Answers to the I-Team Quote Matching Game

Congrats to those who participated! I guess this match-the-quote game was a lot harder than I thought it would be. But hopefully it was fun, too.

Here are the answers:

1. “Have you ever caught a criminal with ink?” — Julian to Tessa in Hard Evidence

2. “The word phobia implies there is something wrong with my reaction to spiders — horrid little monsters!” — Sophie to Marc in Unlawful Contact

3. “Maybe the mayor can hire a consultant for hundreds of thousands of dollars to teach the boys in blue the difference between a gun and a cell phone.” — Tom Trent

4. “If I wanted to kill you, you'd already be dead.” — Julian to Tessa in Hard Evidence

5. “Burn a bra if you want, but don't be ridiculous!” — Reece to Kara in Extreme Exposure

6. “I want a man who really loves me, who will stick by me no matter what, even when he gets bored with me and thinks I’m old and ugly.” — Kara to Reece in Extreme Exposure

7. “You're just afraid to let yourself feel because feeling hurts so much.” — Kat to Gabe in Naked Edge

8. “I just love to start the day with a bit of yelling.” — Tessa Novak



9. “Sometimes you say the stupidest things, Holly.” — Matt Harker in Naked Edge

10. “At least if you were plying him for information, get him to spill insider secrets, I could respect it!” — Tom Trent to Kara in Extreme Exposure

11. “I love you with everything I am. You are the best thing that ever happened to me.” — Gabe to Kat in Naked Edge

12. “You should ask Kat whether she found it romantic, because before the rescuing bit came the part where someone nearly killed her—or did you miss that?” — Tessa to Holly in Naked Edge

13. “No one is supposed to be okay after witnessing a murder.” — Kara to Tessa in Hard Evidence

14. “You're a reporter, and that means trying to catch the killers, doesn't it?” — Reece to Tessa in Hard Evidence

15. “I never could’ve done what you did. I probably would have jumped off the cliff myself just so I didn’t have to be afraid of falling.” — Holly to Kat in Naked Edge

16. “I’m sure there are lots of men who’d do or say anything to get inside her, but I’m not one of them. I don’t want her. I want you.” — Gabe speaking about Holly to Kat in Naked Edge

17. “If I thought you’d been a coward, I’d tell you to your face.” — Marc to Joaquin in Breaking Point
18. “Oh, come on, Bradshaw. One beignet won’t make you fat.” — Matt to Holly in Breaking Point

19. “Your wish is our command.” — Chief Irving to Julian in Breaking Point

20. “I’m ashamed to say it, but I tried not to think about what they might be doing to you because I couldn’t stand it.” — Kat to Natalie in Breaking Point

21. “That’s just him being a man. Trust me. He’s crazy about you, even if he doesn’t know it yet.” — Sophie to Kat in Naked Edge

22. “I want to hear more about Mr. Secret Agent Man.” — Holly to Tessa in Hard Evidence



23. “The bastard shot him from the upstairs window when the officer was walking up the to the door. Didn’t even warn him.” — Joaquin during an I-Team meeting

24. “There’s still something between us — something strong. You want me as much as I want you.” — Marc to Sophie in the Jag in Unlawful Contact

25. “Yeah, well, I guess I was in the wrong place at the right time.” — Zach to Kat in Breaking Point

26. “You can’t just look through a reporters files no matter who you are.” — Natalie to Zach in Breaking Point

27. “Sometimes the scar isn’t on the outside. Sometimes it’s on the inside where no one else can see it. Believe me, I know.” — Natalie to Zach in Breaking Point

28. “Clash of the Titans.” — Joaquin in Unlawful Contact

29. “You haven’t exactly caught me at my best.” — Zach to Natalie in Breaking Point

30. “I can’t say how sorry I am to see you here. Not only does it mean bad times for you, it means I’m about to get a call from your asshole boss.” — Chief Irving to Sophie in Unlawful Contact

I put the names of everyone who participated in my online contest randomizer and...

LANDIPAN!

You are the winner! Choose any book I’ve written that you’d like to have — I-Team or historical — and I’ll sign it and get it in the mail to you. Congratulations!!!

Other news:

I’m working hard this weekend to finish editing and revising Surrender. As some of you know, the book is being re-released in December with a new cover and new content. Think of this as the “author’s cut” of Surrender. The plot of the story won’t change, but now that I have no size limit on the book, I’m able to include scenes I wasn’t able to include before. Also, my editor at Penguin has edited it differently then the original editor, so there are subtle differences in the text.

I need to finish this quickly, however, as I need to get back to Connor’s story, which is due soon and which I’m very far behind on. The release of Breaking Point took a lot of time away from writing, and I’m losing two weekends to Surrender, one weekend to out-of-town guests from Denmark and one weekend to a speech I’ve been asked to give in Denver.

As for that speech... I'm very excited that I’ve been asked to be the speaker at SlutWalk Denver. The SlutWalk movement started after a Toronto cop told a group of young women that if they didn’t want to get raped, they shouldn’t dress like sluts — which is more of the same victim blaming we’re all tired of hearing. SlutWalks have been held all over Canada, the United States and Europe, and on July 2, there will be a SlutWalk in Downtown Denver. Already, more than 1,000 women have signed up to march, and I will be delivering the speech wearing a T-shirt that says, “This is what a slut looks like.”

I also wanted to let you know that since Breaking Point was released, the volume of email and Facebook messages, Tweets and Goodreads messages that I’m getting have shot through the roof. It’s not unusual for me to get 2,000 e-mails a day now. I’m doing my best to answer them, but if I haven’t gotten back to you, please know it’s not because I’m ignoring you. If your email was about an event, like a guest blog, please write back to me as a reminder.

So how did everyone do guessing quotes? And how’s the summer going so far?

