Monday, February 19, 2007

SOLD!!

Yay! I am very pleased to announce the sale of my erotic vampire romance novel, Blood Will Tell, to Ellora's Cave!

I am so, so excited, because I love this book--I tend to look at all my projects with more love the further away from them I get, I've noticed. This one is where I really started to get my dialogue on, yo. I'm really, really proud of some of the dialogue in this one, and I'm offering this tiny teaser as an example:

The stew in her white china bowl looked and smelled fabulous, rich with beef and red wine, but Cecelia wasn’t about to dig in. Who knew what was in it? She’d seen enough movies to know that the heroine—in which category she firmly placed herself—never just blindly accepted food or drink given her. Especially by someone whose category—hero or villain—she didn’t know.
She watched Julian from under lowered eyelids, waiting for him to begin eating. He didn’t. He was watching her right back, smiling slightly.
“Is this where I take a bite myself, so you know I haven’t poisoned the food?”
“Would you?” she asked sweetly.
“They’re in separate bowls,” he pointed out. “I could easily have drugged yours and not mine.”
“Then switch—”
“Stop being ridiculous. I’m not going to sit here and play out scenes from The Princess Bride with you. Eat it or don’t. I don’t much care.”
She looked doubtfully at the bowl.
“Just ask yourself,” he said. “If I planned to kill you, would you have woken up at all after you passed out? Fun as our little conversation has been, I assure you I have other things to do than trade barbs with women who make it a habit to wander around alone at night.”
“I wasn’t wandering. I was coming out of the lab. Where I work. I’m a scientist. You make me sound like a hooker.”
“And you make me sound like a clumsy serial killer,” he said. “Poisoning your food, indeed.”
“Look, just what the hell is going on here?”
“We’re discussing which of us thinks the worse of the other. Not a pastime I usually—”
“Oh, shut up!” she said, louder than she’d intended. “What do you know about all of this vampire stuff, anyway? You can pretend you don’t, but you do. How are you involved in all of this? And why are you being so fucking mean to me? I was attacked, and you don’t even care.”
“Should I?”
“Go to hell,” she snapped, standing up. “I’m leaving.”
“Oh, and you’re welcome,” he replied.
“What?”
“I said you’re welcome. For saving you. You couldn’t be bothered to thank me before.”
She stopped hunting for her shoes and stared at him. “Is that why you’re being so nasty?”
“One of the reasons, yes.”
“And what, pray tell, are the others?”
He sighed. “It irritates me when people waste energy.”
She kept staring.
“You’re spending all of your time worrying about me. Am I a serial killer, am I going to poison you, what do I know about vampires. What do you know about vampires, Cecelia?”
“They have fangs and drink blood and catch fire in the sun. Crosses scare them. Holy water burns them. A group of them attacked me earlier. And…I know you saved me. Thank you,” she added, hoping she didn’t sound as begrudging as she felt.
He nodded an acknowledgement, managing to look in the process like a king bestowing favors. She hated him. And still, damn it, found him incredibly sexy. “A group of vampires,” he repeated. “Doesn’t that strike you as a bit odd?”
“Uh, the whole concept of vampires strikes me as a bit odd. What exactly is supposed to be standing out in the sea of weirdness here?”
“Don’t you usually think of vampires hunting alone? Stalking their prey on a lonely street or some fake-smoke filled nightclub?”
She sat back down. “I guess I do.”
“So, then, isn’t it odd that a whole group of them showed up-barely past sundown-and attacked you? Outside of a blood research facility?”
She was beginning to see his point, and fear flowed through her veins like a frozen cocktail. “But,” she said, a little desperately, “couldn’t they have just wanted to get in? We keep blood there…”
“Cold blood. Blood that’s being tampered with. You’re not a blood bank, you’re a research lab. I don’t think they wanted entrance to the building, Cecelia.”
“How do you know my name, anyway?”
He raised one eyebrow at her again. Bastard. “Do you think I would have brought you into my home without knowing something about you?”
“You searched my purse.”
He shrugged. “Of course.”
She wanted to be angry, but found she really couldn’t. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t that big of a deal. After all, he had saved her.
Although why, she had no idea. The image he seemed to be painting of himself as wandering Samaritan faded quickly when examined through the lens of his snide personality.
“And did you find out anything interesting?”
“I know you like MAC lipstick.”
“Ah. The secrets of my soul lie bare before you.”
“Sarcasm is so charming in a lady.”
“Just as charming as in a gentleman,” she retorted. “So what you’re saying is, I was attacked because of me. Not by chance, or at random. There’s something about me that made a big gang of vampires want to kill me. Which means…” her voice faltered. “Which means they’ll probably try again. And keep trying. Until they get me.”



