Copyright © 2012 by Harlequin Enterprises Limited

Cover Art used by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises Limited

® and ™ are trademarks owned by Harlequin Enterprises Limited or its affiliated companies, used under license.

Blurb

Twenty-four-year-old small-town girl Ana Reynold serves beer at the local bar, tries to keep her beater car running, and dreams of a better life as a painter. If she can learn to make a decent steak, she might get promoted to cook—and earn enough for her real heart’s desire. Right now, that doesn’t include romance.

But when she meets a tall, dark and sexy Native American man named Kane, Ana can’t take her eyes off him—or stop thinking about him. But she’d better. Everyone knows the proud Lakota who raises horses wants nothing to do with a townie barmaid who’ll bring shame to his people.

Except Kane can’t get Ana off his mind. He proposes a red-hot weekend in bed, a no-strings affair to end Monday morning. Yet once Kane brings the outsider onto Lakota land, everything changes…

~~~~

Consent to Love is the second book in the Wild Pleasures series. It’ll be released April 2nd, 2012. You can buy book 1, Consent to the Cowboy at Carina Press, or your favorite ebook store.

Well, never again!

A couple weeks ago, I was building a fire in the woodstove from the wood hubs brought in the night before. I picked up a piece of wood, and there were a gazillion ants crawling all over it. You’ve got to understand that I can’t stand ants. I have one of those freakout moments where I can’t scream, and all I can do is twitch and brush my hands over every inch of my body to dislodge the millions of ants that probably crawled up my arm in little uniformed army troops. Their major goal to conquer the womanly body and kill me is the only thing going on in my mind.

Guess what?

It happened again this morning. Ants all over a piece of wood in the woodbin. If that wasn’t bad enough, I had a nightmare last night about ants. Hubs woke up and held me, promising me that there were no ants in bed. I believed him. Then wham…first thing I do when I wake up is start a fire in the woodstove, and what do we have in our house? Ants!

Never again will I buy wood from someone else. I swear that is the reason. In the last 9 years of heating with the woodstove, I’ve never had ants when we cut firewood.

What bug, insect, or wiggly thing freaks you out?

The Devil’s Trap by Honoria Ravena

Release Date: December 30^th, 2011

Blurb:

Regan is the best vampire hunter money can buy. But, when she’s paid to kill one of the most powerful vampires in existence, she doesn’t realize she’s in way over her head. Things go terribly wrong and there is no escape…

Zarek is so powerful he scares other vampires. One little hunter should be no challenge. However, Regan is different, and as soon as he sees her, he will do anything to keep her. But she’s a stubborn woman, who refuses to let someone else control her.

When a powerful enemy comes to town, she’s forced to trust Zarek with her life. Who is the larger threat? The man out to destroy humankind? Or the vampire determined to own her heart?

Excerpt:

I reached the wooden bar and slid onto a sleek black stool with a groan of relief. In front of me, a shirtless vampire buffed the countertop, muscles flexing with each circle he made. Now this was a guy you actually dreamed about seeing naked. He was built like a god. Every muscle toned to perfection. He had probably been a big, chiseled guy before, and vampire blood washed away any flaws he might have had as a mortal. His raven-black hair gleamed in the lights. He was the perfect thing to bring in young women for a bite on the neck.

I sighed in pure feminine pleasure. Just because he was a vampire didn’t mean I couldn’t appreciate the view. But, a black aura and raw vampiric strength bled from him. He would have been jump-his-bones hot if his power didn’t creep over my skin like spiders. I suppressed a shudder. No matter how enticing their form, vampires always made my skin crawl.

His gaze met mine, and I drew in a breath. He had the most gorgeous violet eyes. They were filled with an ancient intelligence. His lips curled into an amused grin, as if he knew I was ogling his body.

I frowned. It annoyed me that he read me so easily. I shook my head. I needed to remember the real reason I was here. I was here to kill Zarek, not drool over some gorgeous vampire. I was in a den of evil creatures, and he was one of them. Now really wasn’t the time to do any lusting.

The smile widened and he raised his voice over the music. “What can I get you?”

He had a subtle accent I couldn’t identify, and the deep, growling bass made my toes curl. It soothed my nerves in spite of what he was and caused another kind of excitement to bubble in my stomach. God, this was not the right guy to get that good down-low tickle for. Focus, Regan!

I cleared my throat and leaned closer to him. “I’d like to see the owner.”

The smirk turned wicked and suggestive. “I’m Zarek. I’m the owner.” He scanned my body, eyes finally resting on my throat. The scrutiny made me flush and wish I could hide my neck. Unfortunately, my black tank top and ultra-short shorts didn’t leave much to cover up with. People who went into vampire clubs usually favored bare skin and a gothic appearance, so I’d been forced to blend.

Had he fed tonight? Vampires were twice as dangerous when they were hungry. The better question was, had he killed tonight? For some strange reason, I found myself hoping he hadn’t. I tried to shake the ridiculous feeling. Even if he hadn’t killed tonight, he had in the past. And even if he’d stopped, like Alaric and his brothers, it didn’t change what he was, or the fact that someone wanted him dead.

He licked his lips before meeting my gaze again, leading me to believe that he hadn’t fed. Great, I wouldn’t leave this place without giving a little blood to him, even if I ended up killing him. If a vampire wanted blood, he’d find a way to take it.

