HelenKay Dimon

A lovely reader named Sue emailed the other day and asked (I repeat with her permission): “You’ve talked about HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO being a Hawaii book, but isn’t KISSING SANTA CLAUS one too?”

This, Sue, would be an example of an author sucking at self-promo. Let me try this again:

My novella in the KISSING SANTA CLAUS antho is called It’s Hotter At Christmas. It’s the story of Ted Greene, the policeman from YOUR MOUTH DRIVES ME CRAZY and IT’S HOTTER IN HAWAII. He’s sitting in Kauai, minding his own business and waiting for Christmas to arrive, when a tourist drops in his path…over and over again. Her name is Marissa and she’s having trouble while on Kauai on business. A run-in with a TSA official. A stolen purse. Ted can’t figure out if she’s crazy or unlucky, but he sure doesn’t mind looking at her.

Excerpt time:

“Officer Greene,” Marissa said in a husky welcome that vibrated right down to his feet.

I thought you were leaving Hawaii today,” Ted said, aiming for the least offensive small talk kicking around his brain.

“Believe me, I tried.”

He slid his thigh on the edge of his sister’s desk. The move brought him even closer to Marissa but still far enough to be able to read her actions and assess her mood. “Your identification paperwork came in?” he asked.

“Yes.”

He couldn’t blame her for the curt response. Last time she tried to leave the state, TSA officials at airport security detained her. The memories couldn’t be good ones. “I take it you never even made it out of the hotel this time.”

“Obviously not.” She rubbed her hands together on her lap. “And I still say that incident yesterday wasn’t my fault.”

Incident. Such a little word for such a big mess. Ted suspected he’d be answering questions and filing out paperwork over Marissa’s first security run-in for months. Sure as hell would take that long for Kane and everyone else at the station to stop laughing over Ted’s attempts to keep Marissa from getting an armed escort to jail.

“You threatened the TSA agent,” Ted pointed out for what felt like the tenth time.

“He wouldn’t let me past security.”

“Because you didn’t have a license or other form of photo identification.”

“It was stolen along with my purse earlier that afternoon.”

She kept missing the point. “True, but-”

“And before you say my attitude was the problem, we both know that guy with the big neck and little brains could have let me through security after a secondary search.” Her face flushed redder with each word. “He chose not to. He decided to be difficult and then acted all surprised when I got ticked off.”

“Probably had something to do with the fact you kicked him.”

We pulled up to this beautiful beach on Kauai:

And then we noticed this:

Just makes you want to dive in, doesn’t it?

In my first Hawaii-based book, YOUR MOUTH DRIVES ME CRAZY, my heroine Annie has a little problem with the wild chickens running around Kauai. A few people emailed to ask if I made the little critters up. Oh, no. They are very real. Ask Robin. She knows. Here’s proof from my recent trip to Kauai:

The warnings:

The wild chickens:

The hubby being hunted by the wild chickens:

On second thought, maybe the hubby is trying to reason with them…

Hawaii got hit with a few huge storms last week. We missed the worst of it while we were there. Well, I did. My hubby…not so much. Every time the hubby went outside for a run it rained. He was not pleased. I, of course, thought the timing was hysterical.

At 11:18 a.m. on the day we arrived on Kauai – the view from our window:

Same scene about 5 minutes later:

There’s nothing like a little tropical storm to keep things interesting.

I’ve been in Hawaii but am now back home. It was warm and lovely, just so beautiful. I’ll post some photos over the weekend. Until then, let me give you a taste of how my life works. While gone the following happened:

…our poor puppy had a run in with a skunk and the housesitter called us at 2:25 am to let us know – needless to say, I felt bad about the incident but was not much help from 3,000 miles away

…a tropical depression hit Hawaii right when we got there, resulting in much rain (the first day only) and humidity after that crushed me but the hubby loved it

…somehow triggered a fraud alert on our bank account which resulted in a hold being placed on it – what fun!

…we drove over a bolt and got a flat tire on the rental car

And you know what? We still had a fantastic time. We relaxed and had fun. Our rooms on Oahu and Kauai were just fabulous.

Time away with the hubby in a stunning setting: priceless.

Stacy was nice enough to ask what I was working on right now. Thought I’d give a status report…

I am in the middle of a week long break. Just finished my first Harlequin intrigue, UNDER THE GUN (March ‘10) and my next single title for Brava, LEAVE ME BREATHLESS (March ‘10). I love both and hope you guys will too.

Next up is a novella for one of the Lori Foster sponsored charity anthologies. This one is called GIFT OF LOVE (June ‘10). It’s due at the end of the month. After that I have a new Brava single title to write. It’s based on Eric Kimura, a character introduced in HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO (Oct. ‘09). I’m looking forward to torturing him. He’s one of those characters who kind of came out of nowhere. He was truly secondary in my mind but then I kind of fell for him and decided to give a happy ending. It’s a Hawaii-based book and those are always great fun for me to write.

Back to vacation…

A couple of days ago I looked at a list of recommended beach reads from NPR listeners. Thought I’d give you my list for the next few weeks.

LAID BARE by Lauren Dane. About 3,000 people have recommended this book to me. I follow Lauren online and really like her. Loved RELENTLESS. Thought I’d give this one a try.

It’s been ten years since clean-cut, sexy-as-hell police officer Todd Keenan had a white-hot fling with Erin Brown, the provocative, wild rocker chick next door. Their power exchange in the bedroom got under his skin. But love wasn’t in the cards just yet…

Now, life has thrown the pair back together. But picking up where they left off is tough, in light of a painful event from Erin’s past. As Todd struggles to earn her trust, their relationship takes an unexpected and exciting turn when Todd’s best friend, Ben, ends up in their bed–and all three are quite satisfied in this relationship without a name. As the passion they share transforms Erin, will it be enough to help her face the evil she thought she had left behind?

