Journal

Saturday, December 17, 2005

Hi all!

First and foremost thank you sooooo much to those of you who wrote me notes of encouragement on and off the blog! I love you all more than you can imagine and your thoughts and support did a lot to put me in a very positive mood today! Considering I have to buy a car today, you probably saved some bad car salesman from my bad mood lol! This past month has been crazy. My car was stolen, my son in a fight that is a nightmare with the school - it doesn't matter who started it or that the kid has been picking on Ronald forever and he'd finally had enough, AND you know the rest of the story from yesterday. But at least I got it all in one month and January can be good! GRIN! SEE I am thinking positive!

You know, a great thing about being a writer...we can shop during the week! WOW! It is nuts out there in the stores! I am going Monday early when everyone is at work!!

If you venture out, good luck!!

Talk soon!

Lisa

Posted by Lisa Renee Jones :: 9:43 AM :: 2 comments

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Hot guys with nice cars..gotta love em!

Hi all!
Hot guys with nice cars..gotta love em!

I know I have been quiet but honestly I have been nervous and on edge with my writing and its been hard to express. I once again got to the gate and got shut down. The Berkley editor loved my vamps for Berkley Sensation and took them to the higher ups. They didn't even read them. They shot her down and said no more vamps...TIS the story of my life. I get ALMOST there. I had decided to quit writing in January if I didn't sell in December so this month has felt really intense. BUT I am told good news might just come Monday. My family is begging me to give it until the end of January because I am so close. I have just felt very close a long time.

Why am I sharing this? Everyday I talk to writers who feel what I do. They can't get an agent. If they have an agent, they can't get a deal. To launch in a mainstream area you are up against big names. I lost a deal at an NYC house and I was up against a multipublished big name. The other author got 6 figures and I got...nothing. I am honored to be considered but its still hard to walk away with no deal. I want people to know they are not alone. I have heard Kenyon talk about her very tough road to publication and I admire her for sharing. As authors we tend to think everyone else had it easy when that isn't so.

The market if very tight for everything but the extreme erotic stuff. People are making the best seller lists selling less books than ever before because of the economy. My work is NOT considered erotic. Sexy but not erotic. For an author who is new the ideal is to sell TO the market. It's smart and its a good thing. Then once you make it on the 'it' thing your agent is the one who must make sure you get opportunity that doesn't just allow a short ride on a wave of the newest craze in case you aren't one of the launch authors who sells big. The agent should make sure you have things already set up so it won't hurt you. I have an author friend who sold to AVON in the erotic market and she is so talented that it opened a door that she will take to amazing places. I mean she could write anything she wants to and do it well. Her editor sees that too. You know, I am loving the way the NYC houses are packaging the erotic stuff! I know I am comfortable buying it in the stores! I think readers are going to be too! I was excited to see that readers can get a sexy read packaged classy and sensual!

But anyway, the new lines that are buying in NYC are for hottttttt stuff, are not the ones I am competing in. I don't use certain words. I don't do threesomes. I don't do certain types of intimacy. My agent comforts me, and tells me the editors WANT to buy me. I just need the 'it' proposal they can get through the upper mgt....But I say this too because I have an author friend who is incredbily talented going throught the EXACT same thing. It's killing her. She was even up for best erotic romance at RT and the houses say she isn't HOT enough. She is selling slow like me and questioning everything about her writing. This woman is sooooo talented! When she does sell, and she will even though right now she doesn't believe it, she will be a HUGE name. I hate to see her pain because I know how talented she is. She just has to sell to a tough market.

Anyway, so this is my world of silence. So sorry for that! I need to get to that place beyond the edge and get a grip. I hope you guys will hang on with me!

Christmas King is out December 28th!!! I hope you will try it!! It's paranormal and its HOT lol!

Here are two excerpts...
DECEMBER 28th at ELLORA'S Cave...

Christmas King

Lisa Renee Jones
BLURB

Alexis Gray has always found escape in her dream lover. He is wild, almost primal in his cravings, but gentle and sensual, at the same time. Whenever she needs him, he is there. Her salvation. Her friend. Her lover. As crazy as she knows the idea, she often wishes he would come to her, to find his way to physical form. For Alexis is different from the others around her, and she knows its. Yet, with her dream lover she finds a sense of unity.

On Christmas Eve, Alexis encounters something dark and menacing, an evil stalking her. As she battles this darkness, she comes face to face with her dream lover who claims she is his mate, as well as the king of a distant planet. Her planet as well. There is a deadly enemy who wants to stop their mating. Then her Christmas King claims he has kept her hidden on earth until their mating could be safely achieved. Now is that time. All Alexis has to do, is give into the absoluteness of her cravings for this man.

=
EXCERPT ONE

Once upon a time on the planet Warcon…

There was a mighty warrior and prince named Alcron, part the prehistoric beast of his heritage and part the man of evolution. He was the only Warcon born part Warcon and part Fae, possessing the strength of three human males and the speed of a lethal panther. This Prince was a brave creature who would one day be King. A magical being only beginning to know the full potential of his skills. And he was a sexual creature. One who could only control his beast so long without claiming his true mate. Until that day, Alcron had to wait. To endure. To battle his beast.

Alcron, like all the Warcon and Fae, could have lived for centuries. But over time the man would die, and the animal inside would eventually gain control. The beast would then be put to death, his heir assuming the role of King. It had happened to all the Warcon leaders except Alcron’s father.

