Hey everyone! I'd like to take a chance to say a big ol' welcome to our guest, KC! HIYA! She's done us the honor of writing up a guest post and doing a GIVEAWAY! Make sure you leave a comment to enter! :) And once again, Welcome KC! It's great having you here with us!
If You Run They Will Chase You
A long time ago before my kids were born, I had a big, over-stuffed, green chair I used to curl up and write in. It was just big enough to sit in sideways, head on one arm, legs thrown over the other. I think I handwrote a good many chapters of Dark Future there.
When my oldest daughter came along, she pretty much took it over. Years later when I gave the green chair away, now covered in dog hair, Kool-Aid stains, and remnants of Cheerios, I didn’t even bat an eye.
My first office was literally a sofa table with my laptop and a basket of pens and sticky notes. I set myself up in the dining room, minus the dining table, and under the low hanging chandelier. I would work while the kids took naps, or more true to life, learned to block out the Blues Clues that were blaring right next to me.
When my youngest was finally able to move into her sister’s room, I rejoiced. It took me all of one afternoon to move the toddler bed over and clear out all her toys. I lugged the heavy sofa table up the stairs and posted all my sticky notes with inspirational sayings on the wall. This was my space. My office. It was a room with a door and more than anything that meant I was a real author.
I got my first request for a full in that office. I pulled a few all-nighters polishing up my manuscript for Texas Wide Open. I believe I sent it off to Harlequin. I’m pretty sure I never heard from them again.
But that’s not the point. The point was I had a bona fide, door-closing, office.
The room sharing thing didn’t go real well. We hung in there for a few years, but when my DH pulled me aside and asked if I would give up my office so that we could have a chance of some peace in our family, I cried.
My little girls rejoiced.
Back downstairs I went, lugging my sofa table with me. This time I set up in the living room off the kitchen—a little farther away from the TV, but right in the middle of the action just the same. The problem was I was too accessible. Too much in the line of sight.
Yeah, go ask mom it’s not like she’s working or anything.
A long time ago before my kids were born, I had a big, over-stuffed, green chair I used to curl up and write in. It was just big enough to sit in sideways, head on one arm, legs thrown over the other. I think I handwrote a good many chapters of Dark Future there.
When my oldest daughter came along, she pretty much took it over. Years later when I gave the green chair away, now covered in dog hair, Kool-Aid stains, and remnants of Cheerios, I didn’t even bat an eye.
My first office was literally a sofa table with my laptop and a basket of pens and sticky notes. I set myself up in the dining room, minus the dining table, and under the low hanging chandelier. I would work while the kids took naps, or more true to life, learned to block out the Blues Clues that were blaring right next to me.
When my youngest was finally able to move into her sister’s room, I rejoiced. It took me all of one afternoon to move the toddler bed over and clear out all her toys. I lugged the heavy sofa table up the stairs and posted all my sticky notes with inspirational sayings on the wall. This was my space. My office. It was a room with a door and more than anything that meant I was a real author.
I got my first request for a full in that office. I pulled a few all-nighters polishing up my manuscript for Texas Wide Open. I believe I sent it off to Harlequin. I’m pretty sure I never heard from them again.
But that’s not the point. The point was I had a bona fide, door-closing, office.
The room sharing thing didn’t go real well. We hung in there for a few years, but when my DH pulled me aside and asked if I would give up my office so that we could have a chance of some peace in our family, I cried.
My little girls rejoiced.
Back downstairs I went, lugging my sofa table with me. This time I set up in the living room off the kitchen—a little farther away from the TV, but right in the middle of the action just the same. The problem was I was too accessible. Too much in the line of sight.
Yeah, go ask mom it’s not like she’s working or anything.
1 New office now upgraded with a real desk
A few months ago the weather started to get nice, and I had a brilliant idea. I took my alphasmart and set up shop outside. With my blanket, some ice tea, and a few snacks, I was good to go.
Figure 2 Way too inviting
It worked for a while. Sometimes I could overhear them in the kitchen.
Where’s mom? Where’s mom?
