Once upon a time, in a Cambridge far, far away, there was a cranky grad student.  I realize that this isn’t necessarily a defining characteristic.  Many grad students are cranky.  Especially those who have lived through a Cambridge winter, where the ice lies slick on the cobbles, just lying in wait for the unwary academic trudging out of Widener Library with a large pile of books.  Large piles of books make loud splatting noises when they fall into puddles.  So, for that matter, do grad students. But I digress.  This cranky grad student was in pursuit of a PhD in English history, but she kept stubbing her toes on footnotes along the way.  She—okay, okay, I—decided to do something to remind myself of why I loved history.  What better way to do so than to write a historical romance novel? It would be, as the historian and historical novelist George MacDonald Fraser put it, not history as it was, but history as it should have been.  History with all the good bits.  History as we like to imagine it.  History full of swashbuckling and knee breeches and men in black masks who raise their quizzing glasses just so and drawl…

May 2010 On Sale: May 11, 2010 Featuring: Simon Ziele 400 pages ISBN: 0312628129 EAN: 9780312628123 Hardcover $14.99 Add to Wish List Mystery Historical Buy at Amazon.com A 2010 Anthony Nominee for Best First Novel In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff Stefanie Pintoff’s acclaimed and award-winning debut is the taut historical tale of Detective Simon Ziele, a man who lost his fiancée in the 1904 General Slocum ferry disaster and thereafter flees New York City for Dobson, New York, to escape the memories of her death. But months into his tenure, he catches the worst homicide of his career: a young woman brutally murdered in her own bedroom in the middle of the afternoon. His investigation quickly takes him to Columbia University criminologist Alistair Sinclair and one of his patients. But what could lead this Michael Fromley, with his history of violent behavior, to target such a proper young lady? Is Michael really behind the murder or is someone mimicking him? Ziele must discover the truth in this story of a haunted man on the trail of a killer while on the run from his own demons. Excerpt Chapter One The scream that pierced the dull yellow November…

Will women’s fiction readers embrace a novel told from the male point of view? Can a woman even write in a man’s point of view effectively? The answer to both questions—absolutely! Two prominent examples from the recent past provide evidence. Sara Gruen’s bestseller Water for Elephants was written in the first person, male point of view, the story told from the perspective of a young man. It attracted scores of readers, many of them women. And Marilynne Robinson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Gilead was written in first person from an elderly man’s perspective as he looked back on his life. Both books, to put it mildly, did very well, proving that a good story well told is the most important criteria for publishing success. Obviously, I’d be thrilled if my book, Sloane Hall, did even a fraction as well as those two successes. Sloane Hall might be inspired by Jane Eyre, but it’s told from the male protagonist’s point of view in the first person. The voice the reader hears throughout the book is that of John Doyle, a young Texas reform school “graduate” who finds work as a chauffeur for a Hollywood starlet about to make her first talking picture in…

Three Pines #5 October 2009 On Sale: October 13, 2009 384 pages ISBN: 0312377037 EAN: 9780312377038 Hardcover $24.99 Add to Wish List Fiction Buy at Amazon.com A 2010 Anthony Nominee for Best Novel The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny Chaos is coming, old son. With those words the peace of Three Pines is shattered. As families prepare to head back to the city and children say goodbye to summer, a stranger is found murdered in the village bistro and antiques store. Once again, Chief Inspector Gamache and his team are called in to strip back layers of lies, exposing both treasures and rancid secrets buried in the wilderness. No one admits to knowing the murdered man, but as secrets are revealed, chaos begins to close in on the beloved bistro owner, Olivier. How did he make such a spectacular success of his business? What past did he leave behind and why has he buried himself in this tiny village? And why does every lead in the investigation find its way back to him? As Olivier grows more frantic, a trail of clues and treasures— from first editions of Charlotte’s Web and Jane Eyre to a spider web with the word…

There are times when I feel like I could never be lonely. There are too many people running around in my head. I often thought they were compensation for being shy. I might not have always had the courage to jump in a conversation with a bunch of people I didn’t know, but I could sit back and create very exciting scenarios in my head. Many times I’d be walking down the street or sitting in a restaurant and I’d see a man or a woman that would instantly become a new character. Sometimes a single expression would be the start of a great adventure even if it never made it to the page. With my new release, SAZERAC SEDUCTION from eRedsage.com, the character seduced me with the sound of his voice. I heard him. The deep rich Cajun dialect whispered directly into my head causing me to shiver. I shut my eyes and let him in, let the sound envelope me like a blanket on a cold winter day. How could I not write his story? And of course with a sexy voice like that I had to give him a face and body to match. Remy is sex…

