Adriana Kraft

When it's time to heat things up...

romance

He Waited… #wewriwa #8Sunday #MFRWAuthor

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Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, where writers share an 8 to 10 sentence snippet of their writing on Sunday.  Be sure to visit other participants at http://www.wewriwa.com/  and read and comment on their #8sunday posts.

Spread the word: Twitter hashtag #8sunday

EXCERPT

Set-Up: Michael has just returned home to Ashland and started working for his father.

Michael Jarvis leaned against the doorjamb of the vaulted-ceiling living room, admiring the sway of Brenda Tower’s rear end as she sprayed primer over its ten-foot walls. Once she was done painting, he’d turn to some of the final sanding of the spiral staircase. His dad had sent him over to the new house on the pretense that he was too busy elsewhere to finish it.

Grimacing at the tall, lithe woman dressed in white paint-spattered coveralls, Michael knew his father wanted him to connect as quickly as possible with the painter he’d often described as quite the lady. His dad had always been a romantic when it came to him and Brenda. Michael sighed heavily. It had taken a near-death experience for him to recognize his feelings—but he had no clue if she’d welcome his interest after he’d rebuffed her years earlier.

Brenda hadn’t noticed him standing in the doorway, but he was pretty sure she couldn’t hear him above the sound of the sprayer. He waited.

BOOK INFO

Title: The Painter is a Lady
Word count: 74,600
246 pages $4.99
Genre: Romantic Suspense
ISBN: 978-1-4874-0964-7
Heat Level: Three flames: explicit sex, M/F; anal sex; explicit language

Secrets. Trust. Courage. Who will knuckle under first—the war hero? The spirited single mom? Or the former high school bully who still hates them both?

BLURB

When war hero Michael Jarvis returns to Ashland, Wisconsin, he doesn’t plan to stay—he’s undercover, investigating a possible sex trafficking ring on the Great Lakes. But he does want to sample the pesky girl next door he always turned down—and it wouldn’t hurt if she’d clear up a few mysteries of her own.

Successfully established as an interior house painter, Brenda Tower finally has her act together as a single mom—but it hangs by a thread, a secret she’ll guard with her life. The return of her youthful crush Michael Jarvis threatens to unravel everything.

Jealousy has inflamed Brett Hill’s hatred of Michael and Brenda for as long as he can remember. Revenge will be so sweet.

When the secrets break open, can Michael and Brenda find the courage to trust each other, or will revenge and betrayal triumph?

BUY LINKS

AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK AND EBOOK AT AMAZON

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XFYKF8M

 

EBOOK AVAILABLE AT THE FOLLOWING RETAIL OUTLETS

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XFYKF8M

Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/708766

iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-painter-is-a-lady/id1212626296?mt=11

Kobo https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-painter-is-a-lady

B&N http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-painter-is-a-lady-adriana-kraft/1125902800?ean=2940154043714

Extasy http://www.extasybooks.com/the-painter-is-a-lady/

 

I came here to win a horse race #8Sunday #MFRWAuthor #RomanticSuspense

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Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, where writers share an 8 to 10 sentence snippet of their writing on Sunday.  Be sure to visit other participants at http://www.wewriwa.com/  and read and comment on their #8sunday posts.

Spread the word: Twitter hashtag #8sunday

We’ve sat in the stands at Wyoming Downs and watched a California shipper breeze past the local Wyoming and Utah horses for an easy win, so we know something about why Clint Travers has a negative reaction to Cassie before they’ve even met. It’s a bit of a stretch to think a Chicago trainer would go to the expense and effort to ship a horse in just to get a win – the small purse will hardly cover expenses. But Cassie’s dad is a savvy trainer. He knows two things – the horse needs a win to build her confidence, and she’ll come back to Chicago with an altitude advantage. If all goes well, her next purse – in Chicago – will more than make up the difference.

EXCERPT

The cowboy glared at Cassie and anger crept into his voice. “You’re just trying to get a cheap win for your horse.”

“That’s horse racing, isn’t it?” Cassie’s voice rose, and she boldly returned his hard stare. “And the favorites win only a third of the time. So?”

