Lori's Cats Bonus!Milly

 

My mom read The Good Boy by J. A. Rock and Lisa Henry last night.

She told me all about a birdie in there named Mr. Zimmerman. 

I told her I like birdies. They taste good with crackers. 

 

Updates...

Coming soon to a bookstore near you, Dangerous Submission on April 23rd (date subject to change)

 (I have a tongue full of dust from licking my computer screen. Don't judge me)

And I promise that playlist is coming soon!

If you haven't heard through Facebook and Twitter, you can hear it here. I made it through my surgery! Yay! My prognosis is great and while I'll have to visit the very wonderful doctors at MD Anderson Cancer Center for evaluation in the future, I've dodged this bullet. *crosses fingers*

And finally a message from Chester and Milly...

We're sorry we missed you on Caturday! 

We were healing our mom with lots of purrrrrr.

We'll be back soon! 

CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES, C'MON! #Xmasgiveaway and more winners!

Image courtesy of Vlado/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

As 2012 comes to a close, I'm not sorry to see this year go. It's been a rough year with a lot of twists and turns and changes in my personal life but in my writing life, I made a lot of leaps forward. One of my favorite books so far was released, The Long Con along with my first self pubbed book Payback, the first in the series of novellas about Firehouse 69.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to 2013. It's the year of the Snake. 2012 was the year of the Dragon (my sign) so maybe it was a transitional year for myself, turning over into a new era.

But anyway, enough navel gazing. I'm here to give away some books!! Woo HOO!






As for the giveaways over at Reading Romances for a copy of Payback, congrats to Josie Hink and Raquel!

On the giveaway of a $10 Amazon Gift card and a copy of Payback over at SmexyBooks, congrats to Victoria!

For the giveaway of a copy of Payback at Fiction Vixen, congrats to Stacy!

And finally, drumroll please! The winner of the three books in the #Xmasgiveaway is: Nancy!

Thanks to all who entered. I'll be contacting (or I have already) all the winners.

See you in 2013!

Lots of Love,

Lori Toland

Christmas Giveaway! #XmasGiveaway

#XmasGIVEAWAY

 

Gifting Books Christmas hop was organized by Reading Romances!

We are having a happy holiday season here at my blog and I wanted to share some of my favorite erotic romance with you. Last year, I exchanged copies of a book of mine with another author and it was a lot of fun. :) I like presents, receiving and giving. So join in on the fun!

What you can win here: A copy of Virgin Territory by Cari Quinn, StarCrossed by Kele Moon and Dubai Nights by Emily Cale. ETA: And a copy of my latest release Payback! (All these books are available in Digital eBook format only at this time)

Number of winners: 1 will win all books listed!

Open to (INT, US or US/CAN): International (through Amazon.com or ARe)

How to enter: Just leave a comment here with your e-mail address super ninja style (like this lori at loritoland dot com)

Season's Greetings!! What a lovely time of year!

Image courtesy of marin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I really love this time of year. It's nice and cool in Florida and my husband isn't complaining about the weather. We're really enjoying ourselves. Also, since my business is more of a year-round retail and wholesaling business, Christmas is sort of our downtime, where we can relax a bit.

We don't put up a tree since my husband is atheist and  I come from a family with so many religious backgrounds, it became difficult to honor all of them so I said forget it and do nothing each year except attend all the celebrations. Hey, it's the thought that counts (and the free beer for my husband).

So to all my followers, have a very joyous holiday season, what ever you may celebrate!

All that being said, I enjoy Holiday music and I'm a huge fan of Mannheim Steamroller. While writing Payback, I listened to a bunch of his albums on my Payback playlist.

Thanks to everyone who has purchased Payback. My next book in the Firehouse 69 series is Seducing Dylan which should be coming out in early 2013. I'll be posting more about that in the coming months.

And that brings me to some really exciting news. About the time Payback released, I received a contract for Dangerous Submission, which is the sequel for The Long Con. So look for more information about that in 2013 as well. 

Next year is shaping up to be pretty awesome so stay tuned!

Facing my fears... in many ways: Halloween Horror Nights 2012

So if you've seen me on Twitter, you'll know I've been wringing my hands about going to Halloween Horror Nights. And if you read my blog, you'll know I'm a huge gaming fan so when Silent Hill came to Universal for Halloween Horror Nights, I had a quandary. I'm deathly afraid of Zombies. Hence the reason I've never been to HHN.

OMG, what to do? Well, I had to face my fears. I've gone through a lot this year and I'm not about to live the rest of my life being scared of zombies. Let's face it, I don't really think zombies are going to walk the streets and take over.

