Coming February 19, 2012 from Amber Heat/Amber Quill Press

I just got the cover for my upcoming ebook, Open Season and thought to share the news. My story is part of the DragonPax from Amber Heat/Amber Quill Press and slated to release on February 19, 2012. A very nice belated birthday gift to me. :) I hope readers will enjoy the dark and dangerous tale of a submissive in training who falls in love with her very masterful dragon.

I will be in SL this Saturday, reading selections from my recently released erotic romance ebook, Naughty Little Secrets. The event will be in voice, so bring your headsets!

Date: Saturday, January 7, 2012
Time: Noon SLT
Location: The Midnight Moon Café at Awen

SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Awen/196/225/22

Hope to see you there!

Naughty Little Secrets
by Cassandra Curtis

Release Date: January 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4658-5057-7

A guilty pleasure.
A wicked desire.
A lusty kink.
A hidden fetish.

Everyone has a few naughty little secrets. All of Stacie Purcell’s secrets are in the red story binder she keeps in her messenger bag. An aspiring writer, Stacie dreams of the day her sexy stories will get published. But when she misplaces her binder, she is frantic, worried she’ll never see it again. Desperate to get it back, she’s willing to do whatever it takes.

Tyler Murchison can’t help noticing the cute little blond in his car repair shop’s waiting room, her nose buried in her red binder. Closing up for the night, he discovers a not-so-innocent piece of paper and a mysterious messenger bag in the waiting room.

Intrigued by the drawings of sexual positions and the erotic fantasies Stacie weaves in her stories, he returns the binder, and offers Stacie a chance to experience all the incredible sexual delights she writes about.

But can a single night of wild, passionate sex lead to something more?

Sample and Purchase link: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/118880

The BDSM novella is set in an alternate universe where dragon shape shifters and humans fought a savage war over rights to a colony. Twenty five years later, there is an unsteady truce between the two species.

Here’s the blurb:

A submissive-in-training, Season knows the boundaries, but that doesn’t stop her from crossing them, or from falling in love with her master and wanting more. When the ban against life-mating between humans and Dragonkind is lifted, she jumps at the chance to enter the ritual hunt and claim her master as mate. Despite the dangers and risks, she knows their love is worth it, even if her masterful dragon doesn’t.

Quinn knew accepting the position as General of the Dragon Army came with risks and that his enemies would look for any weakness they could use against him. But he never realized how fast lust could turn to love, or desire to need.

When an old foe from the war notices Quinn’s growing attraction and deeper involvement with Season, Quinn is caught between two difficult choices. Pretend indifference to the woman he’s grown to love, or enter the Solstice Hunt and risk everything to claim his human mate.

Once I have a cover to share, I’ll post it on my blog and website. I’m very excited about this story and am so happy it will be part of an Amber Pax anthology! The other authors in the anthology with me are April Reid, Lynn Lorenz, Lyndi Lamont, and Deirdre O’Dare.

Happy Reading!

Eddie was a decent enough guy back in high school, but he always seemed to land in the principal’s office and the job of cleaning up Eddie’s screw-ups fell to his slightly older cousin and friend, Tyler (who happens to be the hero in my story). Eddie always felt he got a raw deal in life, because his dad was the poorer of the brothers Murchison. Although the family was tight and always helped each other when they could, Eddie didn’t like depending on the good will of his dad’s brothers in order to make it in life. For one thing, they always treated him like a half-witted little kid, even after he became an adult. His older cousins usually got all the girls and in a town small as Rusdale, Tennessee that’s one tiny pond for a tiny fish. He became even more reckless as he got older, determined to do things his way, and of course, this eventually landed him in jail. Instead of taking responsibility for his actions and learning from his mistakes, he shifted the blame onto others for all his troubles and ignored cause and effect, or should I say, consequences.

When he learns his cousin Tyler is back in town and bought an already successful business, an auto repair shop, he’s a little miffed and envious. Tyler has so much and he doesn’t have much more than the clothes on his back. In his mind, he has a right to other people’s property, namely, Tyler’s. He also is jealous that his cousin’s only been back in town for a few months and has one of the hottest girls in town, yet no woman will give him the time of day.

Keep in mind Eddie doesn’t hate Tyler. He actually likes his older cousin, but feels for Ty to have so much and him not, is unfair and it should be given to him since he paid his dues. That covetous mindset is common among most if not all criminals. It’s also the mindset of the typical bully. Of course, Eddie doesn’t think what he’s doing is wrong, and once he crosses his own personal line and rationalizes it to justify his actions, well—there is no going back.

The novella Naughty Little Secrets is Stacie and Tyler’s story, not Eddie’s, but I felt that short scenes in Eddie’s POV not only helped move the story along, but also helped flesh out his character enough so that what he does in the story would be believable to readers. By using his POV in limited amounts, I was able to allow readers to see into Eddie’s mind, lay bare his weaknesses, and all his rationalizing. At the end of the story, my hope is you’ll despise Eddie, but a tiny part of you will also feel a touch of pity for a man lost in his own illusions, with nothing and no where to go.

