I spent the end of last week reviewing copyedits for my upcoming release, IMPULSIVE. I really love this book. It pits an obey-all-the-rules hero, Eric Kimura, against a wild child heroine, Katie Long. These folks don’t know each other at the beginning of the book, but that doesn’t stop them from getting…um, close. I’ve never started out a book with immediate heat (and by that I mean sex) before, but it worked here. Take a look:

Katie Long wasn’t sure how they’d gone from “would you like another drink” to crawling all over each other half-naked in the oceanfront estate’s hall bathroom, but that’s what happened. All that beautiful Hawaii sunshine just steps away, wrapped in the mixed scent of salt water and pikake, and there they were holed up in a single stall the size of a closet.

The knot on the apron dug into her waist as he lifted her out of her sensible black pumps and slid her butt onto the sink countertop. Before she could take another breath, he slipped between her legs. The soft material of his dark gray suit pants rubbed against her bare thighs. His hands never stopped moving and his mouth caressed and covered hers like a pro.

Apparently Eric Kimura was good at something in addition to practicing law. Very good.

“Did you lock the door?” she asked, her voice breathless as her head fell back and his fingers slipped past her inner thigh.

“Mmm-hmmm.”

With his face buried between her breasts and his teeth nibbling at the tiny pearl buttons holding her blouse together, she could barely hear him. Didn’t have to. The heat rolling off him said enough. This man was primed for action.

As you can tell, the title of this one is just perfect.

Eric is first introduced in HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO. Tell me what romance book has your favorite opening and why, and you’ll be entered to win a copy of HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO. The winner will be randomly selected on Thursday.

UPDATED: Very sorry for the delay in picking a winner. I went to the Lori Foster event this weekend and forgot to choose first. The winner is Mitzi – congrats!! Email me and we’ll arrange to get that book to you.

By the time this blog entry posts, I’ll be recuperating from sinus surgery (not serious but it is a 6 week recuperation period that takes me away from the computer due to dizziness and headaches and other not-so-fun stuff). I’m writing this blog now, before sugery D-Day, thinking I might be down and out for a little bit. So, when you read this, imagine me knocked out from pain pills.

The idea of being in the hospital got me thinking about what we authors do to our heroes and heroines. They get bitten (hopefully that’s just in paranormals), stabbed, shot, chased, attacked and are subjected to a whole host of other awful things. Yet in the span of 300 pages, we have them bounce back, fight the bad guys, accomplish their assigned tasks and fall in love. That’s kind of asking a lot, if you think about it. These poor folks never get a day or two of rest. Half the time, they don’t get a morphine drip or even an aspirin.

Of course, I’m not convinced readers want that much reality. After all, how interesting is it to read about a hero sprawled in a hospital bed, mumbling while under the influence of anesthesia? Doesn’t sound all that sexy to me. Kind of tough to track the villian while in a cast, right? And a coma kind of cuts down on the chance of that HEA.

So, bottom line? Maybe too much reality is a bad thing in romance. Do you agree?

I just finished copyedits for my October release, HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO. Seems like a good time to post an excerpt, don’t you think? Here it is:
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CHAPTER ONE

He sensed her before he saw her. The dangerous mix of high-end perfume and wealth gave her away. Josh Windsor knew some men found the combination attractive. He sniffed and smelled nothing but trouble.

Tucking his pen in his inside suit jacket pocket, he crossed the marble courthouse hallway to meet Deana Armstrong before she materialized at his side. She would track him down anyway. Might as well take the offensive and be done with it.

“Ms. Armstrong.” He nodded. “What brings you here?”

“To Honolulu?”

“To the fourth floor of the Circuit Court.”

She took a step forward and put them less than two feet apart. “You.”

Somehow he knew she would say that. “How’d you guess I was even on Oahu?”

“I flew over to Kauai and went to your office.”

As if that was a perfectly normal thing to do. “Of course you did.”

“I couldn’t get near the Drug Enforcement Administration. Not even on the same floor.”

“Government buildings are funny like that.”

“I also checked your house while I was there.”

“You…” Surely he heard that wrong. “Wait, what?”

“Your house.”

