StacieDM

Joye

Laurie G

Email me at joleigh (at) joleigh (dot) com with your addresses.

And thank you all!

Hello Everyone,

Today begins, for me at least, the beginning of the Blaze 10th Anniversary Celebration.  That’s because HOTSHOT, along with five other wonderful Blazes (Vicki Lewis Thompson’s COWBOYS LIKE US, Debbi Rawlins’ EXTRA INNINGS, Julie Leto’s TOO HOT TO TOUCH, Kimberly Raye’s THE BRADDOCK BOYS: TRAVIS and Tori Carrington’s UNDENIABLE PLEASURES) are (or should be) on the shelves!

HOTSHOT is one of the Uniformly Hot Series about two Air Force Captains who have one hell of a past.  Luke is a fighter pilot, and Sara was his college sweetheart.  Things didn’t end well, to put it mildly.  Now Luke has walked back into her life, and he turns Sara’s world upside down.

I love this book.  I know that sounds trite, we all love our books, but this one?  This one was extraordinary for me, personally.  Researching the world of the modern Air Force, of men and women in war, in peace, in love, in pain, was illuminating and humbling.  It was hard and it was wonderful and I was so emotionally invested that I still dream about Luke and Sara.

What was supposed to have been included in this edition of the book was a promise from me.   I’m going to donate 5% of my earnings from this book to The Wounded Warriors Project, who I think do a magnificent job helping the wounded transition back to civilian life.  It means a great deal to me to help, especially now since my nephew is currently serving in Afghanistan.  I couldn’t walk away from this book and do nothing.  So…it’s not much, but it is adding a light to the collective light.

I’m also going to give a copy of HOTSHOT, along with a copy of Debbi Rawlins’ EXTRA INNINGS to someone who comments in the next two days.  I’ll send them anywhere in the world, so don’t hesitate to play.

I hope you all read and enjoy the 10th Anniversary Books, and get a kick out of reading the Bonus books that come along for the ride!  My book is called GOING FOR IT! and it was Blaze #2.  How lucky I’ve been to be able to keep writing for Blaze.  And how wonderful you all are to keep reading them.

Thanks!

Jo

Good Morning Everyone,

My name is Jo, and I’m a British TV addict. It’s getting serious. It all began with PBS comedies like TO THE MANOR BORN, JEEVES & WOOSTER, BLACKADDER (all incarnations) FAWLTY TOWERS, MONTY PYTHON, VICAR OF DIBLEY, ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS… yeah, those are just off the top. Not to mention RED DWARF and, okay…to the present.

Anyone see the Neil Gaiman DOCTOR WHO? I must confess it took awhile for me to really appreciate Eleven because of my devotion to Ten, but this series has been stunning.

But my true obsession is SHERLOCK. Good lord, I’m ridiculous. I’m twelve (and mean the mental age, not the next incarnation of the Doctor) and when it was announced a few days ago that they’d started filming the next series of three, I did flappy hands and went all crazy with my LiveJournal fangirls. (See what I mean about being twelve?) Also, Sherlock is played by BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH and I swear, that is the single greatest actor name in history. Say it a few times. Go on, really. It’s brilliant.

Can’t help it. I’m determined to get to London in the next few years. DETERMINED! I can find my way about by now. I can even tell the difference between an Oxbridge and Estuary accent!

So, anyone else? Favorite Brit shows? Into Sherlock? How about that Martin Freeman being all Hobbity, eh?

Not really. But it is my birthday today, so everybody have a cupcake and ignore the fact that I should have written this blog days ago. Yay cupcakes!

Damn. Now I really want a cupcake.

News? Well, here’s what’s up – next month I have a novella in a the Valentine’s Day Blaze NOT ANOTHER BLIND DATE, along with Janelle Denison and Leslie Kelly. Writing Ex Marks the Spot was one of the most satisfying writing experiences I’ve ever had. I hope you’ll take a look at it, and let me know what you think.

