Buy girl scout cookies!
Kiddo is selling girl scout cookies! I can’t deliver unless you are local to me (91914) but the scouts deliver to your house now 🍪🍪🍪
personal life
Fishy Tragedy and a Hot Hispanic Hero.
Yesterday we had a koi tragedy (RIP little fishies)! The man we’ve relied on for the last 8 or so years to maintain out Koi pond has been slacking a lot more now that he has a more time-consuming but less labor intensive job delivering Amazon packages. When the system got too clogged with algae the aerator failed. It was partly our fault. We got too complacent because before this our man was reliable. We’ve lost all nine Koi. Mom is despondent and kiddo is confused.
We are all pretty depressed, but I’m trying not to let it get me down on release day! Knight is Free is live on KindleUnlimited!
The Future of the SO Series…
You might be asking yourself what future? I thought the SO series is over with Peyton’s story! Well, yes and no. As many of you know Ethan, our handsome FBI has been patiently waiting in the wings for his own story ever since his introduction in Calen’s Captive. We know he’s a hero without a cause, but I’ve started to give him one.
I decided a while ago that Ethan will launch Of Valor and Villains, a new series with new heroes, including his merc friend Jackson Lang who falls for the waif next door and friend from med school Carter Donovan who meets a ghost from his past.
But there were too many loose ends from the SO series to have this be an entirely new cast of characters. Some of you think Killian, the assassin from Trick’s Trap, needs a redemption arc and I happen to agree! I’ve got my eye on a curvy little accountant/librarian who paints miniatures on the side for our shadowy anti-hero. I also had some plans for our Russian friend Viktor, who will finally deal with the forces ordering him to do unspeakable things against his conscience.
And then there’s Caroline, Liam’s ex-fiancee. I did not expect to like that woman at all. I set her up to a mega-B if you know what I mean, because unlike some people I think there are true villains in life and we should have people to root against. But like in life, once you delve into someone’s story you gain a better understanding of them. And damn, is Caroline under a lot of pressure! Enough so that I don’t think her story is done. Our brittle ice queen needs a smoldering man to melt all that ice to get to the damaged but sensuous woman under that hard shell. He also has to be good with a gun because of course our ice queen stumbled into a mess with her hotel high flyers! Right now I’m think Mason, or intrepid Interpol agent from PP, although that’s not set in stone.
Why do these stories have to be a new series? Well, there are a couple of reasons for that. The hallmark of the Singular Obsession books was the billionaires and the people in their circle. And while some wealthy men and women will appear in the OVAV series it’s not strictly their world anymore. The OVAV series will mainly belong to men and women who live a completely different way.
Also there is a marketing issue to consider. Some people don’t like Step-brother romances and at heart that it what Making Her His, SO #1 is. I wrote the book after reading 50+ Lynne Graham novels back-to-back. The SO series starts as an homage to all those red-cover Harlequin books from my youth (shout out to FahLeena Latrese for her long ago gift of two of these for my 3rd grade bday). But I digress, stepbrothers are not everyone’s cup of tea and I want everyone to read my books. So a hot FBI agent as an alternate entry-point to my work seems like a good idea. Only time will tell if it actually is 😀
So yes. Of Valor and Villains is shaping up to be a companion series to the Singular Obsession books and the marketing will reflect that when the time comes. Ethan’s book has been stalled this summer as a lack of child-care put most of my writing on hold but kiddo goes back to her overpriced pre-school on Wednesday so I’m trying to gear up now. But I thought some of you might like to know where I am and thus this update post.
XOXO to you all!
The joys of parenthood.
It has been a really tough week. Baby had a baby illness, roseola. Apparently this can be quite mild in some babies, but with mine this meant fevers every day from Easter Sunday to Friday. I haven’t slept so little since college when I decided to try and do three-hour sleep cycles and messed up my sleep schedule forever.
Baby remains congested and I hope that doesn’t turn into something else. And she won’t eat. She was underweight to begin with so that’s going to be a struggle too. On the plus side she’s so adorable the pediatrician offered to buy her from us. I told her we’d get back to her sometime during the terrible two’s…
I hope to get back to work soon. The Roman’s Woman prologue is being redone, but after that I’m passing it on to the ARC readers (I hope).
Also, the Beyond the Veil Box Set release is tomorrow for those of you who haven’t picked it up! Get for 99¢ while you can!