I-Team Match the Quote to the Character Game

Time for a bit of fun!

I finally got around to sorting through the zillions of quotes my home team — I love you! — plucked out of the five I-Team novels and have put together a little matching quiz.

All you have to do is match the quote to the character. Easy, right? You all know these characters so well!

Each characters has two quotes. In the case of heroes and heroines, the quotes may or may not be from their own story. I tried to pick quotes that were representative of the characters’ personalities without being too obvious.

Try to see how many you can do in your head without looking in the books. Only turn to the books as the last resort. You can email your answers to me — my email is listed in the info on my Facebook page and many of you already have it — and share your experience by posting here.

Participants will be entered to win the signed book of their choice from me.



Good luck!
1. “Have you ever caught a criminal with ink?”

2. “The word phobia implies there is something wrong with my reaction to spiders — horrid little monsters!”

3. “Maybe the mayor can hire a consultant for hundreds of thousands of dollars to teach the boys in blue the difference between a gun and a cell phone.”

4. “If I wanted to kill you, you'd already be dead.”

5. “Burn a bra if you want, but don't be ridiculous!”

6. “I want a man who really loves me, who will stick by me no matter what, even when he gets bored with me and thinks I’m old and ugly.”

7. “You're just afraid to let yourself feel because feeling hurts so much.”

8. “I just love to start the day with a bit of yelling.”

9. “Sometimes you say the stupidest things, Holly.”

10. “At least if you were plying him for information, get him to spill insider secrets, I could respect it!”

11. “I love you with everything I am. You are the best thing that ever happened to me.”

12. “You should ask Kat whether she found it romantic, because before the rescuing bit came the part where someone nearly killed her—or did you miss that?”

13. “No one is supposed to be okay after witnessing a murder.”

14. “You're a reporter, and that means trying to catch the killers, doesn't it?”

15. “I never could’ve done what you did. I probably would have jumped off the cliff myself just so I didn’t have to be afraid of falling.”

16. “I’m sure there are lots of men who’d do or say anything to get inside her, but I’m not one of them. I don’t want her. I want you.”

17. “If I thought you’d been a coward, I’d tell you to your face.”

18. “Oh, come on, Bradshaw. One beignet won’t make you fat.”

19. “Your wish is our command.”

20. “I’m ashamed to say it, but I tried not to think about what they might be doing to you because I couldn’t stand it.”

21. “That’s just him being a man. Trust me. He’s crazy about you, even if he doesn’t know it yet.”

22. “I want to hear more about Mr. Secret Agent Man.”

23. “The bastard shot him from the upstairs window when the officer was walking up the to the door. Didn’t even warn him.”

24. “There’s still something between us — something strong. You want me as much as I want you.”

25. “Yeah, well, I guess I was in the wrong place at the right time.”

26. “You can’t just look through a reporters files no matter who you are.”

27. “Sometimes the scar isn’t on the outside. Sometimes it’s on the inside where no one else can see it. Believe me, I know.”

28. “Clash of the Titans.”

29. “You haven’t exactly caught me at my best.”

30. “I can’t say how sorry I am to see you here. Not only does it mean bad times for you, it means I’m about to get a call from your asshole boss.”

Here’s the list of characters you can draw from:

a. Kara McMillan
b. Reece Sheridan
c. Holly Bradshaw
d. Matt Harker
3. Joaquin Ramirez
f. Tessa Novak
g. Julian Darcangelo
h. Sophie Alton
i. Marc Hunter
j. Chief Irving
k. Tom Trent
l. Kat James
m. Gabe Rossiter
n. Natalie Benoit
o. Zach McBride

Coming soon:
Interview with the I-Team heroes
Baking pies with Natalie
News on Surrender 2.0

Stay tuned, and have fun!

BREAKING POINT IS OUT! Contests, blogs & more!

Breaking Point is out!

Today is the day! It’s here at last. Yes, it’s Release Day for Breaking Point, my 10th novel and the fifth novel in the I-Team series. Uncork the champagne!

There’s a lot going on today with lots of chances to win books. Here are some of the highlights.

First, you might want to follow me on Twitter. I’ll be announcing any special giveaways or other fun events there.

Also, be sure to stop by my Facebook fan page. We’ll be having some fun there. A few other authors will be stopping by to talk about their books and hold giveaways. Plus, I’ll be holding a drawing for Amazon gift cards and signed copies of Breaking Point. To be entered, you’ll need to comment, and to comment, you’ll need to “Like” me. But you already like me, right?

I’m the guest author today at Seductive Musings, where Booklover has outdone herself in a post that includes a little guest piece by me, as well as the MP3 playlist from Breaking Point, a collection of links to Breaking Point excerpts scattered across the web, links to all kinds of I-Team extras — and some super-sexy photos of the I-Team heroes. It really is quite the I-Team extravaganza, almost an I-Team wiki, so even if you already have a copy of Breaking Point, you’re going to have a lot of fun.

There’s a fun chat between me and Marie Force on her blog today. Yes, two author/journalists dishing about dishy heroes and some of the behind-the-scenes aspects of the I-Team series — including the scarier parts of my life that have gone into the books. It took us about a week to have this conversation via email because we’re both so busy. She would ask a question... And 12 hours later I would answer. But stop by, tell us which I-Team hero you wouldn’t kick out of bed, and be entered to win a signed copy of Breaking Point.

Reviews are popping up all over the Internet. I shared a few links to reviews in my last post, including this one by Kristin and Jess that was lots of fun. I also shared the first two chapters of the book. So if you want to peruse that, it’s still waiting for you, together with images that come out of the story.

