Part of me enjoys the storms though. I like sitting in my sunroom watching the snow fall and built up outside. A warm cup of hot chocolate and a good book goes well with this scenery. I love watching my dog’s race around the snow, burying their faces in the white powder.

 It was during a storm that I came up with the idea for Talk Dirty to Topaz. The couple has some red-hot sex in a sunroom while stranded by a snowstorm. Strange this book has been out since July and it’s suddenly selling like hotcakes. I’m not complaining, mind you. I’m rather excited.  :o) It just makes me wonder why all of a sudden.

Mistletoe Studs did great this year too. I don’t usually like to write seasonal books, but this one I couldn’t resist. Who wouldn’t want hot twins – right?

I’m still trying to figure out the payroll crap, so that will likely eat up my day.

Watch we’ll get hit with two feet and I won’t be able to leave the house!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

I’ve been working so hard to accomplish so many deadlines, some self-imposed, that I’m wiped out. I woke up late, but not too late to get my daughter off to school on time. Today I’m taking a mental health day! )

I have more good news to share though. First is my new cover for Wild Lickins coming out from Aspen Mountain Press on February 19^th.

The other good news is I’ve been invited to join the Cougar Challenge. I hope I live up to these awesome writers. I have an idea for a story so I’m going to write up the synopsis and present it to the group.

I do want to get my word count in for Dante’s Desire today, but right now I’m too exhausted to think, let alone write.

Happy Thursday everyone!

I have another busy week ahead of me. I’m editing a romantic comedy I want to submit to a contest, along with getting it ready for an agent appointment in March. Also on my lists of to-do’s this week is editing the Shea Manor series. I haven’t finished writing book two, but one and three are done.

I’m also hard at work on a new wip that needs to be finished and submitted by Jan 31st. It’s for a themed series so there is a deadline. The idea came to me last week and I had to put aside Brooke and Liam’s story for Shea Manor to work on this. Once I’m done I’ll return to the other story.

I’ve been planning out my week on Sunday’s, it seems having a schedule makes me more productive. I’m the queen of procrastination so this way I feel accountable for getting the work done. On top of my writing schedule I have little tasks around the house I want to tackle. Things I couldn’t do if I were working the day job.

Our daughter just strolled in from a four day trip to Washington DC with the father in law. She went straight to bed after being on a train for seven hours. I’m looking forward to her waking up to hear all the details. My FIL surprised them with a trip to the White House, along with a tour of the Oval Office. He didn’t think he’d be able to pull it off, but he did. She missed a few days of school for this trip, but hey, it was educational right?

Just waiting for the final approval on my new cover for Wild Lickins so I can share. I’m really digging this cover.

Eight more days until the release of Ignited, my newest ménage from Ellora’s Cave Exotika line.

Well time to get busy on my chapter’s newsletter and do some editing. Until tomorrow…

I was surprised with my cover art for Wild Lickins this afternoon. I’ll be able to share it in a few days. I’m impressed with how they nailed what I asked for. It’s rare, though their vision is usually better than mine! )

Happy Friday and hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

I must be getting popular because people are requesting my books on Astatalk. It frustrates the hell out of me that people would steal from writers who bust their butts to put books out for loyal FANS. I liked it better when I wasn’t so popular. I liked the first year when my sales weren’t thru the roof, but I was SELLING books, not being ripped off.

Okay enough of my rant on that subject.

Today it’s time to work on that article and finish revising Research Required, unless something else pops up.

Oh and I’m excited I started a new story, currently titled Dante’s Desire. I’m only 5 pages in, but it feels good to be writing again. A new year and a fresh start.

Tomorrow I have a new release from Aspen Mountain Press – Heat Waves! I’ll post all the info tomorrow.
Time to cook dinner!

Blurb:

Jay McIntyre’s main goal in life is to keep his younger siblings together and away from Social Services, who he’s certain will separate them if they know his mother left two years ago. Juggling two jobs and the responsibility of caring for three children, the nineteen year old’s problems are compounded when Jess, his younger sister, begins to rebel and when an old enemy is released from prison and returns to his housing estate.

Overwhelmed and at the end of his rope, Jay is finally forced to seek for help from a surprising source: Police Constable Brendan Cuddy.

I’m happy to say I finished book three of the Lady Shea’s Manor series over the weekend and began writing book one. I’m confident I’ll get this one done by months end and I’ll work on book two in December, along with Laney’s Delights. I’m really excited about writing that story. I had to put it aside to work on other stuff. Oh crap and I forgot I have a Jan 1 deadline for a Valentine short. That’s half done so I’ll be working on that next month too.

I had a great idea for a St. Patrick’s Day story, but think I’ve missed the deadlines for that. There’s always next year. It’s almost time to start thinking summer stories. Hmmmm, I love the warm weather.

Weekend NaNo totals:
Saturday – 1782
Sunday – 2252

Divided Hearts by Terry O’Reilly is a sequel to Awakening recently published by Aspen Mountain Press. Therefore, I wanted to give Divided Hearts a similar design as the cover I did for Awakening. I was able to use the same colors, textures, and font which really connected the designs. Even better, I found stock photos that fit in a similar layout as the first book. All this combined to create a recognizable connection between the two books. Even though this design was fairly simple it took me about 4 hours to complete the full res design.

Artifact by Melody Knight is one of my favorite designs so far. Part of the story takes place in New Zealand where the couple has some fun in a geothermal pool. I found the photo of the couple kissing and thought it would be great for a muted background. Merged with the image of the hot spring surrounded by trees it creates depth and adds to the sexy feel.

