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Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Promo - Shade Addiction, by Lea Bronsen

New York is on lockdown, as are many other parts of the world, so rather than freaking out nonstop, I'm choosing to take this to mean NO EXCUSES FOR NOT READING BOOKS. Especially wild rides like Shade Addiction, by Lea Bronsen. You know the drill—keep reading for the blurb, buy links, and a tantalizing excerpt.

Blurb:
Ex-boxer Mike Logan struggles to put a brutal past behind and make ends meet as a bus driver. When a young runaway settles for an all-night ride, he seizes the chance to do a good deed—get her home safely. But first, they’ll drive around and talk.

What he doesn’t anticipate is that this broken night angel is also a sexy little minx needing a lot more…and not just the gentle kind.

(This is an expanded edition of the story previously featured in the anthology Passion, Pleasure, Pain in 2019)


Excerpt:
She gives me a long, languorous look. I think I know what it means: She’s interested by my wild side. Dark attracts dark. She believes she’s found the same kind of fallen angel as she is, a soul mate.

Wrong, kiddo. What you need is someone good, not broken like me.

She reaches over the table to pat my chest. “So hard. Jesus. You definitely work out.”

Her touch sends electric sparks to my groin. My cock pulses. I push her hand away. “Don’t do that.”

“Why?”

“It’s inappropriate.”

“Why?”

I sigh. “I’m thirty-two, you’re what?”

“Nineteen.”

“Nineteen, that’s very young. I could easily be accused of taking advantage of you. Did you see how the waitress treated me?”

She crosses her arms underneath her boobs. “But I’m an adult, and I have boyfriends.”

“You have boyfriends.”

“Yeah.”

“Like, many?”

“Yeah.” She holds my gaze.

I don’t know why I had to make a deal of that.

She continues, “So, it’s not like I’d let anybody touch me if I didn’t want them to.”

“Well, I don’t want you to touch me. Let’s go.” 




Available from



Universal buy link

Put the book on your to-read shelf on Goodreads
 



About the Author:



Lea Bronsen likes her reads hot, fast, and edgy, and strives to give her own stories the same intensity. After a deep dive on the unforgiving world of gangsters with her debut novel Wild Hearted, she divides her writing time between romantic suspenses, dark erotic romances, and crime thrillers.



Meet Lea Bronsen on




Saturday, March 21, 2020

Done With a Capital E

As we're all aware of, the world is a crazy place right now. I waffle back and forth between "this will eventually blow over, most people will be fine" and...well, the opposite. Somewhere in all of this, I did, in fact, finish up Hunting Astrid earlier today. I actually have no idea how, since most nights after the kids are in bed, I've been catching up with the news and trying to keep calm and often landing somewhere in a field of "mentally checked out/rather numb." Like the basic bitch I am, I literally can't even right now. But it got done, so I'm not going to question it.

I still need to proof/edit, and write the blurbs (UGH), and all that other fun stuff before sending it off. That, too, will get done. I guess maybe a part of me subconsciously realizes that now, more than ever, perhaps, we need art to keep us sane and human, and I can do my part to contribute to that. Don't get me wrong, I'm not overstating my skills here—this book is in no way a literary masterpiece, but there's nothing wrong with quick and fun. We might even prefer stuff in the "quick and fun" category right now.

And fun it is. I still like the characters, I thoroughly enjoyed writing the plot, and I tossed in an emotional moment near the end because why the hell not. Again, it may not be the most gripping or poignant book I've ever written, but it accomplishes what I set out to do. For those keeping track, my original word count estimate was "around 22K, definitely more than 20K, probably less than 25K" (yes, I copy/pasted that), and before any sort of editing, I came in juuuust under 21K. Close enough. Firmly a novella, which is where I wind up most often.

So...done. Now I'll go to my very neglected reading list, work on crocheting a baby gift that must be finished by September, and maybe finally get around to finishing up Life is Strange 2. The wheels are already turning for my next project, of course, but I might wait until things settle down a little bit. Or not. Who knows. Nothing is set in stone for the coming days, so let's all just do what we need to do to get by and stay safe!

*This title is from an episode of Mythbusters where they were testing something (I don't remember what) in a laundromat, and the old-school digital screens displayed "donE" at the end of a cycle, prompting one of them to say "Done with a capital E!" I was watching with my college roommates, and we all thought that was hilarious and repeated it frequently throughout the rest of the year whenever we finished something. And now I'm realizing that that was almost 15 years ago and I am OLD.
**Now I'm kind of wondering if I've used this title for a similar blog post in the past, but I'm too lazy to go back and check. Just more evidence that I am now OLD.

Sunday, March 15, 2020

The Beat Goes On

When last we left off, I posted something about how I was moving right along on Hunting Astrid and should finish it up relatively quickly unless a meteor struck. (Paraphrasing here.) Well, the meteor did, in fact, strike, and I'm not just referring to whatever plague-ridden dystopia we're living in right now.

Usually it's me with all the issues, but unfortunately, a few days after my last post, my mother was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. It pretty much came out of nowhere—one week she was fine, and the next, she really wasn't. Obviously, we're all devastated. I've been railing against the universe about how unfair this all is, and I'll spare you all my rantings, though rest assured, there have been many. While the head oncologist doesn't like putting specific time frames on these things, the prognosis isn't good. Or, as he put it, this doesn't get cured, this just gets treated.

But. While there were tons of tears, then came anger and determination. The aforementioned meeting with the head oncologist came about four days into her chemo and radiation, and what do you know, she started really responding to treatment the very next day. We've always said that sadness doesn't accomplish much, but anger gets shit done. She said she needs to have goals, including going on all our planned vacations, and I said even if she needs an aide to come along, let's fucking do it. It's probably going to be a terrible year, but we're going to try our hardest to make sure there are some good moments in there, too.

I forget exactly what we were talking about when I was visiting her last weekend (before her rehab facility went on lockdown due to Covid-19), but she did tell me that life has to go on. And she's right, it does. It's still a horrible situation all around and I can find nothing good to say about it, but we have to keep on going.

Not long after that, I finally reopened MS Word, after it had been sitting neglected for a couple weeks. It took some time, but I eventually built up some momentum again. I think I can probably get this book done by the end of the month and be happy with the results. If nothing else, I know my mom has always been tickled by the fact that I write trashy romance as a hobby (she's read a couple of my books, but I've held firm that WE WILL NOT BE DISCUSSING THEM, EVER, NO REALLY, THAT CONVERSATION IS NOT HAPPENING), so that should be another reason to keep forging ahead. I don't think lesbian sci-fi is quite her cup of tea, but in case it wasn't blatantly clear with my all caps, if she reads it anyway, I DON'T WANT TO KNOW.

So that's what's been going on here. I keep saying it's not the tip of the iceberg, it's more like the base of the iceberg, as it's the biggest, most inescapable problem, and there's been plenty more piling on top of it. Stress levels are high, the world is a shitshow, but life does go on. And this book will hopefully be finished soon, dammit. Because persistence and determination run in the family.