Reaper Release Day!!

Kendra Lake has a secret she’s keeping from Detective Jonathon Taylor of NYPD’s Homicide division. Intrigued by her, he will not rest until he discovers what she is hiding from him since she has been linked to at least three crime scenes in as many days.

Born Cynethryth ae Llyn Fawr in seven-twelve ante christum, Kendrah became immortal the day she traded her soul for the cloak of the reaper. To say that she has seen it all...been there, done that...is a gross understatement. She has been loved and given her heart in return but the price of loving again is too great because everybody dies.

When Detective Jonathon Taylor is in the wrong place at the wrong time, careening around a curve doing one-twenty on icy roads with his suidcidal ex-wife at the wheel, Kendrah is there to help the two of them cross over. What will be the price for saving one life?

This is my first paranormal so I am very excited and scared ... no bdsm ... nada. It is wickedly intense though so I hope you will give it a read and let me know what you think:)

BUY IT HERE

My book will be one of those highlighted at the blog International Heat

And sharing my release day at Liquid Silver Books is Vivian Arend with her latest: Rocky Mountain Heat. I love the cowboy on the cover so much I am also posting her blurb here:)

Blake Coleman is old enough to know that acting on impulse causes nothing but a heap of trouble. But when trouble’s a blonde wearing a cowboy hat with slim legs that go on forever, what’s a man to do? Wanting the sweet girl next door is just wrong. Hell, he was the one that taught her to ride a horse and now all he can think about is riding her. The responsible thing to do is keep his hands off.

Jaxi has other plans for his hands, and his heart. She may have considered Blake a big brother once but that was a long time ago. She’s all grown up now and ready to convince him that she’s just what he’s been waiting for.

Add the complication of two sexy younger brothers who have suddenly noticed Jaxi and things heat up fast. Blake’s gonna have to decide if a little trouble is worth fighting for.

Edited by Roxy Harte:

Reaper will officially be available at 7:00pm EST

Edits, Writing, and PMS...

As you know I've been working on LOVERS this week, hoping to start submitting it around by the end of the month...and ready to absolutely pull my hair out because every time I tie up a loose thread I find two more...completely ripped out a fatal flaw and started from scratch on one of my secondary characters...yikes...but with eight, yes I said eight, main characters...all interconnected lovers...and written from each character's POV it was bound to get messy.

I sent in a proposal for my paranormal that got only so far as, "maybe this is too much horror" for our audience...hmmm...last time I looked it wasn't very horrorific which just goes to show that both my proposal skills and my blurb skills need work. This time last year I had an amazing editor I could bounce proposal ideas off of and he would point out what worked and what didn't work...but since he has fallen off the edge of cyberspace I am now left to my own devices...sigh.

Maybe I'll just kill everyone off at the end of the paranormal and make it a horror story then I could use the current proposal to sell to a different market.

No doubt, they'd write back and say its too erotic romance for them...

Really, I'm not being bitchy, it's the PMS talking.

It is a frustrating game I play though, bouncing ideas back and forth and hoping someone somewhere will like what I've already written...and not have to go back to square one as is so many times the case. I have dozens of partials sitting on the back-back burner waiting to be fleshed out...and at least six (I think I'm forgetting one) on the back burner almost complete...and four I'm drifting back and forth between polishing up. Which means I am constantly scanning the lists for who is acquiring what in the hopes I have something that will fit...and in the case of the recent Secretary WIP (which is now titled SO YOU WANT A JOB) I started from page one word one and just wrote to meet the need...

The good news is...

Edits are finished on both REAPER and PRODIGAL SLAVE (both coming out with Liquid Silver) Reaper has been through both proofer and readers AND has cover art. Prodigal Slave should be shooting off to the proofer in short order....

A final draft of SO YOU WANT A JOB has been sent in to Loose-Id and is now awaiting edits.

Oh, oh...and PORNSTAR now has a home with Samhain!!! Yes, my lesbian erotica will be published! It also has a new title: HEART OF CHANGE.

And SACRED SECRETS is waiting in queue waiting for a release date with Lyrical Press:)

All in all it hasn't been a bad week...

Gray Outside, Sunny Inside

Ever wake up just feeling insanely optimistic? You know, a song in your heart, a smile on your face...even though its seven am, raining, and you only had four hours sleep? Yeah, I'm not usually that girl...but this morning...I don't know, I just feel invincible. And the rejection letter may have played a small part because all day yesterday I dwelled on what I want from my writing career...

Last night, I wrote out The Plan.
This morning, I am off and running...

