Karin Tabke | Hot Cops and Hot Knights

I want to start off by thanking everyone here at Fresh Fiction for inviting me as a guest blogger today! I’m really happy to be here.

So, let me ask you this: What is it we find so sexy about those sexy cops and to die for knights??

Hmm, could it be the washboard abs and the muscular arms? Or those brilliant piercing eyes that seem to look right into our souls? Maybe it’s that thick dark hair we want to run our fingers through. Or the uniform or the chain mail?

Or maybe it’s more, much, much more. Could it be the many layers that comprise an alpha’s true character? You know? that command presence they have when they walk into a situation and immediately know what to do: The bad guy is apprehended, the damsel in distress is no longer in one kind of distress but now a completely different kind of distress.

I think for me, what makes a guy sexy, whether he is a knight of William the Conqueror or a beat cop, is his brain. It’s all connected to how he works. How he thinks. His compassion, his take control attitude, his willingness to stand for something and fight for it, but mostly, his passion for everything he does. Whether it’s work, play or love.

A man who is unwaveringly committed is sexy. A man who when he walks into a room does not have to roar to let everyone know he is the king of the jungle, he just is, is damn sexy. That understated rawness and power that every woman wants to tame is beyond hot.

He could be wearing a five thousand dollar Italian suit or holey Wranglers and a faded tee-shirt. A sexy man looks good in anything. He wears it all, well. He has that charisma that smile that way to make each woman he makes eye contact with feel as if she were the one. Be still my beating heart. A sexy man can make a woman forget her name, where she lives and what she had for breakfast. He can take a confident over-achiever and reduce her to a pile of stuttering mush. He can make a wallflower bloom. He can make grandmothers blush and wish they were forty years younger and make a school girl wish she would hurry and grow up.

Sigh, it is because of men just as I have described that I write romance. I fall in love each time I write a book. How about you? What makes a guy sexy, and tell us who your all time favorite romance hero is.

Karin
http://www.karintabke.com/

Sasah White | What makes you feel sexy?

What is it about the tease that’s so hot?

You know what I’m talking about. That tingle you get between your thighs when someone exciting catches your eye, or when you catch his. The lingering looks, the hair toss, the silent communication. That time when your blood heats up and your body awakens as you feel the magic of “what if?”

It’s almost … intoxicating.

I used to flirt a lot. Men used to flirt with me. Then I got married. I haven’t gained weight or let myself go, but somehow, I’ve changed. I know it, and they know it. I think it’s because the chase is over. The magic of flirting, the heightened awareness that arcs between two people, the building of anticipation… it’s gone.

And I don’t know exactly when, or how, it disappeared.
The sad thing is, it also seems to have disappeared between my husband and me.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love my husband. Grant is still very attractive in every way, and leaving him has never occurred to me. I’d never cheat on him, either.

Yet, I can’t deny that a certain restlessness has been building in me for some time.


That was the prologue to my story WATCH ME, in last years KINK anthology.

I’m the first to admit that the heroines in my stories all have pieces of me in them, so it shouldn’t be a surprise to know that often, the prologues of my stories start out as something I’ve written for myself. Then I tweak, alter, and shift them to fit characters or stories. (I’m not married, and I uhmm… have let myself go a bit. LOL )

So this particular prologue did start as a bit about flirting. I LOVE to flirt. It makes me feel wonderfully sexy and attractive. Strangely enough, working out so hard my sweat drenches my shirt also makes me feel sexy. It reminds me of more adventurous way to work up a good sweat. *wink*

Lipstick makes me feel sexy. I always wear something on my lips, even if it’s a clear gloss or chap stick. I think that goes back to my first infatuation telling me I had a sexy mouth. LOL

In WICKED, my latest release form Berkley, the heroine has a very bold and sassy sexuality. She grew up knowing she was pretty, and that her looks could be used to get what she wanted. Tough and independent after running away from home at a young age…She uses her sexuality to get what she wants (No, she’s not a prostitute, just a big flirt).

She feels sexy when she wears short skirts and tight tops. Until she meets a man who teaches her the power of her sexuality is not in how she looks, but in who she is.

Who doesn’t want that? Who doesn’t want to feel sexy just by being who she is? *sigh* I swear, I fall in love with the hero’s in my stores every time…but I think that’s good right? I mean, if I can’t love them, how can I expect readers too?
Anyway, back to the original topic… I spend a lot of time thinking about what makes a woman feel sexy. What makes them feel attractive, and what makes them want to strip naked and work up a sweat with a man between her thighs. But what makes ME feel that way, might not work for someone else…so tell me…what makes YOU feel sexy? And is it an alluring, sultry sexy? Or a “Let’s get down and dirty” sexy?

Enter my blog contest and "Tell me what makes you feel sexy?" to win a signed copy of WICKED, or SEXY DEVIL. The winner will be notified tomorrow and listed on Fresh Fiction’s contest winner page.

