I got my acceptance for my new novella, Wasteland: The Wanderer, from my awesome editor at Samhain Publishing. Yay! It’s officially official!

P.S. I can’t believe it’s February already. Where’s the last month gone??

So, over Christmas, the Mad Madam M said she wanted a desktop image of Treasured, which is her favorite cover of mine, and a book she help me come up with the concept for.

I emailed the super fabulous cover artist, Anne Cain, who I love like a fat kid loves cake, and said I’d like to commission her to make this present for M. Then I thought, why should just M and I enjoy the awesomeness of Anne’s work? So, she made me a couple of different sizes, and I’ve added these to my Extras page.

Here they are! Downloadable desktop images for Treasured. I want to hug them and squeeze them, pet them and call them George. Soooo preeeeetty!

(Click on the image to download)

Image size: 1920×1080

Image size: 1024×768

I started on a new story for Samhain that will be part of a series with my sisters in crime over at the Smutketeers. The series is called The Wasteland, and it’s gonna be awesome!

Crystal Jordan~~ Book One: The Wanderer
Lilli Feisty~~Book Two: The Whore
Eden Bradley~~Book Three: The Breeder
R.G. Alexander~~Book Four: The Priestess

Here’s what mine’s about!

In 2012, the world came to a grinding halt as radiation hit from a massive solar storm. Crops died, animals perished, cities fell, and humans became little more than beasts themselves. Under the threat of starvation, civility was reduced to mere memory. Only the strongest men survived, and physically weaker women and children wasted to nothingness.

More than a century later, humanity struggles in the desert Wasteland that was left. The solar radiation rendered most women infertile, and the population dwindles more with each year that passes. Scattered up and down coasts, isolated cities eke out an existence from fishing, foraging, and hunting for what little game remains. Outside the city walls, men face the threat of pirates and raiders.

There is only one rule in the Wasteland: survive.

Few women remain, divided into four classes: Wanderers, Whores, Breeders, and Priestesses. They are as reviled as they are worshipped, a commodity any man must pay to touch. And to touch a Wanderer, he may pay with his life.

For Ezra, the risk is worth the reward. He’s half-scientist and half-mercenary. People speak his name in the same reverent terror reserved for ancient wrathful gods. He controls and invents the alternative fuel sources that power what is left of technology in the Wasteland, but he must always be ready to fend off those who would take what is his.

And what he wants to be his is Kadira. From her clan of Wanderers, he demands she spend the month of Spring Rites in his bed as the price for her people’s fuel. He’ll gladly deal with her wrath if it means finally having the warrior woman in his arms. The scientist can’t resist the urge to see what he can make react, and what he can make explode. The real experiment will be if he can keep her once he has her where he wants her.

The book. It is in. And I’m spent.

Enjoy the long weekend!

I finished the draft of Every Witch Way (title may be changing, must wait for final say-so from editor) last night and I’m so stoked! Tons of revisions still await me between now and my 15th deadlines, but this is a ginormous yaaaaaaaaay moment!

Celebrate good times, COME ON!

My November release from Kensington Aphrodisia, PRIMAL HEAT, is up for pre-order at Amazon, Books-A-Million, and IndieBound!

Here’s what it’s about:

The world changed in the blink of an eye. The Kith returned to Earth, and humans learned the terrible truth. They were lesser beings, slaves, abandoned to colonize a barbaric planet the Kith discovered centuries ago. They might have gone on in ignorance, but the Emperor of the Kith knows that his One is among the Kin. He sensed her the moment she reached maturity, and he will tear the planet apart if he must to find her, to claim her, to bond his mind and body with hers.

Wicked Lord

Sergeant Major Bren Preston doesn’t believe for a second that the powerful Kith brought an entire armada across space for a woman. No matter what the Kith ambassador claims–or how attractive she finds Lord Farid Arjun–she knows Earth will never surrender to the Kith fleet. But when she finds that her own commander, General Arthur, wants the planet for himself, she’ll have to decide what she’s willing to risk to save her people. Farid might be able to help her. For a price. He’s desired her from the moment he first saw her, and he’s not going to settle for less than everything she has to give. Her body, her heart, her mind, her hard-won independence. She’ll have to surrender herself to him if she wants to save Earth.

Carnal Empress

Jana Townsend was once a normal woman with a normal life. Until the day Emperor Kyber showed up and claimed her for his own. Nothing had ever felt so right, so perfect. But it was over far too soon. General Arthur’s men captured Kyber and spend months torturing him before Jana and the Kith forces can free him. Now, Jana and Kyber can’t find the common ground they’d once had. Both of them have changed, become different people, but the bond between them can’t be broken. They’re too damaged to move forward, but they crave each other too much to let go. The only thing they can agree on is that before the Kith leave Earth, they have to keep the planet from General Arthur’s clutches. For Kyber, justice and vengeance go hand in hand, and working with Jana to fight a common enemy shows him that the one thing he can’t lose is her.

Read an excerpt!

I’m back at work today after the holidays with family and friends. I also had a yucky cold the last week or so, which is just super unfair during a vacation.

I wrote like crazy, and can see the glimmering light at the end of the tunnel for this book, which means you may get fewer blogs between now and my deadline on the 15th. Sorry!

I also started coming up a list of conferences I’ll be attending and trips I’ll be taking this year and I’m already exhausted! I have the Popular Culture Conference with my fellow romance scholars in late March, a library conference the next week in early April, RT in late April, a vacation up to M’s new digs in May, RWA in July, and I hope another trip in July or August to visit the family in Texas.

I think I need a vacation from my vacations!

So, the plan today is to pick up Diana Pharaoh Francis, fantasy and urban fantasy author extraordinaire, and drag her around to sign the books the have on stock in the Sacramento area bookstores. On Christmas Eve. Pray for us.

The good news is, we’re not buying anything, so we don’t have to stand in line. The bad news is: traffic and fighting for a parking space. The kind of attitude holiday shoppers have just might make me whip out my inner Valley Girl on their asses. She’s a scary side of Crystal. Me. Whatever.

Some of the fun goodness that might be signed? (I just love showing off the artwork pretties)

I got nothing for ya, peoples. Seriously. I’m writing like mad to get my next book in on time (hope y’all like it!), planning another Romance Divas workshop for January (you must come hang out!), and getting ready for the holidays (you all know this pain).

So, I can only show you the one entertaining thing I’ve seen lately. M’s sent me some movie trailers that look interesting.

First, M and I are going to this the day after Christmas. For sure.

Then, we thought this might be fun. We both liked Gladiator, so we know this director has made something with Russell Crowe we liked before. Hey, why not?

I got the okay to share my cover for the second book in the Unbelievable series from Samhain. Here it is, and here’s an excerpt!