I'M BACK FROM RT!

GREETINGS!

Last week...well from last Tuesday up until yesterday I was in Chicago for the RT convention. The experience was INCREDIBLE! I met so many amazing authors, readers, and people in the business that it was unreal.
Most of the workshops I attended were extremely informative and I know the information I received will help me progress soooo much as a writer.
I'm sending a shout out and a wave (*waving*) to all of the fantastic new friends I made while we exchanged my 'Untamed' bookmarks for their postcards & business cards over those days. Every last one of you were great!!

**NERD ALERT MOMENT**

Now, here's something really cool that happened, at least to me it was because...well...it just was.

The following occurred last Saturday at the book fair signing.....After flashing my hot pink wristband that ensured I'd get J.R. Ward to sign my copy of Lover Awakened (and a couple others), and receiving said signatures and pictures of the lady herself, I had to make a...ahem, necessary run. As I stepped out of the bathroom, who should I see walking toward me with security in front of and behind her? Yep, J.R. freakin' Ward!  Of course I stopped and gawked, placing someone on hold I'd just called on my cell. So what does J.R. do? She stops right in front of me, smiles, and says, 'HI.' So I say, "Hi! Can I like, have a hug (or something very similar and equally/ridiculously nerdy) and she says, "Of course!" (probably to the chagrin of her security detail). She hugged me like a long lost relative at a family reunion.  I squealed like I'd just won a new car on The Price is Right. LOL!
J.R. Ward is one of my few FAVORITE authors. And not simply because of her BDB series but because of the anti-hero Zsadist in particular. LOVE HIM!

*shaking it off*

I just had to get that out. Whew. Now I'm back and here's my most important bit of personal news. I pitched Rachel's Wolf and Whispered Promises while at RT and will be sending BOTH to interested editors and agents in the next few days!! YAY!!!!!!!!!
I know you guys have been waiting a loooooong time for both novels and I appreciate your support and patience greatly!
As I enter this phase of the process, please keep prayers and positive thoughts lifted about the success of those stories. Goodness knows Trace & Simone and Running Wolf & Rachel have been waiting long enough.

Until next time, faithful friends!

Love and warm wishes

~Naomi
also writing as
Lydia Burton

GREAT NEWS! SWORN IS OUT!!

I'm so excited to share Kayne and Asia's story with you! 

 

 

NEWLY RELEASED!!

 

Pick up your copy at www.whispershome.com, www.allromance.com, and in Kindle format at www.amazon.com!

 

Happy Reading!!

HAPPY 4th of JULY!!! NEWS and ANNOUNCEMENTS

Hey all!!

I was recently interviewed by the wonderful Mimi Tremont of IMRR for the imrrbookclub.com's website. I really had a good time and we laughed a lot. Check it out when you get a chance.

Also, I'm busily polishing the ending of my current novel, SWORN. It's a past lives story with an other worldly edge. I'm thinking it will be released in the next couple of months. I've posted an excerpt below. Enjoy!

.....excert from SWORN

As quickly as the storm began, it ended. The cacophony died down until only uneasy quiet remained. Dim waves of light streamed inside creating more shadows than not. After a moment, Asia pushed back the tangled mess that was her hair and stood.

“Good lord,” she breathed, surveying the damage.

To her right, a wall had been punctured in multiple places by pens and pencils that now formed an odd sort of design in the drywall. A stapler half hung out of the wall near the office door. Hail and bits of glass covered the floor in a sea of glimmering white. She shivered, knowing how lucky none of it had hit her.

Absently smoothing her hands down her skirt, she stepped over broken coffee mugs, ruined paperwork, and scattered rolodex cards.

A flickering light caught her eye and Asia crossed the room toward it. What she found was a crystalline chunk of hail, nearly twice the size of her fist, glowing from where it lay wedged under a desk. Mesmerized, she knelt and extended a hand to touch it.

The chunk moved and she snatched her hand back, body tensing. She swallowed, shook herself. “It didn’t move.” Almost defiantly she touched the spiky object. It was cold, very cold yet oddly pliable and definitely not hail. So what was it? She’d put both hands around the object to dislodge it from under the desk, when light blazed from within and it began to grow and elongate. It doubled then tripled in size, taking shape. The desk tilted backward precariously, unable to contain it.