In August it will be the 10th Anniversary of Blaze. Can you believe it? Ten years! Since my book was the 2nd in the line, it’s clear I was writing them as an infant. So precocious.

I’ve written a book that will be part of the 10th Anniversary celebration. It’s called HOTSHOT and it’s about an Air Force pilot who goes back to the woman he left years ago to make amends, only to fall in love with her again. It’s part of the Uniformly Hot series, and I absolutely loved writing it.

You’ll be hearing more about the celebration in the months to come, so be on the lookout.

Okay, now I have to go find cupcakes.

I was at dinner with the flatmate, Debbi, and because we talk about everything, every day, and we’re exceedingly used to asking all manner of things, I asked, “You know the voice in your head? The one you’re supposed to quiet when you meditate? What’s yours like?”

She said, “What?” in a way that was much more “What the hell?”

I said, “I want to know the music that plays, and the stories that you think. Not your books, the personal stories, the ones that continue and morph over time. You know. And what happens when you think about thinky thoughts, like new concepts and stuff.”

She looked at me as if I was, well, me. “Music?”

“Mine,” I said, is mostly classical. The last few days it’s been Prokofiev’s piano concerto #3, and Bach’s Cello Suite prelude, but also that Christian Kane song The House Rules, which is weird because I don’t usually hear country songs.”

She blinked a lot. “I don’t have a lot of music going in my head.”

I blinked a lot. “Oh.”

“Just sometimes. A song will get stuck, but not for long.”

“Okay,” I continued, undaunted. “What about the stories?”

“I don’t have stories. I think about my plots, but I don’t have stories. What kind of stories do you have?”

“Wow. Long, complex stories about me but I’m not really me, I’m something or someone else. For the past six months or so, I’ve been building a thing about me, now, if I’d been a recluse, and spent the last twenty years alone.”

She raised a delicate eyebrow. “I think about selling the old house, and what I have to shift in the investments, and how I need to put money in the 1.9 interest rate credit line instead of the 3.4% interest line, and how many pages I have to write before my daughter-in-law comes. There are no stories. And very little music. I think about my real life, not my life as a unicorn or something.”

“I see,” I said, although I really didn’t. I’d always assumed everyone’s inner voice was like my inner voice. That there was music there, every day, and stories, and things like this idea I’ve been playing with about deconstructing a single family’s mythology through 3 generations, kind of a Rashamon deal but with basic belief systems and interpretations of everything from how we treat strangers to what we assume about sex, and how that’s shaped everyone’s lives.

“That’s not particularly normal,” she said. Kindly, I might add. “You have a lot of free time, you know. What with no husband, no children, and one live friend, and even with the writing books and the internet, it leaves a lot of room to maneuver.”

I thought about that as I ate my carne asada taco. And I realized something. “So basically, I’m not in any way an adult. Even my career is making shit up. I have no idea what it’s like to be a real adult person.”

She nodded. “That’s true.”

“Why are you friends with me?” I asked, really wanting to know. It seems so illogical.

“Because it works for me. If it didn’t, I wouldn’t be here. So don’t worry about it.”

But I kinda am.

ERGO: I want to know…NEED to know…tell me, please, if you wouldn’t mind…what’s the voice like in your head? I don’t know that about anyone, with the exception of Debbi. And I don’t read about it, or see articles about it. It’s a big thing, that voice.

I should also mention, that for about the last 6 or so years, my voice has a British accent. Which she seemed to think was very odd.

Now, I have to go finish writing sex.

I know many Blaze Babes have talked about research, but when a person is neck deep in it, as I am, it’s hard to think of much else. So- another blog about research!

Next year is the 10th anniversary of Blaze, if you can believe that. I’m writing a Uniformly Hot Blaze to celebrate, and in this book both the hero and the heroine are in the U.S. Air Force.

I know as much about Air Force life as I do about quantum mechanics. Not a good place to begin, but I love the story and the characters, and I’m determined to do them justice.

