I’m back from vacation and guest blogging over at the Aphrodisia Authors about the real-life people with the real-life jobs who inspire the careers of characters. Or one specific upcoming character for me!

Come visit!

I’m off to Texas to visit family and kiss the new babies that have been born since the last time I was there. Two boys and a girl on the way! Prolific, that branch of the family.

So, behave while I’m gone (and note I didn’t say you have to be well behaved. Hee)

Here’s the latest news on the World Cup, just to give you something up-to-date to look at while I’m gone. See how it’s a different widget than the one in the sidebar? You are all kinds of informed, baby.

“Edge of Heaven” by Rhiannon Leith

Read An Excerpt Online
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Red Hots!

ISBN: 978-1-60928-059-8
Length: Novel
Price: 5.50
Publication Date: June 22, 2010
Cover art by Natalie Winters

Her only hope is to reach for heaven—and hang on to hell.

Lily’s psychic “gift” for hearing the dead and helping them pass over into the afterlife has left her friendless and broken, teetering on the edge of sanity. Not much of a challenge for Sammael, a demon who’s been sent to seduce her soul for hell.

But something stands between Sam and his prize. Micah, the guardian angel whose constant support keeps Lily sane. Yet Sam senses that Micah’s feelings for his charge are less than angelic.

Excellent. It’ll be his pleasure to tempt them both into pure sin.

As Lily succumbs to unearthly pleasure, she finds herself caught between the demon who sets her on fire and the angel who lifts her to unimagined heights of ecstasy. It’s a choice she can’t bring herself to make.

Then a serial killer with preternatural abilities makes Lily his next target. Danger mounts as he repeatedly outfoxes even heaven and hell. To protect her, an angel must fall, a demon must be redeemed—and Lily must travel to hell and back for the men she loves.

Warning: Contains steamy sex, bondage, voyeurism, and a ménage a trois between a tormented angel, a devilishly sexy demon and a woman who can’t choose between them. And why should she?

Read An Excerpt Online Buy it here

SALOME AT SUNRISE by releases today from Carina Press!

It’s not nice to piss off Mother Nature…

Bryton Haruk sets out on a suicide mission to stop the bloodthirsty Skullmen from terrorizing the war-weary Land of Eldwyn. Consumed by guilt over the death of his wife, Bryton seeks revenge and reunion in the afterlife with his lost love. His purpose is determined, his bravery unmatched, until the queen casts a spell to save Bryton from himself.

Salome is that spell. A bird-shifter, she can harness the earth’s breeze and take the form of a beautiful, innocent woman. Her challenge is to harness Bryton’s pain and guide him to peace. She entrances and irritates him, tempting Bryton from his mission. Even as he gives in to the passion between them, Bryton insists on mounting a solo attack on the brigands’ compound, and Salome fears her love won’t be enough to save him…

Celebrate Summer Solstice.

Salome at Sunrise from Inez Kelley and Carina Press.

Seize the day.

Buy it now.

I’m happy to announce that I sold a co-written erotic shapeshifter anthology with Loribelle Hunt to Samhain Publishing. This antho will be split into four ebook novellas for release in November ’10, December ’10, February ’11, and March ’11, and one single print anthology called FORBIDDEN PASSIONS in early 2012.

Here are the tentative titles and blurbs for the stories. I’m so freaking stoked!

FORBIDDEN PASSIONS by Loribelle Hunt and Crystal Jordan

King Leonidas I of Sparta became legendary for his bravery in the face of an onslaught of Persian forces under the command of Xerxes I. So impressed with the Leonidas’ courageous death, the hunter goddess Artemis made his sons more than men. They became wereleopards, and over the centuries have scattered to the four corners of the globe.

The current ruler of the Leonidas family, Hector, went missing the same week as his eldest son’s mate. An uneasy truce exists between the wereleopards and werewolves of America. Each claim half of the country as their territory–wolves in the east and leopards in the west. But someone aims to upset that balance, and Hector’s sons must uncover the plot…and save their father.

“Stolen Passions” by Crystal Jordan

Lyra Marcus is attacked and left unconscious in the middle of the desert. When she awakens, she realizes the horror of her predicament. She’s a werewolf in the heart of wereleopard territory. Worse still, she’s discovered by Zander Leonidas, one of the sons of the most powerful leopard family. She might die at her enemy’s hand, but she won’t go down without a fight.

Zander has no intention of killing the little she-wolf who landed on the doorstep of his family’s resort, but he wants to know how she ended up there. What he never expected was to find himself drawn to a wolf. Sex is one thing, but the urge to mark her as his mate is almost irresistible. A woman like her shouldn’t fit him so well–a match between their kinds would rock the foundations of their world.

But whoever left Lyra for dead doesn’t intend to fail again, and Zander’s not about to let anyone touch his woman.

“Passions Recalled” by Loribelle Hunt

When both his mate and his father died in a freak accident, Jason, the oldest Leonidas brother left home and became a park ranger in the Florida Panhandle. The distance and solitude suit him. After all, the less he cares, the less he hurts.

With a hurricane bearing down on the coast, his job is to secure and evacuate the park. As the storm worsens to a point where evacuation is no longer possible, he discovers Celeste Lykaios injured and unconscious. The problem is…his mate died over a year ago.

