Clean and Dirty

Vaughn, the amber-gold of his hair dulled by the same dust, gave her a smile that was pure cat. "You look really clean."

"No.  Absolutely not." Laughing, she held out a hand in an attempt to halt the jaguar in human form who'd begun to stalk her, slow and silent.

- from "Clean and Dirty" the free short story going out with Tuesday's newsletter (U.S. time).

Sign up for the newsletter list on the front page of my website - top right corner, or on the sidebar of the blog, before Tuesday, to get it.

If you've already subscribed and clicked the confirmation in your email, you're all set.

Japanese Covers

Sharing my beautiful new Japanese covers!

Angels' Blood

Visions of Heat

Interview, Website & More

I was interviewed by Cheyenne McCray for Fangs, Fur & Fey, and the interview is now live. Come by and say hi :)

And now some links for your delectation.

Meljean Brook is running not one but two contests on her blog.

• One is for ARCs to her November release Demon Bound (great book!). It's all about creepy super-powers. Oooh...
• Number two is the "I've never tried Meljean Brook's Guardian series but I'd like to!" First Blood giveaway. She's got 25 copies of the anthology to give away.

A winged cat is spotted in China. Dear Author asks if this is a lost Tairen Soul. Talking of Tairen Souls, doesn't C.L. Wilson have beautiful covers? (Also, I think C.L. Wilson should send me King of Sword and Sky early - beaming over a telepathic message *grin*)

The Down Under Desirabelles have reported back from the Romance Writers of Australia Conference.


And in case you haven't been by the website lately, we've updated it. I've answered some new FAQs and updated others. Also, excerpts for ANGELS' BLOOD and BRANDED BY FIRE will be going live September 1st!

Last but very definitely not least, Visions of Heat recently released in German! Check out the sexy cover to the left. :)

Visions & OOTB Tour: New Moon - Rebecca York

I have an OOTB tour book for your delectation today, but first, some very nice news:

Visions of Heat is #7 on the Barnes & Noble Mass Market Romance list and #30 on the overall B&N Mass Market list! Yippeee! :)

(insert happy dancing smilie!)

Also, I did a small writing-focused interview with a fellow author over at Jennifer on Writing, which has just gone up.

And now, the tour! Check it out. Something to note - Rebecca had a book video made up for this book that utilizes real actors. Links below!
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NEW MOON by Rebecca York

Berkley Sensation March 6, 2007

It's in one man's true nature to remain by the side of the woman he loves, rather than live without her in his own universe...

Landscape architect Logan Marshall is out for a jog-in his werewolf form-when a trap catches his paw. As it saps his strength, he is saved by another werewolf, who-to Logan's amazement-is female.

Female werewolves aren't supposed to exist. But Rinna is a shapeshifter from another dimension who's traveled through a portal to this world. And the trap that ensnared Logan was set by her former captor, and meant for her...

But as soon as Rinna and Logan touch, an electrifying bond forms between them. Unable to resist his desire for Rinna, in all her many forms, Logan will have to earn her trust, and travel through both dimensions to save her-and earth-from the wrath of her enemy...

Excerpt

ABOUT REBECCA YORK

Ever since she can remember, Rebecca York has loved making up stories full of adventure, romance and suspense. As a child she corralled her friends into adventure games or acted out romantic suspense stories with a cast of dolls. But she never assumed she could be an author, because she couldn't spell. Her life changed, however, with the invention of the word processor and spelling checker--and the help of her husband, Norman Glick, who spots spelling errors from fifty paces away. She has authored or co-authored over 60 romantic suspense novels, many with paranormal elements.

You can see an interview with Rebecca York at: www.romancenovel.tv

REVIEWS

Logan Marshall is out for a run in his werewolf form when he is caught in a vicious trap that saps not only his strength but also his intellect and consciousness. He is saved by a female werewolf who cajoles him into changing form and frees him from the mysterious trap, which had actually been laid to trap her. Female werewolves don't exist in Logan's world (a world that could be our own), but Rinna is from a parallel universe. That world descended into feudalism and came to be ruled by the cruel Falcone, who has been using Rinna's paranormal talents for his own gain. Using the portals between worlds, Falcone has plans to invade and conquer Logan's world. Rinna, a slave in her realm, finds Logan's world horribly confusing and dangerous but Logan himself incredibly enticing. York's combination of werewolves, romance, suspense, science fiction, and fantasy is a winning one. -- Booklist

NEW MOON is a refreshing story told with a new light and a few twists I couldn’t see coming. Ms. York brought some wonderfully strong characters into this book with Logan and Rinna. Their love is a pure and caring love that brings tears to the reader’s eyes. She reprised some of our beloved characters from previous books and they helped to complete this story. NEW MOON is a definite “must read” in this clever series! – Romance Junkies

BOOK TRAILERS

30-SECOND VERSION

2-MINUTE VERSION

Website http://www.rebeccayork.com

Visions of Heat Meme Contest Winner

Thank you to everyone who did the Visions of Heat meme. I hope you had fun! And now, here's the news you've all been waiting for - the winner of the $50 Amazon voucher plus an ARC of Caressed By Ice soon as it becomes available. (I picked the winner totally randomly - by assigning all the entrants a number, then running a random number generator). The person whose number came up was:

Scooper

Huge congratulations!!