The problem is, there is a humongous, gigantic, epic amount of information about the Air Force. A lot of the data is available online. Too much data. Trying to get the specifics, the telling details, is turning out to be a huge task. For example, when to Captains greet each other in every day work situations, do they just act like regular folks on the job (only in uniforms) or is there a protocol that’s understood and observed?

Then there’s the issue of jargon specific to not only AF personnel in general, but how that differs from the jargon of fighter pilots.

I probably could skim some things, but I don’t want to. One of the things I’m loving about working on this book is that I’m a total sentimental sap when it comes to folks serving their country. Seriously, I tear up at the National Anthem, I’m a sucker for men and women risking their lives for a greater cause. Honor and courage move me deeply.

So I’ve got close to 80 bookmarks on my computer, everything from details on uniforms to job descriptions to the course syllabus of Fighter Pilot Training School. I also have a 3 DVD set that was produced by Tony Scott shortly after 9/11, that follows three hopefuls in their quest to fly F-15s.

It’s still not enough, and I’ve got a ton of xx’s where I can’t find the specific word or phrase or even the correct training progression. It would have helped a great deal to have been in the Air Force myself, but it’s a bit too late for that.

What I have found is that there are live online chats with recruiters that I can go to, although I feel guilty taking up much of their time. I’m going to try to drive to Vegas and go visit the PR person at Nellis AF Base, if at all possible.

If I’m lucky, I’ll hook up with someone who knows the universe of this particular branch of the military, and maybe, maybe, they’ll take a look at the manuscript and help point out corrections that need to be made.

I know the books aren’t on the shelves for long, and that so many people regard them as little books (and that’s on the kind end of the spectrum), but I cannot, will not, give this subject a light brushstroke. Of course, the central theme is the love story, and it does take center stage, but the world my characters inhabit deserves to feel real, be as close to the truth as I can make it.

I wish I had months and months to research, but I’ve got to work fast, so that means working smart. And being disciplined, because all I want do is dive into the research and not come up for air.

I have always loved reading books that took me new places, that gave me the experience of entering a fully formed world I’ve not been exposed to. I’ve also read too many books where the research has been painfully neglected. The may be small books, but I know Blaze readers are smart and deserve the kind of reading experience that lets them escape into a world they can inhabit, that feels utterly real.

So, um, if anyone knows an Air Force kinda person who wouldn’t mind talking to a writer – let me know.

Also, just because I love it beyond belief when I can lose myself in another world, any contemporary examples out there? Favorite books that swept you away to a new, unique view of life? I’d love to hear about them.

Many years ago, back when cable television was just a baby, I worked for a small film company, headquartered in Beverly Hills. My initial assignment was to work on 4 direct-to-cable films that were, not to put too fine a point on it, crap. We shot each film in about a week. It was total guerrilla film making – stealing shots without proper permits, unknown actors, cheap stock, no unions and everyone did everything and made very little money. I started out in accounting and ended up producing the last film, mostly because I was willing to work 22 hour days.

As an aside, and you’ll eventually see that this fact (sorta) fits in, one of the films starred Harry Reems, the star, along with Linda Lovelace, of the infamous porn masterwork Deep Throat.

Anyway, after the 4 films were in the can and I’d slept for several days straight, my boss offered me another job: to edit a full-out porn film called Insatiable, also starring Linda Lovelace, from the XXX rating it was, to a soft-porn film, by cutting out all the XXX parts.

Read the rest of this entry »

So sorry I’m late with the blog. I knew about it, should have done it earlier, but we had a pet crises at the house. Two cats went missing yesterday.

My roommate and I live in a big old house in the middle of nowhere. Gorgeous place (see picture of the view from the front yard) and plenty of room for all our rescue pets to play. These two cats had never wandered, but I suppose the lure of spring was too much for them.

There’s a ton of brush, a river, trees still in sleep mode, as far as the eye can see. If I were a cat, I’d wander, too. Only, we have a couple of fenced acres for them to play in. Anyway, they took off, and we commenced The Great Cat Hunt. No dice. It was horrible and achy, and it was a dark and stormy night (for real!).