But it wasn't just going to the scare houses and wandering about being scared out of my mind. It was being severely open to infection and getting a cold or flu from being around people. So it was time to don my Mario magic mushroom shirt and head the Universal for a RIP Tour. :D

So I went armed with my flu shot and a bottle of hand sanitizer to make this happen. In the pouring rain. &%$#. Okay, so I'm happy I brought my hat, my knit cap made by the very talented Amy Lane. This would protect me from zombies too.

I could do this. I could totally make this happen!

And I did! Last night I went to Halloween Horror Nights and used a whole bottle of hand sanitizer but I made it through while screaming. My throat is kinda sore today from screaming in the rain but I'm okay. I almost lost my cap in the middle of chainsaw people but they didn't really bother me, except for the gas smell and fog.

Did I mention I have asthma related fog? Luckily because of the rain, there wasn't much.

*Sigh* In book related news....

And now for my books! I got my paperback copies of The Long Con. Woo! So excited. Because these are so damn sexy, I now have to make sure the sequel Dangerous Submission is novel length so it goes to print. :D

And they will be at GRL too so pick up a copy and I'll sign it! :)

(Thanks to Man Oh Man Reviews for a lovely review and quote!)

Rediscovering my love of reading.

While I've been feeling not quite up-to-snuff, I've been lucky to have an old friend nearby.  That would be a book, anything I can get my hands on to read and enjoy and get my mind off feeling yuck. I started methotrexate and that has been making me feel terrible, but it looks like I'm on the mend.

Books have always been my escape. And I have been really lucky to find some awesome books recently! I just finished No Flowers Required by Cari Quinn, which I really enjoyed and reviewed it here. Also a hot romance is Kele Moon's StarCrossed, which I read as she wrote it.

For M/M fans, I read Ellis Carrington's Feeling Neighborly which came on a solid recommendation from Mary Calmes. I really enjoyed the story and of course I'll be reading Three Fates Anthology and Steamroller but only after I finish Dangerous Submission.

Re-reading books is like visiting old friends :)

Musical Moggies...

This morning I woke up with the sounds of music floating my head. I love writing to music and often times I surf the Top 100 Billboard to hear new songs coming out. Sometimes a new song will trigger a feeling I'm looking to evoke when I'm writing and I'll have to write a new scene. Of course, then that song will go on my soundtrack for that book. When I'm about to release a new book, I add this soundtrack to my blog for your enjoyment :D

I'm building two new soundtracks right now and interestingly enough, both are sequels so they include songs from the previous books. First is: the sequel to Soul Seduction, tentatively named Soul Salvation. Yes, I'm writing a sequel. I thought that was obvious.

Second is: Chains of Gold, which is the sequel to the story I just turned into my editor which is the sequel to The Long Con. And yes again, I am writing a sequel. The egg just didn't get stolen. There is a hint in The Long Con's prologue that clues you in to who stole it.

Which will come first? I don't know. Right now, I'm furiously working on Soul Salvation. The pieces fell into place and I'm running with the inspiration :D

So back to work! Bye for now!

Submission feels good :)

Mom, are you done with that story yet?

Yes, Cheddar baby. I'm done! The sequel to The Long Con is in to my editor and I'm relieved. I really enjoyed the story but my mind was running ahead to a couple new projects I'm working on, including a Sci-Fi trilogy I can't wait to start. That should be lots of fun :D And of course the next book in the SOCA series, featuring two new to you characters that I think you all will love. 

So I'm back to work at my day job ordering supplies and making sure this place runs well. :D Yay! 

Stop by on the 21st for a special blog post from JP Barnaby on her tour for Little Boy Lost: Sacrifice. It is not to be missed. There are lots of pretttttttty pictures :O yeah baby!

Finally catching up... and then I'm gone!

Whew, I'm finally catching up with everything... and then it all hits at once again!

Worth The Wait released last week and it snuck up on me! But I'm giving away a copy at Stumbling Over Chaos. So stop by and comment on the lovely Mayhem and you may just win. 

I'm hard at work on the much awaited sequel to The Long Con, which has a working title of Dangerous Submission. Tony and Bradley are in supporting roles (yes, Bradley, Tony thinks you are #1 still) but the story centers around two new characters, Drake and Robbie.

So stay cool in all this heat! :) Bye for now!

Immigration Equality... the reason for my dedication in The Long Con.

Today I'm posting because Blogger had a fail! Evil Blogger! But this post had a special place in my heart because Immigration Equality is my pet project, besides the ASPCA. So I'm posting it here.

