Monday, July 09, 2007

Blood Will Tell releases Wednesday!

And I'm all in a tizzy. Part of me thinks it's a great book, part of me is convinced everyone will hate it, that the dialogue I thought was sharp and clever will just sound stupid, etc. etc. But it comes out on Wednesday anyway and I am very, very excited!

So not much of a post today. Tomorrow I'm blogging over at Bam's (although I have no idea what to blog about, so if you want to suggest a topic that would be great!) So you can read a real post from me there tomorrow, because today I'm taking advantage of this last chance to urge everyone to join my Yahoo group! Joining enters you in a conest to win a free release-day copy of the book, so don't be shy!

And here's another little excerpt too. Julian and cecelia are dining together, and he's just offered to let her stay at his house to protect her from the vampires who want her dead:

“I guess I don’t have much choice, do I?”
“We all have choices. You just only have one right choice.”
“I still don’t really trust you. I don’t think you’re a very nice man.”
“Do I have to be?”
She considered it. “I guess not, although I’d probably enjoy staying with you more if you were.”
“My dear,” he said, leaning in closer. “I seriously doubt that.”
This time she couldn’t hide her response. Heat flowed through her, blood rushing to her face.
He continued speaking in the same soft tone. “I somehow don’t think that a nicer man would be man enough for you.”
Her mouth was too dry to speak. She looked down, aware that by not answering she had answered him in the most eloquent way possible.
She could feel his gaze on her, almost as if his hands were caressing her. Soft and cool, running across her taut, sensitive nipples, making her gasp as her eyes closed involuntarily.
“You look stunning when you do that,” he said quietly. His voice caressed her too, sliding down her bare arms. “Beautiful enough to make an army of men fall to their knees.”
The compliment made her even warmer, but she opened her eyes. “You?”
He smiled a wistful smile that made him look younger. “I’m only one man. It’s nearly enough to kill me.”
He wasn’t joking. The knowledge made Cecelia a little weak herself.
“If you won’t let me die,” she said, surprised at how breathy her voice was, “I won’t let you die, either.”
“As tempting as dying from the beauty of you is,” he said, “it’s a deal.”
She nodded. “Can I call my lab assistant and let him know where I am?”
He was thoughtful, switching quickly back from “Julian the Romantic” to “Julian the Businesslike”. “No, but you can tell him you’re staying with a friend. Make something up so he won’t expect you at work. But don’t give away your location.”
“I don’t think all this is entirely necessary.” She was trying to trust Julian, but he wasn’t making it easy.
“Then you are far less intelligent than I have given you credit for.”
She sighed. Just when she was starting to feel all warm and squishy toward him, he turned that acid tongue on her again and reminded her that underneath the sex appeal was a viper. An intriguing viper, but one who could still hurt her. “You really are an asshole, aren’t you?”
“I prefer to think of myself as a realist. And realistically, your naiveté will get you killed before you even have a chance to see it coming.” She opened her mouth to speak but he held up his hand, stopping her. “No, Cecelia. You know a lot about what you do. This is what I do. Please give me credit for knowing how to do it.”
“You’re asking a lot from me.”
“Yes, I am. But I’m offering you your life in return. Either your life is important to you or not. Either you want to live or not. Honestly, I don’t imagine you want to die, even though your life is terribly dull.”
“It isn’t.”
“It is. But that’s not the point.”
“We’re getting awfully close to that cab, Julian.”
He rubbed his eyes with his thumbs, his face hidden. The gesture was at once vulnerable and masculine, and for some reason Cecelia felt a rush of triumph. He really didn’t want her to leave. She could feel how much he wanted her to stay, sense it like a living thing.
He didn’t want to give in to her, though. He wanted to say whatever the hell he wanted—he was obviously used to saying whatever the hell he wanted—without repercussions.
Arguing with him may have felt like some kind of bizarre foreplay that both pissed her off and turned her on, but Cecelia had a line. He wasn’t going to cross it, no matter how beautifully he complemented her or how attracted to him she was. The sooner he learned that, the better.
“Please don’t go,” he bit out, his face still hidden by hands that now massaged his forehead as if he had a headache. “I will try not to insult you by implying that your life is boring.”
“That’s a little better,” she said, enjoying herself now.
Until he looked up and caught her smiling. He narrowed his eyes. The deep color of them seemed to intensify, darker and darker, leaving her breathless. “Now you are smirking,” he said.
She stood her ground. “Yes.”
He surprised her by shrugging and pouring some more wine into his glass. “As long as you admit it. Enjoy your little victory, my dear. It may be your last.”
“I bet it won’t.”
He smiled. “I’ll take that bet.”
“What does the winner get?”
His smile grew wider. “Whatever they want, shall we say?”
She knew she shouldn’t agree to it, but honestly, she didn’t care. All night her heart had been beating below her waist and she was tired of trying to pretend that she didn’t want him as badly as he seemed to want her. “Fine.”
“Excellent.” He looked far too pleased with himself to make her comfortable.
Cecelia blushed and looked away, catching the eye of their waiter. He was leaning against the wall, glaring at them. “I think we should go,” she said. “Our waiter looks ready to kill us.”
“It is a bit late, isn’t it?” Julian took her hand. “Shall we go back to my place?”
The innuendo was so heavy that she laughed. “My mother warned me about men like you,” she said.
He raised one eyebrow. “Come with me,” he said, kissing her hand. “I’ll show you why she was right.”