It was the thunder, I think, that brought them back. Late last night, when I called for them for the hundredth time, they ran in and immediately insisted on food and a place by the fire.

I was amazingly relieved. This morning, having found where the breach in the fence was, I fixed that by schlepping huge rocks, and hung around until they approached the breach, looked at me accusingly, then went on their way.

They might find another breach. It’s possible, and I need to be prepared for that. But I can’t deny them the opportunity to play in the yard. They love it so, so much.

In other news, I’m reading JD Robb’s In Death series for the first time. Now I see what all the fuss is about. I’m loving the books, think Nora is a master at this writing stuff, and I’m learning a lot as I read. I’m not sure I’ll read all thirty immediately, but I like the idea of having them to look forward to.

I’m also listening to the entire Hornblower series on CD. This has been one of my favorite series since I was a girl.

The other series I seem to need to read every year or so is Harry Potter.

I know these books really, really well. Yet I cry each time, or tense up at certain battles, and smile in anticipation of a favorite scene. These are my comfort reads, and nothing, not food, not a location, not anything in the world comforts quite as much as returning to these books.

I know some people never re-read. What about you? What are your comfort reads? Are they series? Stand-alone books? Or do you shake your head at those crazy people who read a book when they already know what happens?

On this snowy January day, I’m actually writing about Halloween. Yep, it’s a new Blaze that will be out next October. It takes place in a haunted hotel during a ghost hunters conference. Only, Carrie, my heroine, doesn’t believe in ghosts. Not even a little. Sam, the owner of the hotel, used to believe, but a lot has happened in his life that makes it hard to believe in much of anything. Boy, are they in for some scary, sexy surprises.

Needless to say, I’m having a wonderful time. I’m also kinda miffed that I, personally, have never had a single solitary supernatural experience. My mother believed she’d seen ghosts of her relatives. My father, too. My sister believes she’s been reincarnated, and me? Nothing.

So what about you? Any cool ghost encounters in your life? I’d love to hear them…and I’m hoping to include at least one tale from the comments in the book!

Let’s hear it for spooky!

PS – don’t forget you can still pick up a copy of SEXY MS. TAKES, on the shelves right now!

Sexy Ms. Takes

It’s been a long time since I had a book out. My last Blaze was MS. MATCH, out last October. I didn’t write for a long while after my husband died. Mostly, what I did during that time was read the Harry Potter books and I must have done other things, but it’s mostly a blur. I had already started a book, a Forbidden Fantasy Blaze, but you know what? I couldn’t do it. I tried. Hard. But that book, those characters, had too many memories attached, and I had to put it aside. Maybe someday I’ll get back to it, but I doubt it.

So what I did, when I was ready, was switch gears. The Encounters series had come into Blaze, and I thought, hey, maybe I couldn’t write a whole book, but I could write three short stories.

The idea for SEXY MS. TAKES came to me in a flash. I used to hang out with a bunch of crazy theater folk and I knew a lot about auditions and plays and rehearsals, and what it was like to dream those dreams. (Warning: name dropping about to happen) I’d spent a lot of time backstage with my friend Peter Frechette, a gloriously wonderful actor you might remember from his stint as Louis DiMucci in Grease 2, or his role as George Fraley in Profiler. He used to let me tag along to rehearsals for his Off Broadway and Broadway shows, lucky me. I loved the whole atmosphere of the New York theater scene.

Side tangent: One year, I went to see a play of his, and after opening night a whole gang of us went to a nearby restaurant/bar afterward. I was writing for Silhouette at the time, and Peter announced to the crowd that I was a famous romance novelist. (Yeah. Famous. He was such a sweetie pie.) Anyway, some of the guys decided they would do a live tableau of romance novel covers. In the restaurant. The guys in question were Ethan Hawke, Frank Whaley and a very young Wilson, Robert Sean Leonard. They posed in clinches as everyone (there were maybe a dozen of us) laughed and applauded. (We’d had quite a bit of celebratory liquor by then). It was a great night, and one among many that makes me nostalgic for those long ago days.