If you want to help me spread the word, here’s what you can do:

1. Post about Breaking Point in your Facebook status, linking to my Facebook page or to an excerpt — whatever you believe your friends would love to know about the book.
2. Tweet and retweet, sharing links and updates about where you are in the story, what you enjoyed, where you saw the book on display. And don’t forget to use the hashtag #BreakingPoint.
3. Update your status in Goodreads to let people know where you are in the book.
   
4. Take photos with your cellphone of displays of the book or of you reading the book and email them to me (my email is listed in my info on Facebook).I might just post your photo on my blog.
   
5. Post honest reviews after you read the book, sharing your feelings about the stories strengths and weakness (as if!). Don’t try to sell people. Just tell them, reader to reader, what you liked (or didn’t like — ha!) about the book.
6. Mention what you’re reading in your readers groups, in chats, in threads on discussion boards.
7. Fricking get a megaphone and stand inside your local book store shouting, “You haven’t read the I-Team? What the bleep is wrong with you?”
   

On May 12, I’ll be participating in the Berkley/Jove Author Chat on Writerspace.com. The fun starts at 9 PM EST. I will be giving away a signed copy of the book to one participant in that chat. To be a part of it, click here and sign yourself in. It’s easy. Other Berkley/Jove authors will be there, as well. These chats sometimes get a bit bawdy. A bunch of romance authors and readers chatting semi-anonymously? You bet they get bawdy. I once taught a group of women how to say “big, wonderful cock” in Danish during one of these chats, and you know what? They still know how to say it. They say it every time I run into them online, in fact. And my Danish friends wonder what the hell...

Ahem. Anyway, there will be other events coming up through the month, so stay tuned! I still hope to get a former U.S. Marshal in here to talk with you, as well as the I-Team heroes, which now number five strong. And by strong I mean ripped.

Wow. Ten novels. I know some authors have written more than 100. But to write those 10 novels while working full-time and raising kids... It truly feels like a day worth celebrating.

But the most wonderful part of being an author and writing these books has been sharing them with all of you. I really do read all of your e-mails. I read your Facebook posts and tweets. And on days when I’m struggling, you really keep me going. When a book is done and it reaches your hands — that’s the best moment for me. Characters I love and have lived with for months become characters we share. Their stories become shared adventures.

So thank you to all of my readers and posters, my friends and family, for your support and for sharing this great adventure with me.

Enjoy Breaking Point!

And then come back to chat with me about it!

Contest #1: Really want to help me spread the word? Join my Fan Page on Facebook, and get your romance-reading friends to join, too. The person who brings the most new people to my Facebook Fan Page wins a signed copy of Breaking Point for herself — and one for one of her friends chosen through a random drawing. So that I can keep track, be sure to have your friends tell me you sent them.

Contest #2: Tweet your heart out. How creative are your tweets? How many times can you get yourself retweeted? The person who generates the most tweets and retweets with the hashtag #BreakingPoint will win a signed copy of the book. All I have to do to determine the winner is click on the hashtag and count.

And because these two contests might not work for people in other time zones or those who have to work all day — some bosses are total asshats when it comes to letting their employees goof off online during working hours — here’s Contest #3: Post a comment here about your favorite I-Team moment and be entered into a random drawing for a signed copy of the book.

(I can tell you right now, Breaking Point has an I-Team moment you won’t soon forget. Almost everyone who’s read the story has mentioned it.)

That’s three contests and four winners.

As for my part, I took the day off so that I could hang with you all day!

Now go get him. Zach in all of his Navy SEAL/Deputy U.S. Marshal glory is yours!

Calling Team Julian! Hard Evidence excerpt/discussion

Dark Angel struts his stuff.

Sorry we missed Man-Titty Monday this week. Perhaps these images of Julian Darcangelo, aka Dark Angel, will make up for that.

Remember that Eduardo Verástegui was chosen by all of you during the I-Team Casting Couch competition to play the role of Julian should they be made into films. As an aside, a reader on Goodreads cast Hard Evidence herself and picked the exact Tessa and the exact Julian that we had chosen. Talk about amazing coincidence... Of course, I’d forgotten about Eduardo and ended up drooling over the photo she posted, but that’s another story.

I’m summoning Team Julian (and those of you who are members of Team RJMGZ) together for a reason. And that reason contains spoilers. So if you haven't read Hard Evidence beware!

There be spoilers here! Ye've been warned!

Okay, here we go...


First, more handsome face. Okay.

Once in a while, I venture onto Amazon and read reviews. Sometimes readers send me links to reviews, and sometimes I’m writing and want to risk my mojo by reading what people have to say about my books. I try to respect everyone’s opinion. It’s not my job to tell them what to feel. (I will admit to taking issue with those who say the reporting doesn't seem realistic or that Kat is a bad journalist or that no reporter would sneak behind razor wire. I’m a National Journalism Award winner for goodness sake! I do think I know what reporters would and wouldn’t do. Okay, got that off my chest.)

Recently, I read a review in which a reader said that Julian was a terrible hero. Actually, she said he was “repulsive,” “a total disaster” and “a whore.” She also said that he raped Tessa and that Tessa allowed him to rape her. (Um... Okay.)

Granted, the scene to which this reader refer is an edgy scene. Julian, pushed to the emotional edge by Tessa, explodes and acts out the unworthiness he feels. Raised by a monster of a father, he’d had a nightmare childhood, which he’d tried to turn to good by becoming a federal agent and going after men like his father. But that has meant years of masquerading as a sexual predator. And all that ugliness — his childhood, the brutal nature of his job — is inside him. He believes it makes him unworthy. And so what does he do?

Here’s the scene (Argh! Spoilers! Avast! Turn back!):

“I had no idea, Julian. I didn’t know anyone could do anything so terrible to a woman!” She shuddered, a wave of revulsion, of sheer terror, passing through her.

He held her closer. “Try not to think about it. Just let it go.”