“Uh huh—unless someone ships in a ringer. This filly will go off three to five. The bettors aren’t gonna be very happy with you, either.”

“Well, hot damn. I didn’t come here to win a popularity contest. I came here to win a horse race. And that’s what we’re going to try to do.”

High stakes, a fiery Irish redhead, her stunning racehorse, and a fiercely loyal rancher.

Cassie’s Hope
Series: Riders Up! Book One

B&B Publishing:
November, 2013

Ebook, Paperback
Novel: 71,000 words
Cover Artist: Rebecca Poole
Three flames:

Explicit sex: M/F

 

BLURB

What happens when a fiercely loyal widowed half-Ute cowboy meets a fiery redhead with an Irish temper to match? Cassidy O’Hanlon – Cassie, to her friends – has set aside her Chicago career for six months to train racehorses for her dad after his stroke.

Furious the interloper has shipped in a ringer from the Chicago circuit to his Wyoming turf, Rancher/trainer Clint Travers sets out to put her in her place. Sparks fly immediately, but after their rocky start, the two quickly forge a passionate relationship, and he follows her to Chicago.

When it becomes clear someone is drugging Cassie’s horse, Clint sets out to solve the mystery, but storms off in a cloud of wounded pride when suspicions turn to him.

Can love trump pride?

REVIEW

Five stars at Goodreads: “…I took their journey with them. I felt their pain, their sadness, their struggles, and most of all their love. And that is the mark of a truly good book.”  Faith

BUY LINK

Print and e-book: Amazon
Free at Kindle Unlimited

 

Be sure to stop by the rest of the
Weekend Writing Warriors at this LINK –
you’ll be glad you did!

Maybe I was the Fool #MWTease #MFRWAuthor

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Welcome to MidWeek Tease, where authors share tempting snippets to tide you over till the weekend. A huge shout out to author Angelica Dawson for hosting our blog hop every week!

The Painter is a Lady is now available in paperback!

Amazon

Available in EBook from the following retailers:

Amazon   Barnes & Noble   iTunes

  Kobo   Smashwords    Extasy

Secrets. Trust. Courage.

Who will knuckle under first—

The war hero?

The spirited single mom?

Or the former high school bully who still hates them both?

 

Word count: 74,600

Genre:
Romantic Suspense

Heat Level:
Three flames

 

BLURB

When war hero Michael Jarvis returns to his hometown on the shores of Lake Superior, he doesn’t plan to stay—he’s undercover, investigating a possible sex trafficking ring operating on the Great Lakes. But he does want to sample the pesky girl next door he always turned down—and it wouldn’t hurt if she’d clear up a few mysteries of her own along the way.

Successfully established as an interior house painter, Brenda Tower finally has her act together as a single mom—but it hangs by a thread, a secret she’ll guard with her life. The return of her youthful crush Michael Jarvis threatens to unravel everything.

Jealousy has inflamed Brett Hill’s hatred of Michael and Brenda for as long as he can remember. Revenge will be so sweet—and it will fit in perfectly with his high stakes game.

When the secrets break open, can Michael and Brenda find the courage to trust each other, or will revenge and betrayal triumph?

EXCERPT

Hours later, Michael dried the china, crystal and silverware Brenda had brought out for his dad’s birthday party that didn’t go in the dishwasher. Tommy had gone to his room as soon as the others had left. No one seemed surprised that Michael had lingered to help with the dishes. More than satisfied with the turn of events, he hummed a show tune while Brenda fidgeted with the last of the silverware.

Remaining focused on scrubbing a stubborn piece of icing from a fork, Brenda muttered, “You’re making me nervous.”

“What?” He scowled at her profile. “Am I standing too close? Am I humming too loudly?”

Heaving an exasperated sigh, Brenda dropped the fork in the dishwater and turned to face him. “All of the above and much more. You didn’t have to stay behind and help with the dishes. I can do this without you. I have for years.”

