PRIDE & PASSION
Jenna Bayley-Burke
contemporary romance

He’ll let her have control…until he’s ready to make his move.

The only things Lily Harris inherits after her father’s untimely death are debt, scandal and loneliness. She doesn’t protest when her father’s business partner, Jake Tolliver, steps up to help with the mess she finds herself in—until Jake reveals the last promise he made to her father.

Jake may be as compelling to look at as a marble statue—and stir a frighteningly powerful desire within her—but no way will Lily agree to be his socially acceptable bride while he continues to bed his string of beautiful women—not without getting him to agree to a deal of her own first.

With a well-earned reputation as a feral hunter who goes after what he wants, Jake has his sights set on Lily, and her lack of options puts her right where he’s wanted her from the first moment he laid eyes on her.

Jake’s not above making Lily think she’s having it her way if that’s what it’ll take to have his way in the end. But once he grows tired of playing beast to her beauty, he’s not above changing the rules of the game until they’re both playing for the same prize.

Warning : This title contains a hero used to getting what he wants, a heroine determined not to give in to him, some indecent proposals, a fair amount of pride, and enough passion to burn up everyone’s control.

Read an excerpt from Samhain

Read an excerpt from Books on Board

Exclusive Blog excerpt

Well tickle me pink. I found out today that From the Ashes is a Top Pick at Literary Nymphs Reviews. It is a 2009 Reviewer’s Choice Award recipient.

Let’s do a flashback, shall we? Here is the original review.

Nymph Rating: 5 Nymphs
Literary Nymphs Reviewer: Fire Nymph

Cilia and Fiach are back in a new adventure. Wanting to commit, for all eternity, to each other, Cilia and Fiach return to Faerie, to gain Fiach’s Mother’s blessing and be bound together in the way of the Fae.

The couple is faced with a trial of love, which puts them through challenges only true, destined love can survive. Are Cilia and Fiach meant to be together, or will his mother prove that their love is false?

Ms. Edwards did it again! This was an excellent read from the cover to the “About Author” section. I was unable to tear myself away from my computer screen. I had to finish and find out if Cilia and Fiach survived the trials and were blessed in their commitment. I must say that the answer will shock you! A must read and a permanent fixture on my virtual bookshelf.

Well, anyway, thanks to Literary Nymphs Reviews for thinking so highly of my first efforts. I hope they will be even more pleased with my future releases.

My dark fantasy novel, Everlong, will be released from Samhain Publishing on March 30th.

In honor of Everlong, each of my SSS excerpts will come from that novel as I count down to release day.

If I’d thought he couldn’t hold me tighter, I’d been wrong. I would wear bruises for a while, but for now, I allowed him to have what he needed, letting him squeeze until joints popped and pain blossomed. It was such a small hurt when compared to the anguish carried in his voice.

Using my chin to part the fabric of his shirt, I rested my face flush against his skin. His body shuddered beneath my cheek. His desperate groan filled my ear with his heated breath as he glided the last few feet and touched down.

Check out more Six Sentence Sunday excerpts here, on the official blog.

I am addicted to FarmVille.

I was on FaceBook for a good long time, a year I think, without falling prey to any of the cool games it advertises.

Tuesday asked me to join FarmVille around the first of December so I could send gifts to fill her tree. I thought–okay. I’ll play through the end of the month and be tired of it. Then I’ll close out the app and forget about it.

Christmas came and went. I was still playing.

I told myself once I had enough money to buy the simplest house (because I didn’t want my FarmVillian to be homeless) I would stop.

The cottage came and went. And I was still playing.

A white mansion rose from my fields. Then a ski lodge, then a zoo, a horse farm, and a tropical islandish getaway spot.

One night, I don’t even remember what happened, but I was upset. My hubby knew I’d fallen in love with FarmVille and bought me FV cash.

That night a world of possibilities opened up and a monster was born…

Three months later, my farm looks less like a farm and more like a tiny town. I love to create and build. I love my farm. It makes me happy tending my animals and planting my crops.

It is the perfect way to de-stress.

This is my farm in all its glory. (Click to expand the photo.)

*happy sigh*

Now that you’ve seen how deep my FarmVille addiction runs, won’t you join me?

Friend me on FaceBook and let the farming begin!

As if we all don’t have enough to keep up with, I’m adding a new blog into the mix. Stella Price invited me to join a blog she started called Paranormal Pretties.

The content should be a mix of each author’s life and hobbies, as well as publishing information and writing tips.

