Thursday, September 25, 2014

Some Rules Aren't Made to be Broken- The Anniversary Blunder

6:43 AM  , ,  7 comments

I sit here on the eve of mine and Mr. McKay's fifth wedding anniversary. I had thought about writing a mushy post for tomorrow about how we met, how I think I did love him from the moment I saw him and how that eventually scared the shit out of me. I like to think we have this pretty sweet "The Notebook" style love story, only without the hidden letters and evil parents keeping us apart.

 Anyway, something far more important happened that has brought us into such turmoil I felt the need to blog about it.

 I bought him a present.

 And he didn't buy me one.

 I guess in any normal scenario the problem would lie in the obvious fact that one of us purchased something for the other and the receiving party bought nothing in return.

 No, I think the important thing here is the obvious breakdown in communication. And that is kind of a rarity with me and Mr. McKay- we are normally right on the same page.

 Let me take you back five years ago to the night before our wedding. We had discussed beforehand how we were not getting each other gifts (we were actually surprised to learn that some people getting married exchange gifts on their wedding day)- we were paying for the majority of our wedding ourselves and we had nothing left over. So agreement made- no gifts!

 I spent the night before our wedding making a guest book for the reception (that barely anyone signed)- I felt stressed out and behind and had no time to relax. I couldn't wait to be married! But all the little stuff leading up to it was getting ridiculous.

 Mr. McKay spent the night before our wedding writing me a letter. Yes, he wrote me a very long and heartfelt letter, that made me cry and still makes me cry- because who does that??

 So day of wedding: he slips me this envelope and tells me to read it later. I freeze "We said no gifts." Panic. I have nothing!

 He assures me it isn't a gift. 

 Then what is it? 

 He explains he just wrote something the night before because he was thinking of me (which I would hope one would be thinking of their bride the night before their wedding- but clearly I was too busy sniffing glue sticks to give my soon to be groom a passing thought).

 I feel like shit. I try to give it back. I try to convince him it will be better to exchange letters on our one week anniversary.

 Nope. He made this gesture of love for me and I dropped the ball.

 I want to clarify that he did not care. He was looking for nothing in return. I just felt like a jerk. You know like when someone has a gift for you and you didn't even think it was that kind of party?

 Since then we have not exchanged anniversary gifts. It has been a rule of ours. It was largely in part to the fact that we have been flat broke most of our marriage. But also, exchanging gifts is just stressful and we end up having to do it at Christmas, so why make life more complicated?

 But then a few weeks ago he mentions that we are coming up on Five Years, and that's a big thing and he feels like he should buy me a gift.

 Huh?

 No, no, no. I try to talk him out of it. But he is not swayed. He's going to get me something.

 I kind of forget about it, and then he brings up the gift thing again a week ago.

 Now I pounce into action. This is not going to be like our wedding day all over again with him giving me something and me standing there all awkward and unprepared. I don't want to be the jerk again.

 He's kind of hard to shop for, so I brainstorm and think I have come up with a pretty great gift. In fact, I can't believe I have not thought of this one before. (I will tell you guys after I give it to him what it is.)

 I casually mention yesterday that the thing I ordered for him didn't come yet. His head snaps up. "What thing?"

 And then it dawns on me, he never got me anything.

 He starts pestering me with questions and I try to play it off. My mind is reeling, did I misunderstand what was going on? I didn't just make this conversation up in my head.

 We spent a large part of last night with this weird tension between us. I feel terrible because I feel like I misunderstood (although, how one misunderstands the words 'I am buying you a gift' I don't really know).

 He claims his mention last week was further intel, trying to suss out if I got him something. Apparently I played it so cool and aloof he thought we were sticking by our rule and not exchanging.

 I later informed him that this mentioning last week is what spurred me into panic mode and had me furiously shopping for The Perfect Gift.

 I went up to bed last night leaving him behind his laptop with a pained look on his face as he searched around the internet for that 'special last minute purchase for your wife of five years'.

 He would not listen to me that I don't want anything. I would not listen to him to return the gift I bought (that sounds like a lot of work I do not feel like doing).

 I offered to save it for Christmas or his Birthday, but then mentioned he is banned from looking at the order history in the Amazon Prime account for all of those months, so that won't work either.

 And this, my dear friends, is why if we have rules we should stick to them.

