Jaci Burton’s Muse

I love this day. Candy and scary movies and cute kids coming to my door dressed up in their costumes. What’s not to love about a day like that?

Tonight we’re taking spaghetti over to my mother in laws and helping her hand out candy. My granddaughter is going to be dressed as a pirate. Argh! We have lots of candy. I’ll try not to eat most of it. Heh. Then when we come home we’re watching my favorite Halloween movie — HALLOWEEN. There’s nothing scarier to me in a pure horror movie way than that movie. I don’t really like all the newer horror movies out–maybe there’s just too much blood and gore. This one is simply the best.

Of course I really like all the classic monster movies too - Dracula, The Wolf Man, Frankenstein, The Mummy. Love catching those this time of year.

What’s your favorite horror movie?

And have a safe and Happy Halloween! :sasmokin:

I’m a big fan of Harlequin Blaze books - of course I love anything hot and sexy.

And author Jill Monroe delivers on hot and sexy. So when my good pal Gena Showalter asked me to blog Jill’s new book, I said hell yeah! I highly recommend you check out this book, — I’ll be haunting my store asap to find it — read below for the contest, and go visit Gena’s blog for the parteeee! Deets and links below

Tall, Dark and Filthy Rich

by Jill Monroe

Out November 1st from Harlequin Blaze

And don’t miss the blog party at Gena Showalter’s blog where we’re celebrating the release of Wicked Deeds on a Winter’s Night by Kresley Cole and Holidays are Hell by Marjorie Liu!

I read in our local paper today that Cheerios is once again sponsoring their annual Spoonfuls of Stories program. For the 5th straight year, Cheerios is giving away 5 million free books inside specially marked boxes of Cheerios. Cheerios is also donating to First Book, and that donation is bringing a year’s worth of children’s books to 50 reading programs serving disadvantaged children across the country.

Cheerios, in conjunction with the First Book program (a fantastic program that puts books in the hands of disadvantaged children), will put one of these 5 books in boxes of Cheerios starting in November, 2007. Actually I was at my grocery store today and they’re already there! :boobie:. So I bought two boxes for my granddaughter. More boxes to be bought shortly. I’m sure Biker Dude and I will be sick to death of Cheerios (which, by the way, are a very healthy cereal and good for your heart, so we’re going to suck it up and snack on Cheerios til we can’t stand them :giggle:).

So do your heart, and a child, some good. And buy Cheerios for those you love and those you wish to help

How was everyone’s weekend?

The Boo Ha Ha parade was fun. Except for riding the bike in it. Lots of clutching and not riding (for Biker Dude, not for me. I just ride, since I’m on the back :giggle:). Parades move slow, ya know. Hundreds of kids though. Fun stuff! And they seemed to enjoy the bikers riding by. We had fun doing that. I enjoyed seeing all the kids dressed up in Halloween costumes lining the road. They were adorable. And bike riding is always fun, no matter what you’re doing. Weather was gorgeous.

70 Days of Sweat writing challenge is going well. Of course I lost 3 days last week due to galley reviews, but still managed 6000 words of good solid writing on RIDING TEMPTATION, so we’re rockin on the book now. As long as nothing else non-writing wise comes knocking at my door, I hope for some smooth sailing to the finish line. I really need some uninterrupted writing time in a major way. I hope to really crank up the word count this week.

So other than work, Halloween, and grocery shopping, I’m writing this week. Nothing but writing. What’s on your agenda?

Finally I’m only working on one project! I can’t tell you how happy this makes me. Digging into RIDING TEMPTATION without distraction has really helped me crank out the pages the past couple days. Which is a damn good thing because I have exactly 66 days left to finish this book.

Ack. I wish I hadn’t done that calcuation.

In other news, I’m trying contact lenses again. I tried them before, unsuccessfully, for about six months, before giving up and going back to glasses. I really want them to work this time because when we ride the Harley I can’t wear my glasses, hence can’t see a damn thing. Yes, I could get prescription bike goggles, but we’ll try the contacts first.

