I saw my first crocuses in bloom yesterday, so spring has officially arrived in my part of Canada (not far from Toronto, Ontario) They were a deep purple (my favorite), and the sight of them really lifted my spirits.
I'm not a winter person...AT ALL. Winter tends to depress me. Due to some ongoing mobility issues, I tend to be housebound in winter, so by February, cabin fever is setting in. The days are so short, that exposure to any sunshine is limited. The frigid winter wind finds every crack and crevice, and the winds whip around my building like angry demons. The only consolation is the odd day of pristine beauty when it has snowed and the sun shines on the blanket of white making it glitter like so many diamonds.
So how nice it was yesterday to hop in the car, the sun beaming and filling the vehicle with heat. I was able to shrug off my jacket and actually feel the sun's touch on my skin. Heavenly. The spring breezes smell sweet. The tree on my patio (not sure what species...possibly Aspen?) is in bloom with delicate while flowers. There are buds on my lilac bushes, and my purple iris has bloomed. I feel somewhat renewed in energy and spirit. Now if I could just translate that to my writing.
I have so many writing projects planned for this year, and maybe that's the problem. I've spread myself too thin...have too many irons in the proverbial fire. I need focus, and a few good time management tips. Over the next couple of months I need to get writing three shorts fo my next Hottest Heat collection, finish a first draft of a novella for an anthology project I'm partly in charge of, get going on my next interracial novella, plus keep up with my busy 'for pay' editing jobs. Oh well, I guess it's better to be busy than bored.
Till next time,
Paige
Friday, May 17, 2013
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Another acceptance
I'm so pleased. I was just offered a contract with Phaze Books for my erotic romance, Hot for the Handyman.
With this story, I did something a little different. I made my main character in her mid-fifties, and her love (lust) interest, in his early thirties. She's not a cougar in the generally accepted sense. She's never had the desire to date younger men before, although her best friend is a card carrying cougar. The hero, on the other hand, regularly dated older women, preferring their maturity and stability to younger women. When my heroine meets the delicious handyman, though, it's lust at first sight...for both of them.
Here's the blurb:
Fifty-three year old widow Yvetta Phelps is lonely. She had a great marriage with her late husband, and put her own life on hold after his death three years prior, but now she realizes that she misses the intimacy of a relationship with a man and needs to move forward. She has Byron, a fellow widower, whom she met at church. The two friends keep each other company and go out for dinners or to the theater. But Byron doesn't move her romantically. There's no spark there.
Enter, Ray Cameron, the young attractive handyman she's hired to build a deck on the back of her house. From the first moment they meet, the sexual tension is thick between them. Ray prefers the company of mature women and thinks Yvetta is the most beautiful woman he's ever met. Yvetta is likewise smitten, but fights the attraction due to her fears around their age difference and what people will think, most especially her twenty-six year old daughter, Tanisha.
Inevitably, they succumb to their attraction and spend a transformative night together, but it only fuels Yvetta's self doubt, and she almost loses Ray as a result. It takes forgiveness, and an understanding heart (and steaming hot sex) to bring the two of them back together. And in the end, Yvetta comes to realize that life is too short not to grab hold of the happiness that comes one's way.
Now that this book is done and accepted, I will move on to my stories for The Hottest Heat Vol.3, which is slated for a fall release from Cambridge Press US. In the meantime, Vols. 1 and 2 are available if you want a quick hot summer read. www.cambridgepress.us
It's true what they say...no rest for the wicked! ;o)
Until next time,
Paige
With this story, I did something a little different. I made my main character in her mid-fifties, and her love (lust) interest, in his early thirties. She's not a cougar in the generally accepted sense. She's never had the desire to date younger men before, although her best friend is a card carrying cougar. The hero, on the other hand, regularly dated older women, preferring their maturity and stability to younger women. When my heroine meets the delicious handyman, though, it's lust at first sight...for both of them.
Here's the blurb:
Fifty-three year old widow Yvetta Phelps is lonely. She had a great marriage with her late husband, and put her own life on hold after his death three years prior, but now she realizes that she misses the intimacy of a relationship with a man and needs to move forward. She has Byron, a fellow widower, whom she met at church. The two friends keep each other company and go out for dinners or to the theater. But Byron doesn't move her romantically. There's no spark there.
Enter, Ray Cameron, the young attractive handyman she's hired to build a deck on the back of her house. From the first moment they meet, the sexual tension is thick between them. Ray prefers the company of mature women and thinks Yvetta is the most beautiful woman he's ever met. Yvetta is likewise smitten, but fights the attraction due to her fears around their age difference and what people will think, most especially her twenty-six year old daughter, Tanisha.
