with his growing erection.
“You’re killing me, lady.” It was the timbre of his voice that finally broke the spell, the deep longing in his words that propelled her into motion.
“You don’t understand, Steve,” she said one more time, before she launched herself into his arms and clamped her mouth to his.
She was only human. One human, fallible woman, and he was her drug. Her addiction. Fuck, she shouldn’t be doing this. She should be walking the hell away, or better yet, slamming the door behind him, confirming his beliefs. But damn it, she couldn’t. Not again.
Steve absorbed her weight without flinching. If anything, he froze, holding his body hard and tense—like an elastic band pulled taut. He didn’t respond to the urgency of her kiss. His lips, usually soft and warm and welcoming, were clenched together in two thin lines, and his shoulders, usually curved protectively around her form, were stiff and unyielding.
Ah, but his cock. His jean-framed cock. It spoke volumes. Full and erect, it did not hide what the rest of his body strove so hard to cover. His desire. The ache in her groin deepened, and she ground her hips into his, rubbing her clit against his erection. She dragged her right hand up the solid muscle of his thigh while she buried her left one in his blond hair—his thick, silky, blond hair. And then she opened her mouth and touched her tongue to his lips.
Steve gave an agonized cry and closed his arms around her, pressing her closer. His lips moved softly, sensuously against hers, drawing her teasing tongue into his mouth. The muscles in his leg tightened beneath her fingers as her hand trailed from the outer seam of his jeans around to his inner thigh. She felt the restrained power in the flex of his movement.
He pressed her even closer, so close it was hard to breathe, and intensified the kiss. Breathless, she couldn’t wait to run her hands over his erection. Revel in the knowledge that she’d been the one to put it there.

Interested?

You can buy the book here!

Happy reading,

Jess

A quick update

Yep, I’ve been slack. Haven’t posted in a while. But I have a valid excuse, I swear.

I went away. On an overseas trip, all by my lonesome. Left DH and the kids at home and headed off to Canada and the States to visit friends and family. It was a brilliant, relaxing trip.

I read, read and read some more. Finished Breaking Dawn, and now I’m devastated because I’m done with the Twilight series and I already miss Edward and Jacob. Also read The Host, and now I wish I was Stephenie Meyer because the woman is a genius. Started Karen Marie Moning’s Fever series. Read Dark Fever, I’m in the middle of Blood Fever, and can’t wait to read Fae Fever. (Hmm, have I mentioned before that KMM is one of my all time fave authors?) Read a few of my other favourite romance authors; Linda Howard, Karen Robards, Susan Elizabeth Philips – and I have a Jenny Crusie waiting for me on my Han Lin.

Oh, and did I mention my big news…?

Steve’s Story releases at Samhain on the 28th of Aril. That’s Tuesday. Just four days away. OMG, I am so excited, and so nervous. I adore Steve, and simply had to write his story. I hope you adore him just as much:

You can find out more about the book here:

http://samhainpublishing.com/coming/circle-of-friends-steve-s-story

Jess

I’m blogging over at Novel Thoughts

I’m blogging over at Novel Thoughts.

If you’d like to find out a bit more about Steve’s Story and Only Tyler, or if you’d like a chance to win one of my back list, hop on over:

http://novelthoughts.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/circle-of-friends-steves-story-by-jess-dee/

Jess

Spotlight on: Jordana Ryan

You might know that in Feb I went to the Australian Romance Readers Conference, and met a wonderful assortment of people, readers and writers alike. Among those wonderful people was American romance writer Jordana Ryan. In fact, I was lucky enough to participate in a panel discussion with Jordana. Now the thing about this talented author, is that she is not quite so innocent as she seems. Jordana has a rather wicked side to her, a side I got to witness first hand as she reduced a man to a stuttering mess, simply by asking a few well worded questions about erotic romance and sex. Lexxie Couper and I are still laughing at the man’s priceless expressions.

Now here is your chance to meet Jordana, and find out for yourselves just how lovely she really is.

Jess

Hi everyone, I’m Jordana Ryan, author of No Matter What, The Wrong Woman and Summer Fling and Color Blind Available in the Amira Press Meant To Be Anthology, available at http://www.amirapress.com. Also available is Sweet Dreams and Perfect Game from http://www.bookstrand.com. At http://www.mysticmoonpress.com you can get my short A Gentleman’s Dare. Thank you Jess for having me on your blog today, it’s such an honor.

One of the questions I get asked most frequently is what inspired you to become a writer? After just over ten years working with the mentally ill and adult and juvenile criminals, writing was quite a change of profession for me. I was used to working in a tense, sometimes violent environment where nothing stayed the same and every day there was something new. People wonder why when I was used to such a high stress, active profession, I would want to work in the very solitary, very different world of writing.

The answer is very simple. My doctor told me I had to take six months off to recover from surgery, and I, being who I am, refused to spend that time being unproductive. I had always wanted to write a book so I decided that in that six months, that is just what I would do.

I began a novel called Loving Dakota and I joined some critique groups and off I went. Quickly I learned a lot about what it takes to be a writer. My first lesson was in head hopping. Loving Dakota was a very special project, however my point of view was all over the place and I had too many characters with point of view, so I ended up scrapping the project (someday I’ll go back to it) and beginning something new.

No Matter What was born on a beach in Daytona. The first three chapters, handwritten in my notebook as we drove from Florida to Missouri. I didn’t know if I had something until I started typing it up and sharing it with other aspiring writers. I can honestly say if it weren’t for the select few who read No Matter What as I wrote it, start to finish, and encouraged me along the way, begged me for more, and told me how good I really was, that I might not be here. I never realized how daunting writing your first book can be.

