Reno Snow Train

Congratulations, Michele L. on winning the last blog’s copy of Yours for the Night by me! Congrats also to the other winners on the cross blog, Limecello, Armenia, and Beth C.

I’m giving away something very special this time, an autographed copy of Veronica Wolff's Lord of the Highlands. I love Veronica’s books! She’s a great writer, and she’s a heck of a nice lady, too! As always, to be eligible for the drawing, leave a comment, and you must type in your email address. I’ll also add you to my newsletter for updates on all the fun stuff and releases, too. I’ll announce the winner on my next blog in two weeks!

My brother and his wife visited from Atlanta a couple of weeks ago, and we did the most amazing trip! We took the snow train from the San Francisco Bay Area up to Reno! Okay, it’s not really called the snow train. It’s the Zephyr, and it goes all the way to Chicago. We just did the day trip to Reno, spent the night at the peppermill, then came back the next day. But the weather was absolutely perfect, giving us a taste of a snow storm the first day, then the fresh snow on the second day.

It snowed on the way up, and for the trip back, it was bright and beautiful with all that clean, white snow and sun. Here’s a photo of Donner Lake the next day. The skiing looked wonderful on the slopes.

We sat in the scenic car which gave us a panoramic view of the mountains. There are seats facing the windows which curve over you. That’s my brother and his wife in the “scenic” seats.

On the way home, we took up a couple of booths and played card games. Here’s my sister, me, Mom, and my sister’s husband. The trip was so much fun. One of the porters kindly gave me a tour of the sleeper cars. Some of the sleepers are just seats that fold out into bunk beds, but the nicer accommodations have a larger sitting area, the seats also folding down into bunk beds, and their own bathroom and shower. So I think you should be looking forward to a story with a train trip! Yes, yes, I’m planning already.

Just a little promo. Stop by Romantic Crush Junkies for a chance to win the entire JB Skully Max Starr series, yes, all five books!. Yup, she’s me, or I’m her, depending on how you look at it. I'm also blogging over at Lucienne Diver's Blog today (Wed), and the prize I'm offering is a copy of Laced with Desire. So give it a shot! And Take Your Pleasure will be coming out on Loose-Id on April 13th!

Laced With Desire

Congratulations, Kirsten! You’ve won Claire Delacroix's The Rose Red Bride! I’ll be contacting you for your snail mail address.

This blog is a little bit different. Laced With Desire, our next corset anthology, is out tomorrow. Whoohoo! My wonderful coauthors and I are doing a cross blog. And it’s all about clothing. We’ve each answered four questions, and you’ll see the fun and intriguing answers to one of those questions on each blog. We’re all offering some wonderful prizes. From me, leave a comment, and I’ll enter you for a chance to win the first book in my Courtesan Tales, Yours For The Night . As always, to be eligible for the drawing, you must type in your email address. I’ll also add you to my newsletter for updates on all the fun stuff and releases, too. We’ll be announcing the winners on all our blogs on Wednesday, Feb 3rd at 9 a.m. EST! So take a trip through each of our blogs and add those comments. To be entered, you must leave your email so that I can contact you!

So, on to our questions. They’re all about clothing, sexy clothing, confidence builders, the stuff we relax in, and what our shopping weaknesses are. Here’s what I asked the girls!

What’s your most comfortable outfit, together with what you enjoy most to relax?

First up, we’ve got Jaci!
My most comfortable outfit has to be Yoga pants or capri pants, depending on the season, and a tank top or hoodie. In the summer I live in flip flops nonstop. In the winter my Ed Hardy canvas shoes, unless the weather is really bad, then it’s boots when I go out. I really prefer soft, comfortable clothing to relax in. There’s something about the feel of soft cotton next to my skin (I know, I sound like a cotton commercial don’t I?) that relaxes me. There’s nothing like wearing comfortable clothes, propping my feet up in my most comfortable chair, and reading a great book. Best relaxation ever.

In alphabetical order, Jasmine’s up next!
My favorite relaxing outfit consists of my spandex workout pants with a fleece sweatshirt and bootie slippers! So nice to curl up in front of the fire with a great book. Which sounds like the perfect way to relax on a cold and rainy evening. And let me tell you, we’ve got a lot of rain right now here in the mountains.

Here’s what Joey has to say!
I have an empire waist knit cotton dress. It’s celery green, with little pictures related to gardening on it (spades, wheelbarrows, seedpackets, flowers, etc). The pattern has a mixture of lavenders, browns, etc in the print. It’s entirely non-fashionable, something a frumpy heroine with heavy glasses in the most clichéd romance would wear, and I wear it with faded white canvas sneakers and ankle socks and feel entirely uninhibited. It’s one of those dresses that barely touches you anywhere (so you can eat whatever you want!).