VOH Meme Reminder

A reminder: If you haven't taken part in the Visions of Heat Meme contest, be quick. It ends March 10th!

Hope you all have a great Thursday/Friday. I'm dreaming of white sand beaches and blue skies - I can't believe I was on this beach only days ago!

Visions of Heat release & Blog-Hopping

First - as of a few hours ago Visions of Heat is officially out! YIPPEE!! :)

Second - I'm blogging over at RRAH about psychic powers - come over and join me. And I'm also over at Between The Covers, talking about happy thoughts, so swing by that way too. (How can I be in two places at once? Welllll, I have the power to replicate copies of myself, like the bank-robber guy in X-Men 3. Tangent - someone please tell me it wasn't really the Last Stand? More X-Men please!).

Reviews, Interview & Moon Called by Patricia Briggs

Lots of things to talk about today - the official release of Visions of Heat is almost here! I'm counting down the hours now. As well as doing that, I'm also hanging out in a couple of other places today, including Writeminded and Dear Author. The latter is part of an interview series focusing on international authors.

And to start the day off on a high note, two more great reviews for Visions of Heat:

"...brace yourselves because the second installment of the Psy-Changeling series will set all your senses ablaze and leave your fingers singed with each turn of the page. VISIONS OF HEAT is that intense!..."

Romance Junkies, 5 Ribbons

This one's from LesleyW, one of the ARC winners. I think this is my favorite bit of the review. She says of Vaughn and Faith, that:

"..they fit, in a way I don't think either of them would be able to with anybody else...."

Check out her review if you'd like to see another reader's take on the book.

Now, onto what I was going to post today before I got all this good news I had to share.

MOON CALLED - Patricia Briggs

This is the book I took with me on the plane trip to Australia. I don't usually concentrate very well on planes, but Moon Called drew me in and wouldn't let go, it was that good. I'm coming late to the series as this was published last year, but that's all to the better - because soon as I was done with Moon Called, I ran out and grabbed Blood Bound, the second book. I'm halfway through it and OMG it's so good!

Okay, onto the book. This is the backcover blurb:

Mercy Thompson's sexy next-door neighbor is a werewolf.

She's tinkering with a VW bus at her mechanic shop that happens to belong to a vampire.

But then, Mercy Thompson is not exactly normal herself...and her connection to the world of things that go bump in the night is about to get her into a whole lot of trouble.

Usually it's the blurb that grabs me, but this time around it was the cover. I love the covers for both books in the series! But though the cover caught my eye, it was the story that kept me hooked. Mercy is a one-of-a-kind heroine. She's a mechanic to start with, and she's got her feet firmly planted in the ground, despite the fact that she knows that there really are a lot of things that go bump in the night.

One of those things is her neighbour, Adam, who happens to be the alpha of the local werewolf pack. Can you say yum?! Then there's Samuel, another dominant wolf and someone she loved as a teenager. Yum x 2. But it's not just the romantic angle that had been hooked, it was the whole world. All the secondary characters have roles to play and they're interesting in their own right, from Zee, Mercy's old boss, to Ben, the creepy werewolf.

This is an urban fantasy, but with a definite romantic thread - I love the interplay between Mercy and Adam/Samuel. Their interactions sometimes reminded me of Eve and Roarke in the JD Robb books. Eve and Mercy are very different, but they're both strong women going up against equally strong men. The resulting fireworks are oh-so-cool.

Seriously, I cannot gush enough about this book. It is beyond fabulous! So much so that I kept annoying my travelling companions on my trip to Australia by sneaking off to read a few pages each time they had their backs turned. And the second I was done, I started in on Blood Bound. I think I've just found an author to add to my favorites list! Recommended a gazillion times over!

Visions of Heat Meme Participants

Thanks for everyone who's joined in the memeing (yes, I made up that word *g*), whether to enter the contest or just for fun. I thought I'd put up a list so we can all visit the participants and check out their different answers. Oh, and as long as you've left your comment on the contest post, don't worry if your link isn't here - it just means I haven't had a chance to add the link yet. I'll be updating this post through to the end of the contest.

Update: As you can see, I've figured out how to make a table - thanks to Jennybrat and Jane. But now I can't work out how to delete the huge white space below! Anyhoo, scroll down to see the nifty table with the list of participants!

