Guest author Jan Graham: A Woman Who Loves to Write

About the Author 

I live on the fringe of both Sydney and the Southern Highlands in NSW, Australia. I have enjoyed writing throughout different periods of my life, but it is only now that I have the ability to work on it in a full time capacity. I love the imagery the written word creates in one’s mind and therefore I am an avid reader as well as an author.

At the end of 2010, after many years of working in the “real” world, I finally decided to make writing my career. Finding Angel is my first novel to be published.

I am pleased that I’m finally able to give the characters that swirl around my head on a constant basis the opportunity to put themselves down on paper, and hopefully entertain others as much as they amuse me.

Jan Graham's Blog

I’m really excited about the release of my first novel, Finding Angel. I’m also grateful that Tammy has graciously allowed me to guest blog on the day of its release. For me the Thirtieth of November will now always be remembered as the day of my first book release.

I didn’t know what I’d blog about today. I know, you would think it would be the book, but that didn’t feel like the right thing to do. When I read a blog I want to know about the person blogging, thoughts, ideas and the like. The only problem is I don’t think I’m very interesting. I think the characters I write are spectacular, me…not so much.

When you write a novel and someone says “yes we’ll publish it”, emotional reactions are expected. Dancing, screaming with excitement, jumping for joy are all typical responses I guess. I do those things now.  Well, I did that with my second contract. When my first contract came through, I burst into tears, reached for the phone and rang my best friend. The fact it was before the crack of dawn didn’t sink in, and consequently she thought someone had died. You know, really early morning phone call, someone crying on the other end of the phone. I’m not sure about the rest of the world but in Australia that usually equates to someone being dead, or some kind of bad news. But that’s not what I’m blogging about today, so I better get on with it.

When the time for publication gets closer, authors are asked to write a bio that can be used to accompany promotional material, and also to appear in the book. Simple request really, just tell everyone about you. I read other author’s bios. They all sound really interesting. They talked about where they lived, outside activities, family, children, writing awards and even pets…I contemplated buying a cat.

Finding Angel buy link

I do have family and friends, just none I live with. I enjoy going out, but didn’t see the relevance in telling everyone about it. Ultimately I decided I’m just a woman who loves to write. So that’s basically what my bio says, except I did fluff it out a bit. I think it’s a paragraph long now, some day it may read like a novel and fascinate people, but at the moment it’s just a woman who writes. I write about what interests me, I write the sort of book I like to read. Even though my bio may be one dimensional, my writing isn’t. I’m all for reading about down and dirty sex, erotic tales of decadence but I want more than just the naughtiness. I want a book that will engage me, make me wonder what’s coming next, not just who is. I like to write about characters motivations, what makes them tick and give them personality and life. I write characters that seem real, who have friends, interests outside of the bedroom. Ordinary people finding love despite the extraordinary circumstances they find themselves in.

If you decide to buy Finding Angel I hope you enjoy the story, the characters, the humor, the action and of course, the down and dirty sex. Oh and just ignore the bio, unless you’re a woman who loves to read, then you’ll probably understand the life of me…a woman who loves to write.

Book blurb:

Angel Wylde is a woman with a complicated existence, a damaging past, and a desire to be normal. Unfortunately, what’s normal to Angel is unconventional to the rest of us. A crime boss will kill to get an incriminating ledger from her. Detective Steve Jax also wants the ledger from Angel, but the infuriating woman has disappeared.
Christian and Daniel Shore, Steve's two best friends, don’t know about the ledger. They just want Angel. A chance meeting has them taking her home and deciding she is the only woman for them—yes, both of them. Obviously, Angel isn’t the only one with unconventional desires. So who does Angel trust? Two kinky Doms she just met, a cop she doesn’t know anything about, or a nasty crime boss? Trusting all of them may save her life, and falling in love with two Dominant brothers is the icing on the cake.

Story Excerpt from Finding Angel 

Angel felt someone grab her arm and turned around to see the blonde Adonis she had just teased attached to it. As she got to the entrance of the foyer, he was still holding on to her, his arm now hooked through hers.

“Wait,” she heard him say. “Hello, I’m Christian, and I just came down to ask you to our party.”

