My Sonny Man :D

This is my boy. 

He is the biggest, goofiest pup ever (and yes, he's named after *that* Sonny).

He's messy (note the floor -- believe it or not, it had *just* been vacuumed).

He's also kind of a slut. 

But he has a fabulous smile. :D

And he was a stunningly sexy puppy.

Interview with Tory Temple

Hey y'all!

I couldn't be more tickled than to introduce Tory Temple, a great writer and one of my dearest friends. She agreed to do an interview for my blog. I love her deep knowledge of firemen, her details, and general hotness, so I'm pleased as punch to have her here today. :D

BA

I'd like to welcome Tory Temple, author of Fireline, Tabula Rasa, and Chasing Victory

Favorite celebrity couple?

My favorite celeb couple doesn't exist anymore, sadly. :( I was seriously on board with Brad and Jen before Angelina showed up as Homewrecker Extraordinaire. I'm still Team Aniston.

Dream vacation?

I want to take one of those six month round-the-world luxury cruises. A lot of people don't like cruise ships because they feel trapped, but cruising is my perfect vacation. If every trip for the rest of my life was aboard a cruise ship to a tropical location, I'd be in heaven.

Shoes -- an addiction or only a necessity?

I have 48 shoe boxes in my closet right now, and that is not counting my racks of flip flops and summer sandals. Or my gym/running shoes. Therefore, ADDICTION.

You have six free hours, $500 of fun money, and a teleporter. What do you do?

Oh man. Am I allowed to take other people with me? Never mind, it's my free time, I can do whatever I want. I'd teleport to a couple of different places and round up all of my favorite people, then whisk us all off to a poolside cabana in Vegas. Cabana boys would abound, naturally.

Do you use a playlist when you write? If so, how important is it?

I do not. I'm very visual (as opposed to auditory) and any other sound while I write is extremely distracting. I can't listen to music or watch television. That being said, I *do* have playlists that I've created for characters after the story is completed. I listen to those while I work out or when I'm in the car.

I know you've co-written Happy World (with Kiernan Kelly) and By the Numbers (with Chris Owen). How did that work? Is cowriting something you'd do again?

Both experiences were great, although different. Kiernan and I traded chapters and POVs back and forth and we sort of shared characters. Chris and I wrote together in Google docs and kept strictly to our own characters. I loved both ways and would happily write with either of those ladies again. I visited Chris this summer and we fleshed out an outline for the sequel to our book, so I'll get my wish soon enough.

When did you start writing professionally?

The summer of 2005. I didn't submit anything until later that year, but I clearly remember the time and place where my first story started to form. I was in Toronto airport, on my way home from visiting friends after Toronto Pride, and I started making notes in the back of my address book. A month later, the story was finished.

Tell us about your newest release and/or what you're working on now.

My last release was a short story with Torquere, Priorities. [http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=79_93&products_id=3107] It was a little glimpse in the life of my rodeo cowboys, Teagan and Cash. I liked visiting with them and may check in again soon. My next book is the co-written one with Chris and that's coming out at the end of September for Torquere Press' anniversary month! So excited about that. Fireman and a computer geek try to make it work. Oh yeah, along with six puppies. Fun times!

Thank you for the interview opportunity!

You can find Tory Temple at http://www.torytemple.com/

Thank you for stopping by sweetie! -- BA

New Book Today!

I'm so tickled -- the next few months I have some great new stuff coming out. :D

The Mind's Eye is a fun little romp -- brought about by a long discussion about the lizard brain, handguns, and waffles in a coffee shop in Vegas. :D Hot and sexy, with a nice bit of fighting. This one wrote itself. :D

Available here. :D

Blurb:

Jake likes Vegas, but it gets a little hot when he wins too much at one casino. So Jake has a choice; he can go to the middle of nowhere and try to kill this guy some mob boss wants dead, or he can die himself.

Keye is on vacation and minding his own business when Jake shows up. As a hitman, he thinks it’s pretty damned funny that Jake is the man sent to kill him, at least until he starts to figure out what talents Jake has going for him. Can these two band together and stay alive?

Excerpt:

Keye sat in the back booth, the one on the side of the diner with no restrooms and no windows. He liked to be able to watch folks come and go, to know that he had nowhere to run. Being backed into a corner made him sharper, smarter. An easy escape route made for a lazy Keye.

The people coming in and out were regulars, for the most part, having coffee, saying hi, and eating chili sizes and hash and eggs. Normal. Easy. Good. He approved.

The guy walking toward him wasn't a regular. Keye knew it like he knew that he could crush the man's windpipe with one squeeze. His neck was only so big.

Of course, when said skinny little wild-haired freak sat down, looked at him with one light blue eye, one dark brown one, and said, "I'm supposed to be here to kill you. Weird, huh?" he knew he was absolutely right.

Keye sat back, hands flat on the table, and stared. "You want some coffee?"

"Absolutely." The little guy waved down the waitress, ordered a coffee with a smile, then turned back to him with a bright smile. "So, there's this guy -- Gianni de Marco? You know him? Ugly, broad, lots of nice hair, but way too much pomade? He's in Vegas. He has all my money and he's a big asshole -- wanted to cut my fingers off, what a turd, huh? Anyway, he's hiring people to kill you. Well, blackmailing me to kill you, but I always figure if a guy's willing to blackmail one man, he's willing to hire someone else. It's like a slippery-slope deal. Anyway, I thought about it, because seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars is a lot of money, but if I won it once in Vegas, I can win it a couple three times in Shreveport, and I have the weird feeling that murder would lead to blood and puss and stuff, so no. I decided to warn you instead."

"I think he needs to switch to decaf, honey," Keye told the waitress. She left again, and Keye stared at the guy some more. "De Marco, huh?"

"Uh-huh. He's a fuckmonkey. You're very broad. I was surprised, you know? All I had to work on was this little memory deal and a fuzzy picture like from the TV. All pixelated and shit from the security cameras. I guess that's what the hat was for, though, huh? Hiding your face?"

"Well, I wear a hat occasionally." Hell, he was from Texas. He wore a hat a lot, cowboy or gimme cap, whatever. "What's a fuckmonkey?"

The guy's laugh rang out -- and how it wasn't purely insane, Keye wasn't sure, but it wasn't. "I haven't the foggiest, but it's a great word, isn't it? Fuck. Monkey. Fuckmonkey. It's like asshat, but with more flinging poo."

Lord, have mercy. Some days a man just had to go with what was put in front of him. "So, you're not gonna kill me."

"God, no. That's creepy." The man drank deep from his coffee, then smiled. "I mean, I found you, which is good, I guess, but I'm a tracker, not a hunter. Did you really get that scar on your chin from falling out of a barn? I don't know that I've ever been in a real barn."

Keye kept his face immobile by force of will alone. How the hell did this guy know where he’d gotten his scar? "You been talkin' to my momma or something?"

"She died three years ago. She was..." The guy's nose wrinkled, one long finger sliding on his hand. "Oh, man. Yuck. I'm sorry, that sucks. Bad memory, huh? Let's not go there. That's bad. And you dealt with it all and I'm really glad my name's not Lionel, because you just... you don't like that name at all."

Keye felt his brow furrow, which meant this guy was really something. He didn't know what. His voice came out pretty even, though. "How do you know this shit?"

New Book Coming on Wednesday, September 7

What happens when a mind-reader walks into a cafe and tells an assassin, "Somebody sent me to kill you..."?

Find out next week!