So please click on the link to your left and stop by and get more info about this wonderful cause.

The Battles That Lay Ahead

I think on my tour I’ve said a few times The Long Con was the book I never meant to write. I went through a lot with this book. Bradley’s story was an old idea from before I was published about two men from different countries who met and fell madly in love. And one of the heroes was from the US, which twisted my gut.

You see, I went through immigration with my British husband, who gave up everything he knew in the UK to come here to the States. We had a routine case (first marriage for both of us, no criminal record and I was in a strong financial position) and were very lucky because we’re a heterosexual couple. I say we are lucky because if we were a gay or lesbian couple, I couldn’t have petitioned on his behalf to get immigration benefits. But we were lucky because of our genders.

In The Long Con, Bradley is with Tony in the US and together they are loving on borrowed time. The clock is ticking; they don’t have forever nor can they have a happily ever after because their borders will keep them apart. And as a writer and someone who went through that horrible separation, it killed me to write those scenes at the end. Because I knew how they felt intimately.

Around the time I wrote the end of The Long Con, gay immigration was suddenly in the headlines with the striking down of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the fight against DOMA here in the US. A gay couple married in the US in Massachusetts was petitioning for immigration benefits because in their state, now in California, their marriage was legal and the health of one of the men was declining due to AIDS.

Their petition was denied. The non-US citizen was given a deportation order and had a date by which he had to leave. Immigration Equality took over fighting the case but hope for a positive outcome was bleak. In one of the articles, there was a picture of the couple hugging.

S.F. gay married couple loses immigration battle

I looked at that picture and sobbed. Maybe if they had both been healthy, they could have moved to Australia but it was impossible with how sick the US citizen was. The future looked depressing and all I could do was hope that our government would do the right thing here. And sure enough, this year, the couple found their brief respite.

Deportation threat lifted from S.F. gay spouse

To this lovely couple, all my love and best wishes. They became the center of a fight that shouldn’t be happening. Loving whoever you want is a human right, not a political war cry.

But as far as Tony and Bradley? I’ll state for the record, I believe in HEA and everyone deserves one! Their story was a long road and a really tough one for me. I bawled through so many parts of their story. I had to hide so my husband didn’t think I was an idiot for crying over a book.  Did Tony and Bradley make it to ride off into the sunset together? You’ll have to read the book to find out what happens ;)

THE LONG CON by Lori Toland

British Agent Nathaniel Bradley is tasked with bringing home a stolen heirloom. After tracking the Faberge egg all the way to a group of criminals in New York, Bradley infiltrates a ring of con artists and gets sucked into the role of a high priced prostitute.

While hoping for a chance to take back what is rightfully his, Bradley’s sole mission becomes to seduce Tony Terranova, Jr, the heir to a notorious mafia dynasty. Though Tony is strikingly handsome, the usually dominant Bradley is hesitant to submit to the sexual whims of a dangerous Mafioso.

What Bradley doesn't expect is for Tony to fall to his knees so eagerly for him, leaving him blindsided by how intensely their dark tastes complement each other. Now Bradley is caught up in a deadly game of lies and desire, where what he truly wants may not be what duty requires.

EXCERPT:

My heart pounded, and I panted from exertion. Replete and relaxed, I knew my weight crushed him to the bed, but if he didn’t say anything, I wasn’t moving. I dropped a gentle kiss on his shoulder, tasting the salt from his skin when I licked my lips.

I opened my mouth, and my heart slammed against my rib cage when I realized what I had just been about to say. Before blurting out my love for him, I pulled out slowly and stood.

I needed to get my shit together and remember I was on a task, one of huge importance to Margaret. I took a deep breath and let it out. When he glanced at me over his shoulder, I put on the same mask I wore around everyone.

His eyes told me he saw beneath the surface, and that scared me. He was much too perceptive, and from this moment forward, I would have to be on my guard. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yeah. You almost killed me there.” I laughed it off, but it felt hollow to me. I left him on the bed and walked into bathroom.

I threw away the condom, and when I turned around, Tony stood in the doorway.

“Are you sure?” he asked, his frown worrying me.

I wanted him to drop it, so I just smiled and placed a kiss on his lips. “I’m sure.”

My explanation didn’t seem to satisfy him, but I didn’t stick around to give him the time to question me about it. I flipped on the shower and waited for the water to heat up, a little perturbed about how much I wanted him.

AUTHOR BIO AND LINKS:

CEO by day, erotic romance writer by night, Lori Toland lives in Orlando where the summers are hot but the romance between her characters is even hotter. Writing since the tender age of 13, Lori somehow finds time to play video games and watch movies while taking care of her beloved cats and a husband who will forever be her hero.