“Those poor women!” She squeezed her eyes shut. “I can’t get the images out of my head! How do I make them go away?”

And then it hit her.

She sat up, stared at him. “My God, Julian, you’re exposed to this every day! How do you—?”

He pressed a finger against her lips. “It’s my job, Tessa.”

Something about the way he said it—the quiet strength, the resignation, the hint of buried despair—closed around her heart like a fist. “It hurts you.”

He sat up, rested his weight on one hand. “Somebody has to do it, and I’m better suited to it than most men.”

She ran a hand up his arm. “You’re as human as any man, Julian. You have the same right to feel as everyone else.”

“Don’t try to figure me out, Tessa.” He pushed off the bed, pulling away from her, a dark scowl on his face, an edge to his voice. “It’s a waste of your time.”

She hopped off the bed, cut him off at the door, her hand pressed against his chest to stop him. “Don’t try to push me away! It’s my time to waste.”

“Tessa!” One word, her name—a low growl of warning.

A muscle clenched in his jaw, his heart pounding against her palm.

She held her ground. “There’s nothing inside you that scares me, Julian.”

She saw in his eyes the moment his control snapped. In a heartbeat, she found herself pinned beneath him on the floor, her arms stretched over her head, her wrists cuffed by one big hand.

He glared down at her, an almost feral look on his face, his thighs forcing hers apart. “You really want to know what’s inside me?”

Then his mouth closed over hers in a brutal, punishing kiss.

Tessa didn’t object. Not when he forced his tongue roughly into her mouth. Not when he used his free hand to rip open her blouse, scattering buttons across the floor. Not when he ground his pelvis against hers, thrusting in crude imitation of sex.

He meant to frighten her, she knew. He wanted to show her how violent he could be, how badly he could hurt her. And yet it was himself he was hurting.

Tears slipped from the corner of her eyes down her temples as she yielded her body to his rage, her heart aching for him. Somehow he’d gotten her pants off and was now yanking his zipper down over the bulge of his erection. Then he buried himself inside her, pounded his fury and desperation into her without finesse or gentleness.

It was over quickly.

He groaned, shuddered, then sank against her, his face buried in the crook of her neck, his breath coming fast and heavy. For a moment he lay against her. “Jesus God!”

It was a cry of remorse. He released her wrists, started to pull away, but she held him fast, kissing his hair, her tears falling freely now.

Now, just to make it clear, I’m not upset with the reviewer who called Julian repulsive. Her review is her honest response to the story. From her point of view, he was despicable, and that’s valid and real for her. Reading this scene one can perhaps see why she felt this way.

However, those of us who understand Julian’s inner demons — i.e., me — see something different in this scene. And so I thought I'd ask you what you think Julian would do if the scene had been written differently, if it had been written like this:

But first, another break for handsome face. Okay.

She held her ground. “There’s nothing inside you that scares me, Julian.”

She saw in his eyes the moment his control snapped. In a heartbeat, she found herself pinned beneath him on the floor, her arms stretched over her head, her wrists cuffed by one big hand.

He glared down at her, an almost feral look on his face, his thighs forcing hers apart. “You really want to know what’s inside me?”

Then his mouth closed over hers in a brutal, punishing kiss.

"Julian, stop!” Tessa twisted and arched, trying to get away from him, her breath coming in pleading pants. “You’re hurting me! Please! Don’t do this!"

WWJD?

What do you think Julian would do in this scene if Tessa had fought him and screamed for him to stop?

And why in the world didn’t Tessa try to stop him? Is she okay with being abused? Can it really be rape if she understands him and allows him to do this?

Share your thoughts and I’ll follow up and explain how I saw the scene. Maybe we’ll even hear from Julian and Tess about it...

Also this week: RomCon comes to Denver! If you registered for the Pamela Clare Reality Tour please let me know ASAP via e-mail! I’d love to know who put their names in for the lottery. I will be posting my RomCon schedule here and on my Yahoo Group later in the week, and I hope to spend time with each and every one of you.

Plus, I’m psyched about meeting Anna Campbell in person and seeing KristieJ again.

NOTE: Blogger seems to be screwing up. I know some of you have commented and your comments aren't showing up. Neither are my responses. Blogger seems to have given Rita the last word. LOL! Maybe the glitch will clear up. Keep posting! They do end up in my e-mail Inbox, and I'm sure they'll show up later. — PC

January 2012 — Connor MacKinnon returns

This has been an incredible week. First, the shackling bill moves out of committee and onto the Senate floor. And now...

I am so very happy to announce that Berkley has offered me a five-book contract that includes two I-Team books and three historical novels, starting with Connor MacKinnon's book!

MacKinnon's Rangers return in January 2012.



This is beyond my hopes. Conventional wisdom says that publishers don’t buy books mid-series from another publisher, so I knew when I left the previous publisher of my historical novels that there was a chance that the MacKinnon’s Rangers series would die. I didn’t want that to happen, but I knew I had to make a change. So I held my breath and took the plunge...

And I’m so glad I did!

My editor at Berkley, who has stood by my unconventional choices (like a virgin Navajo heroine), read both Surrender and Untamed and loved them. She wants Connor’s book, too.



I know that 2012 sounds far away, but in the book world, it’s really not all that far away. What’s important is that the book is happening, and his story, which is going to be told for sure now, is in the works. I already have an outline for it, which my editor has seen. It was supposed to be two pages. It’s 11 pages long, because someone really got into write about him when she finally had the chance.

After that, I’ll be leaving Colonial America for a while to write some stories set in England and Scotland. And not one of them involves a duke.

My first order of business is writing Zach and Natalie’s story, Breaking Point. And then it’s back to Colonial New York to finish the French & Indian War and tell Connor’s story.

