Kate Pearce

The Between. A race of people between light and dark. Good and evil. Human and animal. The world discovered their existence over a decade ago, and so far the balance between humans and Between has been precarious at best. One bite is all it takes to cross the line from human to Between. It doesn’t matter what species of shapeshifter bites a human–only the soul can dictate what kind of animal is most suited to a Between. Many humans think they’re dangerous and should be locked away, while others covet their power.

On a fateful camping trip, fiery Oregon beauty Rhiannon Reid is kidnapped and turned into a “Between”–a magical shape-shifting creature. Now forced to prove her worthiness to the group’s golden king, lion-shifting Elan Delacourt, the two test each other’s strength and character–but lose themselves in the hot-blooded battle…

Find out more here: http://www.crystaljordan.com/books/between-lovers

Enjoy

Last week I went on a family vacation to Long Beach, California, a nice 5 hour drive away from where I live. One of the sights we were keen to visit was the old Cunard liner The Queen Mary.

We ended up walking onto the lower decks of the ship where the entrance to the ‘Ghosts of the Queen Mary’ tour was scheduled to start. Now, halfway up the gang plank I’d already decided there was no way I was going to do this tour because a) I’m slightly claustrophobic, b) I’m a scaredy cat and c) sometimes I get these weird ‘vibes’ about places and have to get out.

The three members of the family who wanted to do the tour were allocated a later time so we decided to explore the ship while they waited. Two minutes in, my husband, boy #3 and my daughter are skipping merrily down a passageway lined with cabins. Son #2 and I both stop about three foot into the passage and stare at each other. Neither of us like it and want to get out.

So we call back the rest of the gang and head upward toward the airier spaces of the first class passenger entrance. As I’m walking I remember the old family gossip about my uncle who used to work for the Midland Bank and spent some of his time acting as a banker on voyages from Southampton to New York for this very passenger line. I’m thinking he was actually on the Queen Mary.

We get to a nicer, brighter level and just as we arrive a tour guide comes past us and points to a gift shop located in the corner and tells everyone that it used to be the office of the Midland Bank who operated the only bank on the liner. So it seemed that family gossip was accurate about this at least!

I was still uneasy on the ship and although I enjoyed the experience I wasn’t unhappy to leave.
I called my mother yesterday to tell her about the visit. she totally got the creepy vibe as it is something we share and she immediately confirmed that my uncle had been on the Queen Mary and it’s sister ship the Queen Elizabethm and that in those days-the early 1950′s, it was quite a stressful job as once he was at sea, he had to make all the financial decisions as to whom to loan money to without any back up.

There was also a lot of socializing involved and I imagined him, in his twenties, in his evening clothes chatting to all the ladies like some debonair man of the world. My mother said that to relieve the stress he obtained permission to play the big grand piano in the first class dance hall late at night. So he’d sit there in the moonlight playing happily to himself once everyone else had gone to bed. What a wonderful image.

Kate Pearce is giving away a basket of signed books from her backlist, a signed copy of her latest release, KISS OF THE ROSE , a bag of Hershey’s Kisses and spa goodies, including her exclusively blended KISS OF THE ROSE perfume and infused soap to one lucky winner! How do you win this awesome prize?

Answer the question “What makes the perfect first kiss?” in the comment section of this blog, the contest post on Kate’s blog, Twitter, Kate’s Facebook Fan Page or emailing contests(AT)knightagency.net. You can enter multiple times. See details below

KISS OF THE ROSE FIRST KISS CONTEST

Prize: Gift basket featuring signed books from Kate Pearce’s backlist, as well as a signed copy of KISS OF THE ROSE. Plus, a bag of Hershey’s Kisses and spa goodies including Kate’s exclusively blended KISS OF THE ROSE perfume and infused soap.

How to Enter: Answer the question, “What makes the perfect first kiss?”

FIVE WAYS TO WIN
1. Via Twitter, answer the question, “What makes the perfect first kiss?” in 140 characters or less. Use the hash tag #KissoftheRose.

2. Via Kate’s author blog OR The Knight Agency blog, answer the question “What makes the perfect first kiss?” by commenting here in the contest post or in the comment section of this contest post on The Knight Agency blog <http://www.knightagency.blogspot.com/> .

3. Via Facebook, reply to the contest post on Kate’s Facebook Fan page <http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kate-Pearces-Fan-Page/220636502580> answering the question prompt.

4. Email your answer to Contests(AT)Knightagency.net Contests@Knightagency.net> .

RULES

1. The winner will be chosen randomly. This contest runs from Monday, August 9th thru Thursday, August 12th at midnight ET.

2. Mutiple entries are accepted. Meaning you can enter up to five times by posting an answer on Twitter, FB, Blogger (TKA and Kate’s blog) and emailing your answer. However, the entries MUST be different. For instance, you cannot answer the question the same way on both Twitter and Facebook. Also, please be sure to comment within the contest post whether on Blogger or Facebook to ensure your entry is counted.

3. The winner will be announced on Friday, August 13th on Kate’s author blog, The Knight Agency blog and via both Kate and TKA’s Twitter accounts (@KnightAgency and @Kate4Queen). If the winner does not claim their prize within two weeks of the announcement, another winner will be selected. If the second winner chosen does not respond within two weeks, the prize will be declared void.