Lori’s Website: http://www.loritoland.com
Lori’s Twitter: loritoland
Lori’s Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lori.toland
BUY LINKS: http://www.loose-id.com/The-Long-Con.aspx
Other buy links will appear here as available:
http://loritoland.blogspot.com/2012/02/long-con-loose-id-4242012.html

**********GIVEAWAY**********

A $25 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter from the entire tour.

-Giveaway is OPEN TO EVERYONE!
-To be entered, MUST leave a comment, along with your email addy.
-One commenter will be chosen randomly from all comments made throughout the tour, so the more tour stops you make a comment on the greater your chances of winning.  A list of all participating blogs can be found here.
-Giveaway ends at 11:59 PM CST on 5/4.

Since this is my tour, I'm not eligible to win (well, duh) but please go comment at all my other tour stops which can be found here. 

You can comment on this post as well. Please be aware that all comments are moderated so I will try to keep up with approving them as we go. If you comment here, it will be an entry for the gift card!

My trip to San Francisco and Yaoi-Con

So wow, Yaoi-con was FUCKING AWESOME. I was little worried about fitting in but have no fear, I just dorked out like everyone else and it was AWESOME.

Do realize I'm a native Californian and if you don't like the word AWESOME, you will be sadly disappointed with this post.

Here's Milly and I waiting for our flight in the lounge by the Virgin America gate.

So on the flight out there, we tried to get an upgrade to First Class. Since the plane was bursting at the seams, this was not going to happen. But sitting in coach on Virgin America is like flying in First. It looks like we're in a bar too, not a plane!

We watched TV and my husband watched Cars 2. We had a blast and I'm now in love with this popcorn.

479 Popcorn FTW!

FINALLY! I'm home in California. Well, not really home but I'm in California. Florida is my home now, with cats. (They are now hiding under the bed, scared I'm taking them back to the kennel) And where is my first stop? Okay, yeah, the hotel, where they have the bed request wrong. So off to my fave burger place to eat while they fix that.

(If you've never had an In-And-Out burger, you're missing out.)

Back to fall into bed. The next day, we hit Japantown! I'm so excited and we walk down to the train. We pass In-And-Out *cries* and head into the city. Well once we were in the city, it's a huge hike from the train station near there to the actual location so we had to take the bus. And the people are exceptionally nice. I don't know if we had tourist written on our foreheads or what but people stopped us, knew we were lost and helped us go the right way. To all of these people, thank you!

ZOMG!!! We are in Japantown and it is TOTALLY AWESOME!

We shop in complete and total awe, barely able to speak. After hours are me squeeing and Hubby saying "Oh, that's quite nice" we sit down for a nommie lunch/dinner.

We take a taxi home because I can even wait for the bus and I am so exhausted, my legs are shaking. I fall into bed and sleep for a couple of hours and wake up fully refreshed. We head downstairs to see some of the Yaoi-con people have arrived and we watch them being geeks, while totally geeking out ourselves!

Hubby takes me to a lovely birthday dinner and I had filet with blue cheese (I'm not supposed to have blue cheese but oh well) and then we meandered a bit.

And we meet Morgan Hawke! :D Who is awesome! www.morganhawke.com

So bed for us, because Morgan has been up for 48 hours and I need my beauty rest. Next morning I wake up and head down to brekkie.

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! Happy Birthday to me! (I'm excited, can you tell?)

Anyway, we go to Japantown to do a huge amount of birthday shopping and I splurged on my lil sis and luckily, no one called to sing happy birthday to me, just wish me happy birthday.

And of course I have my awesome birthday dessert! YUM.

Then I eat the strawberry and it had mold in it. I'm highly allergic to penicillin so I'm hoping I don't have an allergic reaction. I also realize I have a dairy intolerance and this was the worst idea so far of the trip. Whoops.

Anyway, we have to head back because I'm meeting with the other DSP authors. So we head back and I run around the room and get cleaned up and head down to the Monterey Room to say hi.

AND ZOMG... I meet Mary Calmes. I then proceed to dork out and act like an idiot and be totally stupid. Yeah. *hides* I also meet some of my other fave authors and I have a moment where I can't believe this is what I do. I'm an AUTHOR. Wow.

So I get my badge and sorta help set-up. (I carried a box) And then it's time for a bit of nom with hubby. We head to In-and-Out. And due to a shady cab driver, my husband is held hostage while I make change at the In-And-Out (Cab driver claimed he had change when we got in, but suddenly didn't when we got to our stop) but he was safe. Be careful out there guys, there are some really not nice people out there.