So go on! You know you want to read it! And I'll announce the winner nice and early, so there will be plenty of time for you to buy the book if you don't win.




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26 comments:

Tyhitia Green said...

Great stuff, December. Can't wait to read the rest. I'll join ASAP!

Stacia said...

Thanks!!

Don't suppose you have any ideas for me to blog about? Please? :-)

Mark Henry said...

Peppy talk, nice beats, low on pesky dialogue attribution. I like it. Will there be diddling?

Why don't you blog about the marked absence of butt sex in romance?

or...

shiny silver buttons?

Seriously, I just blogged about motivation (or the lack of) on my lj and Charm School winner Saaphyri's new line of (I swear to God) Lip Chap, so I'm tapped out.

Lip Chap: for those days soft lips won't do.

Anonymous said...

Very, very nice, DQ. You built a visual scene for me without boring detail of what things look like. I like that a lot.

"He continued speaking in the same soft tone. “I somehow don’t think that a nicer man would be man enough for you.”"

Why did that line make me think of Isabella? ;~)>

If you're reading this, Isa, I miss your blog. :~(> <- Me being sad.

-V95

Stacia said...

"Will there be diddling" Mark? It's an erotic romance ebook from Ellora's Cave. Yes, lots of graphic hot diddling is mandatory. :-) Lots of positions, lots of situations. But no buttsex, at least not in this one (unless fingers count, in which case there are two or three instances).

I wouls take you up on that idea and blog about the no buttsex in romance, but in erorom these days everyone is a buttfreak. Anal is the new oral amongst us racy writers.


V95, are you still having problems reading Isa's blog? I'll go see if she has a feed.

BernardL said...

I enjoyed your entertaining excerpt: very intriguing. Blog idea: outlining an idea into novel form.

Camille Alexa said...

Uhm...am I weird because I think your blogging about moustachios is way more interesting than anal anything?

Unknown said...

I already wrote this for your Yahoo user group, but I'll say it again: You've hooked another reader with that excerpt. Can't wait to get my hands on a copy of your latest book!

Anonymous said...

I still can't get on her blog for some reason, December. I don't know why. -V95

Rebecca said...

very, very smooth dialogue December! I Can realy picture that Julian guy.

I would be happy to give you an idea to blog about.... if I had one. I have great difficulty coming up with things to write about on my own blog.

What about being an american living in England?? that would be interesting...though I know you probably want to write about writing.....how about how being an expat informs your writing?? If it does???

Unknown said...

I know this is going to so totally rock! I can't wait to buy it! :)

Anonymous said...

Oooh.. who needs "nice" men! Sounds great!

Stacia said...

Thanks Bernard! That is a good idea--I'm going to steal that one for this blog, I believe. I ended up blogging about James Bond over at Bam's. It's not my best blog post ever but hopefully it will spark some good comments anyway.