I never volunteered that information. Not once. But they still found me. The patio furniture was just too conveniently set up in a conversational manner. The cushions too comfortable. The weather too perfect. They clustered around me like a queen bee in a hive.
About two summers ago my husband built my kids a tree house. It’s basically four walls and a floor. The outside looks nice.
Where’s mom? Where’s mom?
I never volunteered that information. Not once. But they still found me. The patio furniture was just too conveniently set up in a conversational manner. The cushions too comfortable. The weather too perfect. They clustered around me like a queen bee in a hive.
About two summers ago my husband built my kids a tree house. It’s basically four walls and a floor. The outside looks nice.
The inside looks like something straight from Auschwitz.
The tree house is looking better and better. I can spruce it up. Hang a few sticky notes on the walls. Bring in a blanket.
Now, if I could just find a way of getting my sofa table up the stairs.
KC Klein is celebrating her latest release in the Texas Fever series, Hustlin’ Texas, with a free e-book giveaway. Simply like this blog post, share it on Facebook, or tweet about it on Twitter, and then come back and post what you did, and you’ll be entered into the drawing for a free copy of Hustlin’ Texas.
Below is an excerpt of Hustlin’ Texas. Enjoy and happy reading!
Now, if I could just find a way of getting my sofa table up the stairs.
KC Klein is celebrating her latest release in the Texas Fever series, Hustlin’ Texas, with a free e-book giveaway. Simply like this blog post, share it on Facebook, or tweet about it on Twitter, and then come back and post what you did, and you’ll be entered into the drawing for a free copy of Hustlin’ Texas.
Below is an excerpt of Hustlin’ Texas. Enjoy and happy reading!
EXCERPT
Jett nodded, then glanced around the crowded bar. When he turned his gaze back on her, a person would be hard pressed to describe his eyes as anything sweet or candy like. “I was hoping you’d be up for a little game of nine-ball.”
Nikki took a sip from her beer and raised her brow in question. Nine-ball was the hustler’s game. It was short and quick, without all the rules of straight pool.
He nodded his head toward the tables in the back. “I heard you played.”
“Then you heard wrong.” She took another sip, eying him the whole time. “I’ve given it up for Lent.”
The corner of his mouth hinted at a smile. “Found God, have you?”
“Among other things.”
Jett glanced to the tables, then back to her. “One game. No money.”
Nikki shook her head. “I don’t play for fun. No thrill in it.”
He swallowed, and she could see his jaw work. “Then we’ll play for a favor. A debt. You up for a little more red in your ledger?”
She didn’t want to ask, not really, but gambling was too deep in her blood not to hear the stakes. “What’s the favor?”
He smiled, not the golden boy smile she’d come to know, but instead one that lacked any charm at all. “Well, Texas, that’s the thrill part. You don’t know until the end. Anything goes. No boundaries.”
Her heart did a funky jump-start in her chest at the possibilities, but her game face was ice-cold. “No limits?”
“None. Unless that’s too much heat for you? We could place some ground rules if you want to play it safe.”
Nikki knew what Jett was doing. It was so obvious, and yet, there was that achingly familiar thrill that zipped up her spine and buzzed in her blood. Some families were predisposed toward red hair or near-sightedness. The Logans were addicts. Throw a dart at the family tree and you’d hit a vice—drinking, smoking, shopping. You name it, and the Logans could turn anything into a compulsion. But really, under all the addictions, there was only one. One vice that was as indicative of a Logan as dark hair, brown skin, and blue eyes.
It was very basic, really. The Logans were gamblers.
There were stories as far back as her grandfather, if stories in the Logan family could be believed, who won his first car—a 1950 Cadillac—on the toss of a coin. Then there was her father, Dakota, who’d bet on every sports game invented, and even ones that hadn’t, like golf without clubs. Her father had once bet a hundred dollars on his ability to throw a golf ball through the eighteen holes. Legend had it, he’d won that hundred, but lost the money in the same night in an “I can piss into a can from the second story” contest.
