Guest Blogger and Bookmate Kate Douglas visits!

Kate Douglas was kind enough to send me a few words about our co-release, NOCTURNAL, which is hitting the shelves TODAY!!! Thought I would share with all of you!

Hi Jacki—many apologies for sending this so late—I had planned to write it earlier this evening when I suddenly realized I had to be at a scheduled Aphrodisia Authors chat, and after the chat I started working on a proposal for a new series and had one of those OB-CRS moments, aka old broad can’t remember shit...

Anyway, today is the day! Nocturnal started popping up in stores a week ago, but it’s not officially on the shelves until today, and I’m really excited to see this one out and about. First, it’s very cool to share a spot with you—while we’ve both written for different imprints at Kensington, it appears we’re both guilty of crossing over to test the waters in a new sub-genre. Congratulations on your new Aphrodisia title coming out next month! I’m really looking forward to seeing just what kind of trouble Jax can get you into. Sometimes those alter egos can REALLY raise a ruckus!

For me, the switch was in the opposite direction when I sold The DemonSlayers series for the Zebra imprint. Still sexy, but not as over-the-top as my Wolf Tales, and really a lot of fun. The first book, DemonFire, released in February—a day I celebrated by running my truck into the side of a mountain and just about totaling the poor baby out. Mountain one...pickup zero. I’ve decided I’d much rather celebrate the release of my new books without any personal carnage or damage to expensive machinery. Therefore, I stayed home the day HellFire released last week. Much less costly that way! Today I intend to do the same. I’ll do my chatting about Crystal Dreams, my story in Nocturnal, online, thank you very much.

This was such a fun story to write. The muse really smiled on me and I wrote the entire thing in about three days. Once I had my heroine—Marigold Moonbeam Schwartz—the entire story fell into place. Wish they were all that easy! Mari is a straight-laced banker who’s just lost her job and is headed home to Evergreen from San Francisco. It has NOT been a good week. Besides getting laid-off, she’s caught her live-in boyfriend sacked up with another woman, discovered he’s spent most of her money, and now she’s got to take care of her mother’s crystal shop while her father recuperates from surgery.

Mari has a rather uncomfortable relationship with her parents—they’re old hippies who, she thinks, have smoked one too many joints. Her mother believes she’s a witch, and Mari doesn’t swallow any of that garbage—until she’s attacked by demons and rescued by a seven foot tall Lemurian warrior wielding a crystal sword. Life sort of takes a big flip-flop just shy of reality after Darius saves her life, but Mari definitely rolls with the punches, even though she’s in as much danger of losing her heart as she is of losing her life.

Finding out Mom and Dad aren’t so crazy after all is the least of her discoveries—finding out she’s a more powerful witch than dear old Mom is a hell of a shocker. If you’re at all interested in reading a bit, I’ve got the first chapter posted at http://www.katedouglas.com/home.htm Just click on the cover. If you go to www.katedouglas.com/eroticromance, you’ll find excerpts of my Wolf Tales and Sexy Beast stories, but over 18 only, please.

The series so far is DemonFire, HellFire and then Nocturnal/Crystal Dreams. StarFire releases in April 2011.
And thank you, Jacki, for letting me get a word in on your blog. It’s much appreciated.

Kate Douglas

www.facebook.com/katedouglas.authorpage
www.twitter.com/wolftales

And thank you Kate for coming to visit!

In other news, I'm in desperate need of an assistant. I need to organize my emails, blogs, guest appearances, a mailing list etc. Someone who can work the online scene, tell me where to go and when to go there, etc. I just can't keep track of it all anymore. Holding contests, mailing books out after people win them, mailing ARCs to reviewers, chasing down pirates...HELP! The problem is, how exactly does one find someone to do these things? As we all know I SUCK at choosing people to clean my own home (finally landed a gem! TG!!) I am apparently a poor judge of character. So, I need help, but I don't trust myself to find anyone good.

*Looks around for her funny white coat with the 360 degree arms*
Hugs and Kitties
Jacki