SET THE DARK ON FIRE by Jill Sorenson. I got an early copy of this one. Jill is in my local RWA group and I so enjoyed her earlier single title, CRASH INTO ME, that this new one moved up my TBR pile fast.

Shay Phillips knows her way around Dark Canyon. She’s handy with a gun and can track a wild animal with the best of them. It’s humans who usually give her the most trouble. And with a hormonally charged teenage brother to raise—and an admitted weakness for the wrong kind of man—they’re giving her plenty of trouble these days. Then there’s the matter of murder. As an expert on mountain lions, Shay is skeptical when a local prostitute turns up mauled without a drop of blood near the body.

Now, together with the town’s newly arrived sheriff, Luke Meza—a Las Vegas city boy with his own dark secrets—Shay must navigate a dangerous valley filled with angry ex-lovers, unfaithful spouses, and poisonous snakes in a desperate search for the killer. But when suspicion falls on her own brother, and her attraction to Luke rages into a full-on erotic affair, can Shay quell the fires inside her long enough to uncover the truth?

ONE GOOD MAN by Alison Kent. She’s a close friend and her writing rocks.

Ten years ago Jamie Danby was the only survivor of a senseless killing spree. Because the killer was never found, Jamie has lived her life in hiding, waiting for the worst. Now she’s in danger again and she’s not sure she can handle it. Until one sexy, rugged, gorgeous man strides into her life, determined to protect her at any cost!

At least, that’s what he thinks….

THE PRETEND WIFE by Bridget Asher. Just because.

For Gwen Merchant, love has always been doled out in little packets—from her father, a marine biologist who buried himself in work after her mother’s death; and from her husband, Peter, who’s always been respectable and safe. But when an old college boyfriend, the irrepressible Elliot Hull, invites himself back into Gwen’s life, she starts to remember a time when love was an ocean.

But as Gwen is drawn into Elliot’s quirky, wonderful family—his astonishingly wise and open mother, his warm and welcoming sister, and his adorable, precocious niece—she starts questioning everything she’s ever expected from love. And as she begins to uncover a few secrets about her own family, it suddenly looks like a pretend relationship just might turn out to be the most real thing she’s ever known.

After these I plan on going on a YA binge. I’m open to suggestions.

I’m over at Access Romance talking about my heroine’s house in HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO and posting a few photos. Stop by and say hi.
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Deana Armstrong needs a hero—not for herself, but for the nephew all her money and time can’t seem to get out of jail. Unfortunately, the best hero in all the Hawaiian Islands is set on turning in his badge and getting his excellent butt into another line of work. If that wasn’t enough, Josh Windsor also has a big-time grudge against Deana herself. But if there’s anything being rich, smart, and stubborn has taught Deana, it’s never to settle for second best…

Josh has had it with saving people. He’s had it with getting hauled into court. And boy, has he ever had it with Deana. Or well, he hasn’t had it. Yet. But the more she pops up sounding infuriating and looking good enough to eat, the more her hot bod and her cold case wriggle into his mind. And there’s only so much even a hero can resist…

Starting premise: People should read whatever they want to read.

Mv sense: For whatever reason, many people lie about what they really read.

With that in mind… NPR did a Best Beach Books Ever poll. The result is what I view as a list of the 100 least likely beach reads ever. Maybe some make sense. Most no. My apologies to the NPR faithful, but come on, Lord of the Rings is a beach read? Do you know what your tan line would look like if you tried to balance the trilogy on your legs while sitting in one of those dinky beach chairs? It would be almost as fun as trying to hold all 6,000 pages of the Harry Potter series in hardcover in your hands while slathered in suntan lotion. And Lolita as a beach read? Really?

With the exception of Jaws, which is a questionable beach read for obvious reasons, the list is a head scratcher for me. Guess this proves that NPR listeners mostly hate popular fiction. Could also mean they hate the beach. Possible.

A few days ago, fab author Stephanie Tyler commented on my blog post about my feelings on the muse. In terms of writing, she said “…there are days when the magic just happens.” Amen to that. Some days the words flow better than others. Some days they don’t flow at all. I’ve had whole books that were easier than others. For example:

-YOUR MOUTH DRIVES ME CRAZY – I wrote this book in seven weeks while working full-time. It snapped together for me. It was my first single title and I thought they’d all be this easy, until…

-RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW – Oh, lordy. This one was awful to write. I changed professions, moved across the country and got really sick. Needless to say, this book did not flow. At all. I re-wrote most of it after I turned it in and before my editor even had a chance to read it. I loved it at the end but the “getting there” part was not pretty.

-HOT AS HELL – Let’s just say that my editor called and said, “I love the plot and the hero is terrific. One problem…I despise the heroine.” I don’t think my editor even liked the heroine’s hair color. Yeah, it was that bad. Good news is that I figured out the problem and rewrote the book and then my editor’s love flowed once more.

-HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO – The entire plot of this one formed in my head while I was sitting by the pool on vacation. Really, this one came to life with ease. Writing it was a bit hard because I had been thinking about this hero for a long time and wanted to get this story just right, but I always knew where it was going. I’m super excited for this one. It comes out on Septemer 29th and I hope you all grab it.

Now, for those who read my books, you’ll notice a trend here. The books in my Hawaii series go far better in terms of writing. The others…not. Guess that means I should write more Hawaii books.