Angel had no intention of going anywhere with him, even if he was good enough to eat. She walked a little further into the foyer, away from the downstairs crowd, and turning around, glanced up at the private club room window to see the other sexy man-God watching them. She looked back at the blond Adonis standing next to her and gasped. His eyes were the most gorgeous brown, just like milk chocolate, and she wanted to melt into them. Angel fought the urge to reach out and run her fingers through the shoulder length curls of his blonde hair.

“Christian?” she asked, watching him nod before she continued. “Thank you for the offer, but I’m going home.” Angel smiled before gently unlinking her arm from his.

“Come on.” He winked at her. “Come to my brother Daniel’s welcome home party. We’ll have fun, I promise.”

Angel sighed. He was standing so close, and even in her platform boots, she had to look up to see his dreamy eyes and perfectly formed luscious lips that begged to be kissed. Any other time she would have said yes, but not now. Everything was still too complicated to meet someone new at the moment. Angel hoped she didn’t have to get nasty if he kept insisting. He seemed nice, and she’d hate to have to get nasty and deflate his Dom ego. She glanced back up at the window to see that the dark-haired God had disappeared.

“I’m sure we would.” Angel took a step back. “But I didn’t come here to meet anyone. I just came to see friends and have a dance, which I’ve done. I apologize for doing that thing with the straw. I didn’t mean to give you the wrong idea. I get a little flirty when I drink.” Angel felt her face heat up. “I didn’t think you would come down here.”

Angel turned to walk away and was startled to hear a deep male voice that sent an erotic shiver up her spine.

“What if it’s just a no strings attached come and dance and get to know us invite,” he said.

Angel turned around to see the dark-haired God who had disappeared from the window moments before. He was nearly the same height as the blond Adonis but had short dark hair rather than the alluring curls of the other man. His shoulders were broad and firm, just the sort of thing Angel would imagine sinking her nails into as she orgasmed beneath him. She felt her heart begin to race and moisture pool between her legs. Being in such close proximity to them was intoxicating, but she knew these men were way out of her league. And she couldn’t let herself walk into something that would end up breaking her heart. Even though the sheer dominant male force they presented nearly overwhelmed her, she had the feeling that they were two really nice men. They hadn’t grabbed her boobs or used crude pickup lines on her, even after the now regrettable straw sucking incident. For a moment Angel nearly accepted, but then she suddenly remembered her genetic flaw and told herself that looks could be deceiving.

“I appreciate the offer, but I can’t accept, and if I don’t leave now, I’ll miss my train,” Angel stated politely. “I got the barman to call me a cab, and it’s probably waiting for me outside.”

“Fair enough. If you have to go, then we accept that.” Angel heard a hint of disappointment in Daniel’s voice and she got the distinct impression that it was far from what he wanted to say. If the look of lust that filled his gaze was anything to go by then letting Angel leave was the last thing he wanted to do.  

“Of course we don’t have to like that you’re leaving without spending time with us.” Angel’s gaze moved back to Christian. “Sure you won’t reconsider?” his smile was more than charming.

They were losing her. Christian wanted to grab hold of her and beg her to stay, or pick her up and kidnap her back to their house. As he looked at her succulent body and felt her sweet voice swamp his senses, he had to fight the urge to get all primal and claim her as his own.

“Thank you.” Her eyes moved from one brother to the other. “It was nice meeting you both. Maybe I’ll see you again.”

Christian saw her smile before turning to walk away. He felt like he was losing something more precious than life as she walked toward the door. She suddenly turned back around, her eyes locking onto Daniel’s.

“Oh, I forgot to say something.” her eyes twinkled as she spoke “Welcome home, Daniel.”

“Wait, what’s your name?” Christian called after her as she turned away again.

“Cinderella,” she yelled back over her shoulder, laughing as she walked out the door. 

How to find Jan Graham

Website: http://www.jangraham.com.au

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/jan_graham

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/JanGrahamAuthorpage

Blog: http://jangraham.blogspot.com/

Find out more about Jan and her latest release Finding Angel on Behind Closed Doors.  See you there!

From one woman who loves to write to another, thank you so much for sharing your release day with us!  Congratulations!

What if you had a do-over with the “one that got away”?

Kiss Me Slowly

Haven't we all had that fantasy?  What would you do if you had that chance?  I had just such an experience and it didn't work out as both of us had hoped at the time, but in the end, it worked out the way it was supposed to and I got to meet my Muse and soul mate.  