Celeste’s world has turned upside down. After being gravely injured in a plane crash, Jason abandoned her. In a mere twenty-four hours she finds out her werewolf step-father lost her birth father’s land, her family hid her survival from Jason, and her new fiancé is a killer. She goes to the only person she is certain can keep her safe, driving straight into a hurricane only to be attacked before she finds him. She wakes up in Jason’s home with no idea how she got there or why.

They take shelter from the storm to unravel the betrayal that split them apart, but first have to face the danger stalking Celeste.

When the storm passes, one question remains. If his mate–a human–survived the airplane crash that was supposed to have taken her life and the life of his father…what happened to the stronger wereleopard leader?

“Fleeting Passions” by Crystal Jordan

Cleo Nemean is on the run from her violent past when she takes a job at Refuge Resort. She spends an evening toasting her escape and ends up having a one night stand. The catch? Her one night lover is Adrian Leonidas, her new boss . . . and they accidentally marked each other as mates.

Just when things couldn’t get any worse, her werebear ex-fiancé tracks her down, bent on bringing her back under his control. Terrified, she bolts, leaving behind the safety of Refuge . . . and the protection of her new mate. The one thing she can’t risk is Adrian’s life.

Adrian is a man of supreme control. Whether he meant to mate with Cleo or not, she’s now his woman and he’s not about to see her harmed before he has a chance to explore the undeniable heat between them. He follows her and uses her as bait to set a trap for her ex. He’s going to end the threat to her life once and for all.

But the trap is sprung too soon and it leaves them both in mortal danger.

While they survive the encounter, they’re left to wonder who tipped off the werebear about their location. It’s one too many bad coincidences for the Leonidas family. They need to find out if there is a traitor in their midst . . . and how all of this ties into the disappearance of their father.

“Renegade Passions” by Loribelle Hunt

Wereeagle Alexandra “Ajax” Petros is destined to lead her people…and running from that fate. She’s spent several years in the Messenger Corps, the elite werebirds who carry communications between the different were species.

As a bird, she’s neutral and her people have enjoyed and prospered under that neutrality. When she uncovers a plot by one of her own to not only steal her throne, but destroy the leopards and wolves in the process, what will she decide? Face the threat on her own and take her rightful place, or stick to her neutrality in the coming war?

Only one man has the power to make her choose, the power to make her forsake her oath to her people’s ways. But what does Nicodemus Leonidas want from her? Her help…or her soul?

Nico is the family’s coldly methodical security expert. The last thing he wants while trying to discover what happened to his father is the werebird who literally drops into his lap. She’s driving him crazy, but their chemistry is incredible–and if she insists on sticking her messenger nose into the middle of wereleopard business, who is he to stop her?

Except everyone in this game has secrets and Ajax’s are the biggest of all. When the dust has settled and Nico’s family is reunited what will become of the mate he was so reluctant to claim? He must either convince her to stay with him or follow her as she pursues her own destiny. For the first time in his life, Nico lets his heart–not his mind–decide his fate.

I’ve mentioned that I’m half-English, right? Okay, so that means I was raised on the idea that 1) Soccer = Football and what we call “football” in the US is really just “American Football” 2) Soccer/Football is awesome 3) The World Cup every 4 years is worth living and dying for.

I’m not so convinced on that last one, but I do follow the World Cup a bit, and Dr. Revolution at work is Argentinian, so she’s obsessed, so I’m paying more attention this year than usual. I am, of course, rooting for England. The Mad Madam M is an England fan, too, since she lived there for a year.

I’ve added a World Cup widget to the side bar of the blog, so the action remains ongoing. Fun times!

Go England!

I got a new review from Joyfully Reviewed!

The Wanderer by Crystal Jordan
The Wasteland, Book 1
Samhain Publishing
Erotic Science Fiction/Futuristic/Paranormal
ISBN: 9781609280314
Reviewed by Talia Ricci

Kadira is a Wanderer. She is untouchable, valued, and detested all in one. To touch her means instant death and Kadira finds this satisfactory. Her family murdered, she knows that she will never have the loving touch of a mate. She refused to depend on anyone but herself and this had been highly successful thus far. And then she meets Ezra.

Ezra knows what Kadira is and he doesn’t care. She needs his knowledge in order to help her adopted people, but that is all – or so she says. Ezra knows differently. Her desire is evident in her eyes and for once he is going to take what he wants and doesn’t care of the consequences.

The more Kadira fights her feelings for Ezra, the more he desires her. He loves her unconditionally and she makes him shudder with longing. It was fun to watch Kadira realize this and learn to live with the knowledge that no matter what she did, that love would continue.

New beginnings in the harsh land of the Wasteland shine through in The Wanderer. Kadira and Ezra make an unlikely couple, but one deeply embedded in each other’s hearts and mind. I loved Crystal Jordan’s mojo in this futuristic love story!

I’ve got nothing much to say this week. I’m working at the library and we had our big faculty retreat this week, which just meant a super-duper holy-Jesus long meeting. No fun in Whoville.

I’m also working steadily on deadlines for my new books. I sent out some new novellas to Samhain, so there should be more details about that coming soon. And, the biggest news I have this week is that I changed agents and have signed with Roberta Brown of Brown Literary Agency.

That’s about it. School’s out for summer at the university, so the library is quiet and unexciting.

This bit of hilarity brought to you by the Mad Madam M.

Can’t. Stop. Laughing.