So Jett knew what he was doing. And Nikki was smart enough to know this was more than a simple favor and way more than a simple game of pool. She also knew something else. Jett was no match for her in this game.
She hid her smile with a sip of her drink. The thrill of a “sure thing” was headier than any shot of tequila, more exciting than a leather-jacketed man on a motorcycle.
“Oh, I can take the heat,” she said.
“But can you handle this much heat?”
“Oh, I can handle it. Because we both know I can beat you with one hand tied behind my back and blindfolded.”
His eyebrows arched. “Then you’d best start figuring out what your favor will be.”
Nikki put down her bottle, no longer needing the buzz. “Already have.” Her car fixed…for starters. “You really think you can beat me at pool?”
God, he was so cocky. It was almost tragic.
His eyes narrowed and there was absolutely no humor in his voice when he spoke. “Oh, I’m betting on it.”
Jett nodded, then glanced around the crowded bar. When he turned his gaze back on her, a person would be hard pressed to describe his eyes as anything sweet or candy like. “I was hoping you’d be up for a little game of nine-ball.”
Nikki took a sip from her beer and raised her brow in question. Nine-ball was the hustler’s game. It was short and quick, without all the rules of straight pool.
He nodded his head toward the tables in the back. “I heard you played.”
“Then you heard wrong.” She took another sip, eying him the whole time. “I’ve given it up for Lent.”
The corner of his mouth hinted at a smile. “Found God, have you?”
“Among other things.”
Jett glanced to the tables, then back to her. “One game. No money.”
Nikki shook her head. “I don’t play for fun. No thrill in it.”
He swallowed, and she could see his jaw work. “Then we’ll play for a favor. A debt. You up for a little more red in your ledger?”
She didn’t want to ask, not really, but gambling was too deep in her blood not to hear the stakes. “What’s the favor?”
He smiled, not the golden boy smile she’d come to know, but instead one that lacked any charm at all. “Well, Texas, that’s the thrill part. You don’t know until the end. Anything goes. No boundaries.”
Her heart did a funky jump-start in her chest at the possibilities, but her game face was ice-cold. “No limits?”
“None. Unless that’s too much heat for you? We could place some ground rules if you want to play it safe.”
Nikki knew what Jett was doing. It was so obvious, and yet, there was that achingly familiar thrill that zipped up her spine and buzzed in her blood. Some families were predisposed toward red hair or near-sightedness. The Logans were addicts. Throw a dart at the family tree and you’d hit a vice—drinking, smoking, shopping. You name it, and the Logans could turn anything into a compulsion. But really, under all the addictions, there was only one. One vice that was as indicative of a Logan as dark hair, brown skin, and blue eyes.
It was very basic, really. The Logans were gamblers.
There were stories as far back as her grandfather, if stories in the Logan family could be believed, who won his first car—a 1950 Cadillac—on the toss of a coin. Then there was her father, Dakota, who’d bet on every sports game invented, and even ones that hadn’t, like golf without clubs. Her father had once bet a hundred dollars on his ability to throw a golf ball through the eighteen holes. Legend had it, he’d won that hundred, but lost the money in the same night in an “I can piss into a can from the second story” contest.
So Jett knew what he was doing. And Nikki was smart enough to know this was more than a simple favor and way more than a simple game of pool. She also knew something else. Jett was no match for her in this game.
She hid her smile with a sip of her drink. The thrill of a “sure thing” was headier than any shot of tequila, more exciting than a leather-jacketed man on a motorcycle.
“Oh, I can take the heat,” she said.
“But can you handle this much heat?”
“Oh, I can handle it. Because we both know I can beat you with one hand tied behind my back and blindfolded.”
His eyebrows arched. “Then you’d best start figuring out what your favor will be.”
Nikki put down her bottle, no longer needing the buzz. “Already have.” Her car fixed…for starters. “You really think you can beat me at pool?”
God, he was so cocky. It was almost tragic.
His eyes narrowed and there was absolutely no humor in his voice when he spoke. “Oh, I’m betting on it.”