I hope my historical readers are as happy about this as I am. You all know that historical romance was my first love. It’s still what I read most by far. I’ve appreciated your willingness to try reading romantic suspense, but I know some of you — KristieJ, KarLynP, MelissaB, I hope you read this! — wish you had more historicals. Well, you’re going to get them.

I’m so excited, and I want so much to celebrate!

I wish you all lived a bit closer!

A bit of catching up...

The walls inside the capitol are made of rose-colored marble. The elevator doors are brass with scenes from Colorado history depicted in the panels.

Didn’t Reece and Kara get hot and heavy in an elevator at the State Capitol? Or did they just talk about it? I can’t remember.

So sorry to be MIA. It’s been a crazy week.

It started Monday with word that a friend of mine had been found dead in his home. I turns out he killed himself. So that’s been hard to deal with.

I got the lawyerized version of the anti-shackling bill I’m spearheaded back to review, and one page of words had been turned into five. I kid you not. So I had to read through that and make sure that nothing substantive had changed. And it hasn’t.

Then, of course, there was a paper to put out. I wrote a tribute to my friend, who was a public figure in our town.

Today, I’m the guest speaker at a journalism class on the Metro State College campus, then I’m heading a few blocks up Colfax to the State Capitol for one last go-through on the bill language before it is officially introduced into the State Senate. It will have to clear at least one Senate committee before going to the Senate floor for debate. A lot of people have signed on to support it — everyone from Planned Parenthood to a statewide lobby organization of county sheriffs. The sheriffs are key because they run the county jails, and they will not be opposing the bill. In fact, their past president is going to testify in favor of it. So that’s going well.

Tomorrow is the Rockies home opener vs. the Padres. Go Rox! I’ll be going to that tomorrow with my older son, Alec, so that will give me some desperately needed time to relax.

On the writing front, I finished my proposal for Natalie’s book, which is called Breaking Point at the moment. Survival Instinct and Body Heat are still in the running. What I don’t like about the first two is their lack of sexual innuendo... Maybe something brilliant will come to me.

I hope you all have a great day. And I’m sure no one minded MTM lasting a few extra days, though that wasn’t my intent. I got thrown for a loop Monday when I heard about my friend and have just been crazy-busy since then.

I-Team playlists for your iPod

I am a music fanatic. I’ve always been that way. Even back when I was 4 years old, music playing on the stereo would make me jump out of the tub and run, wet and naked, on fast little feet out to the living room to dance. My parents probably thought there was something developmentally wrong with me.

In school, I was in choir, marching band and concert band. Plus, I listened to music non-stop at home. When the Walkman came out, it became my constant companion. No need to tell you that I'm an iPod devotee.

But music is also one of my primary sources of inspiration for my writing. Without music, would there be words? I'm not sure. I use music to manipulate myself emotionally, setting up playlists for characters, for certain scenes in books, and general play lists for novels.

Several of you have asked about my playlist for Naked Edge, but rather than just listing that, I thought I’d put them all up here. So whether you’re on Team Reece, Team Julian, Team Marc or Team Gabe (or are preemptively signing up for Team Zach), you’ll find something here to give you insight into those characters — or at least the odd inner workings of my brain, which is much less exciting.

So get ready to sample some tunes at the iTunes store. I won’t be able to list everything here, just the most significant songs for each book.

Extreme Exposure
I haven't saved this list — it’s been a while now — so I’m going from memory. I listened to a lot of Eminem (esp. Lose Yourself and 8 Mile) while I wrote this. Not sure why. But the most “Reece” song to me was Five for Fightin's Superman (playcount 1,630). I saw Reece as a hero who was almost too good for the world around him, a man who just wanted to be a man but whose sense of right and wrong was so strong that it led him to this sea of conflict — but also, ultimately, happiness with Kara. That song for some reason evokes that for me. For the scenes at the cement plant at the end of the book, I wanted something that sounded violent and evoked factory machinery. So I listened to U2’s “Mofo” from Pop. And that's about all I can remember...

Hard Evidence
I still have some of this playlist on my iTunes.
“Jerusalem Poker” by Bruce Cockburn — evoked Julian’s inner cool during violence
“Savin' Me” by Nickelback — This might sound like a Marc song (in fact, he might have grown out of it), but to me it evoked Julian’s inner struggle and his being trapped in a sense of worthlessness. It is the most “Julian” song I can think of. Plus he was in prison at one point.
“Feelin' Way Too Damn Good” — this made me feel his sense of disbelief that he’d fallen in love
“If You Wear That Velvet Dress” — This was the end of the story for me. It starts at Julian’s bleakest moment when Tessa is gone, then resolves into their being together and all danger being past. This is one of those instances where it’s more the emotion of the music than the lyrics.

I also listened incessantly to a mixtape put together by Joe Thunder and some of his homies. This was hip hop from Aurora — A-Town, Julian’s stomping ground. This was right off the street. You can’t get it anywhere, plus none of the songs have titles.

Unlawful Contact
The name of this playlist is actually MARC&SOPHIE. I think in terms of characters, because they have to feel like people to me to feel real to you.
The love scene in the prologue needed a sense of innocent sensuality, and I got that from “One Summer Night” by the Danleers. Think of Marc's ’55 Chevy.
“Spybreak” and “Clubbed to Death” from The Matrix soundtrack fed the actions scenes.
“Running Away” by Hoobastank — what else but prison escape music? “Where Do I Hide?” by Nickelback came in there, too.
“Running to Stand Still,” U2's song about heroin addiction, was Megan for me. Love this song.
“Worthy To Say” by Nickelback and “Cocaine” by Eric Clapton helped feed the street scenes, particularly anything having to do with drugs.
“Better Than Me” and “Lips of An Angel” brought to mind Marc's sense that Sophie deserved better. Again, it’s not always the lyrics. Sometimes it’s just the emotion it evokes.
As for the love the two felt for each other, “Truly Madly Deeply” and “Chasing Cars” were high up there.
And the ultimate Marc song? “When I'm Gone” by 3 Doors Down. This was the beginning of my 3 Doors Down obsession. See if you think this fits:

Everything I am
And everything in me
Wants to be the one
You wanted me to be
I'll never let you down
Even if I could
I'd give up everything
If only for your good
So hold me when I'm here
Right me when I'm wrong
You can hold me when I'm scared
You won't always be there
So love me when I'm gone
Love me when I'm gone...