Amy S	Neyjour	jennybrat	Jen (aka Sassy Devil)
Natsuchan	Caffey	Danette	Julie K
Angelle Trieste	Clare	...dance?	Wendy K
Kris	MG Braden	Caryl	Angie T
Susan	Casee	Shannon	Nightowl Romance
Julia	Rosario	Maria	Hey Tonight
Pamk	Jenn	Mad	Dance Chica
CindyS	Chantal	C2
Kelly's Kittys	Emma Sinclair	Shiloh Walker
Anne	Deb R	Samantha
Caralee	Scooper	Sotheara
Shelly	Amanda	Yvonne Eve Wallus
Kaitlin	Malevolent May	Amy
Lisa	LesleyW	Aurora Black
Jennifer Y	Robin	Becka
Shellyw	Natasha Moore	Ember Case

The Visions of Heat Meme

CONTEST NOW CLOSED!

Some of you may remember a wee little *grin* viral blogging experiment Dear Author ran with Slave to Sensation last year (tangent: Jane rocks!) I wanted to do something similar - but different - to get the word out about Visions of Heat, so I figured that this time around, instead of preset content, I would give you the chance to make up some new content.

Not only will you be entered to win a $50 Amazon voucher, plus an ARC of Caressed By Ice soon as it becomes available, you'll have an easy topic to blog about (hey, this is no laughing matter if you're like me and often sit there wondering what you're going to post).

Here's what you have to do to enter:

1. Take part in this meme by answering the five questions below on your blog/myspace etc. I want this to be fun so go wild people! Interpret the questions as you like.

2. Link back to an excerpt of Visions of Heat & this blog page. (I've put the links addresses in square brackets below so you can insert them easily).

3. Drop a comment on this post so I know you're entered and people can go check out your answers. (Any problems commenting, email me your blog link at nalinisinghwrites @ gmail.com)

4. Do all this before Thursday, March 10, midnight, PST.

Here's what the post would look like, though seriously, as long as all of the info is there, I don't mind how you format it. If you decide to put up the cover, that would be awesome, but I'm not making it a requirement. And you can, of course, add whatever else you like.
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The VISIONS OF HEAT meme

1. Which psychic power would you most like to possess?

2. If you could see the future, what would you like to see?

3. Imagine you woke up one day and could shapeshift - what would you shift into?

4. What kind of a paranormal creature would you invite over for dinner if there were no limits on who you could ask?

5. Which future innovation do you wish would hurry up and get here already? i.e. flying cars, a transporter, computers with artificial intelligence, an auto chef?

This meme was begun by Nalini Singh to get the word out about her next book, Visions of Heat [http://www.nalinisingh.com/visions] (releasing March 6). Want to play, too, and enter to win a $50 Amazon voucher plus an ARC? Click here [http://nalinisingh.blogspot.com/2007/02/visions-of-heat-meme.html] for details.
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The Land of Oz

Visions of Heat sightings! Well, one. I have it on good authority that it's already available in a certain part of North Carolina!!

In other news, I'm taking off across the ditch (a.k.a. the Tasman Sea) for a short trip to Australia. I'll be checking emails while I'm over there, but I might not be posting anything unless I can get my friend's dial-up to cooperate. But I promise you a full post - with pictures even - when I return. As there are dolphins and koalas in the itinerary, hopefully the pictures will turn out great.

If I don't drop in during my time away, the next official blog post will be Monday my time (Sunday U.S.). Until then, how about visiting the meme participants? And if you've dropped by looking for the original Visions of Heat meme post, follow the link. Also, check out the OOTB blog tour (below this post) on Susan Grant's My Favorite Earthling.

Play nice while I'm away everyone! See you when I get back.

Memers and Interview

Couple of quick notes - The lovely Sara Hantz, whose debut book The Second Virginity of Suzy Green (awesome title!) will be coming out this year, has just posted up an interview she did with me, where I talk about The Call among other things.

And I've updated the list of the Visions of Heat meme participants so swing by and visit them. I have and it's fun reading. (p.s. Does anyone have the html knowledge as to how to make the list into two columns? Email me! Thanks in advance. :))

Have a great rest of the weekend everyone!

Excitement!

Guess what I got in the mail from my wonderful editor (I adore her!) - an advanced copy of Visions of Heat!

It's so shiny and new. The colors are so bright in the actual printed cover and did you ever notice that the dots above the letter "i"'s in the title are little flames? It's beautiful, stunning and it's on my shelf now, right next to Slave to Sensation. I feel compelled to go stroke it now. Must resist...oh, what the heck!

Okay, calming down (not really), I cannot believe it's Wednesday already. Where is this week going? What have you all been up to so far? Any plans for the coming days? I've got editing to do on my current work in progress, some super-secret blog stuff to prepare for tomorrow *g* and a bar of chocolate to eat (it's calling to me...)

Website Updates/Excerpt

The website updates have been done for February. We're still ironing out a few little problems but the second excerpt for Visions of Heat is now up.

And check out this awesome review for Visions from Fallen Angel Reviews (5 Angels, Recommended Read):

"Nalini Singh has done the enviable; she has written a sequel that lives up to its predecessor. I have a distinct feeling there are many more stories to be told in this universe and will be snatching up every single one I can."

Read the whole review.

Yay! And now I must go and convince myself to get into gear - don't you just love Mondays? *grin*