Release Celebration: All I Want

Releasing today: All I Want: The Anne Holly-Day Collection

New to paperback and ebook from Rebel Ink Press!

What happens when a band nerd sets his sights on the jock next door, a flighty witch thaws out a corporate stiff, or an uptown girl falls for a bartender? How about when a city slicker roughs it with a cowboy, a free spirited Spaniard seduces his calm and collected professor, or a fantasy writer teaches a no-nonsense doctor to see the magic around him?

Attraction, friction, and enough sparks to heat up the coldest winter!

Opposites attract under the spell of six different holidays in this collection of contemporary erotic romance stories from author Anne Holly, covering Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years Eve, Valentine’s Day and St Patrick’s Day.

Each story is unique, reflecting the glow and lore of the holiday that inspired it, but the collection is bound together by a single thread – the joy of taking the plunge into sizzling romance.

~*~

Including the following six erotic-romances:

Like Magic, a story for Halloween

Ian Hannigan was having the worst day of his life. A real estate prospect turned out to be a prank, his car has been stolen, and he’s stranded in the worst neighborhood he can imagine on Halloween night. If he believed in magic, he would swear he’d been cursed. Nothing could possibly make this day any worse or better… That is, nothing but Raven, a mysterious occult shop owner who not only claims to be a witch, but insists that she summoned him as the answer to her aching loneliness. Ian’s night just got a lot weirder. And his love life just got a lot more interesting.

Five stars from Just Erotic Romance Reviews!

~*~

Charity, a story for Thanksgiving

Charity Miller has spent her whole life in an urban island surrounded by the wilds of Montana where she’s never ventured too far from her plans. But when she heads into the Big Snowy Mountains to square a land deal one chilly November, her normally-professional self fades away. Maybe it’s the mountain air or finally quitting her diet. Or maybe it’s “real-live-cowboy” Joshua Rollings and his many attractions that has her off balance.Whatever it is, this Thanksgiving could give her a reason to be thankful for the rest of her life.

Highly recommended by You Gotta Read reviews!

~*~

Good for the Goose, a story for Christmas

Successful scholar Dr. Natasha Mintz believes her divorce signaled the end of her romantic life. But when she gets snowed in one Christmas with a young Spanish grad student, she may want to rethink things. For Natasha, winter has never been so hot!

 Four stars from Just Erotic Romance Reviews!


~*~

Bubbly, a story for New Years

Beth’s had the best of everything and the worst of everything. From the outside, a poor little rich girl, hounded by the press, but, on the inside, bruised by dark memories. When she seeks escape from her suffocating world on New Years Eve, she accidentally gets a taste for how the other half lives. Rough bartender Tig Riley offers her a whole new outlook on life in his arms and maybe even a brand new future, if only she can trust him. Can he really help her heal herself?

Four stars from Sizzling Hot Book Reviews!

~*~

V-Day, a story for Valentine's Day

It all started with a serenade. A family like Daniel’s and the solitary pursuit of musical excellence is enough to make a young man crazy. No wonder all Daniel Vouks dreams of is getting away. He knows his violin will take him places in life, but the only place he really wants to be is next door. He’s been in love with his neighbor since he was fourteen, but can he ever make her see him as more than just a lovesick kid? V-Day is the story of a Valentine's Day weekend Daniel fears he may regret, but will never, ever forget.

One of The One Hundred Romances Project's top books of 2011!

~*~

And a new, previously unreleased story for St Patrick's Day: Cormack's Luck, exclusive to this anthology!

American writer Katie Cormack inherited more than a cottage from her wild Irish father, but also his wit, his stories and his family’s secret burden. Hiding away in the Irish countryside she’d always dreamed of, she communes with the fairies and beasts of her fantasy and folklore. When a local doctor comes down on her for filling his young son’s head with “nonsense”, Katie must show them both that not even St Patrick himself could drive all the dragons out of their imaginations. In the process, she might be able to reverse a wrong that has been hanging over the Cormacks for five generations, one that has brought them all together for the season of renewal.

*
I'm very excited to have another paperback in release, and I'm happy to see these stories find new life as an ebundle, as well. Each one was a fun, new challenge for me, and each one is an homage to various types of romance I've enjoyed as a reader. I hope you enjoy reading this collection!

Get it while it's hot!

Available at the following vendors in ebook:

Amazon US
Amazon UK
B&N
ARe
BookStrand
...and more!

And in paperback:

Amazon
B&N

New TODAY from:

Add the book on GoodReads, or find it on ManicReaders.
Available now to select reviewers in PDF upon request.

Releasing Tomorrow: All I Want, a Holiday Anthology

Coming October 3 to paperback and ebook, All I Want: The Anne Holly-Day Collection, including all five of my 2011 Rebel Ink Press erotic-romance holiday shorts, as well as an exclusive, new sixth story! I'll be here tomorrow celebrating!