Asia watched the thing grow a moment then scrambled to her feet and began backing away. She’d seen enough sci-fi to know when it was time run. She bolted. The office door slammed shut and locked the instant she reached it, causing her to crash bodily into it. Hot panic closed her throat, making it impossible for her to even scream.

She clutched the door handle jiggling it frantically. It wouldn’t budge. “Open, damn you!” She pounded her fists on the heavy wood, threw her body against it, pounded some more. “Shit!” She chanced a glance over her shoulder but could no longer see the thing pulsing on the floor. Eyes darting around the room she flattened her spine against the solid paneling and used the heel of her shoe to kick it as hard as she could. When nothing leaped out at her from the shadows, she turned back to the door and yanked on the handle again.

A tremendous crash and a brilliant flash of white sent her heart catapulting to the back of her throat.

“Kai-let turat na, idy-ya dae.”

Asia froze, breathing in tiny hitches as icy tendrils of fear skittered down her spine. Too frightened to look, too frightened not to, she stopped thinking and spun around.

She screamed.           

                                                                              Chapter 3

A man, tall and heavily muscled, stood at the edge of the shadows sliding loose fitting linen pants up and over his bare hips. He pulled the strings taut, tied them then lowered his hands to his sides at her scream. He went motionless, regarding her from behind a thick fall of white/blonde hair that fell to his chest. He wasn’t pale, yet his skin contrasted sharply with the black scroll tattoo etched into the right side of his neck.

The way the man stood there just staring at her, frightened Asia far more than the way he’d…formed out of an inanimate chunk of ice and light. Not human. Not human. The words echoed in her mind like a mantra. She told herself it wasn’t possible, that there was a perfectly logical explanation for what she’d just witnessed.

Everything about this defies logic and you know it. What happened, happened. Now figure out a way out of here.

As if completely unaware he’d scared the life out of her, the man padded barefoot around the room. He crouched and began lifting items from among the hail. A shirt resembling black netting. A dark knit hat. A pouch. Eyes on the ground, he went to the over turned desk and knelt. Pressing a fist against the floor, he lifted an end of the heavy oak desk with the other hand and scanned underneath it. Reaching in, he pulled out a pair of black boots.

Momentarily forgetting her fear, Asia became riveted by the rippling expanse of muscle in his broad back. The bunching and releasing of definition in his shoulders with the weight of the desk. He maneuvered and the fabric of his pants conformed to his heavy, sculpted thighs. Several inches higher the cloth molded to his incredibly tight...

 Flushing, she looked away. Had she lost her mind? Why the hell was she checking him out instead of trying to get out?

The man was huge, powerful in a way that, depending on his intentions, could either appeal to a woman or crush the life out of her and here she was gawking at him? Good grief, he wasn’t even human, just something that sort of…morphed like out of a sci-fi movie. She should be grabbing anything heavy within reach to use to defend herself.

Maybe, if she could get to the window, break the rest of the glass out and escape before the man could--No way. He’d have his hand clamped around her windpipe before she made it three steps and then what? Asia didn’t want to think about ‘then what’. Still, something about standing around waiting to be a victim didn’t sit well with her. “What are…I mean, who…are you?” she demanded.

The man stood to face her, black shirt hanging limply from a clenched fist. Lord, she wished she hadn’t said anything. His hair still partially concealed his face making him look downright menacing. Now that his attention was again on her, Asia felt her small bit of courage desert her.

I hope you've enjoyed this excerpt of SWORN.  It's due to be released in the next couple of months so keep an eye out for it.

Well, it's back to writing for me!  Have a very Happy 4th of July!

New goings on and unexpected awesomeness

Hello friends!

