K.C. Burn – Erotic Romance Author

Starting on June 20th, every weekday, all week, Carina is offering a spectacular title for free download. And when they say free, they mean ACTUALLY free. Not “sorta free”, or “free with a $50 purchase” free, but actually, totally, no strings attached FREE! So, get thee to Carina press to download a free book every day! Here are the books being offered, and the links and promo codes for your free download:

Monday’s FREE BOOK is:
The Debutante’s Dilemma by Elyse Mady
Just type in the promo code DEBUTANTEFREE at checkout
http://ebooks.carinapress.com/ContentDetails.htm?ID=50C0978A-DAC7-44E7-B627-C26A520471C0

Tuesday’s FREE BOOK is:
Demon’s Fall by Karalynn Lee
Just type in the promo code DEMONFREE at checkout
http://ebooks.carinapress.com/ContentDetails.htm?ID=1E5A3A07-9BC7-4449-9B8F-377C21E2F664

Wednesday’s FREE BOOK is:
The Twisted Tale of Stormy Gale by Christine Bell
Just type in the promo code TWISTEDFREE at checkout
http://ebooks.carinapress.com/ContentDetails.htm?ID=D79D7CD6-1BAA-4D2E-AE65-FF0E42F79BE7

Thursday’s FREE BOOK is:
Blue Galaxy by Diane Dooley
Just type in the promo code GALAXYFREE at checkout
http://ebooks.carinapress.com/ContentDetails.htm?ID=827CC21D-6F33-437A-977B-B0F291B70367

Friday’s FREE BOOK is:
Friendly Fire by Megan Hart
Just type in the promo code FRIENDLYFREE at checkout
http://ebooks.carinapress.com/ContentDetails.htm?ID=E1466469-DB0C-404F-A0AA-3491BB9E9B14

I spent a lot of time angst-ing about a particular WIP late last year – I wrote it out of order, I had issues with the penis references, and the title gave me fits. Well, I just got the contract from Loose Id! YAY! And so far, we’re keeping the title I wanted it to have: Trompe L’Oeil. I know, I know, it’s French, but trompe l’oeil is an artistic term for trick of the eye and it features heavily in the story.

I have no info on release date or anything, but here’s a super-short blurb… which also may change, who knows? I really love this story, despite all the hair pulling

After spurning the advances of his sponsor, Maxwell, a Depression-era artist, is cursed to live for eternity as a life-sized nude painting, never to know the joys of love. But when Tyler, a lonely history professor, acquires the painting decades later, can his fascination with the painting’s subject cause them both to fall in love and break the spell?

I’m guest blogging today about secrets, betrayal and ‘writing what you know’ at Katie’s blog to help her celebrate her newest release, Dangerous Secrets from Carina Press.  So please stop by!  And she’s got some great authors coming up, as well as some giveaways and a grand prize at the end of the month, so don’t miss it.

I know, it was supposed to be the 15th… got my wires crossed & it’s today!

Copyright © 2011 by Harlequin Enterprises Limited Cover Art used by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises Limited ® and ™ are trademarks owned by Harlequin Enterprises Limited or its affiliated companies, used under licence.

I finally have cover art for my upcoming sci-fi release from Carina Press, Spice ‘n’ Solace. So pretty! I’ve had such great covers, I can hardly believe it.

Anyway, here’s my blurb (again).    Release date is scheduled for March 2011.

The Galactic Alliance’s most important negotiator, Jathan One-Moon, is responsible for ensuring the yearly negotiations with the Ankylos are successful.  If he fails and the Ankylos go to war, the human race will likely be exterminated.  As if that wasn’t enough, he’s under pressure to marry and produce an heir.  When he mistakes the brothel owner, Kazha Deinos, for his escort prior to the negotiations, the resulting evening makes Jathan realize his life is missing a man who can be a true partner to him.

