I tried, I tried so hard not to post this, but when something makes me spit out my morning coffee, well, I’ll blame it on the devil. The devil made me do it!

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Tessie Bradford is a dear friend of mine.  She’s been a cheerleader since the day I signed my first contract.  Welcome Tessie!

Thanks so much for having me, Julia!

I’m so excited to announce that three of my books are together in the paperback print anthology titled Exploring Ecstasy! It is available now on amazon:

Exploring Ecstasy

These stories are very different from each other, while sharing extremely important aspects – love, respect, laughter, commitment, and of course, happily ever after! In Possessing Eleanor, I explore my visions of a modern Dom/sub relationship.Pampering Jessica was my 50^th birthday present to me and celebrates maturity. Sensations allowed me to take a walk on the wild side.

Possessing Eleanor

Eleanor Lewis is perfectly content with her comfortable, quiet, relationship free life until she finds herself on all fours at the feet of Jackson Royce. Eleanor is stunned by her instant and intense attraction to the power and confidence radiating from the devilishly handsome building contractor. He scrambles her brain and heats her body to the boiling point.

Jackson always trusts his gut instincts. The ultra sexy woman sprawled on the floor is a sexual submissive. How intriguing that the all business, sensible shoe wearing office manager has absolutely no idea? The moment he takes her into his embrace he vows to possess her mind, body and soul.

From their first sizzling encounter, through a whirlwind courtship, Eleanor discovers being possessed by a man who loves her absolutely is what she had been searching for all along.

Pampering Jessica

David has been planning Jessica’s birthday weekend for months. His wife of almost twenty five years is having issues with turning fifty and he vows to do everything in his power to remind her how incredible she is and how much he loves her.

Jessica’s birthday wish is to spend quality alone time with the man of her dreams, her husband. When David presents her with a gold gift bag full of sensual surprises, Jessica is more than eager to enjoy every one of them. What she doesn’t realize is that her husband has much more in store for her special celebration.

Sensations

Vivian Walcourt is completely out of her conservative, sheltered element when she finds herself at an ultra-exclusive adult club. Her free spirited best friend may think she’s in love with one of the owners, but Vivian doesn’t believe in whirlwind courtships.

Paul Landis never imagined the woman who has haunted his dreams for years would walk into his club with his partner’s fiancé. More beautiful than ever, unattached, and worked into a heightened state of horny by the evening’s entertainment, he sweeps her away to experience the very special pleasures found behind the closed doors of Sensations.

Tessie

http://www.tessiebradford.com/

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You know the story of Narcissus, right?  In Greek mythology, Narcissus was a young hunter who was enamored of his own beauty.  One day he came upon a still pool of clear water.  Bending over to drink from the pool, he spied his reflection.  He became so fixated on his beauty that he pined away, dying by the side of the pool.  And thus the narcissus flower grew…

And therein lies the trouble with vanity – obsession with the superficial.  I’m the first to admit I’m vain.  Obviously not like Narcissus, although I fight an ongoing war with my butt, but that’s nothing new.  My butt and I have learned to co-exist, each living on our own side of a demilitarized zone.  Occasionally I sent a missile its way as a reminder that we’re still in a state of war, but of course it flops a mile or so after launch…

When I was a kid, I grew up with a cousin who was like my twin.  We were born on the same day so we were raised together.  She was known as the cute one.  I was known as the smart one.  Just once, I swear, I wanted to be the cute one.  But I was tall, bony, awkward and I had these big teeth and wore glasses.  Good god!  I’m quite sure that on occasion she prayed someone would appreciate her for her brains.  (Other than a zombie, I mean.)

Anyway, I am terribly vain in the sense that I don’t want to lose anything.  I work with the dying – I’m a hospice nurse.  Death doesn’t frighten me.  On the other hand, debility terrifies me.  Death– no problem.  Growing old– big problem.  I have too much to do, and like my father, I never want to slow down.

I also detest mirrors.  Don’t look in them for two reasons.  The first is that when I was a kid, one of my babysitters scared the bejeezus outta me with that old Bloody Mary Mirror Story.  Still makes me shudder despite knowing the origin of the story.  The second reason is that I suspect like most people, I see only flaws.  Magnified flaws.  I might become obsessed like Narcissus.

So here’s what happened last week in regards to vanity.  The fault is mine.  A friend who lives out of the country contacted me via email to tell me she’d be in town for two days.  Of course she contacted me on the day she arrived and I did have a good excuse not to meet with her – already had plans.  I could have met with her the second day, but I chose not to.  Why?  Oh, the shame of it… Vanity.

Anybody familiar with the character Marie from the television comedy, Everybody Loves Raymond?  The character has a way of insulting you under the guise of a compliment.  This is what my friend does to me.  Every time we meet, my vanity, or what there is of it, gets tarnished.

She’ll say stuff like – “Oh, you must be focusing all your energy on your next book… I can tell by the bags under your eyes.”