About last night… 5
Yes, I know there was a bratpack movie by that name. No, this isn’t going to be that fun cause no Rob Lowe…
I had a bad night last night and I thought I would share cause I’m all about the schadenfreude. And to explain why it was so bad I have to back a ways. For the second time since the baby was born my back went out. I actually have a long history of back problems going back to grad school when I hurt myself in yoga. Yoga you say? Yes, yoga. In places like Berkeley, where I went to grad school, yoga is a competitive sport. In fact, my German yoga instructor bore a strong resemblance to a drill sergeant. After that injury, I would get neck aches and eventually my back locked up.
In a panic I went to get a chiropractic adjustment yada yada yada, my back was in spasm for like forever. It took years to recover. Doing lab work was particularly bad because nothing was ergonomic. And it wasn’t just my back. The muscles at the base of my skull would tighten too and I would experience severe nausea all the time. I threw up a few times in the street out of the blue. That was fun. Things have improved since and with regular exercise I am pretty much ok. Until the baby was born that is and the regular went out the window.
So a few months back I had another incident where my back started to spasm after I put the baby to bed. But something new and fun happened- my front started to spasm too! The muscles over my diaphragm and stomach rippled, making it hard to breathe and making me void everything in my stomach. I had managed to wake my husband, who was sleeping on the couch, so I did have someone to hold my hair. He called the french equivalent of 911 and it was decided that if it didn’t pass in a few hours he would take me to the hospital. But it did pass and a few days later we found a chiropractor here for an adjustment.
Kinésithérapie isn’t quite the same in France as a chiropractor in the US. I’ve had much better luck with kine’s and physical therapists in France than in the US. I believe they get more schooling and it’s better regulated. So I was pretty confident they wouldn’t make it worse. And I was right. My last adjustment helped a lot, but since I didn’t really change my lifestyle it’s no surprise it happened again.
This time I didn’t wake my husband. I just puked into the sink and then lay on the floor with a heating pad until it passed. I wanted him well-rested in case he had to stay home and watch the baby today. But in the end, I sent him to work and I’ve been stretching a bit more. I will probably go to the doctor to get a course of physical therapy, which unlike the US they will happily give you here.
Maybe I will go see the same chiropractor. He was incredibly handsome. That’s something you have to be prepared for. In this part of France, the beautiful people walk around doing regular jobs like they were one of us. My dentist is really handsome. Shopkeepers etc. Heck, even some of the homeless people are lookers. It’s a bit weird that.
Anyway, the baby is being super good and super cute today. I think she sensed I needed that.
In other news, I signed with an agent earlier this week. She’s going to be pitching some of my books to audiobook companies. Unfortunately, she is not starting with my Lucy Leroux titles because they aren’t very highly ranked right now. I still get some sales and some KU reads, but my best performing book at the moment is Fire, my one non-erotic book. So that’s the one she’s pitching first. Hopefully, something will come of that. Fire is a fun read and I’m having a blast writing Air, the follow-up—when I get the chance.
If you want to help out and improve the chances of your favorite SO book making it to audiobook, you can leave a review on amazon! Positive reviews are a very big deal to indie authors. They can help improve the ranking and better ratings attract more readers. So if you haven’t left a review on your favorite Lucy Leroux book it would be amazing if you could do it now. Making Her His and Cursed are in line to be pitched for audio deals since they are the first of their series, but a review of any book would be great.
Finally, I should be getting SO4 back from the editor today! Gio’s story is well on its way to your kindle. I even chose a cover photo. I am still working on the name though.
What do you like?
A) The Roman’s Woman
B) Gio’s Game
C) Gio’s Gambit
D) None of those, use this!
I really wanted to call it Gio’s Girl, but he makes a point of calling her a woman and not a girl. Gio’s good that way.
Ooops. The baby is up. Gotta go!
The Littlest Leroux 5
It’s been a little while since I posted last, but I have an excellent excuse. A little over three weeks ago my daughter was born. The littlest Leroux is healthy and doing quite well. She does quite well at keeping her mama up all night too. I hope we will settle into a routine soon, or I fear the release date of the Roman’s Woman (SO4) will be pushed back to late fall, early winter 🙁
Giving birth in a foreign country is an interesting experience. And in this case probably nicer than giving birth in the US, although I can’t say for sure since I haven’t done that yet. France has excellent health care, particularly prenatal and infant care. Although my husband tells me the hospitals are poor, a four-day stay after the birth of a baby is standard. I saw an OB every month and even consulted with an anesthesiologist about the epidural procedure beforehand. In addition to that I took 5 or 6 “lessons” from a midwife during the last half of my pregnancy. This was in place of birthing/lamaze classes. Though I was worried that I was somehow missing out on some crucial information, particularly about birthing techniques, in the end I probably learned more from the midwife’s consultation, which extend after the birth. In fact there’s more lessons coming. It seems they do perineal retraining as standard here in France, so I won’t accidentally pee when I sneeze in the future :p, which is something US health providers should look into. I bet there are lots of mothers accidentally peeing themselves out there.
