Second time around for SECOND TIME AROUND!

Look what's available at the Mills and Boon site today!

SECOND TIME AROUND

Ooh la la!

This morning I was searching the net for some old Portia pix, and to my surprise, I happened on the lovely cover above, one I'd never seen before and had no knowledge of... Wasn't sure what it was at first, but seeing the Spicy logo in the bottom right corner, it dawned on me that it's my first ever Harlequin story IN PRINT!

Yes, it seems that CHANCE OF A LIFETIME is part of a French print anthology of Spice Briefs, along with stories by Lillian Feisty, Kit Tunstall and Charlotte Featherstone.

So if you'd like to read these stories in French, Confidences is available from Amazon France.

Wonderful review for KISS IT BETTER!

Am delighted to announce another super review for KISS IT BETTER, this time from Wendy the SuperLibrarian! It's a really thorough, thoughtful and balanced review and gives readers a great snapshot of the book.

SuperWendy reviews KISS IT BETTER

Many thanks, Wendy!

In ALISON'S WONDERLAND!

I'm thrilled to announce that a short story of mine in the line-up of a spiffing new anthology from Harlequin Spice. Edited by the amazing Alison Tyler, it's called ALISON'S WONDERLAND and it'll be out in July 2010. The theme is modern day fairy tales, and the roster of authors is jaw-droppingly illustrious...

The Red Shoes (Redux) by Nikki Magennis
Fool’s Gold by Shanna Germain
The Three Billys by Sommer Marsden
David by Kristina Lloyd
Managers and Mermen by Donna George Storey
The Clean-Shaven Type by N.T. Morley
The Midas F*ck by Erica DeQuaya
Sleeping with Beauty by Allison Wonderland
Unveiling His Muse by Portia Da Costa
Always Break the Spines by Lana Fox
An Uphill Battle by Benjamin Eliot
Moonset by A.D.R Forte
Mastering Their Dungeons by Bryn Haniver
A Taste for Treasure by T.C. Calligari
The Broken Fiddle by Andrea Dale
The Cougar of Cobble Hill by Sophia Valenti
Wolff’s Tavern by Bella Dean
Slutty Cinderella by Jacqueline Applebee
Kiss It by Saskia Walker
Let Down Your Libido by Rachel Kramer Bussel
Dancing Shoes by Tsaurah Litzky
Gold, On Snow by Janine Ashbless
After the Happily Every After by Heidi Champa
Cupid Has Signed Off by Thomas S. Roche
The Walking Wheel by Georgia E. Jones
Rings on My Fingers by Alison Tyler
The Princess by Elspeth Potter

I'm beginning to feel like a real 'Spice Girl' now...

7 Spice Briefs published/to be published
2 book deal for full length novels
Contributor to Naughty Bits 2
Contributor to Alison's Wonderland

*Still* think I must be dreaming all this!!!

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Eating: cheap choc bix
Watching: Upstairs downstairs/Poirot
Reading: The Last Bachelor - Betina Krahn
Writing: not much of anything
Feeling: OK, but missing himself who's trudging the WW2 battlefields of Europe

Hey, hey, hey! Another PDC for sale at Mills& Boon!

Most exciting and thrilling! Another of my Spice Briefs - TWICE THE PLEASURE - has been picked up for sale at the Mills and Boon Website, as well as the Harlequin one!

As Twice is the first part of the Risque Reunions trilogy, I'm hoping that the other two will also appear at M&B! Fingers crossed, eh? :)


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Eating: chocolate crunch creams
Watching: LOCI
Reading: Beyond Innocence - Emma Holly
Writing: sexay butler
Feeling: okay

KISS IT BETTER - out today in the US

Blurb

Pleasure with a perfect stranger…

Jay Bentley is a man with issues. Haunted by physical and psychological demons, he seeks solace and sexual oblivion in the pursuit of an exquisite erotic daydream from his youth, and the reality of a woman who has illuminated his inner fantasies since a brief meeting years ago.

Sandy Jackson has always known that a certain magic is 'missing' from her life. She's feisty and philosophical, but her dreams are filled with heated images of a handsome Prince Charming she once encountered, a man who will kiss everything better and thrill her with glorious, dangerous pleasure.

But the past is an illusion, and the present fraught with conflict and uneasy compromise… can two passionate lovers reconcile their differences and slake their burning sensual hunger for each other in a wild and daring liaison?

Excerpts here and here

Available from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk

Another great review for KISS IT BETTER!

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Win a Portia Prize at Lauren's Pad today!

For a chance to win a fun Portia Da Costa prize today, zip on over to the fabulous Lauren Dane's Blog and leave a comment.

Lauren has been doing a month long competition, LAID BARE WITH FLAIR, to celebrate the 4th August release of her sensational, sizzling new release from Berkley Heat. LAID BARE is red hot contemporary romance with elements of menage and BDSM. I've not yet had the pleasure of reading it, but it sounds delicious!