Nope. Heard it just fine. He ignored her behavior before, wrote it off as annoying and moved on. Not this time. “Care to explain?”

“Well, it’s really a condo.” She had the nerve to throw out an innocent, wide-eyed look.

To shut that down, he leaned in letting her feel the looming presence of every inch of his six feet. “You actually went to my place in Lihue?”

“Do you have another house?”

“Only one of us has a trust fund and owns multiple properties.” Including a sprawling estate on one of the best beaches on Oahu. That person sure as hell wasn’t him.

“What does my housing situation have to do with our conversation?” She waved her hand in front of her face. “Look, none of this matters.”

“Yeah, it kind of does.”

“Can we focus on the topic, please?”

Was she trying to annoy him? “Which is what?”

“I heard you were on some sort of leave from your position with the DEA-”

“Jesus, lady. Is there anything you don’t know about my life?”

“-which is why I took the chance of catching you.” Her voice increased in volume from cool to almost booming as she talked over him.

“Keep yelling like that and courthouse security will be all over you in two seconds.” Which, the more he thought about it, was not a bad way to get out of this conversation.

“My point is that your home address isn’t exactly a secret.”

“I guess not to people with detectives on their regular household payroll.” When he fixed every other part of this life, Josh vowed to fix that as well. Make it so no matter how much money folks like her waved around, no one would find him unless he wanted to be found. And right now he didn’t. “Did you at least water the plants while you were at the condo?”

She frowned.

He was impressed she managed to show any emotion.

“I didn’t go in,” she said. “That would have been inappropriate.”

At last, a boundary. No sense to know when someone was flinging sarcasm right in her face, but a boundary. “Looks as if we agree on something.”

She laced her fingers together in front of her. “I read in the newspaper that you were testifying here today as part of an old case, so I flew back home to Oahu and came downtown to find you.”

Under different circumstances he might be flattered with a woman being interested enough to chase him around Hawaii, but he knew better than to get excited about this one. “So, you’re stalking me now.”

“Of course not.”

“Harassing a federal officer is illegal.” He nodded hello to the judge’s clerk when she stuck her head out of an office. “Sorry. We’ll keep it down out here.”

Deana waited until the younger woman disappeared again before whispering. “You’re overstating my actions a bit, don’t you think?”

Oh, he had done a lot of thinking about Deana. The woman was a walking contradiction. Round face, high cheekbones, big green eyes and long near-black wavy hair that fell below her shoulders. Five-six and slender. An objectively beautiful woman. That part suited him just fine. The rest of her, not so much.

You’d think I’d remember to post a blog today since I have a new release out. It’s not as if I’m busy building a bridge or discovering some fabulous new vaccine or something. Nope. I’m just sitting here and then I had one of those wait, what day is it… moments.

Sigh

Well, today is my day and the timing is perfect because this week marks the release of my first ever mass market title. YOUR MOUTH DRIVES ME CRAZY is now out in a less expensive version. So, for all those folks out there who complain about trade paperback prices, this is your chance!
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NEVER LET ME GO

Annie Parks came to Hawaii to settle a score, not spend time handcuffed to a sexy stranger’s bed-even if said stranger saved her from drowning after she was pitched overboard by some goons. Looking at six feet of hard, Hawaiian muscle and gorgeous cool that’s making forgotten parts of her say, “Aloha!,” Annie needs to stay focused. But a side dish of Kane Travers is awfully tempting.

Kauai Police Chief Kane Travers is not a vacation kind of guy. So it figures that when Internal Affairs suspended him, he’d end up rescuing a sarcastic, dishonest, extremely hot redhead who is clearly hiding something. Kane’s got half a mind to give Miss Whoever She Is something she’ll never forget, even if his cop senses tell him she needs his protection. But how can he get her to tell him anything when his mouth won’t stop covering hers?
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And to make up for the late blogging today I’ll give away a copy. All you have to do is post here and tell me what contemporary romance you’re looking forward to this year. Some great ones are coming out. I want to know what’s on your TBB (To Be Bought) list. I’ll post the winner’s name here by Friday. Good luck!