 I guess it is something that we are fighting about gift exchanging in reverse- neither of us wants anything. But still, this is more drama than I need... I should just stick with buying new lingerie.

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Saturday, September 20, 2014

A Spanking to Make Her Smile- Saturday Spankings

12:00 AM  , , , ,  6 comments


Welcome Saturday Spankos!! My book is now available on Blushing Books, so if you haven't scooped it up yet, you have one more venue to choose from.

I haven't done the Saturday Spankings in a while, but I am still sharing from my most current release Call Me Yours.

At this point Caitlin and Simon have just had a pretty big fight and she responded by going out and getting drunk, and then getting very sick. Simon had to come and save her and now she's having morning after guilt as well as thinking he is about to dump her.

She's trying to decide how she can leave with her dignity in tact when he drops the bomb that he plans to spank her.

"You're going to spank me?" she asked, as she blinked back at him.

"You better believe it, and hopefully you will never think it's a good idea to go out and drink on an empty stomach, and then attempt to drive your drunk ass home," he told her, sternly. "I don't want to think about what might have happened if Ben hadn't called me, anyone of those guys you were dancing for could have taken you home with them last night."

She wiped at her face with the back of her hand and tried to process his words. He intended to punish her for last night, not dump her; it also sounded like he was jealous she might have gone home with someone else. Her feelings of despair slowly turned to joy as she realized Simon wasn't washing his hands of her.

"Why are you smiling at me?" he asked, as he drew his eyebrows together.

"I thought you were dumping me," she admitted.

Caitlin may have met her match. Hopefully he's not more than she bargained for!



Caitlin comes from a privileged upbringing and has the reputation of being a bratty, spoiled princess. Her father cuts her off financially when she refuses to enter law school. Now she needs to figure out a way to make it on her own, with no help from anyone. When her friend mentions taking on a job as a phone sex operator, Caitlin has her misgivings, but when her rent gets hiked and her bills start piling up she figures she has nothing to lose.

Simon is the boy next door, literally. He's a few years older than the recent college grad and he has no time for immature girls who don't take life seriously-- especially ones full of sass. But when Simon finds Caitlin in a dangerous situation he is not above rescuing her, then scolding her, and threatening her with a spanking.

Despite his old-fashioned ways, Caitlin is head over heels for Simon, and the feeling is mutual. Can she come to terms with Simon's methods for dealing with disobedience? Can Simon curb his high-handed ways enough to not lose the girl he is hopelessly falling in love with?

Buy It Now:


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Monday, September 15, 2014

Can You Have a Sweet Alpha Male?

7:15 PM  , , , ,  13 comments


How real do you need your characters to be?

I am the first one to say that fiction is fiction, it isn't always entirely believable and I think most readers will forgive some unrealistic characteristics if they like the story and relate with the characters.

I try to make my characters relatable, I want them to seem real, to seem like people you might meet in your day to day life. But I also want them to be nice and likable.

How do you do that when you are writing about a dominant alpha male who spanks?

It is very possible he is going to do or say something that makes you hold your e-reader away from your face and go "Oh, no he didn't!" Possibly with a head swivel and all. 

I think it's also hard to write a modern day, contemporary piece with a woman who gets spanked. Now you have the dual problem of your main man seeming like a dick and the heroine seeming like a simpering fool because she won't stand up for herself.

It's a delicate balance, and you can't make everyone happy. If it is true to life at least a little bit, then some of the characters are going to be a little unlikable once in a while.

Etta Stark actually cracked me up with her review (you can read it here at Spanking Romance Reviews) for my newest book Call Me Yours, she talks about how she really didn't like my hero, Simon, right from the start.

In the book my heroine, Caitlin, needs some cash and she decides to become a phone sex operator. When she first brings the idea up to Simon he tells her in no uncertain terms that she will never do that.

Etta's reaction to this- "What gives, Simon? You give a girl oral sex one time and now you think you get to dictate how she lives her life? Well, that’s not how things work in the real world, matey."

But really, how else would Simon, this dominating alpha male react? Is he going to give her a long drawn out response about how charging per minute for a simulated sexual experience over the phone is setting back the work her feminist sisters have been doing toward women's equality since before she was born?

No.

What dude would say that?

So I gave him a real life answer. He just simply tells her "No."