Inevitably, they succumb to their attraction and spend a transformative night together, but it only fuels Yvetta's self doubt, and she almost loses Ray as a result. It takes forgiveness, and an understanding heart (and steaming hot sex) to bring the two of them back together. And in the end, Yvetta comes to realize that life is too short not to grab hold of the happiness that comes one's way.
Now that this book is done and accepted, I will move on to my stories for The Hottest Heat Vol.3, which is slated for a fall release from Cambridge Press US. In the meantime, Vols. 1 and 2 are available if you want a quick hot summer read. www.cambridgepress.us
It's true what they say...no rest for the wicked! ;o)
Until next time,
Paige
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Something new finally
I'm so excited! I just sent off a new novella to Phaze Books for their consideration.
I've been working on this story since Christmas, and had planned to have it done long before now, but as with all best laid plans, life happened now and again, and it took till now to get it done. But finish it, I did. And now Hot For The Handyman, is in the hands of the submissions editor and I await her response.
This part of the process drives me nuts. I am not the most patient of people, so waiting for responses can drive me round the bend. I learned long ago to just mentally, forget about the last story, and move on to the next job.
My next project is three new shorts for Cambridge Press. I'm committed to releasing a third Hottest Heat collection in the fall, so must get busy. I at least have the bare bones ideas for all three stories, so it's just a matter of sitting down and beginning.
But, back to Hot for the Handyman. This interracial story is a bit different from previous work. This time, I have a May/September relationship, involving a 53 year old African American woman, and her 32 year old handyman, hired to build a deck on her house. He prefers dating older women. She's very concious about what people might think of their age difference. On top of this, her daughter is almost the same age as the handyman and disapproves greatly of her mother's choice. I had a lot of fun working through these issues with these characters. I hope Phaze chooses to publish it, and then I hope you all enjoy reading it.
Keep your fingers crossed for me.
Til next time,
Paige
I've been working on this story since Christmas, and had planned to have it done long before now, but as with all best laid plans, life happened now and again, and it took till now to get it done. But finish it, I did. And now Hot For The Handyman, is in the hands of the submissions editor and I await her response.
This part of the process drives me nuts. I am not the most patient of people, so waiting for responses can drive me round the bend. I learned long ago to just mentally, forget about the last story, and move on to the next job.
My next project is three new shorts for Cambridge Press. I'm committed to releasing a third Hottest Heat collection in the fall, so must get busy. I at least have the bare bones ideas for all three stories, so it's just a matter of sitting down and beginning.
But, back to Hot for the Handyman. This interracial story is a bit different from previous work. This time, I have a May/September relationship, involving a 53 year old African American woman, and her 32 year old handyman, hired to build a deck on her house. He prefers dating older women. She's very concious about what people might think of their age difference. On top of this, her daughter is almost the same age as the handyman and disapproves greatly of her mother's choice. I had a lot of fun working through these issues with these characters. I hope Phaze chooses to publish it, and then I hope you all enjoy reading it.
Keep your fingers crossed for me.
Til next time,
Paige
Saturday, April 6, 2013
A loveletter to my readers
Dear Readers,
I want you to know how very grateful I am for all your support and interest this past couple of years. It means the world to me.
As writers, we live in our heads a lot of the time. Our deepest relationships are often with our fictional characters. We are, in a sense, living vicariously through them. And I know for myself, it's easy to become a bit of a hermit, as a writer.
So to know that there are people out there who are actually reading and enjoying the words I write, is a great comfort. It spurs me to continue writing, creating these fictional worlds filled with whatever fantasies my imagination can conjure.
I have lots of new stuff planned, including a series of three inconnected novellas for Phaze. I'm just finishing up an interracial erotic romance novella for Phaze, and have committed to three more stories for a third volume of my Hottest Heat series for Cambridge Press US scheduled for the fall. And it's all for you, dear readers.
In the meantime, if you're looking for my hot reads, visit my page at Phaze: http://www.phaze.com/author.php?author=256 or my page at Cambridge Press US http://www.cambridgepress.us/catalogue.html
And if you visit here, I'd love to get your comments. Let me know if you've read my work and give me your thoughts.
Till next time,
~Paige
I want you to know how very grateful I am for all your support and interest this past couple of years. It means the world to me.
As writers, we live in our heads a lot of the time. Our deepest relationships are often with our fictional characters. We are, in a sense, living vicariously through them. And I know for myself, it's easy to become a bit of a hermit, as a writer.
