HelenKay Dimon

This week’s topic is: Favorite Intimate Moment. Now, I know this sounds a little racy but, for me, intimacy doesn’t necessarily mean a sex scene. It’s about a connection. Today’s snippet is from IMPULSIVE. This books comes out in November, so this is an early peek. Eric, the hero made an appearance in HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO.

And look at this pretty cover:

The excerpt:

Eric rolled over and felt nothing but warm sheets under his hand. He sat up fast enough to get dizzy. The mix of shiny hair and long legs caught his attention. Katie stood in front of the windows at the end of his bed, wearing his white dress shirt and even that was unbuttoned except for one clip in the middle.

The material fell off her shoulder, revealing the same tan shoulder he’d spent minutes licking a short time ago. His mouth had traveled all over her. Having the full run of her trim body made him wonder why he waited so long to get her naked and in a bed. Balancing against counters held a thrill, but kissing and caressing her while her ankles dug into his mattress was sexy as hell.

“Like the view?” he asked.

She chuckled as she shot him an inviting smile over her shoulder. “I was going to ask you the same thing.”

“The image of you standing there, almost naked, will stay in my head all day. Can’t imagine I’m going to get any work done tomorrow as a result.”

“Good.”

“That pleases you, does it?” He threw off the covers and walked over to her. He didn’t bother getting dressed since he planned to drag her back to bed and make love to her one more time.

“Every woman likes to know she can bring her man to his knees.”

Her man. He liked it.

He wrapped his hands around her waist from behind, sneaking his palm inside the shirt to cup the smooth skin of her breast. “Then you should be delirious.”

“I’m halfway there.”

“That’s what this man wants to hear.”

“Did you miss the part where I squealed and shouted your name a half hour ago?”

If he closed his eyes he could still hear it. “I plan to play the mental video in my head as often as possible.”

“The lights are beautiful out there.” Her head fell back against his shoulder. The faint scent of ginger lingered in her hair. “Makes me want to stand here forever.”

Be Sure To Visit Today’s Other Snippeters!

Mari Carr
TJ Michaels
Eliza Gayle
Ashley Ladd
Emma Petersen
Shelley Munro
Lacey Savage

I realized that every time I finish writing a book I reach for one of a few all-time favs to read. There are 10 or so books that qualify for read-a-billion-times status. Here are a few and why I like them:

1. ONE SUMMER by Karen Robards – The hero, Johnny, is a very bad boy. Like, just out of prison bad boy. The heroine is a teacher. The romance is naughty, Johnny is a gem and there’s a suspense. I love suspense.

2. DUNCAN’S BRIDE by Linda Howard – There are Linda Howard books that I like more than this one, but this is the one I read over and over. I think it’s because this is a contemporary marriage of convenience story. Those are hard to pull off and I’d love to write one. This one works.

3. RAVISHED by Amanda Quick – A Vicar’s daughter, fossils, and a hero known as the Beast of Blackthorne Hall…need I say more?

4. THE SECRET by Julie Garwood – I actually enjoy early Garwood very much. This one sticks out for some reason.

5. PERFECT PARTNERS by Jayne Ann Krentz – This is classic Krentz. A librarian heroine and a corporate guru hero. This is also one of the first romances I ever read, so it holds a special place for me.

There are many more but this gives you an idea of my comfort reads.

I just finished the book COMMENCEMENT by J. Courtney Sullivan. The book follows four friends from Smith College during their post-college days. The official copy looks like this:

Assigned to the same dorm their first year at Smith College, Celia, Bree, Sally, and April couldn’t have less in common. Celia, a lapsed Catholic, arrives with a bottle of vodka in her suitcase; beautiful Bree pines for the fiancé she left behind in Savannah; Sally, preppy and obsessively neat, is reeling from the loss of her mother; and April, a radical, redheaded feminist wearing a “Riot: Don’t Diet” T-shirt, wants a room transfer immediately. Written with radiant style and a wicked sense of humor, Commencement follows these unlikely friends through college and the years beyond, brilliantly capturing the complicated landscape facing young women today.

Sullivan has a strong, clear voice. Her style is very relatable. The beginning hooked me and I wanted to know more.

The chapters alternate between the friends, setting out their lives. While I enjoyed the story as a whole, there was one part that left me with the “what the hell….?” feeling. It’s April’s part of the story. I thought it was…well, nonsense. I didn’t believe it at all. Thought it didn’t make any sense. Since April’s part of the story plays a big role in the ending of the book, the end didn’t work for me either.

I love the idea of intersecting storylines but I’m thinking this is the problem with the writing device. If a reader doesn’t like one of the storylines, the book fizzles. I will definitely read Sullivan’s next book. Will even forgive her April storyline because I enjoy the way Sullivan writes. I do wonder why she made the author choice she did. It was a risk. For me, it didn’t work but others could feel differently.

My favorite intersecting storyline book? COMMON GROUND by J. Anthony Lukas. I read it in college and it had a huge impact. It’s about school intergration in Boston. It’s nonfiction but there isn’t anything dry about it. It also won the Putlizer, so I’m not the only one who thought it was compelling.

Yesterday was a special day – Mother’s Day. It was also an anniversary of sorts for me. On May 9, 2005, I got THE CALL. Yeah, that one. Kate Duffy called and offered a contract on my first novella. That novella went on to be published in the WHEN GOOD THINGS HAPPEN TO BAD BOYS anthology with Lori Foster and Erin McCarthy. The book sold well and continues to sell well because of Erin and Lori. They are fabulous and it’s a huge honor to share a book with them.

