So here's the deal. Alexei and Kostya are still hanging around in edit-landia. Alexei will be ready to go very soon but Kostya is...well. It's a big, fat sexy book like the Nikolai sequel so it's complicated and labor intensive. Alexei is available for pre-order now. It has a release date of January 6, 2015---->but the moment Alexei is edited and formatted and in my hot little hands next week, I will hit publish and make it available for immediate release. I should have a pre-order link for Kostya by Wednesday. It will be the same situation. The date for the pre-order may say XYZ but the moment the book is ready for release, I'll make it available. Alexei is #8 in the series but it's the start of a new story arc so there are no spoilers for Kostya's book. It's a stand-alone (much like Sergei was when I started the second story arc in the series after Nikolai's first book) so I feel totally comfortable releasing it into the wild. Plus y'all have waited so patiently that I really want to give you the next installment as quickly as possible. I know some of you are seriously frustrated by the delays. I get it. I really do. Believe me. I would much rather be releasing books quickly and on my preferred schedule. But real life and autism and heart problems don't always play by the rules, you know? This weekend I was having a serious writer meltdown and a friend managed to talk me down by telling me to think about all I had accomplished since February 2013. I was really surprised to count up every project I had completed, published and/or sold. I had no idea! In the last 22 months, I have written and/or published: As Roxie Ivan Dimitri Yuri A Very Russian Christmas Nikolai Sergei Sergei 2 Nikolai 2 Kostya Alexei In Kelly's Corner In Jack's Arms In Finn's Heart Collateral Close Quarters Step As Lolita Caught By Menace Saved by Venom Red Hot Dragon Wicked Dark Dragon Renegade Dragon Emma Serial (Parts 1-5) That is 21 books in 22 months! It's 1.5 million words. It's 68,000 words per month or 2267 words a day. During those 22 months, the Viking went to school full-time and worked full-time as a medic (so 24 hour shifts 3x/week.) Kiddo was diagnosed with autism and started intensive therapy. She had a heart failure scare. We lost a dog. We had family drama that would make a telanovela look tame. One of my publishers decided to go off the rails, and I had to walk away from a world I loved so very much. But I kept writing. And, sure, the last two books were delayed. And it sucked. I hated doing it. HATED it. It made me feel like a big, fat stinking failure to disappoint everyone who wanted these books and wanted them now. But I can't change any of that. I can only publish books when they're ready--and I want them to be as perfect as possible for every reader who buys or borrows a copy. Before I took the plunge as Roxie and went indie, no one would buy these Houston underworld stories I wanted to tell. I kept hearing: There's no market for Latina romance. There's no market for I/R romance. Bullshit. The readers who love these characters as much (and sometimes more judging by the fantastic fan art y'all send me! LOL) have proven that there is a huge and voracious market for stories that are a little dark and a little genre-bending. And as long as y'all enjoy reading them, I'll keep on writing them! :) You can pre-order ALEXEI from Amazon here. New pre-order links to follow soon! Shay Sandoval has big dreams and works hard to achieve them. But her older sister likes that fast, easy money and finds herself in a hot mess of trouble when she helps her boyfriend scam Houston’s underworld. Terrified for her sister and herself, Shay turns to the only man powerful enough to save them—former prize fighter and Russian mob enforcer Alexei Sarnov. Just as ruthless in business as he was on the streets, Alexei has built a new life as a respected, wealthy businessman. When he learns Shay’s troubled sister has invoked the wrath of Houston’s criminal elite, Alexei rushes to intercept Shay before the city’s worst men can get their hands on her. But now that she’s under his protection—and under his hands—Alexei realizes that he wants and needs more than he’s ever dared to hope for in his harsh life. He wants Shay in his home and in his bed—but not as merely his mistress. Earning Shay’s love and trust just might be the hardest deal he’s ever sealed… EXCERPT AFTER THE JUMP! |
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