So to know that there are people out there who are actually reading and enjoying the words I write, is a great comfort. It spurs me to continue writing, creating these fictional worlds filled with whatever fantasies my imagination can conjure.
I have lots of new stuff planned, including a series of three inconnected novellas for Phaze. I'm just finishing up an interracial erotic romance novella for Phaze, and have committed to three more stories for a third volume of my Hottest Heat series for Cambridge Press US scheduled for the fall. And it's all for you, dear readers.
In the meantime, if you're looking for my hot reads, visit my page at Phaze: http://www.phaze.com/author.php?author=256 or my page at Cambridge Press US http://www.cambridgepress.us/catalogue.html
And if you visit here, I'd love to get your comments. Let me know if you've read my work and give me your thoughts.
Till next time,
~Paige
Saturday, March 16, 2013
the Swedish mannequin hoax
This afternoon when I logged online, a news item appeared regarding how a story had made the rounds this last couple of days, that a big Swedish store were using plus-sized mannequins and wasn't that a great thing. The picture accompanying the story showed a beautifully curvy mannequin in a sexy purple bra and panties set. The store was getting kudos all over the place. And then here's the kicker. It was all a hoax, apparently.
How sad. Yet at the same time, how cool! I mean, it would have been wonderful if the stores really were using realisitic looking mannequins based on what real average women look like. Maybe all the positive press they've been getting will prompt them to actually do so. What's cool to me is how much positive attention and praise the notion got. Could it be that notions of what contitute beauty are starting to change, moving away from the anorexic stick figure please-give-the-girl-a-sandwich image we're stuck with now? God, I hope so.
As you may guess, I'm a plus-sized woman...a BBW...and damned proud of it. I don't apologize for my curves and, in fact, try and celebrate the BBW as often as possible through my writing. Many of my heroines are blessed with a bounty of flesh and living pretty steamy lives, I might add *wink*. I'm so sick and tired of me and those like me, being ignored in fashion, being berated by the medical profession, being shamed by society. It's not right. We all have a place in this world and should be able to fill it without having to apologize.
So, H&M Sweden (and elsewhere), you've already gotten the kudos for a job well done, so why not follow through and actually do it. I, for one, would love to look in a store window and see a reflection of myself there, and not just in the glass. Let's hope this is a step in the right direction.
Until next time,
~Paige
How sad. Yet at the same time, how cool! I mean, it would have been wonderful if the stores really were using realisitic looking mannequins based on what real average women look like. Maybe all the positive press they've been getting will prompt them to actually do so. What's cool to me is how much positive attention and praise the notion got. Could it be that notions of what contitute beauty are starting to change, moving away from the anorexic stick figure please-give-the-girl-a-sandwich image we're stuck with now? God, I hope so.
As you may guess, I'm a plus-sized woman...a BBW...and damned proud of it. I don't apologize for my curves and, in fact, try and celebrate the BBW as often as possible through my writing. Many of my heroines are blessed with a bounty of flesh and living pretty steamy lives, I might add *wink*. I'm so sick and tired of me and those like me, being ignored in fashion, being berated by the medical profession, being shamed by society. It's not right. We all have a place in this world and should be able to fill it without having to apologize.
So, H&M Sweden (and elsewhere), you've already gotten the kudos for a job well done, so why not follow through and actually do it. I, for one, would love to look in a store window and see a reflection of myself there, and not just in the glass. Let's hope this is a step in the right direction.
Until next time,
~Paige
Thursday, February 28, 2013
life's monkey wrenches
Once again, life has thrown a monkey wrench into the works, just as I got back into a good rhythm with my work.
Earlier this week, my dear elderly Mom had a bad fall and broke her hip. This is the fall I've been dreading, and now that it's here, it's really thrown me for a loop. She had surgery to put in pins and such to hold it together, and sailed through that with flying colors. Getting over that hurdle helped tone my anxiety down a bit. And each night that she's gotten through and awakened the next morning, helps even more. It's doubly hard because I live some distance from her, and we've had some nasty weather this past few days, restricting my ability to get out (I deal with some mobility issues of my own...ice and snow are NOT my friends) Thankfully my only sibling lives closer to her and is able to get in and get updates on a regular basis. I would appreciate you keeping her in your prayers (if you believe in such things...those who don't, well, some positive energy sent her way would be lovely)
February was a productive month with the release of both Appetite for Seduction and my second Hottest Heat collection. I'm now struggling to finish another interracial erotic romance novella for Phaze...this one a May/September romance...cougars anyone? I have a romance under my 'real' name coming out in April (I hope), and am scheduled to release another Hottest Heat collection in September. Somewhere in between those dates, an anthology under my 'real' name will be released as well.