Don't worry, Caitlin is equally as put off with Simon's answer as Etta was (and I think I was too when writing it).



But my point is- I inadvertently made him a dick, and then when I realized this, I left him that way because it seemed more real to me.

Don't worry, he does redeem himself (at least Etta seemed to think so), we get to see his sweet softer side.

My question is though, how real do we want our romances? I'd like to think I pushed myself this time around in trying to make my characters seem less like characters and more like people. Caitlin is kind of a spoiled princess and she's not exactly the sweetest person to Simon in the beginning. Simon is an alpha male, used to people heeding his advice, he can come off as kind of prickly.

I didn't sugar coat them. I wrote their back and forth arguments as if they were sitting here with me. And then after I got down their words I didn't tone them down, I let them be jerks. Because, in real life, sometimes we're all jerks.

Do you prefer the characters in your romances to be real? Or would you rather have some synthetic sugar coated sweetness?

There is no right answer. I am just curious what readers think.






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Thursday, September 11, 2014

Devon's Discipline- a Hot New Paranormal Spanking Romance!

12:01 AM  ,  1 comment

I'm delighted to have Adaline Raine over to my blog today to talk about her new book Devon's Discipline. It's a sexy paranormal romance that you don't want to miss! I'll turn it over to Addy so she can share a yummy excerpt with you!

Hi Casey!

Thanks so much for sharing a snippet of my newest release, Devon's Discipline published by Stormy Night Publications

It's an erotic paranormal romance about a young college junior who begins to drink alcohol to cope with the tragic and sudden loss of both of her parents. She signs up for a class with Professor Matthews who takes an interest in her behavior after he hears she is not going to other classes and he assures her that he will help her get her missing motivation back. His punishments include bare bottom spankings and they serve as a reminder to be respectful to herself and him.

The excerpt below is near the end of the book after the two of them had a misunderstanding and Devon lies more than once. The scene involves her human roommate Barbi, a freshman as well as Professor Matthews.

Excerpt:
**

Devon peeked back into the box and saw an envelope. Her fingers slid under the flap and she tugged out an invitation. The card was embossed in silver ink and read:

Your presence is requested at the Masquerade Ball. The enclosed gift will help make the night one you will not forget.

Barbi stole the box and poked around in the tissue paper. “There’s something silky—oh wow!” She pulled a tiny pair of black panties out of the box.
“Hey!” Devon grabbed the lingerie and the mask and stomped away. “It’s obviously just a stupid prank.” She rushed up the stairs to her room and slammed the door shut, then flounced onto her bed and carefully dumped out the contents of the box. A gift card stared up at her and upon further inspection she saw the amount of $300.00 written in the corner. “What the hell?”
“Did you send me panties?” she said out loud as she shot off a text to Donovan. Of course it had to be him. Who else would send her a gift card for so much money?
His answer came a minute later.

Anything else?

Devon flushed as she thought about him buying such an intimate gift.

Something with feathers.

His text came back quickly.

Panties with feathers?

“No! Ugh!” He knew how to lead her on.

Silk panties.

Panties made you think of me?

“You’re such a bastard!” Devon growled at her phone.

Only when wet.

Like now?

“Two can play this game!” She pursed her lips.

Why don’t you come over and find out?

Devon pressed send before she remembered the fight they’d had. She wanted to remain mad at him, but the need to see him trumped everything else.

Come outside.

“What the hell?” Devon moved to the window and threw open her shade. She couldn’t see anything against the darkness of the sky but he could be out there.

Not in the mood for games.

Who’s playing? Get out here.

Devon had half a mind to flip off the lawn below as she was convinced he stood outside, but she decided not to and resigned to play along.
**


Blurb:

Following the tragic loss of her parents, Devon Dawson has turned to alcohol as a way to cope with the grief and her college grades are dropping fast. Things seem to have hit rock bottom when she is called into the office of Professor Matthews and scolded like a naughty schoolgirl. The handsome professor informs Devon that he’ll be keeping a close eye on her and warns her that if he feels it necessary, he will not hesitate to spank her soundly.

It isn’t long before Devon ends up over Professor Matthews’ knee for a hard, bare-bottom spanking. But even though he treats her like a wayward child, she finds herself inexplicably drawn to him. It seems sometimes as if he can read her most intimate thoughts, and there is a mysterious, supernatural power about him which she cannot ignore.