My tie for favorite most comfortable outfit is depicted to the left. My mother has always implied I have a bag lady’s fashion sense (okay, she’s a mother, there’s no “implying” about it), but my favorite outfits are long skirts like this paired with T-shirts and ugly canvas sneakers that may or may not match anything I’m wearing. Color coordination is overrated (wink). I prefer to put fleece zipper coats over it, like the pink varsity Eeyore one I’m wearing here. To be honest, as I mentioned on Jaci's blog post , this is somewhat the fashion sense I see Chloe possessing, of my upcoming Branded Sanctuary, only she’s probably a bit better at making it look appealing! I also have a ratty brown sweater that’s probably 20 years old. I prefer to wear it when I’m writing. My mother keeps trying to burn it when she visits, and I tell her that one day it may sell at auction for thousands of dollars (cough, cough).
As far as what I enjoy doing the most to relax while I wear such things – that would be watching programs I’ve DVR’ed, like ER reruns, Burn Notice or Sons of Anarchy, or re-watching a favorite movie (this week it’s been The 13th Warrior with Antonio Banderas, and PS I Love You with Gerard Butler).
Sometimes, when I can get in the right frame of mind (slow down the rpms on my OCD brain) I like sitting on the porch on a sunny day and doing absolutely nothing but listening to the wind move through the pines and the birds chirping. I might nap on the porch swing, my foot braced on the wall so I can do a slow rock. I do nothing so rarely that it’s always almost a transformative spiritual experience (laughter). When I can find a great book that really pulls me in, I add that to the porch experience, along with some chocolate and a Cherry Coke Zero, and have a perfect day – in my green and lavender gardening dress and Eeyore zipper jacket.

Last but never least, we’ve got Denise!
The first thing I do when I get home from the Evil Day Job is take off my bra. Which I’m guessing is waaay TMI, so I’ll move right along. *grin*
Where I live (in Australia) the climate is subtropical, so winters are mild and summers hot and humid. For the sweltering days I have a couple of sarongs to laze around in. In winter I’d be lost without my beloved ugh boots. I’ve had to mend the current pair with gaffer tape (fixes anything), but we’re soldiering on together. In general, I like track (sweat) pants and loose fleecy tops or shorts and T-shirts. If I want to look like a spiffy slob – as opposed to a slobby slob – I have a couple of pairs of lounging pyjamas. Yes, really.

To see our other questions and answers, and the wonderful prizes we’re offering, take a walk on the wild side with Jaci's Blog, Joey's Blog, and Denise's Blog. You can read excerpts of our stories on each of our sites, LaPetitieMortbyJasmine, NoStringsAttachedbyJaci
HonorBoundbyJoey, and Rhio'sDancerbyDenise


Just a little promo. Feb 2, I’ll be blogging on ToteBagsNBlogs. Leave a comment for a chance to win the first corset anthology, Unlaced. And the prizes just keep coming! On Fri, Feb 5th, my coauthors and I will be blogging on http://idonotwanttowaitiwantthebooknow.wordpress.com/ Don’t miss another opportunity to win Unlaced! And don’t miss my upcoming releases, Take Your Pleasure from Loose-Id.com April 13th, and HersForTheEvening coming May 4!

Jasmine, Jennifer and JB!

The Best Date Ever!

Congratulations, Debra Guyette! You’ve won Annie Solomon’s Black Out! I’ll be contacting you for your snail mail address.

This blog I’m offering Claire Delacroix's The Rose Red Bride. Oh my goodness, I’m starting to run out of books to give away! As always, to be eligible for the drawing, you must type in your email address. I’ll also add you to my newsletter for updates on all the fun stuff and releases, too. I’ll announce the winner on my next blog in two weeks! And look at the great odds of winning, everyone! So add those comments!

It’s not too early to start planning for Valentine’s! In fact, I think the earlier the better. Then we can leave little hints with our SO about what we’d really like. This year, it’s on Sunday, so we can have a date all day long and into the evening! Here’s what I’d love to do. First, he packs me a picnic and we take the dog up along the trail in our nearby state park to eat a picnic lunch along the ridge overlooking the Santa Cruz bay. Actually, it’s really the top of the Monterey Bay. Of course, we have to hope it’s not raining and the sun is shining! Then, after that long uphill hike, he’s booked an afternoon at the local spa, complete with a massage for our aching muscles followed by a nice long soak in the Jacuzzi. The attendants bring us champagne and a plate of grapes and blueberries and strawberries and melon to eat while we’re luxuriating. Oh, this is the most delicious Valentine’s.

So tell, if you dare, what your dream date would be!

Just a little promo. Jan 25th, I’ll be blogging on http://romanticcrushjunkies.blogspot.com/. Stop by and leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of JB Skully’s Dead to the Max. Yup, she’s me, too, or I’m her, depending on how you look at it. Feb 2, Laced with Desire arrives in bookstores and I’ll be crossblogging with my coauthors on Feb 1st. So you can take a trip through all our blogs for the chance to win lots and lots of prizes! Hope to see you all there!

Jasmine, Jennifer and JB!