Thanks to everyone who entered and I’m sorry I can’t give you all a book.
The winners (Chosen by random husband number crunching) are:
Alycia and Pearl

I’ll be in touch so watch your in boxes!

Kate x

Finally! It’s the Big Day!!

Kiss of the Rose releases this Tuesday! Go check out this link for excerpts and extra info.

And I’m having a contest. Comment below to win a chance to own one of two signed copies of Kiss of the Rose and some of the specially blended perfume and soap the lovely lady at Latherati made me just for the book.

Contest ends next Sunday.
Good luck!
Kate x

I’ll be away for a while, so please feel free to:

1. check out some of the older posts.
2. Read all the juicy excerpts.
3. Take a wander through the Regency Gallery.
4. Look behind the scenes of ‘Kiss of the Rose’
5. Enter April’s contest below to win her e-book

And by the time you’ve finished all that, I’ll be back and I’ll be having a Big Contest on this very blog giving away some Kiss of the Rose books and promo items!!

And if you happen to be near the Swan and Dolphin Hotel in Orlando Florida at 5:30 next Wednesday evening, come and check out the massive 400+ romance authors signing their books for literacy for life. I’ll be there so come and say hi!

Now, you all behave yourselves, okay?
Kate x

I’m introducing my Romance Diva mentee today, April Morelock, who has her first book coming out on the 27th of July!!

Comment below for a chance to win this book for yourself

Hey everyone!
Kate let me take over her blog today so I can discuss something very naughty and dirty — and wickedly delicious.

Have you guessed it? Nope not sex… I‘m talking about inspiration!!! That wicked little devil that sometimes tickles your fancy but is often hard to put into words.

Inspiration can be the stuff of every young man’s fantasies or the stuff of great books… mysterious books… or downright hot and sexy books.

Of course inspiration can come from all different places, the subway, a gas station, a walk down a dark alley, or even a coin operated laundry. Perhaps you’ve never considered how sexy and truly “inspiring” any of those places can be. But for me, everyday places inspire me like nothing else.

Some people paint beautiful paintings of nude sculptures and I … I write about strange things happening in even the most ordinary places.

In my latest book, The Best Little Spin Wash in Texas, my coin operated laundry turns into a time machine with strange happenings — Sputner steals lingerie, two women forever gossip while washing laundry from a closed orphanage, and love is found between the spin cycles.

Odd? Certainly but let me tell you — have you ever been in a coin operated laundry at 2:30 in the morning? Strange and very spooky things happen. People come in and leave … you never see them drive up or the lights of their car. Women walk in with their toddlers to buy a drink and then leave to fade into the darkness. No homes nearby, no car sounds in the distance.

It’s as if you’ve taken a hit on some strange drug and wandered into an alternate universe. This stuff really happens. It doesn’t take much to make a leap into even more bizarre things. Of course I might have imagined all of those things in the sleep deprived state I was in… but… no. I know what I saw.

Surely I’m not the only one. I’m interested to see who has the most bizarre real-life story. And just for the fun of it, I’ll give the best story a copy of my brand new book: The Best Little Spin Wash in Texas, coming July 27th from Loose-id. Oh, wow… this will be so much fun!

I’ve included an excerpt below:

Timid, geeky quantum physicist Molly Timmons lives in a man’s world of metaphysics when she meets a handsome John St. James at a Spin Wash and Go. One dark night trapped in the Spin Wash isn’t enough. Even as their relationship deepens, they learn of a dark secret the Spin Wash is hiding… a secret that could tear John’s world apart or could save his daugther‘s life.

Molly’s the key.

Time is running out. Will they figure out the Spin Wash’s secret or will they both be lost in time?

Excerpt:

His arms flexed as he slid the basket under his arm and walked around the washers. This was ridiculous; she needed to get laid if the simple pleasure of watching a man cross the floor had her flushed with sexual need.
Laundry detergent, White Rain shampoo, and something indefinable invaded her space and filled her senses as he walked past her.
It was hard to stay put.
She closed her eyes, took in another deep breath, and repressed a moan. This was why women loved sweaty men. Pheromones trumped common sense every time.
Forcing her eyes open, she watched him move; the hard muscles flexing and bending to his will A shift of his basket and his eyes clashed with hers, darkening. With a slow perusal, he took in her lightly muscled legs, encased in short blue shorts. She mentally slapped herself, thinking of how opaque her white T-shirt must look. Her mama had told her that, even with small breasts, she should always wear a bra.
Nipples peaked, pebbling through her shirt, as he continued his inspection, gray eyes almost black. She breathed shallowly, trying to ignore the ache blooming deep inside.
Molly was past shielding herself; she wanted those eyes on her. Her lack of propriety would have had her mother screaming a blue streak. Taunting a man like that, walking out of the house looking like a slut.
God, he had to stop looking at her.
He finally jerked his gaze away from her body and leaned down to drop his basket, then pulled the detergent and softener from it, those lovely muscles moving deliciously under his tan.
He was so close, and those jeans hit him in all the right places. She had to watch every movement, mesmerized by the bending and flexing of his thighs as he placed the detergent into the washer.
He was done too soon. His strong hands worked efficiently, the muscles underneath moving like strings on a piano. Strong. Graceful. Just the idea of those strong digits strumming her body, gliding across her skin, made her hold her breath.
She needed to get ahold of herself — and quick — if she was going to look him in the eye. Her face was tight, the skin undoubtedly flushed and almost feverish and not just from the heat and stickiness of the Spin Wash. She was letting her imagination get away with her.