Kaz never met his most important client, and Jathan’s misconception allows Kaz the freedom to give in to desires he’s never let himself indulge in before.  But Kaz has a business to run, one that a rival is trying to steal, which will force him to reveal his true identity to Jay.  There’s also the little issue of Jathan’s impending marriage.  Kaz is not interested in being a boy on the side of Jay’s marriage, no matter how much he’s come to care for Jathan.  Will Jathan and Kaz find a way to be together, or will losing the man Jathan’s grown to love be yet another price he must pay for saving the human race?

Whew. Super short post today. I’m still catching up from edits (my ‘cursed’ story and my upcoming release for Carina press) and preparing for vacation.  However I’ll be participating in a huge M/M Chat at Literary Nymphs on Thanksgiving Weekend with an enormous number of fabulous and talented m/m authors, so please stop by!  The festivities begin 9 am (eastern) on November 26 and extend through November 28 on the Literary Nymphs yahoo chat group.

I’m hoping to relax a bit over the next couple of weeks and get started on a new project, which was supposed to have been the first time I did NaNoWriMo.  Ah well, there’s always next year to try!  This story should be less vexing and go more smoothly than the ‘cursed’ one — seriously, never again am I using that word in a working title for a story!  But it is done & submitted, so we’ll see how it goes.   Of course, I submitted it with a completely unworkable title.  If it gets accepted and they don’t make me change the title, I will probably fall over and die from the shock.

And on that happy note, hope to see you at the Literary Nymphs chat!

This Saturday, November 6, if you’re in central Florida, stop by Altamonte Mall for Romancing the Holidays! From 2-5 pm there will be over 20 romance authors on hand to meet readers and sign copies of their latest books in support of Central Florida’s Adult Literacy League. For more details, check out the CFRW site. And the first 100 book buyers will receive an awesome goody bag! Hope to see you there!

Also, for the month of November, Coffee Time Romance is hosting a contest for me, where I’ll be giving away MIA Case Files: Blood Relations and signed copies of MIA Case Files: Wolfsbane. Stop by and submit an entry!

YAY!  I just got my cover art for the next MIA Case Files book!  I think it’s awesome – Croco Designs did my cover art, and I couldn’t be happier.  It’s supposed to be released soon, so I’ve posted a blurb below.  No excerpts yet, but I hope to be able post one shortly.

MIA Case Files: Blood Relations – coming Fall 2010 from Loose Id

Blurb:

Agent Cooper Wallace doesn’t expect meet the love of his life while hunting an Umbrae-possessed vampire.  Nor does he expect a scorching one night stand to lead to a lasting relationship.  Meeting Frazer Nyland changes a lot of Cooper’s expectations, though.  Unfortunately, Cooper also doesn’t expect his investigation of missing men to lead him to Frazer’s home town and the discovery that the disappearances can all be connected to Frazer.

The police suspect Frazer is a serial killer.  Cooper’s agency suspects Frazer is a vicious, bloodthirsty vampire.  Cooper is determined to prove them wrong, despite an obsessive cop who’ll stop at nothing to take Frazer down.  But the clues mount up, and Cooper begins to believe Frazer might be the vampire.  The realization comes too late, because Cooper’s already done the unforgivable – he’s fallen in love with an Umbrae.

If Cooper does his job and closes the Umbrae’s portal, at best, he will destroy Frazer’s memories of their love.  At worst, Cooper’s action will kill Frazer.  Can Cooper do what’s right and save the lives of nameless, faceless innocents if the price is the death of the man he loves?

I’m blogging today at Flirty Author Bitches about my first apartment and how it served (and still serves) to provide inspiration… when it wasn’t scaring the crap out of me.  No, wait, that was still inspiring!  Anyway, please stop by.

I’ve been so busy with edits and various other obligations that I think I failed to post about my upcoming releases.  Now that contracts are all finalized & whatnot I thought I’d drop a short post about them.  The sequel to Wolfsbane, MIA Case Files: Blood Relations, is scheduled to release this fall from Loose Id.  Although Adam and Carmichael both appear, the story focuses on one of Carmichael’s colleagues at the agency.  I’ve posted a blurb on my Books page.