I’m Wednesday’s blogger. Why does remind me of this?

Monday’s child is fair of face,

Tuesday’s child is full of grace,

Wednesday’s child is full of woe,

Thursday’s child has far to go,

Friday’s child is loving and giving,

Saturday’s child works hard for a living,

But the child who is born on the Sabbath Day

Is bonny and blithe and good and gay.

If I ever decode the secret to short story/novella writing, I think I would like to write a series of seven to tie into this old nursery rhyme. It makes you think, doesn’t it?

But, I’m getting off topic. I’m sure that surprises you all, being the creature of chaos and Post-It notes that I am.

Let’s recap… New blog. New authors. The chance to win prizes during our grand opening. The slight chance you might learn something. And the promise you will laugh when you see my avatar.

Come for a visit. Otherwise, I’ll be lonely.

Submission Call is open from February 28th, 2010 to June 15th, 2010

‘Geeks Need Love Too’– whether it’s an online geek who builds websites, a Star Wars addicted geek who lives and breathes Jedi, or an on-call geek providing technical help for your computer, direct to your home, they all deserve some sexy lovin’. Bring on your sexiest Beta heroes!

Let your imagination run wild.

These ‘Geeks Need Love Too’stories must end with a HEA(Happily Ever After) or HFN (Happy For Now) but the key piece being hot and sexy romance.

This call is open to any genre and must feature a ‘Geeks Need Love Too’theme. Each story will be published as single titles.

Ø Submissions are open to all authors currently published with Liquid Silver books and those wishing to be published with Liquid Silver Books.
Ø All works must be new material. Previously published works or works currently part of a series will not be considered.
Ø All submissions must be exclusive to Liquid Silver Books; if we decline your submission; you are free to submit elsewhere.

Submission requirements:
ü Full manuscript in Arial, 12pt saved as RTF.
ü Length: 20k – 80K
ü Genre: All genres, but must feature a geek angle.

Heat Level:
Ø Open to all our current heat levels – Sterling, Liquid and Molten. Please refer to our submission guidelines for further information.

Submissions for this call are open until June 15th, 2010.

To submit, please send manuscript via email to submissions@liquidsilverbooks.com with CALL FOR SUBMISSION: ‘Geeks Need Love Too’ in the subject line. Include your author bio on the first page of your manuscript, attach the MS and a one page snapshot synopsis with your email.

I look forward to reading your submissions!

*permission to forward*

Submission Call is open fromFebruary 28th, 2010 to June 15th, 2010

‘VILLAIN [or Villainess] ROMANCES’–Think Hades, the Big, Bad Wolf, Medusa, Blackbeard, Attila the Hun … to name a few.
Have you ever thought what villains or villainesses—like those in Grimm Fairy Tales, Mythology or Old Folk Tales—feel or desire besides revenge and need for ultimate power? Now is your chance to let your imagination run rampant and create a romance for one (or more) of the most notorious fictional villains/villainesses.

These ‘VILLAIN ROMANCES’stories must end with a HEA(Happily Ever After) or HFN (Happy For Now) but the key piece being hot and sexy romance.

This call is open to any genre and must feature a ‘VILLAIN ROMANCE’angle. Each story will be published as single titles.

ØSubmissions are open to all authors currently published with Liquid Silver books and those wishing to be published with Liquid Silver Books.
ØAll works must be new material. Previously published works or works currently part of a series will not be considered.
ØAll submissions must be exclusive to Liquid Silver Books; if we decline your submission; you are free to submit elsewhere.

Submission requirements:
üFull manuscript in Arial, 12pt saved as RTF.
üLength: 20k – 80K
üGenre: All genres with villain/villainess angle

Heat Level:
ØOpen to all our current heat levels – Sterling, Liquid and Molten.Please refer to our submission guidelines for further information.

Submissions for this call are open until June 15th, 2010.

Have a villain/villainess in mind?
To submit, please send manuscript via email to submissions@liquidsilverbooks.com with CALL FOR SUBMISSION: ‘VILLAIN ROMANCES’ in the subject line. Include your author bio on the first page of your manuscript, attach the MS and a one page snapshot synopsis with your email.


I look forward to reading your submissions!


*permission to forward*

More Wicked thoughts coming your way.

“You do realize you have to let her go?”

Nathaniel stared into the night. “I know I will lose her. I know any time she has left is borrowed. Peace, friend. There is no more painful acceptance you can force on me than I’ve already had.”

