Author Christine d’Abo

I’ve had a MySpace page for a little while now, but I hadn’t done much with it. Now, I’m going to see how much fun I can have with it.

Okay, so I’m looking for friends. Please be my friend…

 http://www.myspace.com/christinedabo

When Jaci had a contest a while ago for ARCs of her up coming book, I jumped at the chance to read it. I wanted to make sure that I gave her a proper review and didn’t go all fan girl on her. So here we go…

Wild, Wicked & Wanton is the story of three best friends Abby, Blair and Callie. These ladies are single, beautiful, and horny as hell. They all need to get laid, each harboring secret sexual fantasies that are screaming to be fulfilled. The three ladies have a bet - they must sleep with a man chosen by the other two. No backing out!

Abby is approached by the two vets she is doing her internship with for a date - together. Abby has always wondered what it would be like to be with two men at once, and why not with two of the hottest men she knows. But when she has to choose between Mike and Seth, Abby can only choose with her heart.

Blair has had the hots for Rand since High School. While she’s had wild fantasies of totally submitting to a man in the bedroom, it scares her at the same time. She doesn’t want to end up like her mother. But

Rand fires her up in ways no other man ever has. Can she trust him enough to submit?

Callie has a secret - she’s an exhibitionist and a voyeur. She’s been alone for the past five years after the death of her husband. When Jack gives her his business card with his number on it one day, she’s more than interested. Jack shares her love of watching and being watched. But when she’s pressured to leave him or have his career destroyed, can she walk away?

I love how these are three separate, yet interconnected stories. The three women are very different, with different things that turn them on. Jaci does an excellent job at exploring not only the emotion of the three romances, but exploring the desires behind each of their fantasies. I believed each of them, the reasons for their hesitation and the thrill of letting go and exploring their desires.

The heroes are all hot and caring. They love their ladies and would do anything for them. They are the perfect foils for their heroines, encouraging them to explore their sexuality to the limits.

I knew nothing about the plot when I started reading. I found the story picked up very quickly, and it took me a second to realize what I was in for. The sex is hot and the emotion runs deep. I found myself laughing and crying right along with ABC

Okay, time for the fan girl in me to come out. OMG do yourself a favor and buy this book! Hot, burning, drove me up the wall smoking!! I’ll be picking up a copy so I can read it over and over. I totally was sucked into each of their fantasies. Hell, my glasses got steamed! It’s coming out on May 1st! You can pre-order here!

I’m giving Wild, Wicked & Wanton a five out of five!

Where has the time gone?? We’re in the middle of April and I think I blinked and missed March. I have a feeling May will be just as crazy. There are so many things going on, I find I’ve been putting a lot of other things off. So my list this week is going to talk about the things that I want to do soon.

Thirteen Things I really want to do. 1. Watch movies. I keep buying all these great movies from the bargin bin at the grocery store, but I have no time to watch them. One of these days I’m going to have a movie weekend. 2. Read a book from my TRB pile. I just read Jaci’s Wild, Wicked and Wanton (review on tomorrow’s blog), but I still have a huge pile sitting there. I need to get through these. 3. Start exercising. I used to exercise an hour a day, every day. I need to get back and do this again. No excuses. 4. Plan my garden. I love spring and gardening. This is my fist spring in this house and I can’t wait to get digging. That said, I need a plan. 5. Plan my marketing strategy. This is something I’ve been thinking a lot about recently. I hope maybe this weekend I’ll be able to sit down and plan out what I’m going to do. A big thanks to everyone who offered suggestions yesterday. 6. Plot a new paranormal. I have this great idea that’s been bouncing around in my head for a while. I need to take a day to sit down and really plot it out before I lose it. 7. Walk around my property. As I said, we haven’t been in our house very long. I have yet to really walk around and check out all the cool places on our property. I plan to do that this spring. Or as soon as the snow stops!! 8. Teach my girls how to ride their bikes. They both need new bikes to do that, but this year I really want to help them learn. I love riding my bike and it’s something fun we can do together. 9. Watch a new TV show. There are so many shows that people keep telling me about. I’d love to take some time (maybe this summer) to sit down and get caught up with them. House…I’d really like to see this. 10. Practice my guitar. I play. Not very well, but I do play. I’d really love to dig it out and start practicing again. Maybe even take lessons again to get better. 11. Finish knitting my blanket. Another thing that always gets set aside. If I can’t do it in a short time frame, it never seems to get finished. However, I really want to make this blanket. 12. Sleep. I’ve been sleeping like crap recently. I’d love to have one, maybe two really good nights sleep. 13. Relax. I don’t know if you’ve picked up on this, but I’m a very high strung person. I really need to learn how to relax before I burn out. My husband has been telling me this for years, but I can’t seem to do it. I have two modes: run and sleep.

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I’m in the process of trying to figure out how to market my upcoming book The Bond That Ties Us, and the other three books I hope to have coming out from EC this year on a major budget. I mean I have no money kind of budget. So I’ve been struggling to figure out what I should be doing.

