August - Only a day away!

In preparation for my two yummy releases for the month of August, I'm giving everyone who visits me often here on my blog a heads up.

I'm giving away at least one free download of each book in the month of August. Here is the catch. You need to be signed up to receive my newsletter in order to be eligible for the free copy.

My Newsletter is sent through my Yahoo Loop. This isn't a chat loop! I will only be using Yahoo as a conduit so don't worry about being apart of yet - another - loop. Grin.
So, sign up early and have one hurtle out of the way so I can put your name in a pot for a free... did I mention FREE copy of either Kilt Worthy or Soul Mate.

Click to join CatherineBybee

Yes, there is more to watch out for. Be sure and hop on over to my contest page on my website for the Red Rose Publishing contest going on the entire month of August. And pay attention to the interviews I'll be giving throughout the month.

Soul Mate's Trailer is up for an award!

Here I go again...

Soul Mate's trailer is up for 'You Gotta Read's Best Trailer Award'.

So by all means... take a look for yourself and mosey on over to:

http://yougottareadvideos.blogspot.com/

And vote from your heart.

New Video 7 & 8 things to do while waiting...

Did you really think it would be here? Okay... You did... I get that. But, I decided to post my 7 & 8 things to do while waiting for your editor - or publisher - to get back to you. If you've subbed a manuscript to a publisher or an agent, there are things you can do while you're waiting for "The Call". Stop on over to multi-published Dayana Knight's blog and view my latest video blog and stay up to date.

If you want me to post # 5 & 6 on your blog... leave a post here and enter into a pool of potential winners.

I'm such a tease.

I finally sat down and recorded my 7th and 8th thing to do while waiting for an editor to get back to you. But you have to wait until Monday to see the video blog. And, you'll have to go to Dayana Knight's Blog and check it out. Be sure and check it out... oh, and if you have a website, be sure and put that link in your comments.

Until Monday... toddles

One Lovely Blog Award ~

Lookie what I have? One Lovely Blog Award sent to me from Dayana Knight... My fellow Black Wolf author and friend.

Thank you so much! Here are the "rules" that go along with it:

1. Accept the award, along with the person's name who gave it to you and their blog link.

2. Pass the award to other blogs.

3. Remember to contact the other bloggers to let them know they've been chosen for the award.

So here we go... I'm going to send this to Rachel and Shelley.

Kilt Worthy's Release Date

Yeah!!! Kilt Worthy has a release date...

August 7th! I'll be setting up interviews and contests for my release.

I look forward to your feedback on my debut release.

Blurb:

Peering at the world from behind her camera lens, "Plain Jane" Parker is stunned to see a handsome hunk wearing a kilt as he confidently strolls down a busy Seattle street. Her dormant libido roars to life even before their eyes meet. Aroused and intrigued, she tosses aside her usual caution and follows when Logan MacLaren beckons for a delightfully sinful one-night stand.Logan is an exceptionally talented lover, wielding the abundant sword he sports beneath his plaid to deliver unparalleled pleasures. He reminds her to trust her instincts after reality proves they're a more perfect fit than either imagined.

Then Logan drops his bombshell: He's traveled through time to find her, and wants her to stay with him forever...in medieval Scotland.

Did Jane just have the most erotic sex of her life with a delusional crazy man, or is it truly possible for her one-night stand to last forever?

Winner is...

Thanks to all who stopped by my blog last week. Susan wanted me to post the
following message:


The winner of the pdf copy of Erin's Rebel is Cate Masters. Cate, if you could email me at susanmacatee@aol.com, I'll send out your download.

And thanks to everyone who posted yesterday. I had a ball talking to all of you. And thanks again for having me, Catherine.

Susan Macatee

Help me welcome Susan Macatee

Today's guest, Susan Macatee is a fellow WRP author and lover of time travel romance. Everyone posting a comment today will be entered in a chance to win a free download of Erin's Rebel. So post away and be sure and tell your friends to come over to play.

Thanks for coming today, Susan.

Tell us about your new book out now:

First of all, I’d like to thank you, Catherine, for inviting me to your blog. My book, Erin’s Rebel is my first romance novel and a Civil War time travel. I started work on the manuscript nearly ten years ago, when I first envisioned a modern day heroine being thrust into a Confederate army camp during the Civil War. The hard part for me was getting the time travel to work so the reader could suspend belief and go along for the ride. It took a lot of revising, but I finally got it right. It has sort of a time travel, reincarnation theme.