With the help of his firm hand, Devon begins to put her life back together. By the time she realizes that she is falling in love with him, she is in too deep to turn back. She craves his touch and wants him to take all that she has to offer, but when she discovers the truth about him, she wonders if he will be able to protect her from his own dark desires.

Publisher’s Note: Devon’s Discipline is an erotic romance novel that includes spankings, sexual scenes, and more. If such material offends you, please don’t buy this book.

Buy Links:
Kobo:http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/devon-s-discipline



Bio:

Adaline Raine is an avid reader of spanking romance and is known for reviewing every book she touches! Check her out over at Spanking Romance Reviews for recommended reads as well as on Amazon and Good Reads.

Becoming a Lady, Adaline's premiere story showcases spankings in a historical setting. Our lovely main character is poor and abused so when a tall man drugs her and steals her away from her village she is confused by his actions. He takes his time to teach and guide but his methods include his hand and her hind.

Marked by the Alpha, her second release has an alpha male werewolf turning his chosen mate over his knee for some well needed attitude adjusting.

Adaline has also become known for her love of creating graphics for others. She has designed custom banners and buttons for various blog hops throughout the community including "Spank or Treat 2013";"Winter Spanks 2014"; "Summer Spanks 2014", as well as the headers and backgrounds at Bratty Addy. Her exclusive feature, Addy's Couch takes guests books covers and fashions them into a one-of a kind piece for fun or promotional purposes. Contact Adaline at brattyadaline at gmail dot com if you would like her to create something for you!

You can find author interviews, excerpts of upcoming books, and general thoughts from Adaline Raine via the following links:

Spanking Romance Board on Pintrest: http://www.pinterest.com/adalineraine/

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Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Growing Older Does Not Mean Growing Up

12:00 AM  ,  11 comments

There are instances in life that occur that serve as a bit of a reality check. You aren't expecting them to happen, but then suddenly there you are, stuck in a moment of reflection.

 This probably sounds like I am about to get all deep and meditative and not about to launch into a blog post about The Simpsons, but that is what this post is about. 

 Yes, you read that right, The Simpsons.


Recently a cable channel ran the entire series of The Simpsons, in order, from start to finish, over the period of twelve days. I think it ended on Labor Day weekend.

 Mr. McKay mentioned to me that they were doing this, and I think our DVR has a few episodes he recorded that he wanted to watch again. I have to say we watched more episodes during this marathon than I thought we would have.

 But it was actually quite interesting to watch how the series evolved over the 25 years that it has been in production. (Homer actually changed from being kind of a dick in season one, to the lovable oaf he is now in current seasons.)

 Being that we are both in our mid thirties- The Simpsons has been a mainstay of our pop culture lexicon since we even knew something like pop culture existed.

 Fun fact, when The Simpsons debuted as a regular network show on Fox in 1989 I was one year younger than the middle child Lisa. I am now twenty four years older than her. I guess I can't really say I grew up with The Simpsons, because they never grew up.

 This is all leading up to the ultimate reality check moment. It was drawing to the end of the marathon, I think it was the second to last episode they showed so it was an episode from last season.

 Marge is complaining to Homer that they don't have any couple friends. He pretty much tells her that they tried to have friends, but everyone is weird, and besides who needs friends when they have each other?

 At this point Mr. McKay turns and looks at me and says: "Wow, it's come full circle."

 I'm all- what the heck are you talking about?

 He goes, "When I was younger I used to identify with the kids on this show. Now I've reached a point where I identify with the parents."

 We let that sink in for second. 

 "Shit, we're old." That was my profound statement that I brought to the party.

 We skipped the last episode and opted to eat ice cream instead. Which I managed to get all over myself and the shirt I was wearing (I still don't know how I achieved that.)

 I guess what I am taking from this reality check moment is yeah- we got older. It was bound to happen I guess, but I don't think we have to worry that we are very grown up. I mean, after all, we are relating to cartoon characters.

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Tuesday, September 9, 2014

End of Summer Spanks- Prize Announcements!!!

12:00 AM    4 comments


A big shout out to the Spanking Romance Reviews and Saturday Spankings peeps for making this all possible!

Also, to all of the bloggers who signed up, I did not get to all of the posts but the ones I did read were H-O-T!!! I will be hitting the rest as the week goes on!