Now if life would just stop throwing those monkey wrenches!
Earlier this week, my dear elderly Mom had a bad fall and broke her hip. This is the fall I've been dreading, and now that it's here, it's really thrown me for a loop. She had surgery to put in pins and such to hold it together, and sailed through that with flying colors. Getting over that hurdle helped tone my anxiety down a bit. And each night that she's gotten through and awakened the next morning, helps even more. It's doubly hard because I live some distance from her, and we've had some nasty weather this past few days, restricting my ability to get out (I deal with some mobility issues of my own...ice and snow are NOT my friends) Thankfully my only sibling lives closer to her and is able to get in and get updates on a regular basis. I would appreciate you keeping her in your prayers (if you believe in such things...those who don't, well, some positive energy sent her way would be lovely)
February was a productive month with the release of both Appetite for Seduction and my second Hottest Heat collection. I'm now struggling to finish another interracial erotic romance novella for Phaze...this one a May/September romance...cougars anyone? I have a romance under my 'real' name coming out in April (I hope), and am scheduled to release another Hottest Heat collection in September. Somewhere in between those dates, an anthology under my 'real' name will be released as well.
Now if life would just stop throwing those monkey wrenches!
Saturday, February 9, 2013
The weather outside...
"Oh, the weather outside is frightful..." Unfortunately, I don't have a nice fireplace for the 'delightful' fire spoken of in the song. Wish I did. And no, I don't share the song's sentiments to "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow". If anything, I can't wait for it all to melt.
I find myself really irritated at friends of mine who are ecstatic about this recent storm front that dumped several inches of snow all over the Great Lakes area. They rapsodize about the great skiing, the fun they had tobaggoning with the kids, building that giant snowman in the front yard. BAH HUMBUG, I say. BAH!! They neglect to mention the back breaking job of digging out the car, the thoughtless plough that piles up three feet of snow after I've just dug out said car, the idiot drivers who think a layer of snow on the highway means drive faster, the difficulties of getting around on foot through the freezing wet mess. I intend to just hunker down and hibernate until all of this crappy white stuff is gone.
One upside in being confined to home though, is I can get some writing done. And this month is heavy with releases, so I need to spend some time on promoting and updating my websites and such.
The ebook version of An Appetite for Seduction is now available at Phaze Books. www.phaze.com The Hottest Heat Vol.2 will be released Valentine's Day from Cambridge Press US www.cambridgepress.us This volume is hotter than the first, I feel, and would make a great naughty gift for your special someone. February 19 sees the release of the print version of An Appetite for Seduction. Included in this version are three of my previously published stories from Phaze: Cheek to Cheek, Lust and Found, and Focused Desire.
I just entered Cheek to Cheek in the Swirl Awards, and nominated the cover for Best Cover. www.swirlawards.com These awards recognize the best in mulitcultural romance. You can participate. Go to their site to find out how.
Til next time...Paige.
I find myself really irritated at friends of mine who are ecstatic about this recent storm front that dumped several inches of snow all over the Great Lakes area. They rapsodize about the great skiing, the fun they had tobaggoning with the kids, building that giant snowman in the front yard. BAH HUMBUG, I say. BAH!! They neglect to mention the back breaking job of digging out the car, the thoughtless plough that piles up three feet of snow after I've just dug out said car, the idiot drivers who think a layer of snow on the highway means drive faster, the difficulties of getting around on foot through the freezing wet mess. I intend to just hunker down and hibernate until all of this crappy white stuff is gone.
One upside in being confined to home though, is I can get some writing done. And this month is heavy with releases, so I need to spend some time on promoting and updating my websites and such.
The ebook version of An Appetite for Seduction is now available at Phaze Books. www.phaze.com The Hottest Heat Vol.2 will be released Valentine's Day from Cambridge Press US www.cambridgepress.us This volume is hotter than the first, I feel, and would make a great naughty gift for your special someone. February 19 sees the release of the print version of An Appetite for Seduction. Included in this version are three of my previously published stories from Phaze: Cheek to Cheek, Lust and Found, and Focused Desire.
I just entered Cheek to Cheek in the Swirl Awards, and nominated the cover for Best Cover. www.swirlawards.com These awards recognize the best in mulitcultural romance. You can participate. Go to their site to find out how.
Til next time...Paige.
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