See, Alcron’s father had done the unthinkable, throwing away convention, and claiming a Fae as a mate. He’d insisted this Fae beauty called to him, both man and beast. That she was his perfect woman, capable of proving the Warcon male was not destined to destruction and death. With this act, by claiming a Fae rather than a Warcon wife, a miracle had occurred. The beast in the King had calmed, leaving peace for the man within.

Logic said Alcron could find his perfect mate in Fae, especially being half Fae himself. But as time pressed onward, no mate appeared. Just when his beast began to pull him beneath its dark victory, hope emerged. Alcron knew the moment his perfect mate was born. Felt it in every inch of his existence. It no longer mattered that his wilder side raged with a passion to steal his honor, threatening his existence. Somehow, Alcron would survive until his mate, who bore the name Alexis, achieved the age of twenty-five. Not until then was it safe for a Fae to mate. But knowing he had found Alexis, and made his claim on her, receiving her parent’s approval for their future union, brought comfort to Alcron.

And so time progressed, and Alexis grew. Alcron’s people knew nothing of his battle to control the beast. They saw only a brilliant young leader who stood by his father, the King.

Everything should have been a fairy tale from there. A handsome prince who knew he would one day claim his princess and show her the meaning of happily-ever-after. But there was darkness in the future of this brave prince. His battle for happiness had only just begun. For when Alexis was a mere three years old, a violent attack by the Warcon’s deadly enemy left both Alcron and Alexis without parents, forcing Alcron into the role of King without his Queen. With most of the Fae also destroyed, Alcron had no choice but to hide his future Queen until she came of age to mate at twenty-five.

To protect both his princess and the ability to produce a future heir to the Kingdom, Alcron chose earth as the shelter for his beloved mate. With Alexis, Alcron sent a powerful elder Fae to act as Guardian Angel. Now, Alcron waits for his mate, battling his beast, impatient for the day his princess will become his Queen.

EXCERPT TWO OH - THESE ARE UNEDITED!

“Alexis.”

She heard his voice, the deep resonating sound like music playing in her dream. Alexis sighed, enjoying the sweet bliss of slumber and the escape it offered from so many days of pain. Alcron.

“Hello, Princess.” The words were spoken near her ear, the warm trickle of his breath teasing her neck. Alexis turned towards him, finding him sitting on the edge of the couch, his muscular body nude and as perfect as a fine work of art. No human was made as fine as he. No man of flesh and blood. But in her fantasy world, she could conjure perfection and had been for years.

His hand slid to her cheek. “You are in pain.”

Reaching for him, her fingers settled on his wrist and she leaned into his palm. The sharing of mutual touch brought comfort. He felt so alive. So real. “I’m better now. Much better.”

“There is much we have to discuss, Princess.”

She laughed. Over the years he often talked her through her tough times. Even as a small child, before their relationship had turned sexual, he’d comforted her. She’d aged, but he’d remained the same. “Conversation isn’t what I need tonight.”

“It is time—”

Sitting up, she pressed her lips to his, cutting off his words. Needing the passion and tenderness of his love making. No. She wanted him to show the wildness of his beast. The part of him that took her and claimed her as his. She needed to feel…taken. Like she belonged somewhere. With someone. For an instant he hesitated, but the second her tongue slid past his teeth, his resistance faded. With a low growl, he claimed her mouth, his hands sliding around her body and pulling her close. And just like that, her nightgown disappeared. God, how she loved his magical way of undressing her.

Pressing into him, she tried to get closer. “I need you,” she whispered into his mouth.“I am yours. I always have been. Just as you are mine.”

“I wish that were true,” she said, breathless as emotion and desired welled inside. If only he were real. If only she could be his.

“You are mine,” he replied, conviction low and intense in his voice. “You know I speak the truth.” But instead of holding her tighter, he moved away, his actions contrasting his words. He sat on the far end of the couch, putting distance between them, leaving her aching for his touch. And she knew why. He was proving a point. That she had to go to him. That she would. Because she couldn’t help herself.

Alexis shifted to her knees, biting her bottom lip as she stared at Alcron, knowing the truth in his challenge. Not caring. Feeling desire burn in the ache between her thighs and the tightening of her nipples. She wanted to be his. And though this was a dream, she had no problem slipping into the fantasy. Here she felt safe. Strong. Like she belonged.

He sat there, arms on the back of the couch, cock thick with arousal, looking like some sort of warrior prince. She licked her bottom lip, watching his erection bob in response. Her eyes lifted to his, and she smiled. She loved knowing she affected him.

Extending her arm, she wrapped her palm around his width, feeling him pulse beneath her skin. The temptation to lean over and draw him into her mouth called to her, but tonight, she wanted him inside her.

“I missed you,” Alexis said, spreading the dampness on the tip of his cock. “It’s been days.”

“That felt like lifetimes,” he responded, his hand closing over hers and urging her to stroke his length.

She did as he wished and scooted closer to him, leaning so that her mouth lingered just inches from his. “Why didn’t you come to me?”

“I was never far away.” His hand slid to the side of her face and then into her hair. He pulled her lips to his. For long moments they simply held the position, and it felt as if they were absorbing each other.

Alexis settled her hands on his shoulders and climbed on top of him, straddling his hips, feeling his hard length against her ass. The look in his eyes, sizzling with desire, made her skin warm even more than the caress of his hands up her back. His gaze held heat. Fire. And…love. So much so that she shivered with excitement and emotions, yet, at the same time, burned with desire and yearning.

To be continued.....

Posted by Lisa Renee Jones :: 6:22 AM :: 5 comments