September 2010 On Sale: September 20, 2010 Featuring: Ben Eckhart; Kari Kirkland ISBN: 9781607378 EAN: 9789781607370 e-Book $4.99 Add to Wish List Romance Erotica Sensual Buy at Amazon.com Adrift by Amber Skyze Ben Eckhart has been the object of Kari Kirkland’s lust for almost three years. Yet he’s never spoken a word to her and why would he? She’s a plus-sized woman with scars that haunt her every day. And although Kari longs for happily ever after, she’s pretty much given up on love. When their boss declares he’s having a mandatory picnic, Ben not only talks to Kari, he wants to know if she’s going and if she’ll be alone. Kari is, if only to fantasize about Ben in his swim shorts. But Ben has other ideas in mind for Kari. He’s bringing along his best friend and lover Adam – to help him seduce Kari into believing there’s great sex and true love in her future. Unexpectedly trapped on a deserted island, Kari witnesses the men having sex then lets herself get talked into sex on the beach and a whole lot more. But when they’re rescued, will Kari accept their proposition or cast their new found love…

Sensory Ops #2 May 2010 On Sale: May 4, 2010 ISBN: 1605049948 EAN: 9781605049946 e-Book $4.50 Add to Wish List Romance Suspense, Romance Erotica Sensual Buy at Amazon.com Scent of Persuasion by Nikki Duncan Actress Kami Evans is tackling the biggest role of her life— as an escort. There’s definitely something going on in Madame V’s mansion, but Kami has to prove herself trustworthy before she can dig deeper and prove her stepbrother didn’t commit suicide. Her first assignment: seduce a CEO and, oddly, steal his hair brush. He’s everything she avoids in a man: suave, sexy, suited. She plays her role all the way to the bedroom… and finds it stunningly difficult to walk away. Breck Lawson’s undercover assignment, posing as a replacement CEO, is yielding zero clues as to why his friend tried to kill himself—until Kami comes on the scene. She’s everything he likes in a woman: safe, sexy, temporary. She also arouses him just by walking into a room, a sure sign it’s time to push her away. Then he connects the dots she unwittingly shares, and realizes their investigations are linked by delicate strands of DNA. Keeping her near isn’t wise, but he has to…

Life has a way of teaching me lessons. I’m thankful for that. I love to learn. I remember sitting in a religious gathering once where someone was talking about life after death. The speaker described paradise. In detail. Minutes and minutes of minute detail. Clearly he was intending to create an image of a place so fantastic, so magnificent, that anyone sitting in his audience would do whatever it took to be able to spend eternity in such a place. I sat there feeling more and more trapped. Because while I pictured myself in this magnificent place, floating, or whatever, in paradise, encased in love, living in a world without pain, I saw a major flaw. If I had all knowledge and understood all secrets as the man promised, I was going to be bored stiff! What was I going to do all day in paradise if I couldn’t keep learning? I crave learning more than I crave food. So, yes, I’m thankful for life’s lessons. I’m thankful I seem to be served them in abundance. It just takes me a little longer sometimes to feel the gratitude – and sometimes to get the message. I’m on a three month…

October 2010 On Sale: October 4, 2010 ISBN: 1595787119 EAN: 9781595787118 e-Book (reprint) $3.99 Add to Wish List Romance Paranormal, Romance Erotica Sensual Buy at Amazon.com This one is a good one to get you in the mood for Halloween!! The Straw Man by Bonnie Dee A lonely woman imagines the perfect man and accidentally conjures him into being on All Hallows Eve. For a single night she has the lover of her dreams, but a night isn’t nearly enough. Can she find a way to turn her fantasy man back to flesh and blood? Excerpt “Happy Halloween! Beware of bats tonight, children. They might scoop you up and carry you away.” Marie cackled like a crone and squinted her eyes frighteningly as she grinned at the Weiderman twins. She wiggled her toes in her tight shoes, glancing down at the black leather points that clamped them into unnatural positions. Her feet were killing her and her long, black witch’s dress was broiling hot on this sunny afternoon. “Thank Granny Goodwitch for the pumpkins, kids.” Don Weiderman nudged his awestruck six-year-olds. Kevin’s mouth snapped shut and he ducked behind his dad, while his braver sister, Lydia, dutifully whispered, “Thank you,…

October 2010 On Sale: October 1, 2010 Featuring: Cynthia LeBlanc; Remy Allemande ISBN: 1603105379 EAN: 9781603105378 e-Book $5.50 Add to Wish List Romance Erotica Sensual Buy at Amazon.com Sazerac Seduction by Eden Elgabri Remy Allemande has one task – keep Cynthia LeBlanc from snooping around Crawdaddy’s and keep her the hell out of the courthouse. One look at the luscious opposing counsel makes him decide to acheive that task by seducing her. The best way to do that is to get her liquored up on New Orleans favorite, Sazerac. Cynthia Leblanc is not who she seems to be and has a secret of her own. But how far will she be willing to go to keep it? Will this straight-laced attorney pose as a prostitute to gain the knowledge she needs? Will Remy seduce her? And what will happen when the two finally have their day in court? Excerpt Remy Allemande stood by the side of his pirogue and tried to look busy. He’d been sweating his balls off for the past hour waiting for his prey to show. Bingo. The hot little wheat blonde ambled down the dock now. In a dress. She’d been sweating too and the light…