My contribution to the festivities is a cute Yorkshire Rose Tote Bag, containing 2 Black Lace novels of the winner's choice, from my available backlist. As Black Lace will no longer be published after the end of this year, these might become collectors' items, so please do enter. :)

Another incentive to visit and comment is a tantalizing excerpt of my book that comes out on 4th August in the US! It's the bit in KISS IT BETTER where Sandy, the heroine, first gets to chat up a mysterious, sexy and dangerous looking man who's been watching her...

Laid Bare with Flair Contest Day 29! | Vixenwriter
http://www.laurendane.com/blog/2009/07/31/laid-bare-with-flair-contest-day-29/ [more]

Two thoughtful pieces on Black Lace

Here are links to two excellent blog posts on the end of Black Lace. One by Michelle Buonfiglio at the Barnes and Noble Heart to Heart Blog and one by Lisabet Sarai at the Erotica Readers and Writers Association Blog. Both ladies are far more eloquent than I could ever be on the subject. :(

KISS IT BETTER, my last ever new Black Lace novel, will be available on 4th August in the US.

Click here to read an excerpt.


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Eating: Dark Chocolate Cadbury's Fingers
Watching: Upstairs, Downstairs
Reading: Beyond Innocence - Emma Holly
Writing: working on my sexy butler novella
Feeling: under the weather

NO LONGER FORBIDDEN now available at Fictionwise!

Yeehah! NO LONGER FORBIDDEN is now available at Fictionwise, for those of you who like to shop there for your ebook purchases!

And here's a link to a tasty excerpt if you like to try before you buy! :)


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Eating: nectarine
Watching: poldark
Reading: beyond innocence - emma holly
Writing: story/novella, mentalist inspired
Feeling: still gutted about Black Lace

Look at this, eh?

This is the widget for CHANCE OF A LIFETIME... from the MILLS AND BOON SITE!!!!

Yes, I have a book on sale from Mills & Boon, my dream publisher since the late 1980s. Being published by Harlequin was a sumptuous sundae of utter deliciousness, but this placement on the M&B site is the succulent cherry right on the top of that achievement. Colour me utterly chuffed! :)

In other, far less appetising news, my other publisher Black Lace, is apparently going 'on hold' for the time being, according to this piece in the online Bookseller. Us authors don't know any more than this at the moment, alas, but it don't look good. :(
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Eating: cheap chocolate biscuits
Watching: history channel
Reading: Beyond Innocence - Emma Holly
Writing: sexay butler novella
Feeling: sad about Black Lace, happy about Spice

RISQUE REUNIONS... final instalment!

NO LONGER FORBIDDEN, the final story in the Risque Reunions trilogy is out today!

Ten years ago, when she was nineteen, Annette Fraser was wracked by a huge crush on her math teacher, Nicholas Laurence. In her heart, she knew her feelings were true, and that Mr Laurence reciprocated them, but his strict ethical code forbade him revealing his emotions, and her natural good sense prevented her from doing anything silly. Ten years later, and never having found a love such as she felt for her handsome, cultured teacher, she looks forward to meeting up with him again at a school reunion as adults and equals. But unfortunately fate has dealt Nicholas a painful blow. Badly injured in a car crash, but now recovered, he still bears the scars. Annette’s love is undiminished, and on seeing her, Nicholas knows his feelings are also unchanged, and more intense now that their love is no longer taboo.

Read an excerpt

Available from eHarlequin, Books on Board and Amazon Kindle

But if you want to know the full story of what happens at the Walton Wood High School ten year reunion... you need to read the other instalments too!

TWICE THE PLEASURE

Ten years after leaving Walton Wood High School, Caitlyn Green still has a crush on the class heart-throb she yearned for in her final year. Organising the catering for a school reunion seems to be a great, non obvious way to meet Drew Hartley again, and either finally hook up with him or get him out of her system for good. The trouble is, back in the day, Drew was always hanging with his buddy, Steve… and ten years later, the two men are closer than ever.

Read an excerpt

Available from eHarlequin, Fictionwise, Books on Board, Sony Ebook Store and Amazon Kindle

SECOND TIME AROUND

Sweethearts from their schooldays and wed too young, Willa Riley and James Adams, are now separated due to marital stresses and a different vision for their future together. Some years after their split, Willa attends their school reunion, unsure how she’ll react on seeing James again, but determined not to stay away, like a coward. She’s in for a surprise though. Her formerly diffident ex husband is a transformed, self assured man who’s grown into himself and found confidence in an outdoorsy career that really suits him. Always desirable, he’s ten times as sexy in his dominant, sexually adventurous new persona, and Willa responds to him with renewed passion that astonishes and shocks her. James has the measure of her bossy personality now, and there’s sweet joy for her in the act of submission to her newly masterful husband and the way he punishes her with delicious, loving pleasure-pain.

Available from eHarlequin, Fictionwise, Books on Board, Sony Ebook Store and Amazon Kindle

Hope you enjoy reading these three linked stories as much as I enjoyed writing them!

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Eating: banana
Watching: wimbledon later
Reading: A Hint of Wicked - Jennifer Haymore
Writing: thinking about a novella
Feeling: pleased about Risques