Welcome this Week’s Featured Author
CONTEST: Comment below for a chance to
win an eBook copy of Blind Bet. Remember to leave your email address. Contest
ends Saturday, September 7th at Midnight.
ABOUT
Susan lives out on the
Canadian west coast surrounded by open water, dear family and good friends.
She’s jumped out of perfectly good airplanes on purpose and had lunch next to
royalty by accident. She’s worked for local law enforcement, been a freelance
wordsmith and bakes what she claims are the world’s best double-chocolate &
caramel brownies. She’s passionately in love with the written word (and a few
of her more hunky creations.) Writing is her joy, her escape from reality and
the only way she knows of to quiet the nagging harridan of a muse she claims
the universe assigned to her.
Pushing Limits 1
Coming Thursday September 5th
Four men, three days, one
chance to win it all.
Technician Laurli Corbin
has spent the past six months on an asteroid-mining ship on the far side of the
galaxy. The problem is she is stuck with four hot men and under strict orders
not to mess with crew morale. That means if she gives in to her desires she can
only choose one, and that’s an impossible choice.
The captain has set strict
rules that he expects his crew to follow, but when he and the other three men
on board realize they have all fallen for the fiery beauty those rules come
back to haunt him...
When a cosmic storm hits,
fate conspires to put the crew to the ultimate test. The men are given one
chance to change the rules and make a play that could give them all what they
want most, but can they bet on losing the one thing that matters most?
EXCERPT
“Damn it, I don’t know why
I play this re’veth game with you
bunch of cheats!” Laurli Corbin dropped her cards on the dented metal table in
disgust. She went to drown her sorrows with more of Jax’s hooch, only to
discover her mug was empty. “Great, I’m out of money and booze. This really hasn’t been my night.”
“You play with us because
it’s the only game in the sector and the only entertainment we have unless you
want to spend another night in the sim pods.” G’arn grinned at her from across
the table that took up most of their cramped dining area and pushed a small
stack of chips her way. “Jax, refill her drink before she gets really grumpy
and tries to stab someone.”
“No stabbing, Corbin.” Cass
snapped from the far end of the table. Cass was their crew chief and captain of
the mining vessel they all called home. He narrowed his gaze at Laurli until
his sky-blue eyes were almost hidden behind his lids. “I’m not filling out
another vething incident report
because you yahoos can’t play nice. Next one who requires a write-up is going
to be sucking vacuum, because I will cheerfully throw any one of you out an
airlock before I pick up another pen. We clear?”
“Damn, someone get the
chief more to drink too, he’s even crankier than Laurli!” Mattero said before
breaking into booming laughter that nearly deafened Laurli. He was grinning so
broadly his elongated canines were showing. His black eyes were gleaming with
good humor and Laurli found herself laughing along with him. It was said there
was nothing more contagious than a torski’s
laughter, and since knowing Mattero she’d have to agree. Then again, he was
only half torski, a thought that
often made her wonder just how brave a woman his mother must have been to take
up with one of the massive species. Even with his human blood, Mattero was
nearly six and a half feet tall and claimed to be over three hundred pounds, The
torski were heavy gravity worlders,
powerfully muscled and built like a brick wall, and by all reports they were
big all over.
Not that she’d ever get a
chance to find out…
The chief had made it very clear when she’d
signed onto his crew that while he had no problem having a woman on staff, he’d
shove her on the first pod back to Earth if she started any trouble between the
guys.
“No bed hopping,” Cass had
told her in one of the baldest conversations she’d ever been part of. He’d
crossed his thick arms across his massive chest and scowled at her from across
the desk, his entire focus on her in a way that had made her feel about three
inches tall. “If you want to sleep with one of my guys, go for it, but that’s
it, just one. You have to choose and then you have to stick by that choice for
the rest of the tour. I don’t need my guys tearing themselves apart over a
woman again.” Cass had never said another word about it, but Laurli remembered
the rules and had lived by them. She just wished she’d known going in that
she’d never be able to choose between them.
They were a five man crew,
and her four crewmates were all of the panty-meltingly hot variety. Six months
later she still couldn’t choose, which had resulted in the longest sexual dry
spell of her adult life. If it weren’t for the personal simulation pods and her
private collection of high-end, fully interactive sim programs, she probably
would have lost her mind by now. Asteroid mining paid well, sure. It had to,
otherwise no one would risk their neck out here. It was dangerous, tedious
work, and being stuck in the ass end of the sector on a one year contract meant
she’d discovered new levels of boredom. By the time they got back to a
civilized part of the galaxy she was going to be horny enough to jump a Jeskyran, body thorns and all.
“Drink up,” Jax told her
as he nudged her now-refilled mug toward her hand. “This is a new batch. I
think you’ll find it more to your liking. I sweetened the mix a fraction and
added something special.” The big, blond engineer winked at her and Laurli felt
her mood improve. Jax was a wizard with machines, and he applied that magical
touch to his brewing projects. He was all about the details, and as she
cautiously sipped his newest creation she caught herself wondering if he was as
detail oriented in bed as he was everywhere else. Lust ignited a fire in her
blood and for the thousandth time since coming on board the Kessell Queen, she found herself
wondering what it would be like if she didn’t have to choose between them. In my dreams, maybe. But sadly it’ll only be
in my dreams…
THE INSIDE SCOOP
Has your perspective on the writing process changed
since you became published?
When I wrote my first
book, I didn’t have a process! I was a clueless bunny hopping into the wolves
den. Now I’ve learned a lot about allocating time, staying focused, and I keep
learning more about the writing craft every day.
Is there a word or phrase you catch yourself overusing?
“Realize/realized.” I have
come to realize that I use it way too often. (See?) So for my last few books
I’ve been doing a “find command” and then reworking sentences where I find the
little sucker.
How do you know you’ve written a good book?
If my characters have made
me laugh out loud or cry at least once (preferably both) I know it’s good. If I
can’t connect with my own characters, how could my readers?
Are you a Swooper (write first, edit later,) a Basher
(edit each sentence as you go,) or both?
I’m 90% swooper, but there
are times I just “know” that what I’ve written isn’t going to work and then I
go back and beat on it until either it works or I declare it deceased and hit
the delete key.
What is the one thing you must have to be able to
write?
I need noise. I cannot
write in silence, so I always have the television in my office on while I
write, even if it’s just sitting on a music channel.
Do you have any rituals, habits, or superstitions about
your writing?
I am superstitious. I
never, start working on the blurbs or cover ideas for a book until the moment I
have an acceptance letter in my hand. I am convinced that if I ever assume a
book will be published, that will be the one that comes back with a rejection
letter to add to my collection.
CONTEST: Comment below for a chance to
win an eBook copy of Blind Bet. Remember to leave your email address. Contest
ends Saturday, September 7th at Midnight.
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