First off, for those of you who've never been to a chiropractor, I definitely recommend it. I went for the first time today and woo wee! Not only did he work out the kinks in the middle of my back, but he straightened out a few other problem areas as well. Now I feel sooooooooo much better!! *YEAH!*

Also I have great news! I am feverishly working on a novel that I MUST have completed by the end of May. I can't say exactly why just yet, though I'm sure you can figure it out. Wooo hooo!  I will keep you posted on that development. Once I finish it, I will be able to complete two others I've been working on for awhile.
I'll have the snowbound story ready for submission and hopefully published in time for next winter and since there have been so many demands for the completion of Whispered Promises, I will make completing it by summer, a top priority.
Speaking of writing, I'm going to get back to it. Until next time, my friends. Take care and be blessed!

Naomi~

RT and Updates

Good Morning!

I hope that wherever you are it's beautiful and promising. Here in the midwest, it's starting off to be a gorgeous day. The sun is shining, it's expected to get up to 90, and all I can think about is how much I wish I was at RT right about now. The pictures and info from friends who are there keep pouring in.  It looks like a blast! 

*SIGH OF LONGING*

I refuse to miss out next year. No matter what, I WILL be there.

I have just a couple of updates before I get out in the beauty of the day. First, I've been hybernating as I feverishly work on completing a fantasy that I'll submit for publishing in the next few weeks so keep an eye out for updates concerning it. In addition to that, I'm nearly finished with a contemporary novel I plan to submit this winter, AND I've been researching...researching...RESEARCHING so that I'll have all my notes to complete and submit my suspense novel, Night Secrets by late spring/early summer.  As you can tell, it's already been a busy spring. I'm keeping the momentum going now that I'm firmly in the 'zone'. Keep me in your thoughts and prayers ya'll, I need it.  :-)  Have a fantastic weekend!


Naomi~ 

Sweeping Away the Cobwebs...

Hello to my faithful friends, fellow writers and readers all....

Every so often (more often than I care to admit) I have taken a sabbatical to sweep away the cobwebs blocking my creativity. Through life occurrences, dry spells, and periods of no internet (gasp!) I have finally managed to return, this time to stay and with some exciting news! My short entitled, The Bride and The Barbarian, will be released with Whispers Publishing on December 11th! :-)

I hope you enjoy the blurb I have included and check out TB & TB when it comes out. Happy reading!


THE BRIDE AND THE BARBARIAN

An unexpected gift

After a fire destroyed her home and her fiancé abandoned her, Zora Austin did all she could to piece her life back together and forget the Christmas wedding she’d always longed to have. More than a year later she is doing well. Then a day spent at a late Autumn festival takes a turn when a strange vendor lures her into accepting a gift. A crystal containing a tiny medieval warlord. Inexplicably compelled, Zora takes the figurine home with her. The moment her fingertips glide across the top, she is pulled into the crystal and into the barbarian’s very real embrace.



An awaited reprieve

Before the spirited beauty in the bridal gown tumbled into his arms and subsequently freed him, highland warlord, Thedan the Dark had known only a thirst for vengeance and a fierce longing for that which he’d been too long denied…his foretold bride. Convincing her that she is his might be difficult. Finding a way to keep the crystal from reclaiming him for all time may prove impossible. Still, if he can escape the power of the curse, will he choose long awaited vengeance or a new life with his bride in a world so different from all he’d known?


THE BRIDE AND THE BARBARIAN COMING SOON!!

http://www.whispershome.com/

I have emerged!

It's been so long since I last blogged that I'm almost ashamed to do so now. Nevertheless, I wanted to confirm that I haven't been sucked into the black hole of cyberspace as it was once believed. lol
I must admit however, that I've been having serious balance issues with everything going in my life, and (unfortunately) all of my writing suffered serious cases of neglect.
HOWEVER, I'm back now and have begun editing and writing much more, especially on Whispered Promises. In fact, I just sent a chapter to one of my crit partners today. It was wayyy (as in like months) past time for my update, and there were enough pages to it to make up another three chapters. :-o
I'm not certain how much longer it will be but I'm determined to have at least the first full draft completed and ready for editing by July 15, my birthday.
Also, I have several other stories (some short and some not so short), that are clamoring to be told, plus a fantasy/romance trilogy that's plotted itself out in my brain. Now THAT's going to be a challenge. The good news is that I've written two notebooks full of notes on two of the three stories already.
My mind is all over the board when it comes to my novels. For instance, I had a story idea that popped into my head (the beginning is posted below, by the way), that is definitely a contemporary romance and will contain a degree of sensuality yet it's a sweet story that, I believe, will leave the reader with a 'happy happy, joy joy' feeling after reading the last page.
On the other hand, the fantasy/romance trilogy I mentioned? Oh boy! The scenes are at times funny, at other times smokin hot, and at others will make the reader want to cheer out loud, at least it did me as I wrote out some of the parts. Yet that series, tentatively entitled, "What You Wish For', is on the backburner until I get some of the others completed and out of the way.
Saying that, I'm getting a burst of inspiration right now. So, without further ado, please allow me to introduce Dylan and Nakeya's story to you, tentatively entitled, 'Again.'