Sasha White

http://www.sashawhite.net/

Annette Blair | Living the Impossible Dream

To Live the Impossible Dream

or

How I’m adapting to becoming a Full Time Writer

It’s been a little over a year since I left my 21 year job as a Prep School Development Director to become a full time writer. You wouldn’t think adapting would be necessary when reaching your dream, but dreams don’t always match reality. No more twice-monthly paychecks. They come twice yearly, now. Then there’s medical insurance. I have to pay it myself. Yikes! I didn’t expect to miss the school as much as I do, nor the creative energy spinning around me there, but the Witchy Chicks have topped off the well of creative energy beautifully.

Really, who wouldn’t want to leave their job for lots of great sex, psychic witches, scary ghosts, hunks who seduce, and kidnapping heroines with fuzzy purple handcuffs? I mean, the best part of a great story is living it, whether you’re writing or reading it.

I don’t set my alarm clock anymore. Gee, somebody’s got to make the sacrifice. I often go from my bed to my computer, because I plot in my dreams, and I don’t stop writing, until I run out of creativity. Sometimes, my pesky muse can keep me going for sixteen to eighteen hours. I’m thinking this muse is female and likes my heroes way to much to let go. The problem is, I might not shower until I’m finished. Yeah. It can get ugly in here. I wear these soft old, but clean, though, let’s call them ratty, L.L. Bean full length t-shirt nightgowns, which hubby calls either my “writing uniforms” or my “anti-Bob devices.” He also tells our neighbors that the porch roof beneath our bedroom window is where I take off and land on my broom.

Creating my own schedule feels decadent. I like decadent. I can now accept speaking engagements all over the country, which I love. And on the days, I don’t feel like writing, which doesn’t happen often, but occasionally, I can meet my sister for lunch or shopping or antiquing. We even went to a gem show, which is her specialty, not mine, but oooh, nice. One thing I can’t shake, though, when I’m out gallivanting in the middle of a weekday: I feel as if I’m playing hooky. What an awesome high.

What did I create during my first year? Well, SEX AND THE PSYCHIC WITCH, the first in my Triplet Witch Trilogy, another National Bestseller and my latest little bundle of joy—yes they’re my babies, except that labor lasts four months. SEX was the #1 bestselling “contemporary romance-humorous” on Barnes & Noble for a few days—fun. And it hit the B&N bestseller lists at #36 for overall mass market sales; #34 for overall fiction mass market sales; and TA DA! #7 for romance mass market sales. On Nielsen Bookscan, it hit #20 for romance mass market, and at Borders: #13 for romance mass market.

I also gave birth to GONE WITH THE WITCH, second in my Triplet Witch trilogy, Storm, the Goth rebel’s story. And I signed a contract to write a series of comedic mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime. Details will begin to appear on my website and MySpace soon.

And since I’m living my dream, I’d like to know what your dream is. What would you like to do for a living—your ultimate day job—if all systems were finally go?

Please accept my huge THANK YOU—picture me riding around the country on my broom shouting this—to all of you who bought SEX AND THE PSYCHIC WITCH and help me hit the overall bestseller lists for the first time in my writing career. Yay you!

Visit my website: http://www.annetteblair.com/ and friend me at MySpace: www.myspace.com/annetteblair. Hugs and happy Reading!

Annette Blair

Kelley St. John | Cajun Cousins not to be Missed

I’m so excited to be guest blogging on Fresh Fiction today! Thanks so much for having me! I’m Kelley St. John, and I write sexy, sassy contemporaries for Grand Central Publishing (formerly Warner) and Harlequin Blaze. This year, I’ve begun The Sexth Sense, my Harlequin Blaze series about six Cajun cousins who happen to have an interesting family legacy – helping ghosts find their way to the other side. All of the current Vicknair mediums are in their twenties, at the peak of their lives, and to-die-for sexy. Oh, but don’t think that the sizzle stops with the family; those ghosts have plenty of heat going on as well. I’m having a ball writing about the Vicknair family and am thrilled that Harlequin has also purchased the next three books in the series to come out in 2008.

Here is the book trailer/teaser for the series, if you want to check it out:

See this video at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Oh, and if you like the Louisiana plantation setting, be sure to register for the Louisiana plantation vacation giveaway at my website. I can’t wait to give one reader a trip to the gorgeous Oak Alley Plantation in the heart of Cajun country.

After the ghost stories hit the shelves, my fourth book this year comes out in November from Grand Central (Warner). TO CATCH A CHEAT is about a woman who has a pattern for dating the “terminally unfaithful” and starts a website to oust cheaters. Trouble is, one cheater fights back, creating an opposing website for ousting women who lie. The websites in the book, www.theguycheats.com and www.thegirllies.com are actual up and running. Check them out to find out more about their web battle and to register for a $500 spa getaway.

Let me know what you think about ghosts, cheaters, or hey, anything else you want to chat about. And when the day is done, one commenter will receive autographed copies of REAL WOMEN DON’T WEAR SIZE 2, KISS AND DWELL and GHOSTS AND ROSES.

Happy Reading…and Blogging!

Kelley St. John
www.kelleystjohn.com