I am also extremely pleased to announce our beloved Bam has made her first sale, to Samhain Publishing, for their upcoming "A Midsummer Night's Steam" Anthology. Her sure-to-be-amazing tale, called "Skin to Skin" (oooh!), releases August 17th, so make sure you save some cash this summer so you can get it, because Bam is a wonderful writer and I'm sure her story rocks hard.

30 comments:

Erik Ivan James said...

I am really impressed, December! Damn that's good! On a scale of 1 to 10, the dialogue here is certainly the later! Damn that's good!

Dionne Galace said...

Thanks for the pimpage, girlfriend!

Oh, and I really like your dialogue. I can't wait to read this book. Let me know when EC releases it!

Anonymous said...

Darn you! I just managed to get a good sampling from al lthe new authors I wanted to try out and now I gotta add this to my list too! Great writing! I love it!

Want to be my April interviewee?

Stacia said...

Thank you, Erik! I'm so pleased you liked it--and that you're here, you disappeared for a little while!

Thanks, Bam! I'm really hoping for a release sometime this year...but I guess we'll have to wait and see. EC is stepping up its schedule, I believe, so hopefully there will be room.

Stacia said...

Michele, I'd love to be interviewed, but I don't think I have anything new to talk about in April--I have two EC releases now, hopefully three, but I don't have any idea the dates on them. Does it matter?

Caroline said...

Hurrah! Many congratulations. I love it when a plan comes together... :)

Lxx

Stacia said...

Thanks, Lola! Me too!

It's not all moonlight and roses...I've actually had a pretty lousy day...but that makes this news even sweeter. :-)

Camille Alexa said...

Congrats, December!

GOGOGOGO...

Stacia said...

Thanks, lbl! I'm trying!!

Ann (bunnygirl) said...

Congrats on the sale! You go, girl!

Anne D said...

Nice excerpt! Congratulations on the sale.

Stacia said...

Thanks bunnygirl, I'm very excited!

Thanks Anne, and thanks for commenting! Welcome!

Sam said...

MEGA CONGRATS!!!!!!!
Your story sounds wonderful (as usual!)
I love sarcastic characters, lol.

Stacia said...

Thanks, Sam!

Oh, these two are the most sarcastic of the sarcastics. They were so much fun to write. I do love making the banter. I can't wait for this to come out, squeee!

Bernita said...

EC is considered the cream of e-pubs.
Way to go, Girl!
No more "afraid I don't have it" stuff, hmmm?
There are QEDs staring you in the face.

Stacia said...

Yes, well...c'mon, Bernita. You should know by now that self-doubt is like Jello for my twisted little soul--there's always room.

Ann Aguirre said...

Sweet deal! Congrats.

Stacia said...

Thanks Annie! I am indeed pleased.

Robyn said...

Fa-Boo-Lus! And I totally saw Julian McMahon whether you meant it or not. Cheering for you, hon.

And woo-hoo Bam!

Anonymous said...

Yay!! Super congrats!

Dialogue is my weakest point. Obviously you don't suffer the same affliction. I have dialogue envy.

Congrats to Bam too!

Stacia said...

Thanks Robyn!

Huh, Julian McMahon...hmmm...I adore him, but actually this Julian has longer, black hair and looks a bit like Pierce Brosnan. I think. Actually, he just looks like himself to me, so I don't know who to compare him to. :-)


Heh, my problem, Jenn, is I tend to write way too much dialogue. My characters will sit and flirt and trade barbs for hours if I let them.

Anonymous said...

All I can say is "WAHOOO!"


Looking forward to reading more. Congrats, baby!

Stacia said...

Thanks, kis! I can't wait until you can!

cindy said...

woooo! congrats, december!! what a way to start 2007!

Anonymous said...

Wheeeeee!!! Congratulations, DQ! So excited for you!!!

Stacia said...

Thanks, guys!

Emma Petersen said...

Congrats on the sale to EC! Woot! And I love that title! And thanks for the Bam news! I haven't clicked the link yet but I'm really hoping it's It's Not Chick Porn Bam. That would rock hardcore!

Stacia said...

It totally is, Emma!

Thanks, I'm so gld I get to keep the title, since not only do I love it, too, but it has meee-nings!

Anonymous said...

Yay!!!!!!!! How many is that with them, now? You're an EC-Publishing-Fool, woman!!

This is the part where I start to hate you. ;)

I love that excerpt. I wish I'd read that before I'd been slipped that mickey!

Stacia said...

It's actually only two, Isabella, but we're waiting to hear back on another co-project and I'm getting ready to turn in the first 10k + proposal for another Tarot series book.

So hopefully by the end of next month it will be four!