Alison Kent's Blah Blog

NEVER LET ME GO

Annie Parks came to Hawaii to settle a score, not spend time handcuffed to a sexy stranger’s bed-even if said stranger saved her from drowning after she was pitched overboard by some goons. Looking at six feet of hard, Hawaiian muscle and gorgeous cool that’s making forgotten parts of her say, “Aloha!,” Annie needs to stay focused. But a side dish of Kane Travers is awfully tempting.

Kauai Police Chief Kane Travers is not a vacation kind of guy. So it figures that when Internal Affairs suspended him, he’d end up rescuing a sarcastic, dishonest, extremely hot redhead who is clearly hiding something. Kane’s got half a mind to give Miss Whoever She Is something she’ll never forget, even if his cop senses tell him she needs his protection. But how can he get her to tell him anything when his mouth won’t stop covering hers?

HelenKay Dimon’s award winning Kensington Brava release, YOUR MOUTH DRIVES ME CRAZY, is now out in mass market paperback, and she’s given me two copies to give to my readers. Contest begins now, and runs through Monday, March 2, 2008, 8:00 p.m. CST. I’ll throw in a copy of A LONG, HARD RIDE for both winners, too.

All you have to do to be eligible to win is tell me something about your mouth.

Yep. That’s it!

I’m at MANY places today. First, I’m at GenReality talking about the economy, train wrecks, and acts of God. Next, I’m at Access Romance All A-Blog talking about how vacations are for more than fun, complete with pictures! Finally, as an admin type person at the Access Romance Readers Gab, I’ve put up a super duper giveaway post for today – five titles up for grabs plus a bonus for all the winners!

When Casey came by after work yesterday to pick up Sam, he showed me this picture taken last month when the two of them along with #2’s boyfriend and a couple of guys from Casey’s job went to the big monster truck show. Boys and their trucks!

It’s been a couple of days over two weeks since I sent in my manuscript for ONE GOOD MAN and since then I’ve done a whole lot of nothing. Doing nothing is seriously great, but I figure working as much as I have over the years – at the day job that lasted 18 years, at being a single parent of teens for many years, at writing a whole lotta words through the years – that I deserve to do a whole lot of nothing for awhile. And I have been doing things. Some cleaning of the deeper sort than just dishes and laundry and vacuuming because I now have a live-in maid who does that. She even lines up things in the refrigerator and food pantry and laundry room because, well, that’s what she does. Our dog and her cat are even getting along, as in, the dog has managed to lick the cat’s tail without getting swatted, though they do pass in the hallway like lifelong enemies, glaring.

I’ve also been writing on a new project, about 3500 words so far, and it’s really nice to write on my own schedule, stopping when I need to let the next scene percolate instead of pressing on. I honestly think this is how the best writing – my best writing anyway – gets done. I’m not stressed to produce, my muse has time to tell me in great detail what I’m supposed to do instead of relying on the rapid fire give and take method we’ve worked out over the years. I think my muse is as tired as I am, and we’re enjoying working at a slower pace, pulling together so many story elements that are going to make such a fun whole.

Today I’m on Sam duty. Taylor had gallbladder surgery on Tuesday at noon, was home early Tuesday evening. She’s doing well, but isn’t quite up to chasing a 22 month old, and his babysitter keeps him only four days a week. Usually, Casey is home on Friday, but he’s making up the Tuesday he took off, so Sam and I are playing boxes and tummy rubs and measuring cups with PBS playing in the background. He perked up for Elmo and Clifford. He also discovered our aquarium today. It’s been in the same spot since he was born, but this morning he was walking by and stopped, and I turned on the light and he sat and watched the goldfish swim as if in a movie theater. Earlier, he sat in my lap for tummy rubs, then found his blanket and laid down and said, “Nap.” That lasted about two seconds, but the tummy rubs made him sleepy. As they do me when the husband does the same. ;)

The husband took Snickers out to the oil lease yesterday and introduced her to the horses and emus. She ran the property for hours, swam in the ponds (where there are SNAKES), tried to be a cowdog and round up one of the horses who was on the wrong property. According to #1 daughter who now has Snickers and Jazzy (the cat) both in her bed at night, the dog came home smelling like a zoo. Now she smells like sweet berry cat shampoo. Yes, #1 even cleans her cat. (Pausing now to play peekaboo . . . and do more tummy rubs.) Snickers decided she could get used to country life!

Anyhow, that’s what’s been going on here. Some lazy days of doing no more than what needs to be done and living in a new story world, while having a clean house with no effort on my part at all. What have the rest of you been up to? Oh, I should mention that A LONG, HARD RIDE should be showing up on store shelves in another week, but there might be a problem finding it due to the issues going on with Anderson News who stocks a lot of grocery stores, drug stores, and Wal-Mart in some part of the country. The February books are on the shelves now, so keep an eye out and let me know if you find the March books where you live!

Laurie at Laurie’s Laudanum is giving away 2 copies of A LONG, HARD RIDE, and says:

I truly think this may be the best Blaze I’ve read to date.

Doesn’t get much better, eh? ;) Thanks, Laurie!

An author friend and eHarlequin hosty is in need of some help. Her story is here.

At GenReality, I’m talking about giving manuscripts time to breathe.

more animals

I hope to get back to blogging next week, but I’ve been in recovery mode from the last book, from #1 daughter’s move, and from having trouble with a bridge my dentist cemented in a week ago. Plus, I’ve had to catch up on all the stuff I let go while writing. The best part, though, is that I’ve been working on a new book idea, something totally different from anything I’ve ever done, and that’s all I’m gonna say about that. For now. It’s coming together on so many levels that I’m just thrilled, and can’t wait to get further into it and wrap it around me and live in it for a few months.

I’m at GenReality talking about publishing and American Idol.

more animals

Or in my case, I’m still WRITING the same book I was writing last year! I’m on my final read through of ONE GOOD MAN, and will be shipping it off to my editor later today. Then I will be mailing all the things I have stacked up that need to go out to everyone from here and from my author copy giveaway on Twitter! To keep you until I get back, here’s a short snippet from Jamie Danby and Kell Harding’s story. Enjoy!

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