The Very First–First Friday Post!

Hi everyone! 

I am so pleased to be the first host of First Fridays with the Crew.  

The first Friday of every month, all the GLIAS host/authors will be sharing the news about their latest releases, and works-in-progress.  

This month I asked everyone to share an inspiration photo of their latest hero or heroine. Check out all the handsome, beautiful faces, and catch up on all the news! 

We also have two debut authors, with exciting news to share!

So many firsts!  Jillian Stone

The Latest from Angi Morgan 

Angi has been working on her first mini-series: Texas Family Reckoning. It’s easy to get inspired for two books, looking at this guy. Navy SEAL Surrender & The Renegade Rancher (formerly Double Take & Double Blind) will be out next May & June. Romantic Times Magazine had this to say: PIQUING OUR CURIOSITY Series Romance - A Navy SEAL finds a good dose of adventure off the battlefield in Angi Morgan’s Double Take when he goes home to Texas to help save his family ranch. But that’s not the only thing at stake — this hero must also help prove his identical twin’s innocence in a kidnapping case. All while falling in love!  http://www.rtbookreviews.com/rt-daily-blog/forewords-books-buzz-78

What's Up from Clover Autrey

I'm one of those authors who doesn't use pictures for inspiration. I just see the characters in my head and go from there. Then hope that the covers fit them. Hit or miss on that, but if the cover photos can at least get the expression right, I'm happy.  

This is a picture that I thought fit Jake's protective nature in my action/adventure series The Anointed (non-romantic). But I have to say that when my cover artist drew the anime covers for the two brothers I was stunned. He went off of my descriptions in the books and got them just as I envisioned them. Even the unique weapons he got right. Notice how the shotgun has a palm action trigger rather than a finger trigger? Eh, alien weapons, what can I say? 

Donnell Ann Bell:  "Lo and behold, I think I found the leading men of my novels!"

From left to right: Jason O'Mara, Anna Kendrick, Taylor Handley, Katherine Heigl

For Lieutenant Joe Crandall, I would pick Jason O’Mara.  He’s warm, sensitive, tough, handsome as all get out, just the right type who would play the by the book police lieutenant who learns his new neighbor is the woman he sent to prison 15 years earlier.   

So who would play Melanie Norris?  Such a tough choice.  I love Melanie, and she’s come up through the school of hard knocks… Kind of like this video of Anna Kendrick… I think Anna (might make a wonderful Mel (watch the video and see if you don’t agree)  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmSbXsFE3l8

The auditions weren’t even close when I stumbled upon this picture of Taylor Handley who played Dixon Lamb.  I think he might transition nicely into Albuquerque Detective Kevin Dancer .  Kevin’s young, ambitious, dedicated and out to solve a cold case.   

Naturally, Detective Dancer will need a love interest, and will meet his match professionally and personally in DEADLY RECALL.  Where Kevin is a police detective, Eden is a defense lawyer.  They may seem like oil and water, but when the work to find a killer, they work rather well together….  What do you think?  Would Katherine Heigl make an interesting Eden?

A Debut Release from E. E. Burke

A new Western romance series Steam! Romance and Rails launched last month with Passion’s Prize. Written by multi-award winning authors, E.E. Burke, Jennifer Jakes and Jacqui Nelson, this anthology tells the stories of three women who must contend with dangerous men caught up in a cutthroat construction race between two powerful railroads.

Featured in Passion’s Prize is E.E. Burke’s debut novella, Kate’s Outlaw. The hero, Jake Colson, is a Cherokee outlaw whose family stands to lose their land to the railroad. He devises a way a save it, and ends up abducting the railroad heiress, a free-spirited suffragist who ultimately steals his heart. On September 11, E.E. Burke will be featured on GLIAS and she’ll be giving away copies of her novella. Here are a couple inspirational images of what her hero might look like. Rick Mora, a Native American actor and model, also graces the cover of her book!

Good News from Heather Snow

It’s been a good few months in the Snow household!  Sweet Enemy won the Golden Quill for best Regency Historical and Sweet Deception won the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence for best published Historical Romance. Both books are double finalists in the upcoming Book Buyer’s Best awards and the Maggie Awards in the historical category.