What happens when a band nerd sets his sights on the jock next door, a flighty witch thaws out a corporate stiff, or an uptown girl falls for a bartender? How about when a city slicker roughs it with a cowboy, a free spirited Spaniard seduces his calm and collected professor, or a fantasy writer teaches a no-nonsense doctor to see the magic around him?

Attraction, friction, and enough sparks to heat up the coldest winter!

Opposites attract under the spell of six different holidays in this collection of contemporary erotic romance stories from author Anne Holly, covering Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years Eve, Valentine’s Day and St Patrick’s Day.

Each story is unique, reflecting the glow and lore of the holiday that inspired it, but the collection is bound together by a single thread – the joy of taking the plunge into sizzling romance.

Sneak Peek of Cormack's Luck for #SampleSunday

 A sneak peek at my newest story, Cormack's Luck, the exclusive St Patrick's Day addition to my Rebel Ink Press anthology All I Want: The Anne Holly-Day Collection, available in ebook and print on October 3, 2012!

American writer Katie Cormack inherited more than a cottage from her wild Irish father, but also his wit, his stories and his family’s secret burden. Hiding away in the Irish countryside she’d always dreamed of, she communes with the fairies and beasts of her fantasy and folklore. When a local doctor comes down on her for filling his young son’s head with “nonsense”, Katie must show them both that not even St Patrick himself could drive all the dragons out of their imaginations. In the process, she might be able to reverse a wrong that has been hanging over the Cormacks for five generations, one that has brought them all together for the season of renewal.

Excerpt:

I’ve as good as slept with him. Shit.

Well, not completely shit, she had to admit. She’d needed it, really. Even as her nerves hummed over how to proceed with this awkward situation, she could feel a languid relaxation seep through her limbs. Even before her marriage had gone south two years ago, her sex life hadn’t been Hollywood quality and her dry spell since had taken its toll. This afternoon had shown her the danger of letting certain appetites go unfulfilled for too long.

For instance, you could end up having near-sex with a man who seemingly loathed you. Or one whose ancestors had been mortal enemies with your own. Or, such as in her case, a man who fell into both categories.

She heard a flush, then the tap running, and a rattle from the bathroom. Then the harsh click of the old-fashioned light switch. He didn’t emerge immediately, even with the lights out, and she wondered if he was mentally girding his loins the same way she was.

Oddly enough, though they’d just ripped into each other like deprived animals, she felt the need to armor herself with multiple layers of wool and she fidgeted to make sure everything but her hands and face were fully, primly covered. And she might have even gone for a veil if she’d had one close by.

Shutting the gate after the horse fled, clearly.

When he finally stepped out of the bedroom, she spun back to the kitchen counter. She could feel the hot flare of her blush, which likely spread from her pale toes right up to her scalp, clashing with her red curls.

“Coffee?” she managed to croak.

“Er, no.” He, too, was moving in quick, jittery movements, gathering his jacket off the divan and already standing with his hand on the doorknob. Even with her back turned and her vision limited by what she could glimpse through her nervous side-eye, she knew he was eager to flee.

Despite being in his mid-thirties, he was inching towards the door like a naughty boy caught in theft.

Clearly, she wasn’t the only one to have instant regrets now that the hormone haze had dissipated. She should have been sympathetic, but dammit, he could have been a little less obvious about the fact he found her something akin to leprosy.

When he wasn’t sticking his tongue down her throat, that is.

She shuddered to think of what he’d done. What she’d let him do. Hell, what she’d begged him to do. And, oh my, what she’d done in response!

“I suspect you’ve got lots to do...”

“Yes,” he answered a bit too quickly and with a touch of frantic gratitude. “Lots to do. You know how it is.”

“Sure.”

“Alright, then. Ta!”

And with that he was gone.

Good riddance and may I never set eyes on him again, Katie thought to herself. She rested her forehead against the cool of the kitchen cabinet above the coffee maker and wondered how the hell it had all occurred.

“I’m a grown woman,” she declared aloud. “Thirty damned years old, and independent. If I screw anything up, it’s my own fault.”

It won’t happen again, she added.

Even if Dermot Barrigan was a beautiful feast before a starving woman.

~*~

All I Want: The Anne Holly-Day Collection

Coming October 3!

What happens when a band nerd sets his sights on the jock next door, a flighty witch thaws out a corporate stiff, or an uptown girl falls for a bartender? How about when a city slicker roughs it with a cowboy, a free spirited Spaniard seduces his calm and collected professor, or a fantasy writer teaches a no-nonsense doctor to see the magic around him?

Attraction, friction, and enough sparks to heat up the coldest winter!

Opposites attract under the spell of six different holidays in this collection of contemporary erotic romance stories from author Anne Holly, covering Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years Eve, Valentine’s Day and St Patrick’s Day.

Each story is unique, reflecting the glow and lore of the holiday that inspired it, but the collection is bound together by a single thread – the joy of taking the plunge into sizzling romance.

Rawhide, Bloody Bones and Tommy Rawhead

In the new Saint Patrick's Day story I wrote (currently in the hands of the publisher), Cormack's Luck, a grim little specter from my childhood made a rather unwelcome appearance. 