That scene that made people really anxious toward the end of the book, the one that involves bullets... (I’m trying to do this without spoilers) I listened to one song for an entire weekend just to convince myself that the worst had happened and that it was O-V-E-R in a permanent way. And that was the love theme from the 1969 film Romeo & Juliet, titled “A Time for Us.” And I cried my way through an entire box of Puffs writing that scene.

Excerpt:

Marc met her gaze, gave her fingers a squeeze, then spoke haltingly. “I’m sorry… Dragged you into this.”

“Shhh!” She ran her knuckles over his cheek, trying not to cry and failing miserably. “You just rest now. Save your strength.”

“Don’t cry… No happy endings… not for us… not this time. But for you… you’ll find happiness… the right man.”

“Don’t you even say that, Marc Hunter, damn it!”

“You helped me… find Megan. Thank you… is not enough.” He looked to where his sister sat crying quietly, the baby clutched in her arms. “I love you, Megan… Promise me… no more drugs. Be… a good mom. Tell Emily… I love her, too.”

“I-I promise.” Her face contorted with grief, Megan gulped back a sob and held the baby out so that he could touch her, Emily’s little fist closing around his finger.

“Cop… ” Hunt’s gaze shifted to Julian. “Watch over Sophie. Megan and Emily, too.”

“You know I will.” Julian met Sophie’s gaze. “Three minutes, thirty seconds.”

“Sprite?” Hunt took another shaky breath, his pale face a mask of pain, his gaze searching for her.

“I’m here, right here.” She squeezed his hand, but this time he didn’t squeeze back.
His seemed to relax when he saw her. “I... love you… Always have… Every day… you. My fairy sprite.”

“I love you, too, do you hear me?” She sobbed the words.

His mouth curved in a weak grin. “I… hear you.”

Their gazes locked, the love she saw in his eyes undimmed by pain. And for a moment it was just the two of them—just her and Hunt.

“You mean everything to me, Marc Hunter. Everything.” She leaned down, pressed her lips to his, her palm pressed against the rapid thrum of his heart.

He answered her kiss, his lips like ice.

Then the distant beat of a helicopter drew her gaze to the sky.

By the time she looked down again, his eyes were closed.

And that brings us to...

Naked Edge

I have many playlists for this book. Kat has one. Gabe has one. The sex scenes have their own list. The book in general has one. The big scene at the end of the book has its own playlist. If you absolutely must know all of the songs, e-mail me. Here are the highlights:

Gabe:
“Closer” by Nine Inch Nails — what else could be the soundtrack to his sex life?
“Unforgiven II” and “Fade to Black” by Metallica for his climbing scenes
“Broken” by Lifehouse for Gabe’s feelings about Kat
“It's Been Awhile,” “Right Here,” and “Tangled Up In You” by Staind are strong Gabe songs, especially the first, which is kind of the ultimate Gabe song:

It's been a while
since I could say that I wasn't addicted and
It's been a while
Since I could say I love myself as well and
It's been a while
Since I've gone and fucked things up just like I always do
It's been a while
But all that shit seems to disappear when I'm with you

I listened to a lot of 3 Doors Down, too, but Staind really took over after the first six months or so.

Kat:
The entire soundtrack to the movie Thunderheart
The soundtrack to How the West was Lost
“Meditations on Dinetah,” by R. Carlos Nakai (Dinetah means Navajoland, and Nakai is Diné)
The entire CD Fire Crow by Joseph Fire Crow

This music also served to fuel the action scenes toward the end.

Other significant songs:
“Wicked Game” by Chris Isaak and “Hero” by Enrique Iglesias for the love scenes (together with a bunch of others)
“You and Me” by Lifehouse for their wedding at the end and the epilogue.
“Supermassive Black Hole," by Muse for skiing scenes (that turn into snow angels).
“Sometime Around Midnight” for Gabe's broken heart


And for the scene that made you hate me? This will probably seem weird, but Annie Lennox singing “Into the West” from the third Lord of the Rings movie. It is, after all, a song about dying and grief.

And there you have it.

I’m always looking for new music. Oftentimes, when I feeling like I'm suffering from writer’s block it's actually musical ennui — being sick of all my music. So feel free to share, especially if you’ve got music that evokes torture. I could use some of that for Zach right now. (Let the teasing begin! Bwahaha!)

The matter of the I-Team's Matt

I've always pictured Matt as a rumpled Paul Bettany.

I've had a chance to read through much of the transcript from Saturday’s spoiler chat, searching for questions that I missed and might be able to answer here. Given how fast the text was flying by, there definitely were questions that I didn’t see, so expect answers soon.

One funny thing came up during the chat, brought to my attention by Rachel. I was talking about future I-Team books. Natalie’s story is next, I said. And then Joaquin’s. Someone asked if I planned a story for Holly — yes, but she’s last — and whether I intended to write one for Matt.

I answered that I might give Matt his own story in the background, rather than giving him his own book.

Rachel then very sweetly asked whether Matt was already married.

I, the authority on the I-Team series, said that he was not.

What a silly goat I am!