UPDATE: We have a winner! Congrats to Marta. Email me at hkdimon @ gmail .com (no spaces) and I’ll get that prize out to you.

This is the time of year for resolutions. People make lists of things they want to do and accomplish. Many of the lists I’ve seen go like this: lose weight, stick to a budget and get published. All those sound familiar to me. And to get in the spirit I’ve been thinking about what my 2009 goals should be and have come up with a few book-related ones:

1. Read more. Sylvia Day mentioned on her blog about trying to read one book per week. I like that plan and am going to try to do the same.

2. Budget my writing time better. I can procrastinate really well. I consider myself something of an expert at it. Need to work on that.

3. Try writing a book I’ve been dying to write forever.

4. See if I can write two Hawaii-related books that have been kicking around in my head.

5. Worry less about what other authors are doing and what the market is doing and focus on the things I can control.

Anyone else have any resolutions or goals?

I’ve had a website for a couple years now. Since officially launching it on October 31, 2005, I’ve had the same look. In case you’ve missed it, go here

So, here’s my question… What changes do you suggest? What do you like to see on an author website? What isn’t necessary? Colors? Home page look? What are your toughts?

I have a Starbucks $20 gift card for someone who leaves some suggestions. That will buy you about five (5) grande eggnog or other holiday lattes of your choosing. I’ll pick a winner at random by Friday and will post it in the comments section.

Thanks for the help!

The election is (finally) over. I’m not sure how I’ll fill my time now…well, maybe I can finish the revisions on one book and get back to writing the other. While I do that (and panic about how fast the day goes and how little I manage to get done), I thought I’d hold a contest.

I have two new releases – TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT, a Christmas antho with fabulous Brava authors Donna Kauffman and Jill Shalvis, and HOT AS HELL, a single title. Tell me about how much time you spent thinking, reading and working in election-related things over the last few months and you’ll be entered to win your choice of TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT or HOT AS HELL.

And as a little teaser, here’s a short HOT AS HELL excerpt:

CHAPTER 1

“This is your idea of a vacation?” Noah Paxton asked the question with a practiced level of calm he did not actually feel. By the way Alexa Stuart – Lexy to him – jumped up and out of her pool lounge chair, he guessed the fake tone did not impress her either.

Dark sunglasses hid her eyes, but her dropped jaw suggested he caught her off guard. “Noah?”

She remembered his name. That was something. “Miss me?”

She settled back in her seat and smoothed out the magazine she just crumpled in her fists. “No.”

“I’m going to take that as a compliment.”

She flipped her sunglasses to the top of her head and squinted up at him with intense green eyes. “What are you doing here?”

Funny but the woman did not look at all surprised to see him. Probably had something to do with the fact she ruined their relationship, screwed with his career and then ran. She had to know he would track her down eventually.

“I could ask you the same question,” he said.

“You already know the answer to that one. I’m on vacation.”

“Uh-huh.” That was all he could think to say while trying to ignore the size of her tiny pink bikini. The thing seemed to shrink the longer he stared at it, but maybe that was wishful thinking.

With the burning southern Utah heat bouncing around and searing through his long-sleeve shirt, he understood her less-is-more theory of dressing. Still, there were other resort patrons hanging in the area. As far as Noah could tell, they all had eyes.

He scanned the pool deck to make sure none of those eyes belonged to men and none were staring at Lexy’s incredible shrinking bikini. Only a few other people braved the beating sun on the pool deck. Most of them sat up to their necks in the water. All but one was female.

The male-female ratio qualified as the only positive Noah could find about the high adventure hiking spa Lexy chose as her temporary playground. Not that he knew what the hell a high adventure hiking spa even was. He read the description online three times before jumping on a plane to retrieve Lexy. Once he saw the price of the joint, he seriously considered changing careers from security analyst to spa owner.

He wondered how the folks who ran the place convinced otherwise competent people to shell out a couple grand a week to stay at a no-frills location in the middle of nowhere. The place in question consisted of a few single and two-story stucco buildings painted almost the same color as the towering red rocks ringing them.

Deep in a valley and about two hours from Las Vegas, the spa felt more like an isolated boot camp than an expensive resort. Clean with well-kept grounds but no extras. A bit too much of a throwback to his military days for Noah’s comfort.