And of course all the readers who stopped by to show their love. You guys rock :)

Last but not least, Ms. Adaline Raine made this awesome graphics, she rocks my socks!

Without further ado here are the winners of my personal blog contest. At random drawing:

Felicity Nichols, Corinne Alexander, and Alice have all won a free copy of one of my books!

Here is the prize list to all of the grand prizes:

Congratulations to all the winners! And thank you to everyone who took the time to play!!!

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Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Love is a Four Letter Word- WIP it Up Wednesday

10:58 PM  , , , ,  4 comments


At this point I feel like a big old cheater because I am still not sharing a WIP this week. In my defense I am working on such a work in progress that it barely makes sense to me right now, never mind sharing it. So just consider yourselves lucky!

I am still excited to post for WIP Up Wednesday and Melody Parks is nice enough to let us share from Works, that are no longer in progress.

This is from my book Call Me Yours, I've been sharing snippets over the weeks so you might be familiar with Caitlin and Simon by now. At this point in the story they have had a huge argument over Caitlin being a phone sex operator, Simon told her he didn't want her whoring herself out. So she retaliated by going out and getting drunk with her best friend Amanda and then ended up dancing on the bar, where guys were throwing money at her.

At this point Simon has decided it's time for Caitlin to go home:


"Put me down!" she shrieked the moment they were outside and he could hear her over the music.

He dumped her on her feet, then stuck his arm out to steady her as she careened sideways. She was more drunk than he anticipated.

Ben and Amanda were a few feet down the sidewalk. Amanda was giggling as his brother leaned in close to her.

He rolled his eyes and redirected his attention back to Caitlin. She tried to stumble away, but tripped on her heels. She placed her hand on his shoulder and kicked her shoes off, leaving them abandoned in the middle of the sidewalk. She took off at a fast pace down the block.

"Where are you going?" he called after her.

"I parked down this way!" she yelled back.

"Get in my car and stop being ridiculous," Simon warned as he steered her toward his passenger door.

"You're not the boss of me!" She landed a kick to his shin and he was grateful she was still barefoot, her toes would hurt more than his shin did in the morning.

He opened the car and pushed her inside, placing a hand on her head so she didn't bump it, then he reached across her and snapped her seat belt in place. He slammed the door shut and took her purse from Amanda.

Amanda and Ben said goodbye to him and wished him luck. He said nothing as he tossed her purse into the back seat and buckled his seatbelt.

Caitlin slumped in the passenger seat and he glanced over to see if she was awake.

"Did Ben call you?" she asked.

"Yeah, he thought he would need help getting you both out of there," Simon answered as he pulled his car onto the road.

"Snitch," she said.

"How much did you drink, Cait?" he asked.

She shrugged and shook her head. Then she leaned back on the headrest and shut her eyes. "I'm not a whore," she mumbled.

"Dancing on a bar and letting guys throw dollar bills at you was a really good way of convincing the world of that fact," he spat out. He was angry and jealous. Anyone of those guys could have taken her home tonight if Ben hadn't shown up and called him.

"God!" she yelled in frustration. "Just shut up! I can't believe I let myself fall in love with you!"

Simon's head snapped around to look at her again, "What did you say?"

"I said, 'shut up'!" she yelled at him.


"No, the other part. Did you say you fell in love with me?" Simon trained his eyes back on the road as Caitlin let out a frustrated sigh. She didn't answer his question and they both sat in silence as he steered them toward home.



Caitlin comes from a privileged upbringing and has the reputation of being a bratty, spoiled princess. Her father cuts her off financially when she refuses to enter law school. Now she needs to figure out a way to make it on her own, with no help from anyone. When her friend mentions taking on a job as a phone sex operator, Caitlin has her misgivings, but when her rent gets hiked and her bills start piling up she figures she has nothing to lose.

Simon is the boy next door, literally. He's a few years older than the recent college grad and he has no time for immature girls who don't take life seriously-- especially ones full of sass. But when Simon finds Caitlin in a dangerous situation he is not above rescuing her, then scolding her, and threatening her with a spanking.

Despite his old-fashioned ways, Caitlin is head over heels for Simon, and the feeling is mutual. Can she come to terms with Simon's methods for dealing with disobedience? Can Simon curb his high-handed ways enough to not lose the girl he is hopelessly falling in love with?

Buy It Now:


Read More