Bloody Bones.

Katie, the heroine of our sweet Irish tale, is an American fantasy writer with an education in folklore and mythology (I always wanted to turn a folklorist into a romantic lead!), and she runs afoul of an Irish doctor who is anti-fantasy, anti-folktales, and anti-fairytales, and he's none too pleased that Katie has been telling many a tall tales to his impressionable, motherless four year old son.

And he's particularly freaked out by creepers like Bloody Bones.

I was intrigued to find that Bloody Bones (first known to me in Nova Scotia, Canada), who you might also know by the names Tommy Rawhead or Rawhide, was originally an Irish folk bugbear or boogeyman. And quite possibly the most terrible one of them all.

Bloody Bones, according to the versions from my youth, hides in closets or cellars, waiting to eat small children who lie or curse; crouching on a pile of the crushed bones of his victims, and bleeding profusely from his skinless scalp.

Artist Amanda Wood opened up the recesses of her own childhood trauma to contribute this horrific rendering of the beast in question. Shudder.

Can I just pause to say, "Gross"?

Here's how Wikipedia describes him, quoting Ruth Tongue:

Bloody-Bones is usually said to live near ponds, but according to Ruth Tongue in Somerset Folklore, "lived in a dark cupboard, usually under the stairs. If you were heroic enough to peep through a crack you would get a glimpse of the dreadful, crouching creature, with blood running down his face, seated waiting on a pile of raw bones that had belonged to children who told lies or said bad words.”

Scott Andrew Hutchins says:

... Bloody Bones "is rumored to have a crouching form like a rock. He is covered all over with matted hair, has pale flat eyes, and lives in dark cupboards..."

According to other versions, Bloody Bones might be found lurking in the woodshed, or even amongst the pipes under the sink (which must be a variation used by parents who lived in apartments but still wanted to traumatize their kids).

In Yorkshire, they used to sing:

Rawhead and Bloody Bones

Steals naughty children from their homes,

Takes them to his dirty den,

And they are never seen again.

Pleasant, no?

From Ireland and England, Bloody Bones made it to North America, especially to the Appalachians, where he spread onwards, particularly in the Irish diaspora, the American south and in African-American folklore. From there, he's gone on to feature in books, movies, and many a nightmare.

In a version from the Ozarks, Raw Head was created like some sort of corpse golem, by an old woman who was grieving over the murder of her pet hog. From the pieces of her skinned animal, she created Bloody Bones, so he could seek revenge on the hunter who slaughtered him:

Betty continued the chant until a bolt of silver lightning left the plate and streaked out threw the window, heading in the direction of Hog-Scald Hollow. 

When the silver light struck Raw Head's severed head, which was piled on the hunter's wagon with the other hog heads, it tumbled to the ground and rolled until it was touching the bloody bones that had once inhabited its body. As the hunter's wagon rumbled away toward the ridge where he lived, the enchanted Raw Head called out: "Bloody bones, get up and dance!"

Immediately, the bloody bones reassembled themselves into the skeleton of a razorback hog walking upright, as Raw Head had often done when he was alone with Old Betty. The head hopped on top of his skeleton and Raw Head went searching through the woods for weapons to use against the hunter. He borrowed the sharp teeth of a dying panther, the claws of a long-dead bear, and the tail from a rotting raccoon and put them over his skinned head and bloody bones.

Off hand, the only thing I recall finding as creepy is Tailypo, another cryptozoid horror from my childhood. And possibly clowns. And html.

So, while I have plenty of "nicer" Irish redcaps and good folk in my story, Bloody Bones had to make an appearance to round out all the merrow and selkies. He doesn't even have the benefit of being handsome like the still-deadly Gancanagh or super-cool like the pooka.

Bloody Bones is just plain, unremittingly awful.

And, no word of a lie, I had to turn on every light in the room just to write his name into the book! Even now, writing this blog post, I'm not feeling very well at all.

The things I do for my art!

In sum: Be careful what you tell your kids. And watch yourself if you have to go to the cupboard under the stairs.

New Short Details

Thanks to some Facebook feedback, the new short I am writing for the Rebel Ink anthology will be on St Patrick's Day - and, naturally, it's set in Ireland.

So, announcing Cormack's Luck, my new erotic-romance holiday short.

Here's the new blurb:

American writer Katie Cormack inherited more than a cottage from her wild Irish father. She also got his wit, his stories and his family’s secret burden. Hiding away in the Irish countryside she’d always dreamed of, she communes with the fairies and beasts of her fantasy and folklore. When a local doctor comes down on her for filling his young son’s head with “nonsense”, Katie must show them both that not even St Patrick himself could drive all the dragons out of their imaginations. In the process, she might be able to reverse a wrong that has been hanging over the Cormacks for five generations, one that has brought them altogether for the season of renewal.

Busy writing, and with life. I'm hoping to have the short written, done, and sent off by next week, and it's chugging along. It took me a while to research this one, so the writing is slower than normal. It might be a tight squeeze, but I remain hopeful.

Have a great weekend, all!