Jaci Burton’s Muse

Today’s snippet is a First Kiss. Those are always so much fun, convey so much about a relationship. I’ve chosen the first kiss between Jessie and Diaz in RIDING TEMPTATION, one of my Wild Riders books from Berkley Heat.

In this scene, Jessie has pushed Diaz to the very limit, and he’s had just about enough.

Hope you enjoy! Adult themes in this excerpt, so I’m putting it after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry �

My first drafts are heinous, the worst piece of shit writing ever. But when I’m editing them they at least provide a source of amusement.

Like this sentence, full of one hell of an epic dangling participle and a whopper of a typo:

Her abdomen quivered at the touch of his warm lips to her flesh, remembered what it felt like to have his moth down there

No, really. Don’t thank me.

Today I’m guest blogging over at Novel Thoughts, talking about opposites attracting. Come by and visit for a chance to win my book, DARE TO LOVE!

I’m also blogging at Writeminded today and bitching about my lack of a vegetable garden this year. Come commiserate with me.

Just a reminder that the Brenda Novak Auction for Diabetes Research is winding down. Only 4 days left to bid on some awesome items.

I have two items up for bid:

An ARC of my upcoming Demon Hunters book, Taken By Sin, along with autographed copies of the first 3 books in the Demon Hunter series. Click here to see this auction

All 6 of my Berkley Heat releases, including my most recent release, Riding On Instinct. Click here to see this auction.

There are so many things to bid on, from trips to computers to jewelry to ARCs to book collections to gift baskets to critiques from editors and agents to mentoring from your favorite authors and so much more. Do browse and bid on something. It’s for a very worthy cause.

Howdy people! I hope you all had a nice weekend. Here in the US of A, it was a holiday weekend for Memorial Day.

Holiday weekends mess with my head. And long weekends exhaust me. Sure, lots of people love them because you get that extra day off, but to me it’s just extra days filled with lots of extra stuff to do, and a hell of a lot of running around. We did plenty of that this weekend.

Friday night we planted azaleas in one of the back yard gardens. Nine azaleas, to be specific. I love azaleas in the spring. They’re so pretty. Keep your fingers crossed these suckers don’t die on us. We had to put fence up around the flower bed because the idiot dogs out back like to run right through that particular patch, so we have to train them that area is off limits. The flower bed is right under our bedroom window, so last night we’re lying in bed and I hear a ‘donk’, followed by ‘boinnnnnng’. Yeah, one of the dogs banged right into the fence. Learning curve, ya know.

Saturday, my daughter and I went to the Old Navy $1 flip flop sale. Good googly moogly, you would have thought Old Navy was giving away diamonds. First, the parking lot was full so I had to park in one of the other lots. Then when we walked in the store, we could. not. move. To say the place was packed with people was a serious understatement. But we muscled our way in, grabbed a bunch of flip flops and got in line. There were approximately 6 lines, all at the very back of the store and winding around. And around. And around. It was insane. We waited in line 2 hours. No, I’m not kidding. 2 Freakin hours for $1 flip flops. And it was hot as the 7th level of hell in there. One woman fainted and the EMT’s had to be called. Then the Fire Dept came and wouldn’t let anyone else in because the store was over capacity. Um, ya think? When they stopped packing people in like Sardines, it got a little cooler in there, but if I’d known going in that we were going to have to wait 2 hours in line, no way would I have stayed. Worse than any Black Friday shopping experience, ever.

Saturday night Biker Dude & I went to see Terminator Salvation. Yummy yummy movie. I loved it. I thought it was a great addition to the Terminator franchise, brought something new to the table, and I hope they do more. And the character of Marcus? Delicious. Great characterization. I highly recommend this movie. Biker Dude loved it too.

Sunday was race day. I was all set to park my ass on the sofa for the Indy 500 and the Coca Cola 600, in between a full day of cooking. The Indy 500 ran, the Coca Cola 600 was rained out. Bleh. Nothing like having your heart set on a full day of races. Mother Nature thwarts me again.

This week is all about editing the book from hell that I finished writing last week. It’s due June 1st, so my mission is to make it beautiful. I edited the first 8 pages a little while ago, and it made me all weepy. I suppose that’s a good enough start, huh? Let’s see if I can make the rest of the book sing.

Hope you all had a great weekend.

Snippet Saturday is a way to give you all a taste of various authors’ work, a little piece of something we’ve done, or a look into our creativity (sometimes a scary place!).

Today’s Snippet Saturday is the Defining Moment. To me, the defining moment is the place in the story where everything changes for the characters. It could be a plot point, or a relationship point. But it has to be an important point.

I chose a scene from Nothing Personal, a contemporary romance from Samhain Publishing.

Ryan is a millionaire in search of a bride and an heir to fulfill the terms of his grandmother’s will. He finds one in his assistant, Faith, who’s shy and devoted and willing to anything for her boss, who she secretly adores.

