Dress Up, Dress Down Friday with Kimberly Dean

Please welcome the award-winning author, Kimberly Dean! Kimberly, welcome to Living After Midnight! Step On Up 

The latest book in my Courting series, Courting Suspicion, releases next month, and the heroine has a clothing obsession to which many women can relate. Nina loves shoes. Stilettos, wedges, peep-toe pumps, or high-heeled boots, she has shoes for every situation. Being somewhat vertically challenged, she values the additional height heels give her, but shoes mean more than that to her. Her footwear reflects her mood. Her shoes are symbols of power, confidence, desire, and control.

Psychologists have studied human’s connection to footwear and believe the connection ties back to the process of growing up and learning to walk. Yet a University of Kansas study goes beyond that. When students were asked to analyze pictures of other students’ favorite shoes, they could accurately judge 90% of their owners’ personalities.

In Nina’s case, evaluators would identify a sexual, powerful woman, for she’s not only the CEO of Luxxor Limited, she’s a madam. The association of shoes with sex might seem like a tired cliché, but according to Daniel Amen, MD, author of The Brain in Love, "The area of the brain that communicates with the genitals is right next to the area that deals with the feet. These regions share neural crosstalk, which may be why shoes can be erotic."

In Courting Suspicion, sexy Nina is being pursued by gumshoe Morgan. When he catches her, the two are sure to knock boots!

So what are your favorite shoes, and what do they say about you?

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Courting Suspicion

Chase Me, Catch Me, Take Me

Nina Lockwood has spent years building her company into a lucrative and powerful – albeit risky – business. As Washington DC’s most elite escort service, Luxxor Limited is known for its beautiful companions and its discretion. Nina has worked hard to keep her escorts safe and her company’s services invisible, yet everything she’s created is put in jeopardy when a bull-headed, sexy detective starts poking around.

Josh Morgan is the last man on earth she should be attracted to, but Nina can’t help it. A romance with a member of the Metro Police would be reckless, but she fantasizes about taking on her role of a D.C. madam in a more personal and pleasurable way...

Josh has always been suspicious of Luxxor’s line of work, but he’s more intrigued by the mystery of the woman who runs it. Nina is classy, gorgeous, and whip-smart. He knows she’s hiding secrets, and he wants to discover each and every one of them – uniform or not.

But then a Luxxor escort is found in a compromising situation with a prominent politician, and the true cat-n-mouse game begins.

Can Josh and Nina lower their guards to trust one another and give in to the attraction they both feel? Or will their suspicious minds keep them from seeing the true conspiracy going on behind the scenes?

The Courting Series

Meet the women and men who work at Luxxor Limited, a high-end escort service. The company caters to the wealthy by matching them with escorts who are as smart, mannered, and cultured as they are beautiful. The one limitation in Luxxor’s contracts? No sex allowed. Except, of course, if the contact is mutually acceptable.

Courting Jealousy (free novella)

Courting Jealousy 2

Courting Trouble (Book 1)

Courting Innocence (Book 2)

Courting Danger (Book 3)

Courting Suspicion (Book 4) – March 2016

Courting Gossip (Book 5) – June 2

Follow Kimberly

Website http://kimberlydean.com

Twitter @KDean_writer

Amazon amazon.com/author/kimberlydean

Bio

When taking the Myers-Briggs personality test in high school, Kimberly was rated as an INFJ (Introverted-Intuitive-Feeling-Judging). This result sent her into a panic, because there were no career paths recommended for the type. Fortunately, it turned out to be well-suited to a writing career. Since receiving that dismal outlook, Kimberly has become an award-winning author of romance and erotica. She has written for seven publishing houses, both domestic and international, and has recently focused her efforts on the exciting world of self-publishing. When not writing, she enjoys movies, sports, traveling, music, and sunshine. In her mind, a beach, some rock ‘n’ roll, and a good book make for a perfect day.

Courting Suspicion Excerpt

She’d worn the stilettos he’d tried to reject. They were white with gold heels to match the bangle on her wrist and the necklace around her throat. She was dressed in full battle armor.

Mr. Phipps helped her remove her full-length raincoat as her friends slipped away into the shadows again to wait for her.

“Follow my lead,” her lawyer instructed. “Let me answer first.”

Nina lifted an eyebrow as she removed the scarf from her hair. She wasn’t an imbecile who’d run off at the mouth. The man worked for her.

His head dipped.

“This way,” he said, gesturing to the front desk.