I edited and re-edited the book so many times, and finally, it was ready to be submitted. I did receive a few rejections (which I believe every writer has gone through) but I kept pushing on, finally finding a home for the story at Amira Press. Excitement was overwhelming me as I prepared to become published. But, even then I had no idea of the journey I would be embarking on.

Since then I have written a lot, made a lot of friends in the business, and learned the ropes so to speak. And I’m confident in my ability to write a book and get it published. Most often people will now ask me about where I get my inspiration and my writing process. Inspiration isn’t hard to come by. I draw on my own experiences. I consider myself lucky to have worked in a field for ten years that gave me a wealth of worldly knowledge from which to draw from.

I do a lot of research on various different subjects, not only because I feel that I should learn something new every day, but because I never know what is going to inspire me to a new story. I also work with a lot of authors as an editor, and I have had people that know my work and the kind of stories I write that will give me ideas and say “you should write that”. Those recommendations are stored away in a notebook and waiting for my attention.

How do I write? I’m definitely not a plotter. I like to let my characters dictate my stories. I firmly believe that the characters will tell me where to go as opposed to me telling them what to do. One of the best experiences I had writing was in the writing of Sweet Dreams. This is a romantic suspense that was fun to write. I knew I had a bad guy, but I didn’t know who it was until I wrote one line in the book, and I thought, AHA!!! That’s who it is. It was that moment that excited me and propelled me toward the ending. Interestingly enough I have tried to be a plotter. Those are always the novels that I will begin, and abandon. I just can’t seem to follow an outline.

What makes writing special to me is that in each piece there is a bit of myself. It’s quite a legacy to leave, when you can leave in black and white bits and pieces of yourself for whomever wants to read them. I thoroughly enjoy the writing community. Authors, editors, publishers, we are all a wonderful group of supportive people after the same goal. I have made many friends along the way. People that help me, and people that I help. Essentially that is what I did as a counselor, so what I do really isn’t all that different from my former profession.

I’ve gotten a lot of great experiences out of this. Just recently I went to Australia for the Australian Romance Readers Convention. What a trip!! If it weren’t for my change in profession, I never would have had that experience and met the people I did. I’m looking forward to more experiences like Australia, and a long career of providing high quality stories to my readers.

I love to hear from my readers, and there are many way you contact me:

Email: enchantedpixie@charter.net

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/jordana_ryan

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Pixiedustgirl

My Website: http://jordanaryan.tripod.com

Thanks for taking some time with me today, and don’t forget to visit my website. You can enter my contest to win a $50 gift card to Borders, learn more about me, and read some excerpts of my books.

Thanks again, Jess for having me today!!

Now in print: Photo Opportunity

Yes, the big day has arrived. Photo Opportunity is now available in print, and I am over the moon.

You can get your copy of Photo Opportunity at:

1) My Bookstore and More

2) Amazon

3) Powell’s Books

4) Books A Million

Or you can order it from your favorite online bookstore.

I’m including an excerpt from Photo Op in this post. It’s the opening scene of the book. Enjoy:)

(Oh, and please – do not read it if you are under 18!)

Photo Opportunity

Can friends become lovers…Can lovers remain friends?

Daniel Tanner was a man who knew what he wanted, and what he wanted most lay naked on his bed, quivering in the aftermath of her second orgasm. The first two he gave freely. The third she would have to work for.
Her taste lingered in his mouth, a mixture of cream, honey and sex. He resisted the urge to lean down and taste her again. Instead his gaze swept over her body, taking in the swollen breasts, their dusky pink nipples puckered into tight beads. Her chest rose and fell in unison with her long, hard puffs, and her toned, shapely thighs were spread in invitation. The damp cleft between her legs glistened and Daniel thought he might well have a heart attack if he didn’t fuck her soon.
He ran a finger over her engorged clit and her hips bucked.
“Daniel…” Her softly voiced gasp was music to his ears.
Her gaze locked with his as he brought his finger to his mouth and licked. Green eyes turned hazy with desire and she moaned out loud.
He raked his fingers lightly over her breasts.
“Daniel, please…” She pushed her chest up, begging for more. He watched as she twisted on the sheets. Color tinged her cheeks and her hair spilled over the pillow in a tangled cloud.
She never looked sexier. Emotion washed through him, so powerful he shook. He fantasized about this moment forever and could hardly believe it was finally happening.
“Yeah, babe?” He knew what she wanted, but still waited for her to beg.
“Oh…” Frustration flashed across her face, and he couldn’t repress his slow, satisfied smile. She was in no state to talk, not after what he’d just done to her. He’d give her another minute. Watching her writhe like that was almost as arousing as watching her come.
“Please,” she said again and moaned.
“What do you want?” he whispered.
“You.”
“Show me.”
She whimpered and twisted again. With a strangled cry, she brought her hands up and cupped her breasts. Her fingers worked desperately at the taut peaks, pinching and kneading until she moaned aloud.
Blood shot to Daniel’s cock. A muffled groan caught in his throat and he rasped, “How does that feel?”
“So…good.” Her mouth opened the tiniest bit and the tip of her tongue touched her lower lip.
His heart heaved and his body went into overdrive. “Hey, sweetheart…” He drew his finger through her slick folds. She looked at him with pupils so dilated the emerald irises were barely visible. “You want more?”
She gave a vague nod.
“Want my finger?” He dipped it inside, and she jerked against his hand.
She shook her head.
“How about if I kiss you again?” He leaned down and licked her, replacing his finger with his tongue.
She shivered.
“No…” Her voice drifted from a million miles away. They both knew what she needed.
“So what is it you want?” He licked her again…and then again because quite frankly, she tasted too good to stop.
“You,” she moaned. “I want you.”

Jess