For the foreground, I chose the image of the nude female back. I smoothed the skin using a smudge technique I recently learned and adjusted the shadows and highlights with the burn/dodge tool. I also added some extra strands of hair to give it a wilder, realistic look. For the title, I added an outer glow in a soft green tone. Needless to say, this took a lot of time and was a lot of work but I really like how it turned out.

Another favorite design of mine is for Ominous Night by Tania Walsh, soon to be published by Mystic Moon Press. This short story is about a woman who hunts mutants. The author gave me some great descriptions of the setting and character and I did my best to create them. The background is an old building (supposed to be a dingy pub) surrounded by a wrought iron fence. I found the gate image, cleaned it up, darkened it a bit, and placed it in front of the building.

In the original foreground image, the woman had blonde hair and a pink t-shirt. I used the soft light function to change her hair color. Then I selected the pink shirt using the magnetic lasso tool. First, I desaturated the selection then I adjusted the hue/saturation with the colorize box selected. Using the burn/dodge tool I adjusted the highlights and shadows before rendering an light source.

I am extremely pleased with how this design turned out. I hope the author loves it as much as I do.

The original image was pink and blue and not at all the image of a sophisticated business woman.

The scene was supposed to take place in a seedy sort of bar so I added atmosphere by inserting a bar scene in the background. You can’t really see it but it helps give the right feeling. The final addition, and I think the best part of the cover, was the font and placement of the title. Obviously, I matched the color to her bra which I think gives it that extra Umph! I have to say it is one of my favorite covers so far.

For A Taste of Summer Magic I followed the suggestion of the author and publisher to have the two men as images in the steam of a cauldron. In this story the heroine practices Wicca and in one scene she casts a spell.

I played with a number of different compositions and stock photographs but eventually settled on the one to the right. I liked having the female in the foreground and in the photo I chose the woman had such a flirtatious lustful look I thought it was perfect.

I used swirl brushes on overlay and set to a low transparency on the bottom and in the corners. These gave the cover an extra magical feeling that highlighted the font.

Both the authors and the publishers were very happy with the end results of both designs.

This cover was my second historical gay romance, they must be the most difficult genre to work with. The first reason being the lack of quality stock art. It is hard enough to find homosexual stock photos but when you add the historical element it is almost impossible. For that reason I needed to cheat a bit with this one.

The story takes place in Massachusetts in the colonial period (1735), one of the characters is a teacher with light colored hair and a slender build and the other is a master cooper, slightly tan with dark hair and a broad build. I think the models I chose fit the description well.

I cleaned the edges using my graphics tablet. Next, I changed them from RGB to black & grey to get rid of the original coloring then I switched back to RGB and used the color selector to get their skin tone the right color. Next, I positioned them and used a variety of layers set to overlay, darken, or soft light to give the right contrast and a more antique look.

To give a more historical feel I found an image of a antique writing which I experimented with but ultimately used only on the background figure.

All in all, I think it is a really nice design and though it may not scream historical it certainly doesn’t shout contemporary either.

Heat Waves

Blurb:

Ever wonder about the face behind the voice of a radio DJ?

Nina Walters has. She can’t get enough of disc jockey Ty’s sexy baritone. He has her masturbating to his voice daily. When he challenges his listeners to a contest Nina can’t resist the challenge, the opportunity and will use every advantage she has or can find.

Ty is offering a dream date, with him, to one lucky winner. He’s positive no one will guess the answer correctly. So, when Nina does he’s floored. Being a man of his word, he goes through with the date. Sparks fly, but secrets linger. Will their heat for one another be enough to ride the waves of deception?

Excerpt:

“So are you tired?” she asked, lifting his shirt and running her fingers up his stomach.
Was he tired? How could he possibly be tired with such a sexy woman stirring his manhood awake?
“Depends. What did you have in mind?” he teased.
“A little of this.” She reached up and kissed his neck, while her hand worked the button of his jeans. “And a little of this.” She nibbled on his earlobe, rendering him useless.
He grabbed her and tossed her down on the seat. “I’m not tired in the least,” he said, tugging at her shirt. “I want to devour you.”
She squirmed under his touch. “I’m feeling a little sleepy.” She faked a yawn.
Ty loved a challenge. “You can go to sleep, but first let me show you what you’ll be missing.”
He brought his lips down on her breast. He felt the bud hardening under the heat of his breath. His fingers roamed her soft skin, searching for the other breast. When he reached his destination he tweaked the nipple between his fingers. She closed her eyes.
“Very sleepy.”
She was going to play that way, was she? He’d show her tired. Lifting her shirt over her head, she didn’t resist him, but she didn’t assist him either. Laying like dead weight she continued with her pretend sleep. But Ty knew it was only a matter of time before she stopped faking and joined in on the fun.
With her shirt off and her bra opened, he worked on shrugging her out of her jeans. It wasn’t easy, but he managed. Now she lay fully exposed – an open invitation to do whatever he pleased to her.
He placed gentle kisses on her flat stomach. Tiny hairs stood on edge, her skin prickled under his touch. She was becoming aroused. He could smell it in the air. He admired her perfectly trimmed pussy as he made his way to prove his point. As he drew closer to her pussy her arousal became more pronounced.
Sleeping, my ass. Let’s see you sleep through this.

If you enjoy contemporary and ménage a trios romance novels, you can find out more about Amber’s books in my newsletter every month.

As a member, you’ll have access to the latest news, including excerpts from upcoming books and exclusive member’s only contests. Amber’s Ramblings will be available on the 1st of each month.

Join today a new contest is going to be announced Monday!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS SITE IS AN ADULT ONLY GROUP.
YOU MUST BE 18 YEARS OF AGE TO JOIN.