I have my website (which I think kicks ass), I love my blog (I’m a chatter box in real life too), I participate on a variety of message boards. But what else? I’m going to price bookmarks, post cards and the like. There must be other things.

As a reader, what makes you notice an author? As an author, what have you found the most successful marketing tool?

My good friend and critique partner Renee Field has had her debut novella nominated for an award! Please log in here and vote for Renee’s novella Love Me Wild.

Thanks!

I just saw this video! Too funny.

 http://ca.video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=39394&fr=&cache=1

Okay so I tend to exaggerate a little. :) 

I’m working on a presentation for our RWAC retreat in May. I’m pulling together some exercises and activities that I found really helpful when I was writing Bond. It got me thinking about the importance of your character’s GMC (Goal, Motivation, Conflict). I also had the pleasure of seeing Debra Dixon speak at a TRW workshop last May. She is a wonderful person, very knowledgeable, and wrote a fantastic book. If you don’t have it, I strongly recommend it.

In the first draft of The Bond That Ties Us, Haylie was a teacher. Now when you stop to consider I had her involved in preventing an attack on a colony with an alien ambassador, it didn’t really work. I found myself struggling with scenes and how she was reacting to them. Hell, I was having problems justfying why she was in some of the scenes. Her motivation was wrong. On top of that, the conflict didn’t quite work between her and Kamran either. I was forcing her into situation that she didn’t belong simply because she was my heroine. I realized she had to go and a new Haylie was born.

I changed her profession. What? Not a big change? For me it was huge. As the security chief of the colony she could be where she needed to be, and do what she needed to do and it made sense. Her goals didn’t change, but the reason behind them did.

If you are having problems with a story you’re writing, take a look at the character’s GMC. Not just on a scene by scene basis either. Sometimes the problem is larger than that. In the end, your story will be stronger if you can solve the GMC mystery.

Last night I watched three season finales: season finale of The Dresden Files, Stargate: Atlantis, and series finale of Stargate: SG1. Two left me satisfied and one didn’t.

The Dresden Files had a great ending. It moved the character and his relationship with Murphy (the female cop he works with) to the next level. It left me not only satisfied that their relationship would continue to move forward, but that it added a new level to both their characters. I like that. As a viewer I’ll tune into the next season to see what happens to Harry, Bob and Murphy.

Stargate: Atlantis has one advantage over SG1 - it’s coming back next season. That means they can end the show as a cliff hangar. Of course a seemingly impossible situation to get out of is always a great hook for a viewer. We not only want to know how they are going to get out of it, we NEED to know how they are going to get out of it. In fact, it will drive me nuts.

And then we have Stargate: SG1. Anyone who has read my blog for a while knows how much I love this show. And yes, I know they have two movies planned to wrap the story line up. But I have to say, I didn’t feel the finale was a fair way to end such an awesome show. They had some great character development and then took it all away. I won’t say anything more specific because I don’t want to ruin it for those who haven’t watched it and want to. But lets just say I can’t wait for the movies to come out. I need closure!

As a writer, this is a great lesson for me. It also explains why I find writing the end of my stories so difficult. I’m very aware of my readers and the journey I’ve taken them on. I don’t want to bring them so far and in the end leave them feeling unsatisfied. A strong ending isn’t just important for the story, but it will keep readers coming back again and again. I like to know that there is closure of the issues they faced in the book. I want to know they are going to be okay (or not, depending on the genre), and in the case of a romance, that they will live happily ever after.

What are some of the things you look for, things that leave you satisfied at the end of a book?

Yes, I was stretching for that title.

This weekend was a busy one for my family. Both my girls had cookie sale days with their Girl Guide troops. It was only for an hour each, but one was on Saturday and the other Sunday. They both sold a ton, which is awesome (means I don’t have to buy them). My oldest daughter also went out door to door selling them. I think they are all gone now, and my tummy is thankful. My youngest had a birthday party to go to as well, and I had to get my taxes done. In other words, we were hopping.

On the writing front, I did another round of edits on The Bond That Ties Us. I’m apparently clueless about where to capitalize a title and when not to *sigh*. I think I fixed everything up now, so I shouldn’t cause my editor any more problems. *crosses fingers*

My goals for this week are to get my edits for Bonds out (should be done them today), to finish up my last round of edits on my genie story. I’ve decided to send it to my current editor. I’m really excited for her to read it, but I want to make sure it’s really clean. I hope to get it finished this week.

I’m going to try and push myself and get chapter two of my Halloween story written. I managed to get chapter one done, and a good start on two, so it shouldn’t be too hard. I really want to make sure I get it done by the end of May, so I can get back to Perfect Match and get it cleaned up as well. The break from Match has been good for me though, so I don’t mind.

I’ve also been busy adding things to my website (now that I figured out how to do it). I’ve added my cover to the Bookshelf page, and I’m in the process of adding a bunch of Canadian EC authors on my Links page (not done yet, hopefully tonight). Make sure to stop by and check them out!

So my friends, what’s on your plate for this week?

I know I don’t normally post on Saturday, but I had to share this with you.

A little girl talking about what she would do to a monster…

ROFL!!