Here’s the blurb:

Philadelphia newspaper reporter, Erin Branigan, is engaged to marry an up-and-coming lawyer, but dreams of a man from the past change those plans and start her on a journey beyond time. After a car accident, Erin wakes to find herself living in the 1860s in a Confederate army camp.

Captain Will Montgomery, the man of her dreams, is now a flesh and blood Rebel soldier who sets her soul aflame. But the Irish beauty holds a secret he needs to unravel before he can place his trust in her. Can she correct a mistake made long ago that caused his death and denied her the love she was meant to have? Or is she doomed to live out her life with nothing but regret?

And here’s a short excerpt:

The sound of her name on his lips made her skin tingle. She tore the paper off the package. At the sight of the brooch, her breath caught.

“Do you like it?” he asked anxiously. “I had it made just for you.”

Eyeing him, she had a hard time finding her voice. This was Erin O’Connell’s brooch, the very one that had sent her back in time. It shone in her hands, new and unworn from time and wear.

What did this mean? She must be following Erin O’Connell’s footsteps. As far as she knew her being here hadn’t changed anything. Will was still destined to die this year.

“I didn’t mean to upset you, Erin. If you don’t want the brooch—”

“No.” She clasped the brooch against her chest as the meaning of his gift sank in. “It just means so much to me.”

His look of concern softened into a lopsided grin. “I’m happy you feel this way.”

“Thank you, Will.” She slipped the brooch into the pocket of her wrapper, then stood on her toes, lifting her arms to circle his neck. She kissed his cheek, inhaling his musky scent.

His mouth was on hers, hot and urgent. The softness of his moustache and chin beard tickled her lips. She opened to him, her tongue slipping inside to taste him thoroughly. He groaned, pressing the length of his body against her.

How do you respond when someone says… “Oh, you write THAT kind of book?”

Actually, I’ve never had that experience. Everyone seems impressed when I tell them I’m writing romance novels, and while Erin’s Rebel is a spicy romance, my stories vary from sweet to spicy. I don’t write hot, not because I think there’s anything wrong with that, but I just don’t feel qualified. I’ll leave hot to the expert writers, who do it very well. But if I were confronted with someone asking why I write romance, I’d have to say I write stories of adventure and love and they always have a happy ending. Who could ask for anything more than to be entertained, thrilled and to have a book end on a satisfying note?

What are your goals as a writer?

I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember, and my biggest ambition is to have people read my stories and be entertained. I have lots of stories swirling in my head and plan to write for as long as I can sit at my computer and type. It’s fun!

How many books to you read in a month?

I don’t get a lot of time to read for pleasure, but I do make it a point to set aside time each weekend to read. On average, I’d say one or two complete novels in a month.

Do you have anything new in the works?

Right now, I’ve got four releases coming out this year, one full-length historical, Confederate Rose, and three short stories, two of which will be included in historical romance anthologies. The first is called Northern Roses and Southern Belles, the other An American Rose Christmas. I also have a short vampire story, Sweet Redemption, that will be a stand-alone e-book. I’m also working on two new projects. One’s a post Civil War romance that is an offshoot of a young adult novel I had published years ago and is now out of print. The other is my first ever science fiction romance.

Where can we find you?

My website: www.susanmacatee.com
Blog: susanmacatee.blogspot.com
My group blog: slipintosomethingvictorian.wordpress.com

Where can we find your books?

The Wild Rose Press: www.thewildrosepress.com

I’d like to add that anyone who posts a comment today, will be entered
in a drawing to win a pdf copy of Erin’s Rebel.

Thanks for having me today, Catherine!

You're welcome, Susan. Thanks for coming.

Summer time, and the livin’ is easy!

I’ve had some time to recoup from my ‘vacation’ with the family. Although RVing isn’t a vacation. I don’t care how you spin it, the RV is a place where you cram your family into smaller accommodations with less facilities to take care of their basic needs. Or, as the previous owners wife of our RV said… “It’s another place to cook and clean.”

Our trip took us 4200 miles across the states. We visited 12 states in all, which may not sound like much if you live on the east coast, but having started in California you have to cover a lot of miles to hit that many states. We followed Route 66 until Arkansas than floated around there for a while. My DH’s paternal roots are there. We spent time headed North and crossed the Mississippi briefly while searching for an RV campground outside of St Louis. Then we found the 70 and headed home. Yep, a big circle!

So lets talk about the south. I’ve never seen a firefly in my life before this trip and those lil’ bugs are a marvel. Truly something I felt giddy about as they flew over the White River. I enjoyed those more on the 4th of July than the fireworks blowing off everywhere. In California, it’s illegal to buy, or set off fireworks in nearly every county. So when we found ourselves in Kansas on the 4th we enjoyed every moment of the celebration of our country’s freedom.

