Extras!

Music, pictures and dirty jokes: Oh my!

Music

Music is a huge inspiration to me when I'm writing contemporary romance. In fact, it's a wonderful way to come up with story ideas and backstory for the characters. Here's an iTunes Mix of the music that inspired me when I was writing Talk Me Down.

 

Interviews

A very rare video interview! (I have a terrible fear of public speaking.) With the lovely ladies from BookPage.com:

A Publishers Weekly list of My Ten Favorite Naughty Romances!

A pretty amazing interview with Jezebel titled Feminist Romance and Heroines with Vibrators: a chat with Victoria Dahl. Hoo.

Harlequin Author Podcast interview on Good Girls Don't.

A hostile interview with Daniel Kraus of Booklist about my come-hither knees.

SmartBitch Podcast interview! On writing heroines with sexual authority (aka books about naughty girls.)

Talk at RomanceNovel TV about Rake's Guide! Fun and very close to professional.

Great Interview with Caroline Linden! She's an excellent writer and a great friend.

An interview conducted by my friend, Jeri Smith-Ready. This is a frightening look into how my mind works. Do not click if you are offended by naughty language. For real. I am seriously off message on this one. *g*

Joke

Here's a little tidbit about my lovely sister Laura. When she first heard the title of my book (To Tempt a Scotsman), her response was not to call and tell me she liked it or even send a nice note. No, she sent me a dirty Scotsman joke instead.

So in honor of my sister and her disrespect for my genius, here's a very funny Scotsman joke. Enjoy.

What does a Scotsman wear under his kilt?
.....
On a good day, lipstick!

 

 

Pictures

So.

The hero of Taking the Heat is a rock climber. I've been getting in shape for the past few years and I live in the mountains, so I thought, "Hey! I should try rock climbing to research this book!" Makes sense, right? I'm 42. Not getting any younger. Sieze the day and all that.

I planned for a month, made an appointment with an expert guide (the amazing Tyson Bradley at Utah Mountain Adventures) and started doing some upper body strength exercises. I'm not an athletic person, but I was so excited! I figured I'd learn a lot and go up about 20 feet. I was wrong.

This is the first tweet I sent after the climb. Here's my guide, Tyson. He did not take me 20 feet up. He took me 100 feet up. This is me. Tyson took this picture while I was taking a few minutes to figure out how to get up that smooth face of rock. It was at this point that I truly regretted this decision. Here's a view of Storm Mountain from halfway up our climb! The weirdest part about all of this is that I felt relieved and safe to be at this resting point, which is a two-foot wide ledge hanging off the side of a cliff fifty feet in the air. But it felt cozy after climbing up on two-inch wide foot-holds. At the top, getting ready to rappel down. Here I am on my way down! Look how happy I am to be done! And alive. And finally, another tweet. I really, really hope you all enjoy the rock climbing scene in Taking the Heat. Ha!