BIO: KC Klein has lived most of her life with her head in the clouds and her nose buried in a book. She did stop reading long enough to make a home with a real life hero, her husband, for over sixteen years. A mother of two children, she spends her time slaying dragons, saving princesses, and championing the belief in the happily-ever-after. Her debut novel, Dark Future, is a finalist in the 2012 Prism contest and has been honored with a reviewer’s choice award. Her other titles include a sci- fi, 2012 ROWN award winning romance anthology, Hotter on the Edge, and the first two books in her Texas Fever contemporary romance series, Texas Wide Open, and Hustlin’ Texas. KC loves to hear from readers and can be found desperately pounding away on her laptop in yoga pants and leopard slippers or more conveniently at www.kckleinbooks.com.
Twitter: @kckleinbooks
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorKCKlein
Pintrest: http://pinterest.com/kckleinbooks
Amazon Author page: http://kckleinbooks.com/AmazonAuthorPage
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5163507.K_C_Klein
Twitter: @kckleinbooks
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorKCKlein
Pintrest: http://pinterest.com/kckleinbooks
Amazon Author page: http://kckleinbooks.com/AmazonAuthorPage
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5163507.K_C_Klein
Blurb for Hustlin’ Texas:
“Sassy, sexy, fun, but sweet at heart, KC Klein knows how to spin a tall Texas yarn.”—Lori Wilde
“A sexy read. KC Klein’s hero is as hot as a Texan summer’s day. KC is an author to watch..” —Rachel Gibson
Only one person in Oak Groves is happy to see bad girl Nikki Logan back in town…
Oak Groves’ most beloved bachelor, Jett Avery, lives by a simple set of rules. Getting involved with a complicated woman isn’t one of them. He learned that the hard way two years ago when he spent one of the most incredible nights of his life with Nikki Logan. But then she hightailed it out of town, never to be seen again—until now. It might be time to break one of those rules…
Picking up the pieces of her life, Nikki is back in Oak Groves, face to face with the one man she’s done her best to forget. But she has her reasons for being here—and they don’t include winding up in bed with Jett. Especially since he’ll never forgive her once he finds out the truth about why she’s back…
Blurb for TEXAS WIDE OPEN:
“A tortured hero, a love that defies distance and time…this is a book you won’t soon forget.” –Cat Johnson
Katie Harris loved growing up on a ranch. She had her horse, the beautiful Texas prairie, and Cole Logan, the cowboy next door. But there are a lot of secrets hidden under a Texas sky…
Katie always knew she’d marry Cole one day—until he broke her dreams and her heart. But now that Katie’s father is sick, she’s back home, older, wiser and nowhere near the love-sick fool she once was.
Cole knows Katie doesn’t want anything to do with him. But after so many years, he can’t pretend she’s no more than a neighbor. Holding his ground was hard enough when she was seventeen. Now that she’s her own woman, Cole’s heart doesn’t stand a chance…
“Passionate, gritty and fast paced…with a hot blooded, honorable hero to make every woman's knees go weak.”—Diane Whiteside
Blurb for DARK FUTURE:
A woman caught between two futures...
Awakened in the middle of the night by a future version of herself, Kris Davenport is given a mission: go travel in time to save the world--and his life. Of course, her future self doesn't tell her who he is just sends her into the darkness and straight into an alien invasion.
...must choose between the man who has her heart...
He turns out to be ConRad Smith, the callous, untrusting military commander of Earth's army and the world's last defense. There's only one way for Smith to know for sure if this strange woman is an alien spy--slice her throat. Except, he didn't anticipate the desire he would feel as he interrogates the hot-tempered, warm-blooded woman.
...or the fate that saves the world.
As Kris and ConRad struggle to trust each other in a world on the brink of destruction, they each will have to face the ultimate choice of whether to fight or die... survive or forgive.