Here's how the rest of 2009 should go if my writing stays on track:

DEAD GIRL:
The paranormal WIP, now has a working title: Dead Girl. The paranormal venture is going to have three books total and I plan to get out and hussle them the old fashioned way...find an agent, find a publisher...hopefully it won't take a decade, but ya know, I've got nothing but time. The other two stories in the series will be titled: BIG BAD and MOMMA GOOD. This series is going to be my driving focus for the rest of this year. (80K each)

PRODIGAL SLAVE:
In between paranormal drafts I've gotta get WIP Prodigal Slave finished and out the door...it's still at 42K, I'm shooting for 55k...Xandra, after last night's read advised 100k, calling it a Big Book. I'm still feeling 55K, maybe 60, 80 tops, but we'll see. I already sent out a query promising ASAP so I really gotta move on this one. (bdsm, erotica)

VOW OF SILENCE:
The secondary character from The Chronicles of Surrender, George aka Dr. Psycho, has his own story to tell and turns out it is a prequel to the series...so I hope to get it finished this year. Right now it is roughly at 20%. Still deciding where to send it though...I have my fingers crossed for a particular house and have already queried an editor who wants to see it. (80K, bdsm, erotica)

ECHO OF REDEMPTION:
Yes, the fourth book of the Chronicles of Surrender is back in my thoughts and I'll be taking notes the rest of the year with it being a main focus by December. (80-90K, bdsm, erotica)

So, fewer small books...ie REAPER, VOYEUR, EDGE...but still room for one or two if I am so inspired...

Still have the big book LOVERS on a back burner, but sadly that baby is going to have to wait until 2010. I mean, all totalled, I'm looking at writing 400K just on what's listed...I know, divided by 8 months, roughly 50K per month, lofty goal, but I needed to start somewhere.

Set Goals High

Yesterday, I spent a fair amount of time reworking all the plot points and world events for my paranormal and after brainstorming with Sir Hotness my brain felt like it was imploding...

In a panic I called Xandra and said, "Maybe I should just write another erotica, put this on the back burner." and she said, "Don't you dare."

I woke up feeling much more optimistic and then read my horoscope:

Friday, Apr 24th, 2009 -- Today's pragmatic New Moon in your 1st House of Personality enables you to accomplish so much that you might surprise yourself. It's not just that you are able to sustain a high level of production; it's that you won't be dissuaded by anyone's argument. Your well-known stubbornness is a positive attribute now that enables you to overcome significant obstacles. Set your goals high and follow through with unwavering determination.

So, I am going to let what is in my head percolate awhile longer...not because I want to but because today is going to be a jam packed day. Doctor appointment this a.m. and a track meet (invitational) later this afternoon.

I'm excited...so excited that this paranormal is already becoming a trilogy.
I just need to get started now.

Did Anyone Notice?

Yesterday was Friday the Thirteenth, the second Friday the thirteenth in as many months...back to back...and it was a full moon...

Seems like the perfect time to talk about my split-writer-personality...

I love, love, love to write about sex, BDSM, and unusual romances...thus, Roxy Harte, erotica writer...

But I've also been writing paranormal both romantic and straight fiction since 1996...without submitting...because I've seen them as stories just for me. A vacation from my norm...

Recently, I've been looking them over with a critical eye and feel that they are just as well written, just as entertaining as my erotica, and I've been thinking, why not try to get them published?

Intent I have put in motion this month with my submission to Liquid Silver Books of REAPER...and had accepted...so it is coming soon. I am very excited!

I have several more I plan to spruce up, finish (they're kind of in an unfinished limbo on the back burner), and get submitted...

And I know I am not the first writer to worry about such things, but my pen name, Roxy Harte, has become associated with BDSM emotionally-psychologically charged erotica...and I don't want someone to pick up one of my paranormals and think that is what they are getting. Likewise, I do not want someone whose first impression of my writing as paranormal to pick up a BDSM charged erotic and hurl obsenities at me because they didn't realize what they were getting...

So what to do? What to do?

I'm leaving the question open over the weekend, anyone with any ideas or comments, anyone who has previously dealt with a similar issue or was disappointed or pleasantly surprised by an author who pulled a genre-changaroo...comment. I need input...

I'm kind of toying with using my maiden name...instead of Roxy Harte.
Or I could used my married name (which would be strange because I never changed my name to the last name of my latest husband)...

REAPER

Since my last post...I'm not eating or sleeping...I'm drinking too much caffeine...and I'm WRITING! What am I working on?

Here it is...the much anticipated blurb to my very first paranormal!

Reaper
By Roxy Harte

Kendra Lake has a secret she’s keeping from Detective Jonathon Taylor of NYPD’s Homicide division and he will not rest until he discovers what it is since she has been linked to at least three crime scenes in as many days. But when he discovers who she really is the truth comes with a price tag, die or become one of her kind, a conveyor of souls.