A couple days went by, and Rachel contacted me directly to let me know that on Page 89 of Extreme Exposure, Tom is described as having begrudged giving Matt time off for his wedding. Rachel told me she hadn’t pointed this out at the chat because she didn’t want to embarrass me.

Fortunately, I am very hard to embarrass. I found this revelation about Matt to be hilariously funny, given that I should know more about him than anyone.

Of course, Rachel pointed out that maybe Matt’s bride left him at the altar or maybe they’re not together. Anything could have happened, right?

My reluctance to give Matt a story is based on years of working with male journalists. Not to insult my male counterparts, but desk jobs just aren’t that sexy to write about when we’re talking about heroes. I prefer some action, some ruggedness. How could beta hero Matt, with his freckles and rumpled tie, stand up to Julian, Marc and Gabe, or even Reece?

Photographers are different. They’re the action-adventure members of the editorial staff. So Joaquin is no problem for me. It doesn’t hurt that I see him in my head as a young Antonia Banderas.

In other news, Gabe’s utter and complete lack of parentage and family was discussed at the chat. It was decided that 1) his parents died when he was younger and 2) he was an only child.

I do try to wind up all threads. And I try to remember each and every characteristic about my characters. But, obviously, I don’t. D’oh!

Thanks to Rachel for sharing news of Matt’s potential wife with me.

Now here’s a challenge for all of you:

One regular character in the I-Team series undergoes an unintentional shift in eye color early in the series. Be the first person to name that character, and you win a signed copy of your book of choice, either from the I-Team series or one of my historicals.

Happy hunting!

In completely unrelated news: I wrote a draft of the bill I hope to see passed to end the shackling of pregnant inmates in labor. I was supposed to meet the senator who’s carrying the bill, but she got tied up in committee and the meeting was postponed. I have to say that writing a draft of a proposed bill is easier than writing a novel.

News! News! News!

Things that happened today done in the style of SNL’s video short "Like a Boss" (If you haven't seen it, it’s utterly offensive and wonderful):

Went to an organic farm / Froze my fingers off / Held a chicken / Took some photos / Called a guy a douche-bag / Read some press releases / Tossed them in the recycle / Got free spatula (WTF?) / Wrote an article / Copyedited flats... And now I'm home.

In the middle of that, I got a phone call from my editor at Penguin.

Yes, today was a day for good news. But let me back up for a moment...

After Extreme Exposure was released, I was invited to be part of an anthology called Catch of the Day. My agent called and told me what the deadline was and suggested I consider the anthology as a way of getting my name out there. I would be the least-known author in the anthology, and tagging along with bigger names would bring new readers to my writing. Or that was the theory, anyway.

I didn’t think I could pull it off. Firstly, the anthology was supposed to be humorous. Me, humorous? Not really. My books veer toward the dark side and include things like torture. There's nothing humorous about that.

Plus I was overwhelmed with deadlines. Writing books in two genres means keeping two publishing houses happy. Doing that while raising a son by yourself and working full time as the editor-in-chief of a newspaper? You’d have to be out of your mind to try it. (Which tells you something about me.)

I had my cell phone in my hand and was dialing my agent’s number to tell her that I just couldn’t do it, when the idea for an I-Team novella fell more or less fully formed into my head. Clunk. Just like that. I took that as a sign that I could do it, and should do it, so when she answered, I told her I would sign on.

Writing ”Heaven Can’t Wait” took about five weekends, and it was both stressful and a lot of fun. I laughed out loud while writing it — yes, there is humor in it — and then I fell so in love with Lissy and Will that I wished they’d gotten a full novel.

Sadly, the anthology didn’t do well, and most readers probably don’t know there’s an I-Team novella out there. I always felt bad about that because I liked the story, personally, and some of my readers who did manage to find it said they thought it was both fun and ultra-sexy (not surprising, I suppose, given that it’s a story about two people who love each other trying not to have sex before their wedding).


But several months ago I got an idea. I called my editor at Penguin and asked her why in the age of electronic publishing they couldn’t release "Heaven Can’t Wait” as a stand-alone novella-length e-book and make it available in a bunch of different e-book formats — Sony, Kindle, etc.

Today when I spoke to her she said they were doing just that. Right now the story is being converted to e-book formats and they expect it to be available in a few months.

So those of you who are I-Team fans are going to get an extra bit of reading this year. ”Heaven Can’t Wait” is set chronologically between Extreme Exposure and Hard Evidence, and the I-Team characters that existed at that time, including Tessa, Sophie and Horny Holly, are part of the story.

Will, the hero, is a former college football star who is working as a sports reporter, while Lissy is the newspaper’s fashion editor. If the names sound familiar, it’s probably because you read a little about them in Hard Evidence.

This must have been a day for news, because there were also some developments with regard to my MacKinnon’s Rangers series and Connor’s book, but I can’t share that news yet. But trust me — it’s good news.

And now, just for fun, an excerpt from ”Heaven Can’t Wait”:



Lissy lay with her head against Will’s sweat-slick chest, running her fingers absentmindedly through his chest hair, her body limp and glowing from their most recent round of crazed sex. She loved these nights when she had him to herself.

An unpleasant flutter in her stomach drew her mind back to what she’d spent all evening trying to forget — her mother’s call. Her mother was still trying to get her to postpone the wedding until Will signed a prenup, dangling cash in her face as if she could be bought. Hadn’t she proved long ago that she didn’t give a damn about her parents’ money?

But it wasn’t the usual discussion about divorce and assets that had bothered her; it was her mother’s comment about sex and love. Her mother had quoted some study showing that couples who’d lived together before getting married had a higher divorce rate than those who waited to have sex until after marriage.

Lissy had argued that the study, like most, was skewed from the beginning, as people who waited until after marriage to have sex tended to be people who also opposed divorce. Statistics never told the whole story. Any good journalist knew that.