Or she’ll look me over from head to toe and she’ll say, “Seems like you’ve missed a few work outs. Are you writing all the time?”  Or… “You’d love my yoga instructor.  She could really help you reshape that…”  Or worse, she’ll compliment me – “You’ve lost so much weight since the last time I was here.  Don’t you feel fabulous?”  Which, of course, leaves me wondering – Geez, what was I, a pig the last time you were here?  I’m wearing the same damn jeans.

I told my husband what I’d done, that I’d begged out of a date to meet for a green-algae smoothie – pardon me while I go puke at the very thought – and he said, “You should’ve gone.  Why didn’t you go?”

I couldn’t do it.  Every time she and I get together I come home hating myself.  My fragile, albeit narcissistic ego hangs by a slender thread on a good day.

You might be wondering why I’m friends with her.  Well, we met when our kids were juniors in high school.  She’s unique, well-traveled, interesting, very much not your typical obsessive mom-type.  Plus she’s kinda famous.  We bonded over nacho-cheese sauce when we had to work the snack shack for the high school football game.  When somebody rich and famous is willing to risk ruining designer clothes and shoes with nacho-cheese sauce, you cut her some slack.  And she did manage to get the stuff all over her.  Of course, she’d had no prior experience with nacho cheese sauce – a food-like substance which is ubiquitous in football snack shacks.

She’s not a bad person.  It’s her business to be beautiful.  And she thinks my overalls are quaint.  So now I feel awful.  I should have choked down that smoothie and swallowed the backhanded compliments.  Smacking myself.

Beauty and the Feast… one more free day.  Go for it!

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My birthday weekend is over.  There was some good, some better, some best.  I’m both gratified and grateful that readers seem to be reading Beauty and the Feast.  This is a story I loved telling, a book I worked night and day to get just right.  So did Jaye Manus, my editor-producer/director, and Lex at Winterheart Design who put up with my cover-fussing.

This contemporary romantic comedy is free for two more days.

A Game of Thrones was much better this week.  The show works when the focus remains on a few characters at a time, rather than trying to somehow integrate all the primary characters at once.  I was prepared to bail if this episode was nothing more than gratuitous nudity and feigned sex.  I mean, that’s all well and good, but I need more substance.  Tyrion Lannister and Arya Stark rock big time.

This promises to be a hectic week as I’m heading to Boston and then onto Maine on Friday.  But, I will be right here tomorrow.

Thanks, all, for the birthday wishes and poems and jokes and pictures.  You are the best.

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First of all, let’s get one thing straight–  I cried myself sick the day I turned 30 and I’ve refused to officially acknowledge any birthday since.  Are we clear?

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s move on to…

Beauty and the Feast.  It’s free from April 13th-April 17th.  So it’s free from my birthday to my anniversary.  Stream of consciousness here – you see… like the British Royal Family, my husband and I are related.  I know… don’t freak out.  We weren’t aware of this fact when we met, not that it would have mattered a lick.  Our grandfathers were some kind of cousins.  My grandmother, Jennie, also an Aries, took sort of a proprietary interest in our relationship.  Unfortunately, she didn’t live to see our reunion, so I scheduled our wedding as close to her birthday as I could as a tribute to her.  My husband and I were married on April 17th in the middle of a blizzard.  Everybody got stranded in Omaha for three days.  And, of course, my husband decided he didn’t want to live in the Midwest any longer.

I do believe in reincarnation.  I have my reasons, both logical and nonsensical, but isn’t that the way of things…  One of these lives, I’m coming back as a raptor.  When Jake and I were hiking in the rain a couple days ago, I caught this juvenile golden eagle balancing on a slender branch – the branch couldn’t have been more than an inch and a half in diameter, if that.  Oh these hollow-boned creatures!  I took some photos with my inadequate wet cell phone.  He let me get within 20 yards of him.  Yes, I am most definitely coming back as a hawk.

In the meantime, while you’re waiting for me to come back as a hawk, feel free to visit my friends.

Jaye Manus has been holding my hand for weeks as we’ve worked on formatting and professionalizing (is that a word?) Beauty and the Feast.  We both wanted this book to look damn good as an ebook.  And I do believe we’ve succeeded.  Go read her boast post .  She deserves every boastful word.  She performed miracles with this book.

Author Penny Watson also has something to say about Beauty and the Feast.  She was the first person to fall in love with the original version.  It’s how we bonded– over food and sex!  This revised version is even better.  If you stop by her place on Friday, I believe she may have a few surprises for you (and read her 4/12 post while you’re there – great stuff).  Click here for the link.

Ya’ll have a wonderful weekend.  Remember – FREE BOOK!  Click Here to upload Beauty and the Feast!  If I get ambitious, I’ll bake our traditional family birthday cake, for the birthday I don’t acknowledge – a whiskey cake.  It’s everybody’s favorite cake, but it’s not what you think.  I’ll take a photo for you.  Be good and thanks for stopping by!  Julia

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