“I’m sure you can. But that’s not what’s gnawing at you, is it? I thought you were coming around.” He stared at her through half closed eyelids.

She blanched.

“You’re the one who started the knee play beneath the dining table.”

“I know.” She shrugged, looking lost. “That was my impish clown, I guess. I can’t explain it, Michael. I’m sorry. I dreamed about you for hours on end when I was a kid. I threw myself at you. But you didn’t want me then. I was a fool.”

“Maybe I was the fool,” he replied softly, rubbing the back of his hand across her shoulder.

 ~ o ~             ~ o ~

Lots of fabulous authors have teases waiting just for you – click the links below to travel:

The family said WHAT? #MFRWAuthor

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Week 2 of the MFRW year-long blog challenge! Click on the list at the bottom to travel to all participants. This week’s theme? How my family supports my writing.

 

None of us could do what we do without support, and when family is on our side, we thrive – we can take on the world. For starters, the most important family member in my life – my husband – is my co-author, so we face the world with a solid foundation.

We got a good head start in the families we grew up in. Our parents are gone, but all four of them encouraged creativity and supported unconventional choices, however ill-advised some of those choices might have seemed at the time.

Hubs’ mother was an avid romance reader, especially during the nine years she was a widow after his dad died. As her eyesight worsened, we’d hit our local used book store for a half-dozen large-print romance books every three weeks before making the five hour drive to check in on her for the weekend. She did read (and liked) a couple of our early romantic suspense stories, although she confessed she “skipped over” the sex parts. She would probably not have approved of the erotic direction our writing later took.

Both my parents, on the other hand, probably would have, and I think my dad would even admit to some envy, were he still here. His older sister – my aunt – worked for the Kinsey Institute, so no topic was off limits when she was around. She and he are probably doing fist pumps as they watch us navigate the publishing world with our sexy stories. My mother would probably have kept her approval more hidden (she disapproved of my aunt). But when it came time for me to clean out their last apartment, on the bookshelf hidden behind the clothes in her closet I found a well-read copy of the Kama Sutra, so I know her heart would have been on our side.

We carry their support with us, always.

Equality for our stories ~ and all LGBTQ persons

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I write erotic romance with my husband under the pen name Adriana Kraft. Most of the heroines we love to write and read are bisexual. In addition we’ve written some lesbian heroines and an occasional bisexual hero. So our pairings include M/F, F/F, and M/M, plus ménage, in a range of combinations.

Authors who write stories like ours have just been excluded from entering the “More than Magic” fiction contest based on those pairings – giving us a taste of the discrimination our characters so often struggle with.  The contest is an annual one sponsored by the Romance Writers Ink chapter of RWA (Romance Writers of America). In previous years, all romantic pairings have been eligible to enter, but this year, the entry guidelines state that the contest will “no longer accept same-sex entries in any category.”

We’ve been members of RWA for over a decade, and we’ve celebrated two victories with that organization across the years. The first was an attempt by some members to define romance as between “one man and one woman.” Thankfully that went down to defeat, and the organization’s official definition of romance focuses on the following two elements, period:

A Central Love Story: The main plot centers around two individuals falling in love and struggling to make the relationship work. A writer can include as many subplots as he/she wants as long as the love story is the main focus of the novel.

An Emotionally-Satisfying and Optimistic Ending: In a romance, the lovers who risk and struggle for each other and their relationship are rewarded with emotional justice and unconditional love.

The second was the creation a few years ago of an on-line RWA chapter formed by authors of LGBTQ romances. We joined immediately.

Rainbow Romance Writers has been visible and active over the last two days spreading the word about this problem – and, once the first wave of anger settled out, chapter members and chapter leadership have been strong advocates of finding solutions to the problem.

It’s gone viral – several of our members blogged on Friday, Smart Bitches blogged about it yesterday, Suzanne Brockman has been posting on FaceBook, and it’s all over Twitter.

What can you do? Our chapter president, Heidi Cullinen, posted a blog today filled with things authors and readers can do to be part of the solution to the problem. If you care about LGBTQ romance and LGBTQ people, please take a look and get involved.