The next morning, I head downstairs for a lovely breakfast and then finally to man up the booth at Yaoi-con. I try really hard not to fangirl Mary but that proves to be too difficult a task. So I fangirl her badly. BADLY.

And Amy Lane gives me the most awesome hat!

I also hung out with EM Lynley, Andrew Grey and Clare London. And of course the always cool Ariel Tachna and Nikki Bennett. Julianne Bentley showed up at the end of our shift too.

But it's lunch time and I'm off! :D I go to In-and-Out for some one-on-one time with a burger. It was lovely :D

When I get back to the hotel, hubby is downstairs and I head back to fangirl Mary but I spread the love! :) I met Shira Anthony and I was her first autograph (the first of many I'm sure) and I did some shopping.

But when I reach our room, my ickle Milly doll is gone. For those of you who don't know, my hubby gave me a little stuffed cat for our first Christmas together. She has traveled everywhere with me, including when my husband and I were separated for nine months waiting for his visa. She's kinda ratty but I love her! She was found though. She had an ickle adventure! She said I was like Little Orphan Annie and I escaped in the laundry.

She's okay now though!

But that night, I passed out. I gave up fighting to stay awake and fell asleep.

The next morning I woke up and Hubby's lip is somehow cut open and swollen. I head to Walgreens and buy some ointment but holy hell, it's far away!

I get back and give hubby his medicated lip ointment. By now, I'm sporting a bitching slipper tan line. Check it out:

But I missed Amy Lane :( (See you next year!) but I did meet Isabelle Rowan. I help pack up (not really that much help) the DSP Booth and the cases get checked at the bellhop and I'm suddenly sad because it's all over. And tomorrow I'm leaving on a jet plane. :( So I hug and kiss everyone good-bye and go upstairs to pack.

One last trip to In-And-Out (by now, I'm sick of it) and packing is my friend. If you don't know me, I'm a scary talented packer. We bought a lot of stuff and without an extra suitcase, it's going to be a tight fit. So I take a shower and when my hubby comes back, every last thing has it's place, including his Spice and Wolf body pillow.

I held my breath until the next morning, because I was sure that my suitcase was going to be over 50 lbs but no joke, it's at 49. :O while dancing to the groovy music at the Virgin America check-in counter, we managed to get an upgrade to first class and then we are all set to go through security.

Now, take note TSA. You should all model yourselves after the SFO airport security. Everything is orderly. There are mailers available if you get to security and realize you left your gardening clippers in your hand bag. Oh, did you forget a quart clear bag for your liquids? That's okay. You can have one that says SFO on it, FOR FREE. Do you have a bottle of water? It's okay, don't hurt yourself drinking it before security so you'll wet your pants in line. Just dump it out and refill your bottle once you're past security with our filtered water. Don't forget to recycle your bottle when you're done! :D *groovy*

Oh yeah. Did I forget to mention YOU HAVE A FUCKING PINKBERRY past security?!?! My breakfast was a Pinkberry. My trip is now complete.

But it's time to leave. And I already hate I have to leave the state I was born in and 35 years ago, I was barely a few days old. I'll always be a California girl.

But I'm glad we got the upgrade because holy shit, these seats are nice. I acted stupid and flailed in my seat like a dork. Hubby could actually stretch his legs all the way out and not hit the seat in front of him.

But then we have to watch a safety video. And it's worth it to watch for the LULZ!!! :D

I watched Bad Teacher (ehh) and Source Code (WOW! Highly recced) but then we're back home and it's time to pick up the kids! I walk into the cattery and I speak and the babies wake up and start meowing for me. And I start to cry because I missed them so much.

Only one more load of laundry to go and I'm done.

This week was amazing. I was worried because while I'm very much a go-getter, I tend to be very shy about my writing. I have a hard time accepting compliments about it. Now as a CEO, I get compliments all the time about our products, our marketing strategy and our contractors and employees and I take those well.

I'm proud of both areas but the writing, I'm very on display here. I never feel like I'm in control when writing and that's hard to accept. I also hate to say this, but there are some mean people in this industry who are just looking to hurt writers. I haven't made sense of it and I don't think I ever will but having thicker skin may be for the best.

But this weekend, there were a few kind people, who treated me with the utmost respect. To those people, you have my greatest thanks from the bottom of my heart. To be next to you, as a fellow writer, just blows my mind.

So I'm signing off to get ready for my book tour. Soul Seduction's cover is on its way!