Again
by Naomi James
copyright 2009


Little Smiles and Dimples Daycare
August 1988


Mrs. Dunstan was in the back, changing one of the babies.
Good!
Dylan Holt tiptoed into the kitchen and eased open the snack drawer. He was pretty sure where his favorite treat would be hidden, and he was right. Under variety packs of cheese and crackers, graham crackers, and boxes of raisins, lay the best snack of all.
He grinned as his fingers curled around it. Silently, he closed the drawer and hurried out of the kitchen.
Licking his lips in anticipation, he opened the sliding glass door that led to the enclosed back yard and raced over to where his best friend, Nakeya Mitchell sat busily making mud pies for their ‘dinner.’
Dylan slid a twisted strand of chocolate flavored licorice from within the cellophane wrapper and took a seat beside her. He frowned, eyeing her brown skin thoughtfully as she worked. He then studied his own skin, so pale in comparison to hers yet just as good as anyone else’s or so his parents had taught him.
“Better,” his Great Aunt Karen had insisted at the time.
Dylan glanced down at the ‘pie’ which was nearly finished as far as he could tell. He knew he was the only one who actually ate a bite of the pies Nekeya always made, while she just pretended to try her piece. But he didn’t mind. He figured as long as she took the good time and trouble to make them for him, the least he could do was eat a little of it.
Wasn’t that what his Daddy always taught him about the shepherd’s pies his mother often made?
Dylan hated shepherd’s pie, but he always ate a ‘thank you’ bite to show he appreciated her efforts.
Daddy took more than a ‘thank you’ bite. He ate three full helpings, even though he’d once whispered to Great Uncle Wally how godawful it tasted.
Well, if daddy could do it for Mama, he could do it for Keya.
It just seemed right.
After all, he was gonna marry her someday, once he got bigger and got himself a good work ethic, whatever that was.
“Keya?”
“What?” she asked, glancing up from her chore.
“Gimme your hand.”
She complied without question, thrusting her arm out to the side with her hand flattened, chubby fingers held stiffly straight. With her free hand, she continued to put the finishing touches on the ‘pie’, smoothing the edges with the tip of an index finger.
Dylan slid the chocolate licorice in his mouth.
After a moment he pulled it out, savored the flavor then, poking out his tongue, he swiped it across the back of Nakeya’s hand.
“Ewww!” she wailed, snatching her hand back. “I’m tellin!”
Yet as she stared at her wet hand, she made no move to do. Instead, she plucked up Dylan’s free hand, stuck out her tongue and with a grimace, swiped it across the back of his hand.
He made a face but said nothing.
Nakeya, having expected a different response, frowned at him. “Why’d you do that?” She asked, wiping her hand on the side of her lavender shorts.
“You don’t taste like chocolate lick rich,” he said, clearly confused.
“Of course not, silly. I taste like people.”
Dylan thought about that for a moment. “Then why are you brown?”
“Cause God made me that way, and he loves me.” she said, echoing the very words her mother had spoken to her just two nights earlier, and effectively ending the discussion.
Nakeya scooped up Dylan’s piece of pie and handed it to him.


**I hope you enjoyed the beginning of 'Again.' I know it's a small excerpt and for that I apologize but 'Again' is going to be a fairly short story.
As in the past, let me know what you think. Good, bad, or indifferent I look forward to your comments. Be blessed!

~~Naomi