Now we saw a lot of historical places, crossed many large and lazy rivers. But one of the things that stuck out more than anything was the people. Friendly, helpful and smiling strangers happy to have crossed your path. You don’t have to have blown a tire outside of Winslow Arizona and have the Highway Patrol blow past you without even stopping to notice the difference when you arrive in a small town, but it helps. I’m not bad mouthing the two officers who couldn’t be bothered… nor am I giving a hunk of garbage to the strangers in California… but I sure did like the warmth of the people of the south. No, let me change that to the people in middle America.

Ohh… and the RV? It’s for sale. Next year, I’m gonna let someone else cook and clean. I’m thinking a Hawaiian cruise where all I have to do is choose my menu and lift my hand for that little drink with the colorful umbrella.

I'm ready to get home!!!

I'm ready to be home... We're on our final miles with over 3,500 traveled on this trip. This is only one of three issues with "the big rolling turd" and this happened on day 2 and 3... yes... 2 AND 3. I'll chat all about it when I'm home and with a faster Internet. LOL...

I can say this. The USA is a beautiful country and for those who've never drove it you should... ONCE! Nothing like a family in a 28 foot space with a BIG dog for two weeks to make you appreciate your own personal space.

Pray for no more flat tires, alternator mishaps or slipping transmissions!

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July

For the first time in years I'll be in a different state for this holiday. I hope where ever we are today we are allowed to set off a few sparklies...

Lord knows we can't in So. California.

Stay safe everyone.

For my friends abroad...

Much like St. Patricks Day, the 4th is as good excuse as any to drink too much, eath too much and enjoy your family and friends. So have fun!

Special Guest Angel Martinez

Please welcome, friend, CP and fellow Red Rose Publishing author, Angel Martinez. Angel and I met through an on-line crit group and she's introduced me to a whole new world of romance. Male / Male romance written by women for women. And I have to say... Whoa Nelly! So please sit back, open your mind and your heart and say hello to Angel.

Tell us about your new book out now:

Gladly. Finn releases at Red Rose Publishing July 2, 2009 - a story about a pooka lost in the modern world. What’s a pooka? You’ll have to read the story. But I will tell you he’s a very sexy, handsome one.

A little blub and a short excerpt to whet your appetite:

When Diego rescues a naked man from the rail of the Brooklyn Bridge, he just wants to get the poor man out of traffic and over to social services. He gets more than he bargained for when Finn turns out to be an ailing pooka, poisoned by the pollution of the city. To help him recover, Diego takes him north to New Brunswick where Finn inadvertently wakes an ancient, evil spirit, the wendigo.

While Diego and Finn struggle to find a way to destroy the wendigo before it can possess Diego or kill nearby innocents, Diego wrestles with his growing passion for Finn. Can they succeed in destroying the monster and in navigating a relationship between a modern man and a centuries-old fairy?

Excerpt:

The figure crouched on the bridge shocked Diego so thoroughly he drove a hundred yards before he realized what he had seen.

A man squatted on his heels on the rail, one hand on a cable, the other clutching a ragged blanket at his throat. Threadbare cloth flapped around bare ankles. The persistent wind yanked it this way and that to show flashes of naked legs.

“Holy shit,” Diego muttered, as he wrestled his ancient Toyota into the nearest side street to park. This was none of his business. Didn’t he have enough problems? Even as he argued with himself he ran, dodging traffic and ignoring angry epithets as he pelted back up the bridge against traffic. The inevitable gaper delay had slowed the flow at least, making his precarious journey easier.

People stared from the safety of their vehicles as they inched along, but no one stopped to help.

Diego ignored them. His primary concern was not to startle the man into falling. He slowed his approach, ready to offer soothing words, but the man heard his footsteps. Long black hair whipped and snaked in the wind, hiding his face, though Diego caught a glimpse of bared teeth.

“Did you come after me?” the jumper snarled. “I won’t go back.”

“Go back where?” Diego seized the opportunity to start the man talking.

The jumper shook his head to clear the hair from his eyes and peered at Diego with black eyes – not dark brown, but black, set in deep, shadowed sockets. “No, I suppose you don’t look like one of those,” he said in a softly accented, weary voice.

“One of who?” Diego edged closer to stand next to him.

“The ones who shut me in the iron cage. I changed. I escaped.” His words seemed to stick in his throat and even above the traffic, Diego heard him swallow hard. “But now I’m too tired. I can’t...and the river is so filthy. I think it might kill me.”