So, Camille Alexa, what happened to LBB? Thanks, I'm still very proud of the moustache/macho posts. I mention in my post at Bam's my secret and semi-shameful desire to meet a man who will call me "Mama" just like in a classic rock song. Like, "I'm dreaming of your sweet love tonight, so Mama let it be" or "Hey hey Mama said the way you move..." that kind of thing. Which is a really odd desire. And it would probably make me giggle in real life and look askance at whatever guy actually said it (as in Private Benjamin's "I just took your picture, Mama!" which the hubs and I think is hysterical.)

Maybe I should blog about that--the things which creep us out yet turn us on.

Stacia said...

Thanks Catherine! I hope you like the rest of the book as much! *bites nails*

V95, I'm going to ask her to get a feed, then you can subscribe to it and still read her posts. Isa? Are you checking here? get the feed! I have a problem seeing your blog sometimes too!

Hmmm...how being an expat informs my writing...I'm afraid I may make myself very unpopular with any English readers I may have if I did that one. :-) The truth is I feel so isolated here, I think it's made my work a little less fun. My next EC book, my Torrid Tarot novel called The Eighth Wand, comes out on October 17 and I think is really colored by that sense of loneliness--it's about two very lonely people. I'm actually a little worried about it for that reason. It's not a downer, it's a happy story, but my characters don't look at life with the same humor as my vampires do.

Stacia said...

Thanks Christine! Can't wait for yours either! :-) Thanks for coming by too--we July release ladies have to stick together!


And he's English too, Isa! I agree. Nice men, no thanks. I mean, I don't necessarily want a mean bastard either, but too nice is bleh.

Bernita said...

Oh, oh!
What a killer last line to that scene, December!
Loved it!

Bernita said...

Forgot to tell you...You have been named a Wench.

Tyhitia Green said...

December,
Do a post on cool dialogue. What works, what doesn't...

Camille Alexa said...

So, Camille Alexa, what happened to LBB?

NO idea; day before yesterday, my first couple comments of the morning were signed with the Littlebirdblue tag, then **poof**: from one post to the next, Blogger decided I was me instead of the other me. I mean, Camille Alexa is the name on my profile, but why it suddenly became my signature without me doing anything to it, I just couldn't tell you. I'm sure there's a setting to get in there and fiddle with, but I'm a little lazy that way.


Thanks, I'm still very proud of the moustache/macho posts. I mention in my post at Bam's my secret and semi-shameful desire to meet a man who will call me "Mama" just like in a classic rock song.

Camille Alexa said...

Oooo-oo-
I meant to reply to the second half of your quote I snipped;

"Yes, Please Mz. December! Write that post!"

Anonymous said...

Hmm can you really not see the pic on my blog??? I wonder why.. is there some kind of kiddie filter that would know to block it out?? I can see it ok??

Stacia said...

Thanks Bernita! I've got my little wench icon thingie over there in my sidebar, sorry I forgot to mention it in my comment, doh!


There's a thought, Demon Hunter! I'll see how the reviewers like my dialogue, then I'll give it a go! :-)


Stupid Blogger, LBB/Camille!
And I will write that blog, I promise. :-)


Nope, Isa, I really can't see it, I just tried again. I even tried clicking on the picture. :-( Apparently it's something, I'd like to get a look at it. Maybe you could email it to me?

Vicki said...

Sounds great! I can't wait to read it.

Rhian said...

stacember - balancing my laptop and a much needed cuppa coffee, typing with one finger, huddled in a grimey corner of a hotel near the Atlanta airport hoping my two bars of wireless access don't collapse just so i can wahoo with you on your release!!! i'll be picking it up tonight when i get home! can't wait to read it... though don't tell sweaty sven, 'kay? xxx - rhi

ps- was funny cool to see that wench button i screwed with posted on your blog. made me laugh out loud... sitting here in my grimey corner.

Rhian said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Stacia said...

Thanks Vicki!!

Aw, Rhian, you get me all emotional. You're out of town, you didn't have to come here to congratulate me!

I treasure my wench icon!