She shook out her hair and felt more than one interested glance turn her way. She used the energy, consuming it, even though the fire in her belly was still burning brightly. White-hot, to be accurate.

Once she gave her name, she was escorted down the hallway to a conference room. She refused to be hurried as her heels clipped off each step against the linoleum flooring. She settled into a hard wooden chair and looked at her sterile surroundings. She supposed they called them interrogation rooms here. She crossed her legs and flicked an imaginary speck off her dress.

The walls had windows with blinds that were open, and she hadn’t missed the two-way mirror on the wall. She doubted any crime-show fan didn’t know what that was. She was aware that her every move was being watched and, most likely, recorded. She had to play this right. She needed to appear concerned and offended, but powerful. That shouldn’t be too difficult. She was all three, but she didn’t want to play the power card yet.

Her gaze lifted when the door to the room swung open again.

She felt an immediate dislike for the fresh-faced, spiky-haired smartass who walked into the room. It was the new detective, no doubt about it. He was followed by a uniformed female officer, whom he waved into the corner. Nina’s tongue clicked at the dismissive move. The young buck didn’t have to open his mouth for her to peg him. She’d met his kind before, and she was unimpressed.

He dropped a manila folder onto the table, letting it smack loudly. She sighed. Was that supposed to be intimidating? He needed to study Morgan’s steely stare. That was intimidating.

And sexy as hell . . .

“I’m Detective Higgins, DC Metro Police.”

The man unbuttoned his brown jacket and took the seat across from her. Purposely, he let his shoulder holster show. Nina let an eyebrow lift when he didn’t extend his hand.

She held out hers. “Nina Lockwood.”

He seemed taken aback, but he shook her hand. “Nina.”

“You can call me Ms Lockwood.”

Changes and Icing on the Cake

This time of year it seems natural to plan for changes I'd like to make in the upcoming year. This usually starts when I sit down to write my Christmas newsletter.

First, I'm surprised by the things I did accomplish. That's a good feeling. Then I look at last year's goals that were not accomplished and evaluate whether or not I want to carry them over into the new year. Some are easy-There's work to do on the house. That will be on the list every year, I suspect.

There are writing practices I want to continue and hope for better results, such as weekly blog posts, finishing Wolves (one of my works in progress), completing rewrites,  and posting a sh0rt-story or two on the website. There are skills I want to improve-setting and description, for instance.

There are personal matters I need to focus on. Health-related issues of course, but also interests I've neglected like gardening, birdwatching, and crafts.

Basically, it can be summed up as being more mindful. I intend to be more aware of and enjoy every part of my day, of my life. Doing the things I love with the people I love.

Everything else is icing on the cake.

It's a Wonderful Year In Review

Greetings from the wilds of Connecticut. As the New Year looms I’m doing my usual contemplation of the year that is passing. Per usual, 2015 has been filled with adventures and challenges. In January, a publishing company contacted me about my manuscript. The editor loved our characters and found our story unique. She requested that I revise a few things and resubmit my work.

Consequently, I started off the year tucked away in my office revising the manuscript. January and February are but a blur. In March, I received an offer of publication with Samhain Publishing. As soon as I signed the contract we received additional offers. Pretty cool, right? From March to August, I engaged in an apparently typical dance of edits.

March was rather busy. I participated in a workshop with the renowned screenwriter Michael Hauge, and attended a seminar on a powerful word processing application called Scrivener. On the non-writing front, my partner and I drove to New Jersey to meet our new crush, the WWE Superstar Roman Reigns. Unfortunately, once we landed there we learned a huge snowstorm was imminent. Logic and safety prevailed and we turned around and headed back home, barely beating the storm. (We later saw pictures of the dozens of vehicles stranded due to snow-packed and slippery driving conditions. Whew!)

April brought sadder news. Mu oldest puppy Chloe began to have back

problems, commencing a long journey of appointments, tests, medication trials, and sadness—I missed her incessant barking, her thievery of shoes and pens. My usually active and playful girl was largely sedentary and clearly in pain. Ultimately, she was diagnosed with bone spurs along her spine and arthritis. Thankfully, her current medication regimen seems to have done the trick. Chloe is as active, playful and annoying as ever.

Having missed Roman in April, in May my partner and I headed to Long Island for RAW, a WWE wrestling event and the last event being held at the Nassau Coliseum. Although we didn’t get to meet Roman individually, we saw him and my future ex-husband (WWE Superstar Randy Orton) fight and win their respective matches. It was awesome.