Buy links for Hustlin’ Texas:
Amazon: http://kckleinbooks.com/HustlinTexas
Barns and Nobel: http://kckleinbooks.com/BNHustlinTexas
Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/hustlin-texas
Buy Links for TEXAS WIDE OPEN:
Amazon: http://kckleinbooks.com/TexasWideOpenAmazon
Barns and Noble: http://kckleinbooks.com/TexasWideOpenBN
Buy Links for DARK FUTURE:
Amazon e-book: http://kckleinbooks.com/AmazonDarkFuture
Amazon print book: http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Future-Kc-Klein/dp/0062117041
Avon Impulse: http://www.avonromance.com/buy/dark-future-epb/
Barns and Noble: http://kckleinbooks.com/BNDarkFuture
Website: www.kckleinbooks.com
Blog: http://kckleinbooks.tumblr.com
“Sassy, sexy, fun, but sweet at heart, KC Klein knows how to spin a tall Texas yarn.”—Lori Wilde
“A sexy read. KC Klein’s hero is as hot as a Texan summer’s day. KC is an author to watch..” —Rachel Gibson
Only one person in Oak Groves is happy to see bad girl Nikki Logan back in town…
Oak Groves’ most beloved bachelor, Jett Avery, lives by a simple set of rules. Getting involved with a complicated woman isn’t one of them. He learned that the hard way two years ago when he spent one of the most incredible nights of his life with Nikki Logan. But then she hightailed it out of town, never to be seen again—until now. It might be time to break one of those rules…
Picking up the pieces of her life, Nikki is back in Oak Groves, face to face with the one man she’s done her best to forget. But she has her reasons for being here—and they don’t include winding up in bed with Jett. Especially since he’ll never forgive her once he finds out the truth about why she’s back…
Blurb for TEXAS WIDE OPEN:
“A tortured hero, a love that defies distance and time…this is a book you won’t soon forget.” –Cat Johnson
Katie Harris loved growing up on a ranch. She had her horse, the beautiful Texas prairie, and Cole Logan, the cowboy next door. But there are a lot of secrets hidden under a Texas sky…
Katie always knew she’d marry Cole one day—until he broke her dreams and her heart. But now that Katie’s father is sick, she’s back home, older, wiser and nowhere near the love-sick fool she once was.
Cole knows Katie doesn’t want anything to do with him. But after so many years, he can’t pretend she’s no more than a neighbor. Holding his ground was hard enough when she was seventeen. Now that she’s her own woman, Cole’s heart doesn’t stand a chance…
“Passionate, gritty and fast paced…with a hot blooded, honorable hero to make every woman's knees go weak.”—Diane Whiteside
Blurb for DARK FUTURE:
A woman caught between two futures...
Awakened in the middle of the night by a future version of herself, Kris Davenport is given a mission: go travel in time to save the world--and his life. Of course, her future self doesn't tell her who he is just sends her into the darkness and straight into an alien invasion.
...must choose between the man who has her heart...
He turns out to be ConRad Smith, the callous, untrusting military commander of Earth's army and the world's last defense. There's only one way for Smith to know for sure if this strange woman is an alien spy--slice her throat. Except, he didn't anticipate the desire he would feel as he interrogates the hot-tempered, warm-blooded woman.
...or the fate that saves the world.
As Kris and ConRad struggle to trust each other in a world on the brink of destruction, they each will have to face the ultimate choice of whether to fight or die... survive or forgive.
Buy links for Hustlin’ Texas:
Amazon: http://kckleinbooks.com/HustlinTexas
Barns and Nobel: http://kckleinbooks.com/BNHustlinTexas
Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/hustlin-texas
Buy Links for TEXAS WIDE OPEN:
Amazon: http://kckleinbooks.com/TexasWideOpenAmazon
Barns and Noble: http://kckleinbooks.com/TexasWideOpenBN
Buy Links for DARK FUTURE:
Amazon e-book: http://kckleinbooks.com/AmazonDarkFuture
Amazon print book: http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Future-Kc-Klein/dp/0062117041
Avon Impulse: http://www.avonromance.com/buy/dark-future-epb/
Barns and Noble: http://kckleinbooks.com/BNDarkFuture
Website: www.kckleinbooks.com
Blog: http://kckleinbooks.tumblr.com
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