“Again, how can I help you?”

I barely kept my curse of frustration to myself. I’d hoped to meet with him in private. Fighting to the death in the middle of his bar was a bad idea.

You can read the first two chapters on me website: www.honoriaravena.com

Buy Link: http://www.breathlesspress.com/devils-trap

So, why everyone is toasting good cheer and opening presents for Christmas, I’ll be thinking of naughty games and situations to put my characters in. You don’t think anyone will know what I’m doing, right?

I have two books I’m planning to write next year. Of course, that’s not counting those wonderful ideas that hit me like thunder that I’ll probably have to squeeze in too.

Foremost on the agenda for the new year is to sell our farm. In September when we listed the place, our realtor told us that it’ll be a year…nobody’s buying right now. We actually ended up having our place shown seven times, so we’re confident when the rush of buyers (Ha!) come looking in the spring and early summer, someone will buy our farm. To think otherwise is depressing. lol If we manage to sell it, we’ll be doing a cross country move.

And, the biggest adjustment will be that my hubs will retire early from his off-the-farm job, and be able to farm full time IF we move.

So, my resolutions this year is to think positive. Things will happen when the time is right.

Do you make resolutions?

Actually, this year I just want the holidays to be done. With our farm for sale it makes things difficult to plan anything…even the tree. Then I’m worrying about IF our place will sell (yes, already, lol). We need it to sell before June. July at the latest. Okay, maybe we could squeak by with an August sale. We just have to be able to drive over 2 mountain passes before the snow comes, or we’ll have to wait even longer to move. It’s enough to make me batty.

Yesterday, I saw this picture of a book tree being passed around. I thought it was clever and perfect for authors and readers. What do you think?

My social life is killing me.

It’s true. I buy a ticket for each drawing. Or better yet, once a month I buy enough tickets to cover each day there is a drawing. I bet you all thought I meant I hang out at the local Mini Mart on Monday, Wednesday, Saturday, didn’t you?

It cost $32 for a month’s worth of Megabucks and Powerball tickets. Eight dollars a week. Not bad, and the amount of conversations over our speculations of winning is worth $8 a week.

For $8, I’ve planned our future, dreamt up house plans, picked out the color of our new hummer, and bought the plane ticket for my pool boy. Notice I said MY pool boy. Hubs already has his motorcycle washing girl picked out.

I offset the cost by turning Thursdays into macaroni and cheese night for the family. Hey, they like mac and cheese. I even make it homemade. I bet you thought I bought the 3 boxes for a dollar at the discount store, huh? I only did that once.

We’ve played the same numbers for the last 7 years. We swear the seventh year is our lucky year. Although, I do like the number 13. It would be so like me to be lucky on an unlucky number. But going another six years…that’s a heckuva lot of mac and cheese. I might have to change things up and have Thursday meatloaf. I make a mean meatloaf with a brown sugar-bacon topping.

Why am I telling you this?

I bought another Thanksgiving Raffle. It’s an Oregon thing. Only 250,000 tickets sold. There’s 1 cash prize of a million dollars. 10 cash prizes of $20,000. 1000 cash prizes of $100.

Last year, we didn’t win.

This year…we might.

Do you play the lottery?

Then the internet came to town, and every answer is only a Google away. We can look up how much a movie made, how much earnings were brought in on Stephen King’s first novel. All of a sudden the line in the sand had been dusted and replaced with a welcome mat.

Personally, I’ve received emails asking me if erotic books sell well enough to quit the day job. I have no idea, I don’t have a day job. I don’t mean to be evasive, and I know as a writer I’m curious to know what other authors make to gauge whether my books are selling as they should be. I just don’t ask. It’s considered rude to ask.

Thankfully, we do have Google. My advice is to use it! Here are some great articles by some giving authors on what earnings are like for authors. I love this one by Marie Harte. Here’s another one, this time by a New York Times Bestseller who promised to reveal all when she hit the Top 20. Very enlightening!

That got me to thinking about what other kinds of questions are thought to be rude.

You never ask a rancher/cowboy/farmer how many acres they have. Ever. Many people are land rich and cash poor. This question is the same as asking how much money they have in their checking account.

You also never ask how many head of cattle they run or how much crop they grow. Just don’t do it.

You may ask where they bought their boots or their leather handbag, but don’t ever ask how much they paid for it. This goes for cars, tractors, and house paint, ect. If they wanted you to know how much they paid, they’ll tell you.

What questions do you not like to answer? What kind of questions would you love to ask, but know you can’t?

This time of year, I love to shop. There’s a holiday spirit in the stores that I enjoy. People seem friendlier, more talkative, and helpful.

I also love to take a day and bake/cook. There’s something about slipping on a cute apron, flinging some flour, and filling the house with delicious smells. Not to mention all the taste testing I get to do.

I’m hoping we get snow between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I enjoy skijouring. That’s cross country skiing, with the help of our dogs. Basically, our St. Bernard mutt does all the work, while the other two dogs pretend to help pull me over the hills and through the valleys.

What do you do for fun? Is it harder for you to find fun in the winter months or easier?