“How did you pick this joint?” he asked.

“What’s wrong with it?”

“Aren’t we touchy?”

“Let’s just say I’m waiting for you to tell me whatever it is you came the whole way here to say.”

———-

I’ll post a winner here in the comments section by Friday. Good Luck!

Harlequin is launching a website where readers can give input directly to the editors and publisher. The site isn’t live yet. When it is, you’ll be able to access it through www.TellHarlequin.com. You can read more about the venture here.

Honestly, I think this is pretty cool. It’s a way of saying “we care” to readers. Sure, it could have some problems, but it’s pretty innovative and shows great promise. We’ll have to see how it works when the site goes up.

Until then, I have a question: If you could tell authors, editors and publishers something you’ve been wanting to say, what would it be? Do you have suggestions, concerns, thoughts…?

To get the conversation going, I’ll give away a copy of one of my books – winner’s choice – to a person randomly selected from those commenting. Any title, including the upcoming holiday antho TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT, is available except for HOT AS HELL since I don’t have it yet (Sorry!). Comment with your thoughts and you’ll be entered. I’ll pick a winner by Thursday and post the person’s name here.

UPDATE: I’m very sorry for being a day late, guys. I got to revising a story and lost all track of time. But, we have a winner…Stacy!! Congrats!!! Email me and I’ll get your choice out to you.

I just got back from the RWA Conference. This year was more social for me than anything else. I heard Linda Howard speak and…well, that was about it for workshops. I’m not saying I couldn’t benefit from a few workshops. We probably all could. But this was more about connecting with people and talking about careers.

I heard about agents and editors. I saw a bunch of new covers (love that!) and heard about new sales (love that even more!!). Hearing about other people selling fills me with glee. No idea why, but it does. I met new authors like Carrie Lofty who recently sold her first two books to the Zebra Debut program and Zoe Archer who just moved to Kensington and has a not-to-be-missed series coming out next year that has my editor so excited that I thought she might burst.

One of my favorite events is the Literacy Signing. Mostly I just love the look of the room, filled with authors. All that talent and excitement packed into one room is an amazing thing. Love seeing all of those stacks of books. Love being in the presence of all those great authors I read. I still can’t believe I get to be in the room. Here’s a photo of the room as the doors opened to let the crowds pour in:

Then there are the readers. They are just the best part of the Conference. Of everything, really. I love meeting readers, other authors and people I chat with online. Thanks to all who stopped by to say hello. That is a bigger thrill than you’ll ever know.

You can go home again. The home I’m talking about is the fictional home in a book. As some of you know, my current release – the one that just hit the shelves – is HARD AS NAILS. It’s an anthology of three related stories.

The plot follows Cole Carruthers and Adam Thomas, two of the secondary characters from the very first novella I ever wrote, Hardhats and Silk Stockings in the WHEN GOOD THINGS HAPPEN TO BAD BOYS antho. The third hero, Ray Hammond, is new and remains one of my favorites.

No vampires. No demons. No creatures of any sort. Just a fun, flirty contemporary stories.

And this is not the first time I’ve come back to characters I created in the past. Sometimes these folks just don’t let go. Readers ask for their stories. You think about them and then create their happy endings. Right now I’m finishing up another one of those stories. This one is a follow-up to YOUR MOUTH DRIVES ME CRAZY. Like YMDMC, this new book takes place in Kauai, Hawaii. It’s Josh’s story (he was the DEA agent in YMDMC)…and I love it. Really. I’m almost at the end and kind of don’t want to be done.

This book will be out in Fall ’09 (not sure if it’s September or October, but I think it’s one of those). Before that, you’ll get two other Hawaii-based books. The first is the mass market re-release of YOUR MOUTH DRIVES ME CRAZY (March ’09). The second is called IT’S HOTTER IN HAWAII (April ’09).

And for a little fun, here are the two versions of the YOUR MOUTH DRIVES ME CRAZY cover. The original trade from August ’07 is on the left. The new mass market version that comes out in March ’09 is on the right.

What do you think of the change?