I'd like to welcome the talented Adriana Kraft. Thank you Adriana for guesting here with me.
You won’t want
to miss our Birthday Party!
What kinds of
milestones do you treasure when you look back on the journey you’ve taken to
this moment? As an author, I name several:
The moment
nearly twelve years ago when my husband and I (who co-author erotic fiction
under our pen name, Adriana Kraft) looked each other in the eye and said yes,
we want to try our hand at writing romance together. It was a fork in the road,
and it’s been a marvelous journey.
The moment the
first publisher offered us a contract, five years later. By then we’d been
writing and editing and revising and tossing and subbing and attending
workshops and starting over for what seemed like eons, with no success, but
always feeling the goal might just be within our reach. We never gave up, and
we continually improved our writing – and, the feedback we received.
The day our
first erotic romance was released as an e-book, about a year later. Colors of the Night is still one of my
favorite books among the now nearly thirty we’ve published. More on that in a
minute.
Today, I’m
getting ready to celebrate another milestone. Five years ago next week, the
second of the two e-publishing houses that had published our work went under.
Why would I celebrate a disaster like that? Because of what it led to.
The small group
of authors who’d gotten behind the new publishing venture of a fellow author
were devastated. All of us had books that were suddenly not available for sale,
and we faced an uncertain future.
What did we do?
We organized – swiftly and effectively. The e-pub house had booked a loop chat
for us at Novelspotters that was less than a week away. We bit the bullet,
decided to keep that engagement, and contacted Novelspotters to see if they
would allow us the chat time.
Kudos to
Novelspotters for saying yes – but,
they needed to know who we were: what was the name of our group?
Midnight
Seductions was born in that moment, November 17, 2007. Our membership has
shifted somewhat over the five years since, but we remain a hard working,
exciting group of romance and erotic romance authors who continue to support
each other through the major changes sweeping our industry.
Upshot?
We’re having a
party next weekend, and you’re invited! Our Birthday Bash will be a three day
Blog Hop, November 16-18, with a Kindle Fire as the grand prize plus prizes
offered by each of the participating authors. All the details and links will be
posted at the Midnight Seductions Blog on Friday, November 16, and the winners
will be announced November 20. Hope to see you there!
~
I said I’d say
more about our first novel. Colors
of the Night was
released in 2006 to a five-kisses review from Two Lips Reviews, who had the following to say: I
highly recommend this book, although the reader will no doubt want either a
partner or a bucket of toys close at hand.
Its original
e-publisher had already gone under when Midnight Seductions was formed. I’m
thrilled that Extasy Books, where hubs and I now have nearly twenty
books published, agreed to re-release it (with this fabulous new cover by
Martine Jardin) in July, 2009. It’ll be part of my prize package for the hop,
so here’s a blurb and an excerpt for you:
BLURB
The
dazzling and timeless love goddess Aria pays a visit to struggling
thirty-something Jamie and Ryan Hazleton, who are on the brink of divorce. When the hot sex that results from her first
lesson cools to icy glares, Aria decides to move in with them and provide more
experiential learning. Can Ryan overcome
his jealousy of Jamie’s uninhibited response to the delectable goddess? What if
he succumbs to his own desires? Only
time will tell whether this love triangle with an immortal will ignite or extinguish
the dying embers of Jamie and Ryan’s love.
EXCERPT
CHAPTER ONE
Jamie
Hazelton stifled the sobs welling up from deep within and listened intensely to
the man lying next to her in the snug tent. Had she heard something? She’d
thought her husband was asleep—in fact, that was why she’d allowed herself to
give in to her feelings. She was sure he’d be oblivious. He always was.
Not that
Ryan wasn’t trying. He’d suggested this camping trip to their favorite north
woods lake. He’d said he wanted to reconnect with her—whatever that meant.
She could tell he’d connected with the rippling lake waters, the haunting
sounds of the loons and the lazy afternoons drifting in the canoe. Sometimes
even she’d felt soothed and hopeful during the daytime.
Nights
were another story. Not once had he reached for her and damned if she was going
to be the one to take the first step. Too much pain. Maybe they should just
pack up and go home and face the facts—there was nothing left.
More
tears. Jamie buried her face in the rolled up sweatshirt that doubled for a
pillow and froze—that was a sound coming from Ryan’s direction. What was
he doing? She squeezed her eyes shut tight and lay stock still. Hell would
freeze over before she’d let him know she was awake.
She
heard the tent zipper open and felt the rush of cool night air all in the same
instant. Where was he going in the middle of the night? Startled, she lifted
her head and opened her eyes. A tiny sliver of night sky was visible through
the open tent flap—and it was pulsating with light.
“Jamie.
Wake up. You've got to see this.” Ryan’s voice was a whisper.
Did he
really want her to join him? She hugged herself against the chill, grabbed her
sweatshirt and crawled out of the tent.
Ryan’s
hands were reaching for her, so she took them and let him pull her to a stand.
Tall columns of color—multiple hues of greens, blues, reds, yellows and
occasional whites—fell in a shimmering waterfall connecting sky and lake. The
colors danced across the entire dome of the sky. She’d never seen anything like
it.
They
stood hand in hand for a long minute, then wordlessly walked down to the
lakeshore and sat side by side on a low rock. Shrouded in rising mist, the lake
seemed to hover between earth and sky with no boundary. Jamie lost herself in
the throbbing rhythms of the dancing light.
“This is
what I’ve been missing,” she heard herself say. “It feels like magic, like time
is suspended. I wish we could catch and hold this moment forever.”
“I
know,” Ryan replied. “It's been difficult remembering such moments. I sometimes
wonder what else we've forgotten.”
“You have each forgotten how to love.”
Jamie gasped and squeezed Ryan's hand. “Who said that?”
Ryan
shook his head.
“I,
said that.”
Jamie
watched in awe as the mist swirled and collected into the shape of a stunning
female. The image pirouetted as if to prove she was much more than a vision.
Jamie tried not to stare— the woman’s copper skin was barely concealed in a
gauzy white gown. Jamie could make out dark nipples on her pendulous breasts as
the image floated closer.
“You two
need help.” The phantom shook her head, sending her long dark hair flying.
“Your marriage is crumbling. You care for each other, but you've forgotten how
to love—if you ever truly knew how.”
“Who are
you?” Ryan jumped to his feet.
“My name
is Aria. I am a goddess of love and I have come to show you how to love.”
ADRIANA ON THE
WEB
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