Jaci Burton’s Muse

I finished my book! On time, by the end of November, just like I said I was going to!

Sometimes I amaze myself with my ability to know my writing so well. But at the beginning of this week I looked at what I had left to write on Riding Temptation, and figured I could maybe do 15-20K this week. Daunting, yeah, but I knew where I wanted to go and figured I could get it done by Friday if I really pushed hard.

I really pushed hard and I did it. Book’s done. Now I have to edit it. Ick. I’m taking the weekend off.

Plus I’m sick. I had a cold about a month ago. That led to a nice 3 week lingering cough. Now I have another cold. WTF? (I blame the vitamins I recently started taking. Damn healthy shit)

I should take the rest of the day off and not have to do the dishes, right? There should be some form of damn celebration for finishing a freakin book, shouldn’t there?

I’m so excited! UNWRAPPED Releases next Tuesday, December 4th, from Samhain Publishing.

I’m going to giveaway a download of UNWRAPPED to one commenter here.

Tell me what upcoming books are on your radar for December. I’m always on the lookout for great books. Are you going to be reading holiday books next month, or something else?

I’ll draw a winner tomorrow!

Excerpt after the jump. Hope you enjoy!

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.

But first he has to melt her heart and convince her he sees her as a woman, not a wrung to climb on the career ladder. In fact, by giving Amy exactly what she’s always wished for, Justin hopes to climb right into her heart.

Read the rest of this entry »

My pal Lara Adrian’s 3rd book in her USA Today and New York Times bestselling Midnight Breed series releases this week.

If you havent’ read the first two, you’re really missing out. They’re wonderful, sexy, romantic, thrilling adventure rides, with captivating charcters, strong heroines and heart pounding romance.

I’ve always found Tegan one of the sexiest of the warriors. Maybe because he’s so mean, so moody, so dark. Gotta love those dark heroes. And Elise is so tortured, has already lost so much.

Lara let me have a sneak peek at this book early, and I think it’s my favorite of the three so far. Riveting, passionate, with a hero and heroine evenly matched in strength and courage and love for each other. Both trying to deny their burgeoning feelings, yet neither can resist. I’m telling you, this book will curl your toes and you’ll be unable to put it down.

And don’t just take my word for it. Check out Dear Author’s totally awesome review of Midnight Awakening!

Here’s the blurb:

HE HAS RESISTED TEMPTATION FOR CENTURIES, A STONE-COLD WARRIOR WHOSE FROZEN HEART REFUSES TO THAW–UNTIL HER . . . .

No stranger to loss, Tegan knows Elise’s pain. He knows fury, but when he slays his enemies it is with ice in his veins. He is perfect in his self-control, until Elise seeks his aid in her personal war. An unholy alliance is forged–a bond that will link them by blood and vow–and plunge them into a tempest of danger, desire, and the darkest passions of the heart . . . .

Buy Midnight Awakening here

Over at Writeminded.

And I’m giving away a download of UNWRAPPED, which releases in a week!

So come on over to Writeminded and post to be entered to win!!

Had a great, but tiring weekend. Thanksgiving with the relatives, then a trip out of town for a family wedding, which was lovely. It’s always nice seeing my family (who all live out of state), so having them all in one place for my nephew’s wedding was wonderful. I got to see them all at once. We had a great time, but came home yesterday utterly exhausted.

It seems like the older I get, the less I like to travel. It never comes at a convenient time (hello…massive deadline crunch), and the whole hotel/hours in the car thing makes me cranky. I like staying home. I like my own bed. I like being with my dogs. But, alas, you do what you gotta do for family.

So my goal this week is to finish my book. I need 15K-20K to finish it. I have to work 2 days this week and take my mother-in-law to the dentist this week, too. And go to the grocery store. And do laundry. Think I can crank 20K out this week too?

Yeah, I don’t think so either. But that’s my goal. I really want the first draft done by the end of November, so I can take the entire month of December for editing.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Anyone doing any Christmas shopping? I’ve already started…and it’s entirely online. I don’t have time to shop this year, so a lot of my shopping is going to be done online. My UPS man is going to hate me.

Stuffed. Ate a lot yesterday. Bleh. But yummmm.

We’re heading up north for a family weddning this weekend and will be back late Sunday night(who the hell gets married on Thanksgiving weekend? Ugh.) But I’m leaving you with a girlie pic.

Me, my daughter-in-law, my daughter and my granddaughter. How cute are we?

Have a great weekend!

lolcat created here

I know this is a busy week for everyone, but I wanted to take a moment and say thank you.

Thank you to my husband, who continues to put up with me (which…omg…is not easy)

Thank you to my friends who are there for me every day, for making me laugh and for giving me a shoulder to cry on. Thank you for always knowing what I need, and for always standing by my side even when I’m a giant pain in the ass.

Thank you to my readers who buy my books. I feel so blessed that people find what I write worthy of reading. You have no idea what this means to me.

Thank you to the bloggers who come here every day, as if what I have to say is interesting. (Believe me, there are days I bore myself silly. Thanks for hanging in there)

Thank you to all the other bloggers out there for entertaining me daily when I really need a break.

Thank you to my agent and my editors for keeping me working and for making that work shine. I couldn’t do this without your drive, your insights and your talent. It really does take a village…

Thanks to all of you for seeing me through each day. I’m so grateful to have you in my life.

Come join the Writeminded gang tonight!

Come join the Writeminded gang - Maya Banks, Stephanie Tyler, Amy Knupp, Larissa Ione and me over at Writerspace tonight from 8PM - 9PM EST for a chat! We’ll be talking about books and all kinds of things. You never know what will come up, so please join us!

The link to the chatroom is here.

or use this

http://www.writerspace.com/chat/readers

And mark your calendars, because we’ll be doing a chat the 3rd monday of every month at the same time at Writerspace!!!

This is the back cover copy for the second book in my new Wild Riders series (the first book, Riding Wild, releases in February). It’ll release from Berkley Heat in October, 2008, but since my editor and I just finished wrangling the copy, thought I’d torture y’all with it now

This is the book I’m working so hard to finish right now.

RIDING TEMPTATION

He’s a biker working undercover for the Feds. She joined the Wild Riders for reasons of her own. Together, they’re burning up the asphalt and tearing headlong into danger and passion…

Ever since runaway Jessie Matthews teamed up with the gang of special ops bikers, the Wild Riders have thought of her as their kid sister. Except for Diaz Delgado. Over the past few years he’s been watching the budding of a ripe young woman. Jessie’s glad somebody finally sees her for who she is—and she’s thrilled it’s Diaz. His dark good looks and killer body have tempted her since day one.

Diaz’s unbrotherly urges have been hard to fight but the last thing he’d want to do is hurt Jessie and break up the gang. But when they both go undercover to infiltrate a group of killer survivalists, he knows it’ll be hard to keep his distance—especially when the mission takes a risky turn. Now Diaz has no choice but to open himself up to the one woman who may be strong enough to take him on.

So Bantam has decided to veer off in a bit of a different direction for my Demon Hunter series, title and cover wise.

In that respect, we’re retitling the third book, which was formerly known as THE DEMON’S TOUCH. The new title is THE DARKEST TOUCH.

I’m really excited about the new title, and can’t wait to see what kind of cover art I get to go with it. The title really fits the story, too.

As soon as I get back cover copy and the cover, I’ll share.

What do you think of the new title?