Want more?, visit www.loose-id.com for you copy of Best Little Spin Wash in Texas today! Or put your best oddball, spooky, weird or odd experience below for a chance to win your own copy!

I’m sharing my blog with Juniper Bell today who writes Regency erotica/romantica. As you regular readers know I’m off to RWA at the beginning of the week, so feast your eyes on this luscious offering while I get started on my packing

My Three Lords
Regency erotica
Juniper Bell

How is one innocent country girl to choose between a Duke, a Marquis and an Earl? Must she?

When Miss Alicia Silverwood marries the Earl of Dorchester, he whisks her off to Notre Plaisir, a country manor where erotic surprises await in the company of three powerful lords.
The young Earl needs a wife and heir. The cynical Marquis de Beaumont needs a playmate. And the commanding Duke of Warrington needs a reason to live. As for the new Lady Dorchester, she’s about to discover the true nature of her own sensual needs. On top of that, she’s falling in love.
It might take a miracle for Lady Alicia and her three lords come to an arrangement that makes them all happy. Or perhaps all that’s required is a little scandalous rule- breaking.

My Three Lords is coming out on July 28 from Ellora’s Cave as part of its Exotika line. Here’s the “coming soon” page:

Here’s Juniper’s website:
And right now she’s running a promotion on her blog: — anyone who signs up for her newsletter is entered into a random drawing for an ARC of My Three Lords.

Wishing you great sales, Juniper!

Ooh I love it when I get to share a new cover with you all! This is for Simply Forbidden which is book #6 in the House of Pleasure series. It’s about Lisette Delornay, Helene and Philip’s daughter and the enigmatic Major Lord Gabriel Swanfield, one of my more reasonable heroes. The book comes out in February 2011.

Here’s a blurbette:

Lisette Delornay-Ross is used to belonging to two worlds-her father Philip’s aristocratic circles and her mother, Helene’s more risqué sexual empire. When she meets Major Lord Gabriel Swanfield, she is instantly attracted to him and more than willing to engage in her usual brand of flirtation. Scarred both physically and mentally by his sojourn in the Peninsular army, Gabriel lives a solitary existence on the fringes of London society.

Although he is willing to indulge Lisette in an erotic affair, Gabriel has surprisingly strong views about marriage. But despite herself, Lisette understands Gabriel’s conventional desires all too well. Should she give into his demands and become the perfect society wife he thinks he wants, or try and persuade him otherwise? As both of them try to provide the other with what they believe is the answer to their dilemma, they discover that love has a way of making the most unconventional of lifestyles work after all.

I’m sure some of you have noticed that widget blinking away on my website telling you exactly how many seconds, minutes, day it is until “Kiss of the Rose” comes out. I wonder what happens when we reach zero? Does the widget spontaneously explode taking my website with it? Or does it start to go backwards? I’d better check with my webmistress about that.

I have lots of great promotional ideas coming up, blogs, contests, giveaways, some of them for signed books others for special goodies I’ve had made just for the launch of this particular series. I”m also running some contests on Writerspace over June/July and August, so go check them out and enter to win.

It’s a very special book to me. It was incredibly hard to write because I’d never written a detailed paranormal romance before and I rather lightheartedly embarked on a very ambitious project requiring the building of a Vampire world, a Druid world, Tudor England, a love story-oh and yes, a plot-all in eighty-five thousand words in one book. There were moments when I despaired of every getting it right, other moments when I considered sending the advance back so I could get out of writing the flipping thing. But I’m glad I stuck with it. The end product was far better than I had envisioned.

Rosalind Llewellyn is a strong heroine with very definite ideas about her job in life, which is to kill Vampires. She has no time for the hero and it was a pleasure watching him having to learn not only not to underestimate her, but also to find her softer side and coax it out. Christopher Ellis reminded me a bit of Errol Flynn. He’s all emotion and flamboyance-a strong contrast to the more ‘together’ heroine. The fun thing is that I got to write about them twice. Their story continued into “Blood of the Rose” which comes out next February.

I’m in the process of adding some new pages to the Tudor Vampire part of the website, which will include a glossary of the main fictional and historical characters. Real places they visited in the books and some of the research material I found particularly helpful. I always love to use real places in my books if I can, especially places I have visited. Hampton Court, one of my favorite places in England features in book #2 and I’ll put up details about that nearer the second book launch.

So keep watching this space. I’ll be posting and adding more details as to all the goings-on as I get them:)

p.s. for those of you who prefer your books digital-Roping the Wind is now available as an e-book and I believe ‘Where have all the cowboys gone?’ will become one soon as well.

Love
Kate x