Since May 9, 2005, I have sold:

-seven single titles (to Kensington)
-six category romances (to Harlequin Intrigue)
-two single author anthologies, including six novellas (to Kensington)
-five additional novellas (to Kensington and Berkley)
-one short story (to Samhain)

I know there are some authors out there who like to talk about how hard the writing life is and complain about deadlines. I’m not one of them. Writing is not easy but, honestly, it’s a dream job. My grandfather was a coal miner. Compared to that, sitting in my house all day in comfy clothes, doing what I love to do, is a pretty great gig. I am damn lucky to be able to write and get paid for it. I’m equally lucky to have an awesome husband (with a steady paycheck), supportive family and wonderful readers who are so gracious with their buying dollars and comments about my books. If my writing career ends tomorrow, if I can’t sell one more book ever, I’ll be incredibly sad but still so grateful for writing and selling the books I have.

And I’ll be even more grateful if I keep selling and you keep buying.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there !

And for my mom:

There is a group of lovely authors who post book snippets on Saturdays. I’ve decided to join in because it looked like fun. Each week there’s an assigned topic. Some weeks the topic won’t work for me, but this week it does. It’s reunions. My snippet from HOT AS HELL (and isn’t the dude on this cover adorable?) is not the huggy, kissy, happy-to-see-you type of reunion. Check it out:

“This is your idea of a vacation?” Noah Paxton asked the question with a practiced level of calm he did not actually feel. By the way Alexa Stuart – Lexy to him – jumped up and out of her pool lounge chair, he guessed the fake tone did not impress her either.

Dark sunglasses hid her eyes, but her dropped jaw suggested he caught her off guard. “Noah?”

She remembered his name. That was something. “Miss me?”

She settled back in her seat and smoothed out the magazine she just crumpled in her fists. “No.”

“I’m going to take that as a compliment.”

She flipped her sunglasses to the top of her head and squinted up at him with intense green eyes. “What are you doing here?”

Funny but the woman did not look at all surprised to see him. Probably had something to do with the fact she ruined their relationship, screwed with his career and then ran. She had to know he would track her down eventually.

“I could ask you the same question,” he said.

“You already know the answer to that one. I’m on vacation.”

“Uh-huh.” That was all he could think to say while trying to ignore the size of her tiny pink bikini. The thing seemed to shrink the longer he stared at it, but maybe that was wishful thinking.

With the burning southern Utah heat bouncing around and searing through his long-sleeve shirt, he understood her less-is-more theory of dressing. Still, there were other resort patrons hanging in the area. As far as Noah could tell, they all had eyes. He scanned the pool deck to make sure none of those eyes belonged to men and none were staring at Lexy’s incredible shrinking bikini.

Only a few other people braved the beating sun on the pool deck. Most of them sat up to their necks in the water. All but one was female. The male-female ratio qualified as the only positive Noah could find about the high adventure hiking spa Lexy chose as her temporary playground.

Not that he knew what the hell a high adventure hiking spa even was. He read the description online three times before jumping on a plane to retrieve Lexy. Once he saw the price of the joint, he seriously considered changing careers from security analyst to spa owner.

“How did you pick this joint?” he asked.

“What’s wrong with it?”

“Aren’t we touchy?”

“Let’s just say I’m waiting for you to tell me whatever it is you came the whole way here to say.”

He ignored that and started with the most obvious problem with her choice of bathing location. “This place is forty miles from the nearest anything. Didn’t see a restaurant or store anywhere close.”

He tolerated the desert as much as the next guy, but why not enjoy it after a little gambling while looking down from a luxury room high above the Las Vegas Strip.

“That’s why people stay here. For seclusion.” She let out a little sigh. “And no one asked you to come.”

Which explained why anger continued to spill through his veins at a rate that threatened to crack his spine. “I couldn’t resist.”

“But you can leave.”

“What happened to you going to places close to the house to get your toes painted and body scrubbed…” Scrub. Bikini. Yeah, he needed to change conversation topics. “Or whatever that stuff you do is called.”

“Toenails not toes.” She wiggled them as if to emphasis the distinction. “And I do not get body scrubs.”

She seemed determined to kill him with visual reminders of what she hid under that skimpy bathing suit. “We’re getting off course here,” he said in an effort to preserve his sanity.

“I’m not even sure what course we were on.”

“I could say something obvious, but I’ll let that one go.”

She rested her magazine against her thighs with an exaggerated sigh. “To answer your previous question, people choose this spa for fitness.”

“They don’t have an outside at home where they pay a mortgage and get fresh air for free?”

“You can’t get everything you need at home.” Her eyebrows inched up with the provocative phrase.

“Don’t remember hearing any complaints from you on that score before now.”

“I’m not there now, am I?”

Be Sure To Visit Today’s Other Snippeters!

Jody Wallace
Mari Carr
Lauren Dane
TJ Michaels
Eliza Gayle
Ashley Ladd

I recently blogged about my poor Samhain short story, A PROPER SEDUCTION, and the seemingly endless search for a cover. It’s now official. Here it is:

And, in case you’re wondering, the short is available on May 18th.

Congratulations to Jane (comment #5 on the Impulsive post on April 20th)!! She won my monthly contest (see upper right for details). The Amazon gift certificate is on the way.