I also have a futuristic novella due to release in spring of 2011 from Carina Press.  It’s called Spice ‘n’ Solace, and I had a blast writing it.  Quick and dirty?  It’s a case of mistaken identity where a high profile negotiator assumes a brothel owner is his escort for the night.  Hijinks ensue.  Okay, not actual hijinks, but the phrase amuses me.  There’s a blurb for it on my Books page also.

In the past three weeks, I’ve also completed the first round of edits for both, so I’m sure you can understand why I’ve been so busy!  I’ve been pretty lucky, in that all of my books so far are keeping the titles I gave them.  Several author friends have bemoaned the necessity for changing titles.  I anticipate joining them with my next submission.  The name in my head for my current WIP is probably not viable from an editor’s perspective.  But we’ll see… that’s assuming an editor likes the story… *wink*.

How important are titles, anyway?  Do words or titles using other languages create a barrier to book purchases?  Or do they create an allure, a mystique, that entices readers?  I know I’ve bought books based on cover art, and I’ve bought books where I’ve only read the first sentence of the back cover blurb, but I don’t recall if I’ve bought/dismissed books based solely on the title. Will using non-English words in a title lead people to assume the book isn’t written in English?  I’m guessing you can see where I’m going with this.  The title I have in mind is a non-English art term.  I believe it’s a relatively well known term (I don’t care to share yet… I have weird hang-ups about titles) and I’m hoping to have some ammunition when I submit.  Alas, I know I am not the final arbiter of titles — will having to change the title change the way I perceive my book?  Probably.   I’ll keep you posted!

I’m working on a paranormal novella right now, and one of the heroes was born in the early 1900’s.  The pertinent flashbacks occur during the Great Depression, when the one guy is in his early thirties.

Anyway, I thought I try to find some slang to add some colour to the flashbacks.  Apparently I’m failing at Google 101.  I can find tons of slang related to riding the rails and the politics of the time, but my hero wasn’t riding the rails.  What I REALLY want to know… did men of that era refer to the bits & bobs & verbs associated with sex in the same delightfully coarse way I do in my writing?  I’ve been able to ferret out that gay may have been used – ambiguously & rarely – to refer to homosexual men, but I’ve found other terms that were more common.  So that’s a start, I suppose.  Over the years, I’ve managed to build up a wee lexicon of various sexually related euphemisms for several eras, such as Victorian, Regency, Edwardian, and Medieval.  But early 20^th century?  Not a clue.

So, I clambered back into some naughty books I own were written in the Victorian era.  There are references to the same terminology I use, although they’re interspersed with many other, more delicate terms (ones that may carry the stigma of purple prose today).  Maybe I’ll borrow a few of those, but if our current four letter words were good enough for the Victorians, they’ll do for my Depression era hero.  Although, as I write this post, I’m thinking I might be able to use “riding the rails” in a much naughtier way than originally intended.

Perhaps I should try to bring back priapus.  I would have thought with the advent of ED drugs and their potentially unfortunate side effects, priapus and other related terms might have become more common.  Good thing I didn’t place any bets on it!

If you were hoping for some Canadianisms, I haven’t got any.  As far as I know, Canucks call sex & the dangly bits the same things they’re called in the States.  Although my husband has occasionally written ‘junk’ as ‘junque’ for the amusement factor.  (For those of you who might not know, certain types of checks are spelled cheques back home.)

My conclusion?  The hero born in the early 1900′s will use slightly less coarse terminology.  Seems as though it will fit, even if it’s not nearly as much fun.    Whether it would have been true or not, I don’t know.  I hadn’t intended to spend that much time on research – I even set the thing in Toronto so I could reduce the amount of research I’d need to do.  Although, I’ve come across some interesting tangents, unrelated to vocabulary.  We’ll see if they make it into the novella.