The challenge of writing contemporary romance always throws out curve balls—at least to me. I finished writing the first draft in June 2011, then let it simmer for a while as I worked on Open Season (a 16K BDSM with Dragons). When I came back to NSL (Naughty Little Secrets) I realized it needed several revisions and changes to the story to correct a plot hole I’d missed. My original plan called for the story to be released mid-August, but nothing ever goes as planned and it helps I try to stay flexible, because a ton of things happened that couldn’t be avoided, or as my Kentucky daddy used to say, “The shit hit the fan, and the wall.”

Which is why I’ve been struggling to finish edits and revisions on a fifth draft of this story. Every time I write a contemporary this happens to me. I seem to attract crap and hit brick walls the minute I outline a story without any paranormal elements. lol. Or that could be paranoia talking. But whatever the case, my latest goal is to release this monster (not a reference to size, but sheer frustration, lol) before this year is out, so help me blank! (Pick a deity of your choosing).

That said, I’d like to introduce Eddie, my villain of the month. :p

Cora’s workshop on Kicking Your Stalled Story also has changed, both time and day, and will now start on Sunday, Nov. 20 at 8am SLT (11AM EST).

Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

Nov. 17, 10:00AM SLT: Workshop by author Cassandra Curtis
Author of the Midnight Effect and Shifting Tides trilogy.

In this mini-workshop, Ms. Curtis shows how a writer can deepen the characterization of an existing protagonist, antagonist, or develop a secondary character by using a few simple diagrams, an interview sheet, character check list, traits, and even an exercise she invented called the Writer’s Duel, which creates multi-player participation in a game setting. Developing your character look in SL will be briefly discussed as well.

Nov. 20, 8:00AM SLT: Workshop by author Cora Zane

Are you struggling with your NaNoWriMo story? Erotic romance author Cora Zane will be covering ways to kickstart a story that has stalled, and get you back on track to reaching your 50k NaNoWriMo project goal.

Both workshops will be held here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Awen/211/196/22

Nov. 17, 7:00PM: Workshop by author Cassandra Curtis (SL: Cassandra Sharktooth)
Author of the Midnight Effect and Shifting Tides trilogy.

In this mini-workshop, Ms. Curtis shows how a writer can deepen the characterization of an existing protagonist, antagonist, or develop a secondary character by using a few simple diagrams, an interview sheet, character check list, traits, and even an exercise she invented called the Writer’s Duel, which creates multi-player participation in a game setting. Developing your character look in SL will be briefly discussed as well.
Nov. 17, 7:30PM: Workshop by author Cora Zane (SL: Cora Waverider)

Are you struggling with your NaNoWriMo story? Erotic romance author Cora Zane will be covering ways to kickstart a story that has stalled, and get you back on track to reaching your 50k NaNoWriMo project goal.

Both workshops will be held here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Awen/211/196/22

Netera Landar will be interviewing me today for her *live* show starting at 11am SLT. I’ll discuss my most recent release as well as upcoming books and give readers a sneak preview. Event is in voice, so bring your headsets.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Terric/43/137/29

Book 3 in the Planetary Bodies series.

Alexandra Syato has complete control of her life.

She’s rich and has Captain Rhearden Lawe as a delicious friend with benefits. Her life couldn’t be more perfect. Until the mysterious force known as sheen turns her world upside down.

It changes Lawe in a way she doesn’t expect and now her easy-going friend has become a dark and brooding stranger, determined to take her control. She can’t fight their new, blistering attraction. But the price for having him may break her. Completely.

Buy here from Ellora’s Cave

You can also read an excerpt here

At my website there’s a little sneak peek behind the series, Planetary Bodies

Current is part of a linked series. Books 1 and 2, Magnetism and Friction, can be found here.

Based on the news article HERE, it would strangely seem so. In my short story Shimmer, southern belle Dixie Ames attends her sister’s tropical wedding and discovers a strange crystalline ball of light that shoots out of the ocean and into the sky. The pulsing light (USO or unidentified submersible object) follows her until she throws her shoe at it, and she runs into the ball room where her sister’s reception is being held.

The light is actually a very handsome alien named Rey who comes from a planet called Shimryn, which is a large carbon/diamond (I call it adamas) based planet with a breathable surface thanks to a layer of oxygen. The planet lies within the Milky Way Galaxy and is inhabited by carbon and silicon based life forms that are crystals radiating pure energy and light, but can transform into other forms so they can fit in with the native species of any planet.

The sequel to Shimmer, Shimmer II: The Heart of Dixie is tentatively slated for a January 2012 release date.