Today I am very happy to welcome author Amber Easton to Not Enough Time in the Day as she shares her own experience with getting the do over, and her latest release Kiss Me Slowly.

           There are moments when I find myself sitting quietly with a secret smile thinking about a boy who loved me with the reckless abandonment of youth.  We met at the movie theatre when I was sixteen, he tore tickets and I sold popcorn.  We fell in love when we were seventeen, I sold the tickets that he tore.  We had it all then--the feeling of immortality that all teenagers have, the romantic ideal of “us against the world”.  Making out in back seats, sneaking in through windows, walking for hours just to spend time together...ah, those were the days.

           Then I went to college and thought I needed “no strings”. I guess I had grand illusions of the kind of player I was gonna be.  (Didn’t happen--I’d seen too many movies! Stupid, naive me.)

           A few years ago, after going on with my life, getting married, having kids, and burying my husband, I met that first love again via Facebook.  Surprisingly, our lives had moved parallel to one another--at one point, we had lived in the same neighborhood in Denver without ever meeting.  His wife had also passed away.  So we talked...we flirted...we even had an argument about “the break up” that happened over twenty years ago.

           He still had that “take-me-to-bed-and-strip-me-naked” smile, that generous heart that I’d fallen for back in the day, but our grief for our spouses stood in our way of anything developing in the here and now. 

           Do you have that “first love” that sometimes creeps into your thoughts and makes you smile?  Even if you’re blissfully happy now, are there moments when you’re sitting at a stoplight and an image of that “one who got away” drifts into focus and you think...what if? 

           In my romantic suspense novel, Grace Dupont is reunited with her first love thirteen years after their break up, but he’s in trouble and needs her genius brain to save him.  Set up to take a fall for embezzling millions of dollars from the family company and with diamond smugglers aching to see him go down, they don’t have time for a leisurely trip down memory lane.  Trapped in a whirlwind of conspiracy and murder, they find themselves on the run together, with time working against them and love rekindling beneath Florida Key sunshine.  

An excerpt of Kiss Me Slowly:

She didn’t know if she was angry or frightened, but aiming a gun at his head felt pretty damn good. “What are you staring at? Get out of there.”

She motioned for him to exit the guest room and enter the main cabin. He looked like hell. Scratches ripped up his chest, blood darkened the once white bandage on his shoulder, soggy pajama pants were stained and ripped at the knees and his feet, and it looked as if he had walked for miles barefoot. He limped to the curving white leather sofa and fell against the cushions.

“What the hell happened to you?” she asked.

“Would you please put the gun down? You’re terrifying.” He slurred his words as he dropped his arms against the table as if they weighed a thousand pounds.

“Terrifying is my current goal. Tell me what happened.” She scrambled to lock the hatch overhead before sinking on the edge of the sofa a few feet away from him. She kept a firm hold on the gun. “Talk to me, Jon.”

His hands shook as he held them to his forehead. He looked like a shadow of the man she had encountered forty-eight hours ago. That man had owned the world and knew it. This one looked like the world was against him and knew it.

“How did you get here?” She bit her lip. She needed to get away from here.

“Someone took me from the house, dropped me on the street. I walked. Jumped the sea wall. No one is following me.” His gaze pierced into hers. “How did you know I was here?”

“I notice details, and you did a lousy job smearing your tracks.” She noticed the bulge in his waistband and realized he had a gun of his own. “What the hell is that? Take it out.”

His hands shook so violently when he laid the gun on the table that she worried he might shoot a hole in the hull.

“For God’s sake, just leave it alone,” she ordered. “I suppose you’re going to tell me you found that.”

“It’s not mine.” His eyes glazed over as he stared at the gun on the table. “It’s not mine,” he repeated.

“David said Ashley was murdered. The news thinks you may have been kidnapped. David brought it up because he thought my Jon Ryan resembled the infamous Jonathan Alexander. I swear, it’s one thing after another with you. Murder? What’s next? What can be worse than murder? Is that the house you’re talking about? Someone took you from Ashley’s?” Her own hands shook as she moved his gun further away from his trembling hands. “What happened? What have you done?”

“I don’t know.” He shook his head and stared at the gun. Defeat swirled around him like a swarm of mosquitoes.

Kiss Me Slowly, a romantic suspense novel by Amber Lea Easton, now available at http://www.bookstrand.com/kiss-me-slowly