They even sent the midwife to our place during the first week to weigh the baby and to check on our breastfeeding technique. That last continues to be hellish. The baby lost too much weight during the first week so we were advised to supplement with a bottle and to step it back once she gained the weight back and then some. The unwise addition of nipple shields to improve her attachment has resulted in a heck of a lot of confusion on her part, leading to lots of screaming combined with the repeated punching and kicking of mama. Trying to go back to bare nipple is going to be hell, but we’re trying.
A minor note on epidurals. How awesome are they? I don’t think I could have gotten through the delivery without one. I thought I was going to pass out from the pain, which had started in earnest the night before the delivery. A trip to the hospital at midnight was apparently too soon. We got sent home after being told I wasn’t in labor yet. My husband drove us home and we got back into bed around three AM. After three hours of ignoring the contractions my water broke and off we went back to the hospital. I’m not sure how long after I finally got the epidural, but I was counting down the minutes.
In France, unless you have complications, a midwife delivers your baby. In my case, several midwives. Once in the hospital everything went like clockwork, except for some oversensitive equipment that kept pinging and signaling a problem when there wasn’t one. But in the end there were no actual problems and my baby was born without incident. She was also born with a full head of hair and more adorable than a newborn should have been. I thought newborns were supposed to be ugly for at least a week or two. But mine was too cute for words. All the midwives remarked on it too, so it wasn’t all in my head 😉
In a few days baby has her first-month checkup. I expect all good news. My pregnancy was average and so far all baby news has been if not good, then at least normal. And hopefully she’ll start eating better and sleeping through the night. Until she does I may have to learn to write one-handed on my iPhone, which I’m seriously considering trying during our endless feeding sessions. But hey, she’s super cute and totally worth it. It’s just easier to remember that fact when she’s not screaming.
A Pregnant Pause… 2
I was on one of my facebook groups and someone mentioned whether or not it’s sexy when the heroine gets pregnant. If you’ve read my books, I think you know where I stand. And you can also probably tell what kind of stories I was reading at the time I came up with Calen’s Captive.
There is a whole world of erotica out there with similar story lines. Call it impregnation or breeding erotica…I’m a sucker for it. But so much of it is unsatisfying for the simple fact it’s too short and doesn’t linger on the HEA. Often you don’t know if it will even have a HEA, which I find problematic. So yeah, in a lot of my books babies will come up. Not in every one, but enough of them for me to address it here.
I crafted several stories with a little fantasy of family because I was (CUE DRUMROLL) trying to get pregnant…
And now I am. Five months. They say be careful what you wish for. To some extent, this is true. I don’t have a problem with the extra weight—although my french doctors do—or dietary restrictions yet, but I’m only 5 months. I don’t even miss drinking, although I can’t say the same for sushi. I really miss sushi. And having to wear a bra is annoying. Remember Charlie’s aversion? That came from somewhere. I too took off my bra as soon as I walked in the door, but no more. I even sleep in one these days because the girls have grown an impressive amount. But I can deal with that.
What no one mentioned as a pitfall of pregnancy is the damn Bubble-Boy level of immunity. I was sick almost all of January and now I’m sick again. I get everything going around. Luckily I was spared February or I would never have made a key deadline (more on this later).
So right now I’m a raging snot-monster. The handsome Frenchman has on occasion brought something home with him from the office. I couldn’t go outside during January without getting an earache and landing in bed with sinus trouble for at least two days. And I’m not going to mention the nasty stomach bug I got from one of my friend’s babies. I can’t get near her adorable little ones while they are sick, and little kids get sick a lot 🙁
So far, the count is five major colds/stomach bugs since the new year.
Not to mention that I am normally a serious allergy sufferer. I used to do an immunotherapy desensitization thing in winter to prepare for allergy season, but my allergist advised against it while I’m pregnant so spring should be interesting.
Maybe it’s time to invest in my own isolation bubble…