In family news, Spare turned two and started preschool. Heir turned five, started half-day kindergarten AND took the training wheels off of his bike! We got a shelter pup (the Snow cat is not amused), and Mommy and Daddy are exhausted, but still alive ;)

The fall looks to be fun, too, as I am preparing the release of a couple of firsts for me: my first novella, Sweet Alibi, which will also be my first self-published work and my very first cover design. Look for it wherever e-books are sold in November.  Sweet Alibi will bridge between the Veiled Seduction series (Sweet Enemy, Sweet Deception and Sweet Madness) and my new series, the Ladies of Seductive Reasoning novels, coming 2014.

Lara Lacombe's Harlequin Cover is Here!  


Hi everyone!  I'm thrilled to share some exciting news with you all.  The cover for my first book, DEADLY CONTACT, was released a few weeks ago.  You can imagine how long I've been waiting to see it, and the art department at Harlequin didn't disappoint--I love it!  I hope readers will enjoy it as well, especially since the cover models look a lot like how I pictured Kelly and James while I was writing.

What do you think?

 Lizbeth Selvig Says Hi GLIAS fans!

I’m super excited this month about the release of my second book with Avon entitled RESCUED BY A STRANGER. Most of my excitement is over the fact that the book has an honest-to-goodness title that’s actually on its cover. This story has lived with a lot of different monikers. It started life as “Angelwings,” then morphed to “The Vet and the Vagabond” (never a serious contender) and, finally, “Bob the Book” (hey, I’ve read sillier titles). Needless to say, I’m really pleased with the final choice!

I’ve never admitted this before so it’s a GLIAS scoop, but the first version of this book was written almost twenty years ago and sat in a dusty corner until I realized that with some work (a lot as it turned out) the story would fit well into my current series set in a tiny Minnesota (fictional) town. My original hero inspiration was, believe it or not, Elvis Presley from the movie “A Change of Habit.” And, that’s also where the idea for my hero’s back story came from.

When I rewrote the book, however, I changed the hero’s name and toughened him up a little. I needed a slightly new inspiration so I could get into the new character a little better. That’s when I chose model Lucky Vanous to “be” Chase. You might remember Lucky from years ago as the Diet Coke construction worker who took off his shirt every day at noon so all the office women could stare out the window at him! Tell you what, that works for me! I gave him a vintage Triumph Bonneville, and with that I think my cover for RBAS got fairly close to what I envisioned, don’t you?

Right now I’m working on Book 3 in the series, hoping to have that done by the end of the year. Until then, watch for RESCUED BY A STRANGER, coming out on October 1st!  Thanks GLIAS readers for all your support.

All About Maureen McGowan's Heroes

My series, The Dust Chronicles, DEVIANTS (2012), COMPLIANCE (June, 2013), GLORY (June, 2014) has two heroes. There's a love triangle that spans the three books, but it's not like most YA triangles where the girl simply can't decide between two boys. It's way more complicated than that.

My poor heroine, Glory, is in a kind of impossible situation. The first hero, Cal, loves her, and she's had a HUGE crush on him, since she was 12 and he was 14, but if she tells him the truth about what/who she really is, she'll risk her life and the lives of others. And Burn, the boy she's really drawn to, is very, very dangerous to her. When Burn's emotions get out of control--like, um, for example, when he kisses her--he turns into a much larger version of himself, a very dangerous version of himself, a version of himself he can't control or remember once he's back to normal.

When I was coming up with the two characters, I had someone like Alex Pettyfer in mind for Cal. Cal is 18, tall, slim and blond with angular features. Here are a couple of shots of Alex that remind me of Cal. Although he looks a bit too young in the color one.

When I was coming up with Burn, the more dangerous boy, I first had a young Taylor Kitsch in mind. I loved the brooding version of him when he played Tim Riggins in the first seasons of Friday Night Lights. (A TV show you should watch if you haven't. It's awesome.) Burn is about 16 and is dark, tall, and very muscular (even before he "changes"), and he's got chin length hair. I think of him is a combination of Taylor Kitsch and Joe Manganiello (if one could image them combined and only 16.)

Jillian Stone's No-News News

Bradley Craig and Gracie Taylor-Scott. He's left brain, she's right.
Let the fireworks begin.

Darn! I can't share any news yet on a new multi-book contract, but what I can say is that all four books are Contemporary Erotic Romance. (Inspiration photograph of the hero and heroine, above.) I am currently writing book #1 and as soon as I can share the news, I will let everyone know. Follow me on Facebook and Twitter for the latest updates!