Naughty new cover for DESIGNED FOR SIN

Find out about books by "Dorothy Starr" here! ;)

A fond farewell to Numb3rs

I'm just in the middle of watching the final episode of one of my favourite TV shows, the quirky cop drama, Numb3rs. I loved the show from the first time I saw episode one, and particularly fell for the brilliant, dorky and adorable Professor Charlie Eppes. But it was one of those shows with a great ensemble cast too, so I loved following the storylines about Charlie's dad, his friend Larry, and his brother Don, and the other FBI agents on Don's team. With six series, Numb3rs is one of those programmes that so wormed its way into my heart that the characters seemed to become part of an extended family... and now, I'll sorely miss them. 

Of course Numb3rs isn't the only show to become 'family'. I think millions of people all over the world will consider the characters of the various different Star Trek shows to be family. I certainly do, with Next Generation having made the most impact. Just as I've been sobbing over Charlie and Amita's wedding, I sobbed at the final episode of TNG, where the main cast assembled for a poker game with Picard one of the players at last. 

Of course, prior to Numb3rs, and concurrent with it, Law & Order Criminal Intent has been a major, major extended family show for me too. Detective Robert Goren was/is an astonishing character and profoundly inspiring in terms of hero templates, for me. Goren might be gone from our screens, alas, but a version of him still lives on for me as Robert Stone, the hero of ENTERTAINING MR STONE.

The characters in Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel were also part of my life for a long time, especially the wonderful bad boy Spike, who eventually endured a long, painful climb towards goodness. Something I very much liked. Spike too, inspired a book hero. He 'became' Lukas, the gorgeous blond super model in DESIGNED FOR SIN, one of my X Libris titles under the pseudonym Dorothy Starr.  

Now, of course, I have another show that's captured my heart and imagination, and is also proving inspirational in terms of hot male totty. I refer of course to THE MENTALIST, and it's glorious central character Patrick Jane, who's already provoking a new spate of yummy blond heroes, including a certain Mr. Edmund Ellsworth Ritchie. It's too soon to know whether The Mentalist will become 'family', but it's shaping up that way, because it's another show where the supporting characters are all appealing and entertaining too, and I'm very fond of Lisbon, Cho, Rigsby and Van Pelt as well as their gorgeous 'consultant'. The man who hides a tortured heart behind his sunny smile.

And so, back to Numb3rs. And to paraphrase Rick, from Casablanca, Charlie and I will always have IN TOO DEEP. In which Professor Hottie McHotstuff aka Daniel will always bear a startling resemblance to a certain Professor Eppes. 

Bit of a round up

Here are some bits and pieces of news and links.

First of all, I've been pottering with my web site and tidying up the links for most books. Instead of a raft of buy links on the home page, I've now put all the buying links on the excerpt pages, so that each book or story has its own area with blurb, buy links and excerpt. It's still not a work of art but it looks slightly less bitty now.

In order to shift the links to the individual pages, I've had to make individual pages for a few books that didn't have them... and add new excerpts. New naughty titbits include a snapshot of my story UNVEILING HIS MUSE, which is included in Alison's Wonderland and a smidge from my June Spice Brief, A GENTLEWOMAN'S RAVISHMENT. There's also a nugget from ANOTHER CHANCE, a Spice Brief out later in the year, although that's already appeared on Portia's Prose. [click the titles to savor these cheeky chunkettes!]

I'm also excited to hear from my agent that my DOROTHY STARR novels and stories are now going to become available as ebooks. DESIGNED FOR SIN is already out as a Kindle ebook, but HOTEL OF LOVE and MIDNIGHT STARR [short story collection] are also now in the pipeline.
[ps. the Dorothy Starr web site is rudimentary and not really worth looking at, but I hope to make it nicer soon. Another procrastination technique.]


I've also had some good news about an older Black Lace title of mine. IN TOO DEEP has received a lovely review from Niki at Joyfully Reviewed. Here's a bit of what she has to say...

In Too Deep is hot , hot, and even hotter. If the letters don’t get you going, the sex when they finally meet will. There’s not a single page that doesn’t ooze passionate sex. If you are looking for a hot read, you will definitely find it here.

You can read the full review here.

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Eating: Jumbo Chocolate Swiss Roll
Watching: various
Reading: Patience/Sherlock for Dummies
Writing: victorianoid
Feeling: ok

Hey, I have ebooks I never knew about...

The Devil Inside is available as an ebook here and here, in several formats.


Entertaining Mr Stone is available here in a couple of formats, sadly not Adobe so far.

Designed for Sin is available here and here, in a variety of formats.

I knew that theoretically these books could also appear in electronic formats, but nobody ever told me they were actually available... I found them via my mate, Madelynne Ellis who discovered ebooks of her own on sale.

Stop Press!

Gigi stopped by to let me know that my ebooks are also available at EbooksAboutEverything!

--
Telly: lots of sport
Choc/Yummy: turkish delight
Mood: okay
Writing: sifting ideas
Reading: nothing much at the mo
RSI/FMS: not too bad


Don't forget Portia's Promos - new stuff being added all the time!

from Russia with love

Imagine my surprise when I opened a parcel this morning and found copies of one of my books in *Russian*! It seems that my 2004 title DESIGNED FOR SIN, published by X Libris under the pen name DOROTHY STARR has been translated into Russian and issued as a hardback... How cool is that? I've often exchanged emails with my writing buddy and web client Elizabeth Chadwick about the idiosyncrasies of her Russian book covers, but this is the first time I've had some of my own to marvel over...



Now those of you who read my books and know where my inspirations come from will know that DESIGNED FOR SIN is my Spike from BtVS book... but the Russian cover artist seems to have completely ignored my physical description of the hero and made him dark haired! Unless of course, he's been given a retouch in the translation... But hey, I'm not worried in the slightest because it's so ineffably splendid and nifty to have a book translated into Russian at all! I think this is my first ever Soviet title... and I'm chuffed to bits!

But that's not all...

Imagine my further surprise, when, while I was flicking through the book and showing it to himself [who was dead impressed!], I discovered that it's *illustrated*!!! Some of the line drawings leave a little to be desired, but there's an enthusiastic quality about them that's a lot of fun, and they do fairly faithfully represent scenes from the book. I've picked out one below that does indeed seem to suggest the correct colour for the hero's blond hair...



Issa hoot, innit! :)