Back to the present: I thought a lot about dreaming big, setting your heart on something wonderful, and what happens when dreams don’t come true. My experience has taught me that often the best things in life come when we least expect it, when we’re absolutely certain that the world as we knew it has come to a crashing halt, and that nothing good could possibly come our way.

In SEXY MS. TAKES, three Broadway hopefuls are sidetracked on their way to the biggest audition of the lives. Each dream is lost in a split second. But, much to their surprise, something better comes along. Well, someone better. What was the worst day of their lives is transformed into an improbable dream come true.

Writing the book became an unexpected dream come true for me. I lost myself in these three love stories, and the process of telling these tales brought me out of my grief. The power of love never ceases to amaze me.

And now the book is here. I keep a copy on my desk to remind me that no matter what, there’s still hope, still the possibility of happiness and most of all, that love just keeps on going.

I hope you all have wonderful holidays, and that you take away hopeful messages of love and forever each time you pick up a romance novel.

I read Neil Gaiman’s blog pretty much every day. Just the blog, not too much else, although his site is chock full o’ wonderful. One post came up recently that had me arching my eyebrows. There’s a gang of his fans that are getting tattoos of his characters. These are permanent tattoos. Like forever.

It got me thinking about why there isn’t a group of Jo Leigh fans out there with tattoos of my characters. When I stopped laughing (which took a long time) I thought about the nature of fandom, and how unique each venue seems to be.

Gaiman tattoos actually make a weird kind of sense, seeing as how he does a lot of visual work. So maybe these tats, while being an homage to Neil’s characters, are really more about the illustrator. No? Maybe?

Anyway, it seems to me as if there are fannish things for each kind of fiction – the science fiction bunch tend to draw stuff, compute stuff, play stuff, act out stuff. The literary fans seem to like to talk a lot, and write from a distance, but I don’t know of any lit fans who do much jousting or wearing of costumes (with the notable exception of characters from ThirtySomething who went as Will and Arial Durant for Halloween). Thriller fans? I’m not sure about them. I assume they don’t actually plot to take over the world, but I could be wrong.

Mystery fans? Depending on the brand, they can go anywhere from knitting something, in front of a fire, preferably, as they listen to their favorite cozy read by a British actor to learning how to light a cigarette with a pack of matches in a dark alley for those noir-lovers out there. But I do think the main thing for mystery fans is making friends with a long standing character and chuckling quietly to themselves as they mentally sneak out of a conversation with whomever they’re really with, to imagine they’re with the witty and wry gumshoe they’ve come to admire.

Then there’s the whole fanfiction thing. That’s all about sharing the wicked. Squeeing over the naughty bits. The forbidden. Somewhere in there is a streak of rebelliousness. That middle-aged housewife you’re standing behind at the grocery store? The one who kinda needs her roots done, wearing the mommy jeans? Only she knows that she’s just written this incredibly dark and disturbing Supernatural slash that’s going to singe the eyebrows off her flist.

Now comes romance. I probably know the least about romance fans. The one thing that I know for sure is that they tend to keep books. All of them. Forever. Moving them from town to town in boxes. Shelving them in every room because it makes them happy just to know they have the books.

I also know some fangirls (or fanboys, not sure about that, either) who have taken on the roll of Author Protector, sworn to destroy the words of anyone who doesn’t understand and appreciate their Beloved Scribe.

Then there are some fans who find bliss in the history, and expand that love to costumes, or at the very least reading nonfiction history books on the Regency period.

But I think there are more ways we show how we’re romance fans. Romance fans feel things so deeply, they must feel the need to express themselves in unique, wonderful ways.

My confession? I’m one of those fans who gets an incredible rush when I meet or speak to a like-minded stranger. Any mention of Hornblower, and I’m beside myself with joy. I’m also that way about Sondheim, the Durants, Carl Sagan, Jane Austen and some characters in TV shows that if I told you, you’d laugh. No matter. The connection for me is where it’s at. The chance encounter.

How does your fangirl come out?