But Ryan is all about business and knows nothing about pleasing a woman, so Faith decides she needs to get to know him better before they make love and attempt to produce an heir. And Ryan thinks expensive trips and jewelry will do the trick. But Faith is a simple woman and those things just don’t work with her. Until she falls apart after a set of kittens die at the local shelter where she volunteers, and Ryan brings home a kitten for her.

Hope you enjoy:

Long moments passed before Faith could breathe normally. Their sweat-soaked bodies remained joined. She didn’t want to be separated from him.

For the first time in her life, she belonged to someone.

She belonged to Ryan. Maybe not forever, but for now she was his, and he belonged to her. Only her.

He swept the moist tendrils of her hair away from her face and smiled down at her. “Are you all right?”

She nodded and stroked his back. “Never better.”

“Did I hurt you?”

“Not at all.”

He cradled her face in his hands. “I need to ask you a question.”

She nodded.

“Why now? Why tonight? What changed your mind?”

“You mean about making love?”

He nodded and smiled sheepishly. “I have to admit, I tried everything to get you in bed. Jewelry, a new wardrobe, even the trip to Hawaii. And nothing. So why now?”

She should have been angry with him, trying to buy her virginity like that, but she wasn’t. On some level she understood the type of women Ryan normally associated with. He could buy his way into their beds. But that didn’t work on her.

“It was the kitten.”

His eyes widened in surprise. “The kitten? Why?”

She smiled and ran her fingertip along his jaw, loving the erotic feel of his stubble against her skin. “You brought me that kitten because I felt bad, and you wanted to make me feel better. That’s what convinced me.”

“The kitten?”

“Yes.”

“I didn’t get you the kitten to get you into bed, Faith.”

“I know. But Ryan, the best gift is always the one that comes from the heart.”

Nothing Personal is available in both e-book and print.

Please visit these other authors to see their Defining Moments:

Lauren Dane
Cynthia Eden
Vivi Anna
SJ Day
Moira Rogers
Leah Braemel
Mandy Roth
Anya Bast
Viv Arend
Juliana Stone
Savannah Foley
Beth Williamson
Elisabeth Naughton
Michelle Pillow
Taige Crenshaw
McKenna Jeffries
Sasha White

(thank you to Valerie Tibbs for the header!)

Starting this Saturday, a bunch of authors are going to be posting snippets of their work. It could be anything from first kiss to dialogue to an action scene to the first paragraph and lots more. It’s a way of introducing you to pieces of our writing, and then we’ll post the url’s at the bottom of our blogs of all the participating authors for that day’s snippets, and if you want, you can pop around to those various authors’ blogs and see their snippets too.

This was Lauren Dane’s idea, and I thought it was brilliant and fun so I’m participating.

See you tomorrow with my first snippet!

KISS and Queen in one night? Bestill my heart. I loved the American Idol finale last night. What was there not to love? (other than the outcome).

The aforementioned groups making guest appearances, Fergie and The Blackeyed Peas, Cyndi Lauper, Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood, David Cook–it’s like a free 2 hour concert. Loved it.

And Kara sticking it to Bikini Girl was priceless and worth having to endure listening to Bikini Girl’s few seconds of awful wailing on the stage (really? The girl thinks she can sing? Please. Kara schooled her in a major way.) Loved the look on her face while Kara sang. She was not happy that she didn’t have the limelight to herself. Bwah.

Did I think the right guy won? I’ve been an Adam Lambert fangirl since auditions. I knew he had that something extra, and he wowed me every week. He was the only one this year I was really interested in listening to. I wanted him to win because the guy has massive talent and can sing damn near anything.

That being said, it’s probably better he didn’t win, because he won’t be stuck in the cookie cutter American Idol mold. Really, I adore David Cook, but his album vs Daughtry’s album? No comparison. Daughtry’s is ten times better. And I think a lot of that has to do with filling American Idol’s expectations for their winner. Kris Allen will do that nicely. Adam can go on to make the kind of record he wants to make, which is much better for him, because he needs that creative freedom he wouldn’t have otherwise had if he’d won.

I can’t wait to see what he does.

So did you watch last night? If you did, what did you think?

And if you didn’t, here’s Adam Lambert and Kris Allen singing with Queen:

And mad props to American Idol winner Kris Allen for his rendition of Heartless. Loved this. Absolutely loved it.

I used random.org to select two winners. And they are:

Laurie and Kira Daniels!

Congrats, ladies. Email me at jaciATjaciburton.com and let me know what format you want the book in. I’ll send it right out to you.

Thanks to everyone who participated. LEGEND’S PASSION is now available at Ellora’s Cave. Click here to buy the book.

Wheeee! New Cover art!!!!

Releasing in March next year from Berkley HEAT.

Awesome, isn’t it?