At the end of May, I loaded up Molly and Chloe in the car and headed to Va. to spend time with family. Although they were both harnessed onto the car seat, our high-strung not-so-little Molly managed to spend most of the trip squeezing against and laying on Chloe for comfort. It was their first (and likely last) two-day car ride.

We caught Kid Rock’s show again at the Xfinity Theater in Hartford. As always, he brought the house down with his musicianship and showmanship. Although we heard him, we didn’t actually see him due to the very tall group of dancing, drunken men in the rows in front of us. The highlight of the concert was the opening act: Foreigner. Kelly Hanson ROCKS.

I barely slept in my own home in July. We saw Chris Angel’s “Supernaturalists” show at Foxwoods. My partner and I are still talking about some of the illusions that seemed to defy the laws of physics. Barely back a few days, we then headed to Atlantic City. That trip was marred only by an unfortunate choice of hotel parking garages. Our car was miles and miles away from our hotel room—or so it seemed.

Later, we spent a luxurious week at the Marriott Marquis in New York City, attending the Romance Writers of America conference. I was presented with my Debut Author designation, acquired a suitcase filled with books, and met the CEO of my publishing company. We also ate at Junior’s in Times Square many, many times. Little Monkey came with us to NYC, of course, and had to be rescued from the deceptively high, glass enclosed elevator shaft. Actually, Monkey accompanied us everywhere this year. By the way, he’s still claiming to have written every movie on the SyFy channel that has a primate in it. Since he has yet to contribute to the household finances, we think he’s lying.

I spent August developing a marketing plan for my book launch. I reluctantly learned how to use Twitter.

September was an extraordinary time. I spent an intensive writing weekend with Mary Buckham, an author/teacher famous for her approach to plotting novels, developing active settings and more. This was also the month that my novel, House of the Rising Son, was published. I held a whirlwind blog tour (appearing as “guest author” on dozens of blogs between September and November) and participated in a Facebook event. The book launched to numerous great reviews. In October I participated in my first book signing.

To celebrate Fall, I enjoyed a day at a Harvest Fair and decorated for Halloween. My partner and I had a great time dressing up and sitting on our front bench handing out candy to surprised treat-or-treaters and some of their parents. Since the best promotion for a first book is the release of book number two, we trekked to Foxwoods for a mini writing retreat.

November was crazed. My critique group (Writers Circle) held its annual holiday party. This is a group of supportive writers helping each other to produce her best work. My partner and I attended the Rhode Island Comicon, fascinated to meet people as into Supernatural, Game of Thrones, dragons and Sons of Anarchy as we are. It was also the most crowded, claustrophobia-producing event we’ve ever attended. Conference attendees moved along wide corridors much like sardines would move in their can, often carried more by the current than by intention. Would we do it again? Maybe. Was it worth it? Well, meeting and having a picture taken with Jason Momoa makes most anything worth it.

Later in the month, I sat on a discussion panel regarding “Diversity in Genre Fiction”. And we again had the gift of time with family with a visit around Thanksgiving.

November was inconvenienced with medical issues. My partner took a tumble down the basement stairs. She was sore and bruised, but without any serious injury. On Thanksgiving Day I woke up to intense vertigo that lasted over a week. Thankfully my chiropractor is a magician.

December finds us both still recovering with antibiotics, Prednisone, and tea. We have big plans—a trip to Deerfield Ma., seeing the holiday lights at Lake Compounce, baking cookies and shopping. We have hopes to do these things and more as we start to feel better.

From our family to yours, we wish you a Merry Christmas and joyful holidays. All possible blessings of health, happiness, peace and serenity to you and yours in 2016.

All the best,

Trevann, Molly, Chloe and Lil’ Monkey

Something About Sexy-- #MySexySaturday Blog Hop #MFRWAuthor

It's My Sexy Saturday, a blog hop in which participating authors post 7 paragraphs, 7 sentences, or 7 words in line with the current theme. This week the theme is something about sexy! Check out more sexy author blogs here!

