Writing good news!

Remember a while back, when I made a mysterious announcement of good news I couldn’t share yet? While I was in Maine, I received and signed the contract, so now it’s official. On February 26, 2013, Samhain will release Knowing the Ropes. A departure from my paranormal novels, it’s more in the vein of much of my short fiction–i.e., it’s a contemporary romance about BDSM and bondage. Now, I wrote this book, so there are no billionaires,  no playboys, and no high-end BDSM clubs full of extraordinarily beautiful people (though the heroine and hero are, of course, hot in each other’s eyes). The characters are middle-class Bostonians with ordinary issues, as well as some extraordinary ones that grow out of their mutual kinks. The kinky sex scenes are written from the heart and the loins, and are based on extensive real-life knowledge and experience. (Is anyone surprised by me admitting I’m kinky? Didn’t think so!) The secondary characters are the sort of people you meet in the real-life BDSM scene, which is to say pretty much like the people you meet anywhere, only more open about their fetishes: some good, some not so good, and some downright nuts. And while it’s certainly not a comedy, I’d like to think it has a sense of humor.

Woo-hoo!

Speaking of Samhain, I just shipped off another Duals and Donovans book, Shamans’ Seduction, to my editor. Cougar shape-shifters, shamanic magic, a grandmotherly village elder who’s part tree, frequent Loony Toons references, and a guest appearance by the trickster avatar Coyote mingle with a hot and tormented couple whose love might be caused by bad magic. Fun stuff, but I’ll never write a book with Coyote as a character again. This has been several years in the making, with numerous wrong turns and interruptions, not to mention the need, the absolute Muse-driven compulsion, to break a tenet or two of romance writing. Coyote loves me, I think, but he has a funny way of showing it, as Trickster deities tend to.