Click here for more Six Sentence Goodness.

Months later, I still have no cupcakes. I am craving red velvet like you would not believe. My sister-in-law makes THE best cream cheese icing in the world. She won’t give me her recipe.

You know how it goes. She’s on the phone. The recipe box is on the opposite counter. The cord won’t stretch that far, okay???

So, I’m about to set out on an adventure to find the best red velvet cake recipe (and icing). SIL and I are going to have a bake-off in one month, complete with blind taste testing.

Mainly, because we are both goobers.

Still, if I win, I get her recipe. If she wins, I have to babysit for a month. (She means literally 30 days.) She lives out of state. She could collect on that forevah.

First up…

Ingredients

* 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 1/2 cups sugar
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon cocoa powder
* 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
* 1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
* 2 large eggs, room temperature
* 2 tablespoons red food coloring
* 1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

* 1 pound cream cheese, softened
* 2 sticks butter, softened
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 4 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
* Chopped pecans and fresh raspberries or strawberries, for garnish

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 (12-cup) muffin pans with cupcake papers.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. In a large bowl gently beat together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla with a handheld electric mixer. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet and mix until smooth and thoroughly combined.

Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake tins about 2/3 filled. Bake in oven for about 20 to 22 minutes, turning the pans once, half way through. Test the cupcakes with a toothpick for doneness. Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla together until smooth. Add the sugar and on low speed, beat until incorporated. Increase the speed to high and mix until very light and fluffy.

I am well into day three of the RD Mentor Program. It might be less or more days than that—time blurs out here. Days blend into one another. Pain becomes your constant companion. Humility isn’t far behind.

The little guy that was my ego got stabbed and left to bleed out in the alley behind my website. You might have heard the popping sound. It was kind of loud. Make my ears ring.

[Joking here.]

In all seriousness, I’m one of those authors with big ideas and a voice that lets me get away with weak plot in some cases. I was too green to realize this was happening until recently. Now that I know, I have put my foot down.

It was an almost overnight thing where I had contract offers and said, “Thanks, but no thanks. There’s an issue with this book. I can see it now. That you didn’t see it, and wanted to publish it anyway, concerns me.”

A writer’s pen name is important. You don’t drag it through the mud unless you are 100% behind a project others might view as controversial or some other extreme.

You don’t do the happy dance when you know, or someone points out, that your work could be improved upon. You don’t sign that contract. You don’t hope for a cover bright enough to draw attention away from where your words failed you.

I’ve made mistakes. Huge mistakes. Mistakes any grass-green writer will try to make. I’m one that fell through the cracks.

My Achilles heel has changed over time. It once was “telling” instead of “showing.” I had a ruthless mentor smash that out of me to the extent I over-show. I’ve been told it’s part of the appeal of my voice, and it does play nicely to my strength—which is descriptive writing.

Now my weakness is plot. I have epic ideas. I have good two-thirds of a book. The end? It is always so hard for me to tie up.

This mentor program option presented itself and I jumped on it. I actually missed sign up by three days last year. Now I’m glad. I don’t know if I could have taken it then. Even now, it is painful to realize there are gaping holes in my thought process where plot is concerned.

Enter my mentor—who is amazing. She is breaking things down so I can understand where I always go wrong. She calls it “branching out” to fix plot holes.

The scary thing? I didn’t even realize I was doing it. I can’t even rationalize why I continued to do it, because I didn’t know I was complicating the hell out of my story unintentionally.

I grabbed elements that fit, that made sense, could have been used, but required explanations, were without proper groundwork, and reduced the impact of each turning point.

No excuses. I was shooting myself in the foot and too stupid to realize I was holding the gun. Geez.

I am just burning to give this new knowledge a test drive. I want to write a book I will look at, pet, and think—this is a damn good plot and it’s damn well executed.

After last week’s plot class and mentor plottering, Wicked’s hero is someone I don’t recognize from my first draft of the book. He is darker, less aware, and less inclined to care whether or not his heroine lives or dies.

Big changes are on the way. We’re about to find out if applying plot to my house of cards will maintain the balance I had going, or cause it to collapse.

Future projects will benefit from this knowledge. Considering my history with full-tilt revisions, I’m interested to see where it all ends up when the dust settles.

I think Nathaniel summed it up best when he said, “Our lives and actions have all been woven into the tapestry of consequence.”

I wanted to learn. It would be silly to cry over the growing pains, even if they do hurt.