We offer seven sentences from our urban fantasy with LGBT romantic elements, HOUSE OF THE RISING SON--a story of sex, rebellion, and rock and roll. Enjoy!

~~~Seven Lines~~~

Alexander raised his glass, but forgot to drink as he watched Cheyenne. The musician didn’t disappoint. He fronted the band with his usual prowess, dancing and flirting, shredding his guitar like confetti. When the tempo slowed, he climbed to the top of a large speaker and dropped to his knees. Slowly spreading his legs, he fingered the frayed seam on the inner thigh of his threadbare jeans before gliding his hand up his body, to the back of his neck, across his cheek and to his mouth. The movement underscored the feral look in his eyes.

Heat flashed through Alexander’s body as he realized Cheyenne was looking directly at him.

Buy On Amazon

House f the Rising Son, Living After Midnight Book 1

Cheyenne is a half-human incubus whose star is on the rise in the Unakite City rock scene. His father, the leader of the supernatural races, would prefer he keep a “low profile”, but screw that. Cheyenne has as much music in his veins as royal incubi blood.

Alexander's future is all set—finish law school, join the family firm, and marry someone who'd be good for business. Not that he has a say in any of it. He's barely met the woman his father expects him to marry.

As Cheyenne's musical career takes off, his carefully constructed life begins to unravel, exacerbated by an ex-lover who can't let go, a crotchety barkeeper with a dirty mind and a pure heart, a drag queen who moonlights as a nanny, and Alexander—who's not sure if he's falling for the incubus or the rocker.

Cheyenne denies who he is, while Alexander hides what he wants. Together, they learn that getting what they truly want means being who they truly are.

Warning: Contains hot were-tiger sex, a Thanksgiving celebration that makes the Inquisition look like a tea party, and an incubus who'll rock your world.

Along for the Ride

**Minor Spoilers**My friend calls me a serial obsessionist. That isn’t completely true. I really have several obsessions at any given time.

At the moment, I’m hooked on Sons of Anarchy. I’ve seen ads for the show for years and said to myself, “I’m going to watch it as soon as I have time to catch up on the older seasons.” But the time never came—until I signed up for Netflix. Suddenly SoA and tons of other shows that looked tempting became available.

The plan was to watch the pilot episodes of a number of shows: Community, The Blacklist, or Red Road (Jason Momoa…mmmm) for example. But I started with Sons of Anarchy. Once I saw the first episode, I never looked back. I eat, sleep and breathe SoA. This week I’ve finished Seasons 1 & 2, and started Season 3. I’ve lost sleep, I’ve laughed, I’ve cried—how could they kill off Half Sac? I’ve become obsessed.

As a writer, I can’t keep from analyzing it. First, how did the writer turn a motorcycle gang of gun runners and killers into the good guys? What the hell did he do to make the upstanding, kind and honorable police officer the bad guy? Talk about lessons in character development.

It’s also fascinating to watch beloved characters make bad decisions. When the decision is in line with the character’s personality, life or circumstance—like when Jaxx (Charlie Hunnam) fights despite a desire to leave that life, or when his doctor girlfriend slugs the hospital administrator—you get it. You even support the bad decision. But when the decision makes no sense in light of the character as they’ve been written so far, or is irrational considering the current circumstance—Whoa. It’s hard to watch.

For instance, when the Sons have Zobelle (Adam Arkin) cornered in the convenience store with plans to kill him (Yay!), but leave because Jaxx wants to chase a different bad guy. It wouldn’t have taken that long to shank the guy, right? If they’d only taken a hot second they could have “finished it”, as Clay, leader of the SoA would say. Sure, keeping Zobelle alive leaves the door open for future conflict but it was a stupid, illogical decision.

Fortunately, the men of Sons of Anarchy are largely consistent and make decisions that are “true to form”, which is one of the reasons we can’t seem to get enough of them. Action packed episodes, and gut-wrenching emotion are additional critical reasons.

Incredibly hot, powerful men don’t hurt either.  Heading back to my binge watching. Saddle up and ride, boys.

Quirky and Proud of It: First Stop on our blog tour with GoddessFish:LongandShortReviews

As for as authors go, we're pretty quirky. Check out the first stop on our blog tour with Goddess Fish at Long and Short Reviews, and check out how salt figures into our writing process! Long and Short Reviews: Trevann Rogers

Dress up, Dress Down!

My Pinterest boards have been very popular and the selection of clothes for our characters seems to be popular.  So we've decided to start a new feature on the blog every third Friday, and explore fashion in books. In Cheyenne’s world, Friday night is a work night and he's barely making ends meet.  He doesn’t have money for fancy stage outfits.  Fans find him fronting the band in jeans and t-shirts.  Those range from plain colors to colorful images such as his red dragon.

Red Dragon T-Shirt

Whatever Cheyenne wears, he looks sexy and enticing. I'll explore more outfits in coming posts.  Do you have any ideas for Cheyenne’s costumes?   Please share in comments below.