Right now my eyes itch and hurt and everything is blurry. So it’s going very well.

Maybe I’ll end up doing like Carly Phillips suggested and just get several pairs of cool glasses so I can change them according to my mood. We’ll see.

This weekend we’re going to ride in Tulsa’s Boo Ha Ha parade. We bought scary biker masks, which are actually face covers to keep our faces warm. But truly, you should see Biker Dude’s skeleton mask. I must take pics.

What’s up for your weekend?

Finished revisions for THE DEMON’S TOUCH and shipped those off to my editor!

Five minutes later, Fedex delivered galleys for RIDING WILD.

I swear, the fates are conspiring against me on this 70 Days of Sweat writing challenge.

I’ve spent the past two days reviewing galleys. I’m going to finish them today, no matter what.

Then I’m going to write my book. Nothing is going to get in my way. N-O-T-H-I-N-G.

Jessie and Diaz are getting impatient. I don’t blame them. There’s loads of sexual tension in RIDING TEMPTATION and I can’t wait to get back to it. :bat:

In other news related to my Wild Riders series, my editor and I brainstormed titles for the third book, and the working title for it is RIDING ON INSTINCT, tentative release April 2009. So here’s the series so far:

I’m so excited about my Harley riding bad boys! Can’t wait for y’all to meet them!

Back to galleys for me now.

Or….how to make your wife nervous as hell.

He painted the house. Fine.

Until he climbed on the roof to do the chimney. Now granted, the man has spent his life as an ironworker, working on six inch columns and multi stories high. But still.

Feel free to click on each pic to make them full size in all their Fear Factor glory.

The winner of the Bag full of books from the conference is:

NJ WALTERS!

Congrats NJ!

Email me at jaci at jaciburton dot come to claim your prize!

And thanks to everyone who entered!

Stay tuned…always contests going on around here.

UNWRAPPED is my Samhain Christmas story, but this one takes place in Hawaii so the cover is absolutely perfect! Isn’t it gorgeous? (Thank you Scott…and Angie! :heart:)

Here’s the blurb:

When Justin Garrett accidentally views Amy Parker’s private online journal, he sees the cold corporate exec in a brand new light. It seems the icy, unapproachable Amy has fantasies. Fantasies that both appall and intrigue her.

While working together on a corporate acquisition in Hawaii over the Christmas holidays, Justin sets out to make Amy’s dreams come true. But first he has to warm her frosty heart and show her that he’s interested in her as a woman, not as a way to advance his career. By giving her exactly what she’s always wished for—a night of passion with two men who adore her—he hopes to climb right into her heart. And he knows the ideal other man to help unwrap the perfect Christmas gift for Amy.

UNWRAPPED releases December 4th at Samhain Publishing!

Among other things.

All About Romance is holding an auction to benefit Hands On New Orleans. Lots of great things to bid on. ARCs from Meg Cabot and Nora Robers, signed books from bestselling authors. Critiques from agents and editors. Read about it below!

Two years ago AAR readers and our friends in the publishing industry banded together to raise over $11,000 in our first AAR Aid auction to benefit the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

As we all know, many in the blighted areas are still suffering. So, once again All About Romance will be holding an ebay auction to benefit Hands On New Orleans, a highly rated charitable organization dedicated to facilitating volunteerism in the city. Their partners are Home Depot, Coca Cola, the Corporation for National and Community Service, Cisco Systems, and FedEx, to name just a few, and their current projects include restoring houses that remain uninhabitable, street and parks clean-up and restoration, and support for local food banks and animal shelters.

Angela James, Executive Editor for Samhain Publishing, is offering a 30 page critique. Now I happen to think Angie is a pretty stellar editor. I love being edited and she’s damn good at it. She tells me when I suck, which makes me a better writer (Okay, she’s nice when she tells me I suck. She does it all professionally and stuff.) But really, editing is what it’s all about. We writers aren’t perfect. We need that magic touch, someone with keen insights who knows what will make the book better. And isn’t that what it’s all about?

Go here to bid on Angie’s critique.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL AUCTIONS AND BID