At least he doesn’t sound like he wants to die. “Look, if you don’t want the police catching up to you, or the hospital staff, or whoever it is, this is about the worst thing you could do. You’re upsetting all these people and attracting a lot of attention. They’ll be here any minute.” Diego reached out a hand, palm up. “Please come down. Let’s get you safe and out of the wind. Then we’ll see about straightening all this out.”

The man regarded him through the shifting curtain of hair for a long moment. “What are you called?”

Depends who you talk to. “My name is Diego. Diego Sandoval.” He lurched forward, his stomach plummeting to his feet, when the man swayed, but the jumper retained his place on the rail.

The man repeated his name a few times as if trying it out, and then nodded. “It’s a good name. Pleasurable to say.”

“And you?”

“I am called Fionnachd.”

Diego tried to repeat it and won a hint of a smile from the man when he mangled the pronunciation. “Could I call you Finn?”

That got a shrug. The blanket fell back from his shoulder to reveal all-too-prominent bones. “You could. Some have. I don’t mind.”

“Climb down, Finn,” Diego urged again. “I’ll help you. Let’s get you somewhere quiet where you can rest.”

Finn took his fingers in a light grip and Diego caught a whiff of rotten orange rinds as he slid from the rail.

What the hell am I doing? He could have Hepatitis or HIV or tuberculosis, or worse. He’s probably crazy. Maybe even dangerous.

The intense plea in those black-on-black eyes silenced his practical objections. Lost and alone, this man needed someone. Diego had never been good at walking away.
　



Okay, you know I'm gonna ask why... Why Male / Male romance? I know this is one of the first questions I had for you and I'm sure others want to know and are afraid to ask. I, however, am not afraid and can never be considered shy. LOL Why, Angel? What prompted you to weave worlds of love featuring two men?

Three reasons. I started writing male/male fiction as both an experiment as a writer and as a reaction to the social environment of the time. I found I enjoyed writing for males and there is something at once so fierce and so tender about male/male relationships which I find endlessly fascinating. It certainly doesn’t hurt that there’s an ever-growing market out there for GLBT fiction as well.

I ask this in all my interviews but for you I imagine you're asked all the time. How do you respond when someone says... "Oh, you write THAT kind of book?"

You know, I’d honestly been quite fearful when I began writing erotic fiction that there would be a lot of censure and hostility over it. Here I am, a wife and mom with a regular 40-hour a week job - what would people think? Funny thing is, I’ve had more people wrinkle their noses when I tell them I write Science Fiction than they have over the erotic work. The girls at work all want to know when the exciting ‘smut’ book is coming out.

I think the genre’s assimilation into the mainstream has really escalated over the past couple of years as the variety and popularity of erotica grows.

What are your goals as a writer?

To keep the voices in my head from making me bonkers. Seriously, I write because I must, because if I don’t, the stories have nowhere to go and we all know that’s not a good thing. I’ve always told stories, since I was very small, and I think every society has folks like me, the folks who stand up at the fireside and hold back the dark in the dead of winter by weaving tales. I write to entertain, sometimes to inspire, to get people to think about something new. My short terms goals involve getting everything out there to share with as many people as possible. Long term, the sky’s the limit.

How many books do you read a month?

Four or five, usually. I do love to read and, as Catherine knows, I don’t simply read, I devour books.

Do you have anything new in the works?

Oh, there’s all sorts of fun stuff coming down the pike. Lioness on the Knife - a collection of eight stories about women in power, has just been contracted with Red Rose. I also have a series of seven SF novels under my given name, Sandra Stixrude, which I’m hoping they’ll pick up soon as well.

Where can we find you?

Several places:
My website: Angel Martinez - Erotic Fiction for the Hungry Mind
Facebook
On Yahoo: ravenesperanza@yahoo.com
And on Goodreads: Angel Martinez

Where can we find your books?

Exclusively at:
Red Rose Publishing

Thanks for stopping by today, Angel.

And for all of you readers out there who have never considered reading Male / Male romance, I encourage you to check out Finn. Especially if you love Science Fiction and paranormal romance. I loved this story and can't say enough about it. I know I'm a little bias, but I truly think anyone who loves romance would swallow this story in one sitting.

Please, oh... please let this not be what we see on the road. By now we should be in Kansas with Dorthy and Toto. Maybe even Oklahoma.

I want to remind all of you that On July 2nd Angel Martinez is going to be my guest here. We're celebrating her release of Finn from Red Rose Publishing. So, please stop by and learn what goes through an authors mind when she's writing M/M romance.