You wouldn’t be the first woman to confuse a man’s sexual attention with love, Melisande. Just wait till he gets his fill of you and the hormones wear off. Men like him marry for two things: sex and money.

Not her Will. No way.

“Do you realize that a hundred or even fifty years ago, we’d both be virgins?” She didn’t know she’d spoken until she heard her own voice.

His fingers stroked the hollow above her hip. “Good thing it’s not a hundred or even fifty years ago. My balls would have burst by now.”

“But don’t you think things were more romantic then? Sex would have been a great mystery for us.”

“I doubt it would have been that much of a mystery. We’d probably both have grown up in the country and seen our share of farm-animal lovin’.”

“The point I’m trying to make is that neither of us would have any personal experience with sex until our wedding night.”

“That’s assuming that I hadn’t already charmed my way into your bloomers or found some ‘loose woman’ willing to let me defile her.” His voice dropped to a dark, velvet purr. “I can be very persuasive.”

Lissy sat up, trying not to laugh, and glared at him. “You’re ruining my fantasy.”

He grinned, stretched, and folded his muscular arms behind his head. “Oh. Sorry. Go on. I’m listening.”

“After the reception, we’d go the bridal chamber, where everything would be roses and candles. There’d be a fire in the hearth—”

“—if it were winter.”

She ignored him. “You’d undress me first and then yourself. I’d probably never have seen a naked man before, so I’d be shy and afraid—”

“Oh, Will, it’s soooo big! Please, don’t hurt me!”

“—but you would soothe me and assure me that everything was going to be fine. Then you’d undress yourself, carry me to the bed and make passionate love to me.”

He reached out, ran his fingers down her hair. “Are you sure that’s how it would go? I think you’ve read too many novels. If it were a hundred years ago and we were both virgins, I think it would go more like this.”

“Do tell.”

“We’d have been raised to see nudity as shameful, so the room would be dark, and you would have changed from your wedding gown to a proper white nightgown and gotten into bed before I entered the room. I’d come in, wearing my nightshirt, and crawl into bed with you. You’d be worried that it was going to hurt, and I’d be worried that my dick might not work. I’d lift your gown up to your hips, spread your legs, and it would be over in a minute. You’d hate it, and you’d get pregnant — with the first of my twelve children.”

She fought back a giggle. “Thank you for that enchanting vision of romance.”

“You’re welcome.” His knuckles grazed a nipple, sent heat skittering into her belly.

She batted his hand away. “You’re just afraid you can’t do it.”

He frowned. “Do what?”

“Wait.”

He raised a dark eyebrow, raked her with his gaze. “It’s a bit too late for that, isn’t it?”

And then it came to her. “Not if we start over.”

“Start over?”

“You know — wait until our wedding night to have sex again.”

The look on his handsome face almost made her laugh out loud, but there was something about this that felt important to her.

Then he sat up and brushed a strand of hair from her cheek, the humor gone from his eyes. “This is about something your mother said, isn’t it?”

She hated that he was able to see through her so clearly. “I just think it would add to the romance if we held back a little bit, made ourselves wait. It’s only two weeks. Unless you don’t think you can hack it.”

Will was tempted to end this conversation by pulling her beneath him and showing her just what she’d be giving up, but something told him saying the wrong thing just now would be a bad idea. Besides, he wasn’t one to turn down a challenge.

“If you want to wait until after the wedding to have sex again, that’s fine.”

The surprise on her face mirrored the astonishment he felt.

What the hell did you just say, Fraser? Are you an idiot?

Her eyes narrowed. “You really think you can do it?”

Her long hair hung about her heart-shaped face, tangled from a night of repeated lovemaking. Her nipples peeked out from between the strands, just begging to be licked and sucked. Her lips were swollen from kissing, and her cheeks were still rosy from her last orgasm, when she’d ridden him to within an inch of his life. Her green eyes shone with a mix of intelligence and feminine allure. And he was agreeing not to fuck her?

“Of course I can do it. I’m not some eighteen-year-old college student.”

She sat up on her heels. “Then how about we make a bet?”

He leaned back on his elbows, suddenly feeling competitive. “You name it.”

“Okay. We agree not to have sex again until our wedding night, and whoever gives in and asks for it first loses.”

That sounded easy enough—two weeks, no sex. “Fine. It’s a deal.”

“But there has to be some penalty.” She hopped out of bed, walked the length of the room, forcing him to stare first at the bare curves of her scrumptious ass, and then at the auburn curls of her muff. “If you lose, you and your groomsmen have to wear the mauve cummerbunds I wanted.”

He gave a snort, lifted his gaze to her face. “In that case, there is no way I’m going to lose. I’m not wearing pink.”

“Mauve.”

“Whatever.”

She crawled back into bed, smiling. “We’ll see.”

“And what about you, Miss Lissy? What price will you pay if you come begging for it?” And then he had it. “I know. You’ll have to promise to love, honor and obey me.”

Her mouth fell open in outrage. “No way! Absolutely not!”

He couldn’t help but chuckle. “Okay, then. How about this? If you lose, you have to wear the slutty gown.”

“The Oleg Cassini?”

He had no idea what the designer’s name was, but he’d loved the way she’d looked in that dress — ultra-feminine and sexy as hell — and had been disappointed when she’d decided to go with something else. “The one that’s skin-tight and has the crystals on the straps.”

She gaped at him. “The Badgley Mischka! I’m fashion editor of the paper, Will. I can’t walk down the aisle half naked!”

“Then I guess the bet is off.” A part of him — the part located about six inches below his navel — heaved a sigh of relief. He reached over and turned off the bedside lamp.

Then out of the darkness, she spoke. “You’re on.”