Guest Blog: DIY Never Sounded So Good

Emily Cale is here today, talking about DIY projects and eye candy. Who wouldn’t want to combine the two!?!

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Raise your hand if you have ever been addicted to either HGTV or the DIY channel (or both). Uh-huh. I see a few other people have gotten wrapped up in marathons of Bath Crashers or Property Brothers.

I know I have spent more Saturday mornings than I would like to admit sitting on my couch with a big cup of coffee wondering how the hosts of these shows were ever going to pull off such a big makeover in such a short period of time.

The truth: A lot of manpower. No, really. As someone who has done her fair share of remodeling work, I can tell you that it always takes longer and costs more than I ever imagine. The biggest hindrance to my ability to finish is time though. There are a limited number of hours in the day and I work plus write. That doesn’t leave many hours for installing a brand new hardwood floor in the dining room. Plus, doing that project means that I have to pass on something else. Not that I wouldn’t love to simply ignore my edits sometimes, but deadlines are important (I sure hope my editor reads this).

At the end of the day, I would rather be curled up on the sofa with my laptop watching some TV celebrity do the work instead. My house stays relatively clean, I get some eye candy and I get to accomplish a few other tasks. Not a bad deal.

My heroine in Mr. Fix It wants to be able to do it herself, but when she has the chance to watch her hunky neighbor take on the task instead, she gets far more than a good show. 

MrFixIt_CoverMr. Fix It by Emily Cale

Jenni’s home improvement plans have turned into a disaster. The only bright spot in her day is watching her handyman neighbor Rick as he helps out around the neighborhood. Jenni has need of his capable hands in more ways than one, but she refuses to become just another notch on his toolbox.

Rick is entranced by his standoffish neighbor. He has no time for the neighborhood women who throw themselves at him, but he intends to get into Jenni’s house, bed and heart if it’s the last thing he does.

Available from Ellora’s Cave * Amazon

An Excerpt from MR FIX IT
Copyright ©EMILY CALE, 2013
All Rights Reserved, Ellora’s Cave Publishing. Inc.

Bracing against the wind, Jenni took a few steps forward, sat down on the stairs and watched as her dog barked at the tree. “Keep it up. You’ll probably have better luck than I have today.” She hung her head. Now she needed to decide whether to keep trying to make her project work or cut her losses and put the doors she’d gotten off back on. At the moment, neither option sounded particularly appealing. The only thing she absolutely had to do was clean the floor. The rest could wait until she’d had time to drink a few glasses of pinot grigio and enjoy some trashy reality television. Nothing like a few hours focused on someone else’s life to make her forget about the troubles in her own.

“Problems?”

Jenni didn’t need to look up to recognize the deep voice of her neighbor, but popped her head up to confirm her suspicions. It’d be rude not to at least look at the person talking to her. At least that was what she told herself. It certainly couldn’t be because she liked gazing at his tanned skin and sun-bleached hair.

Rick Maas leaned over the fence between their properties. Her cheeks felt hot as she tried to think of a witty reply. “Nothing that can’t be fixed.” Maybe not by me, but by someone. She’d kept an eye on him from the day he’d moved in three months ago. Scratch that. She’d had both eyes glued to his gorgeous body whenever she got the chance. He was a perfect specimen of the male form. Wavy hair, a strong chin and a smile that could turn her knees to jelly. A few times he’d caught her staring at him while he worked on his motorcycle in the driveway. She’d tried to pretend she was studying the garden or checking out a bird in a tree, but she doubted he’d been fooled by her ruse. She couldn’t help it though. The minute he took off his shirt, her brain turned to mush and her libido took over.

“Anything I can help you with?” That was a loaded question. Jenni could think of a hundred things she’d like his help with, but not a single one was home improvement related. Though a few of them risked damaging her bed frame. She supposed he could put that back together if they broke it. After they were done, of course.

She bit her tongue. His offer was completely innocent and she knew it. Rick helped many of the neighbors with little tasks around their homes. For the most part, his assistance went to older individuals struggling to keep up with seasonal maintenance, but many of the single women—and a few of the married ones—took him up on his offers as well. A little too often for Jenni’s taste. How many things could possibly go wrong in one house? She almost laughed at the thought. Maybe she should take a better look around her kitchen before she judged too harshly. Still, she swore a few of the ladies broke things for the sole purpose of having Rick over. They probably made him pitchers of lemonade and homemade chocolate chip cookies too. How clichéd. She hated them for it. Partly because she couldn’t even make chocolate chip cookies, let alone serve them hot out of the oven for the hunk-next-door.

About Emily Cale

Emily_Avatar-1Emily Cale spent the majority of her childhood as a visitor to the worlds of her favorite authors. With encouragement from her English teachers, she put pen to paper and began imagining her own stories. Preferring the fascinating lives of her characters, she majored in creative writing. When not lost in a manuscript or a good book, she enjoys crocheting, rock climbing, and playing board games. She currently lives in Portland, Oregon.

You can connect with her via her website, Twitter or Facebook.

Guest Post: Emily Cale and how Curiosity Killed the Cat

I’m pleased to offer up my blog to the charming, very creative Emily Cale (who I get to hang out with next week during the Romantic Times Convention!!) today to tell us about her latest release, which is an interesting concept for a multi-author anthology.

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Don’t worry, both my cats are alive and well. They may not be pleased at the lack of kitty treats available, but they live a pretty comfortable existence. No, today I’m talking about the basic idea behind that saying.

For most of the Love Letters stories, I came up with characters and a plot long before I had a title. My co-authors and I would have worked out who was taking which letter, but we didn’t have exact titles until we were closer to turning them in. The exception for me was for this first volume. When I originally pitched my idea we thought we might have more letters per volume and I’d decided to do F Is for Flirtatious. When we went to four stories and I got assigned the letter C, I had a lot of trouble trying to see my original idea working. So I scrapped it.

Then I started thinking about words that started with C. There are a lot of them, but nothing that sounded sexy. When I hit curiosity, I knew I had it. Let’s be honest, we’re all a little curious about things that go on behind other people’s bedroom doors. It’s why people buy the magazines that have stories that are supposed to tell you all the things your kinky neighbors are doing. I always end up disappointed that my neighbors aren’t really that wild.

If you worked at a BDSM dungeon, then some crazy things are going to be going on. I’m not saying Hilary necessarily opens any closed doors on purpose, but after a while of looking at them, she’s got to be wondering exactly what is behind door number 1.

Opening it sends her into a world that she has only read and wondered about. Of course the thing about knowing is that it only makes you more curious.

Love Letters Volume 1: Obeying Desire

Love Letters Volume 1 contains four hot novellas that will tempt you to submit to desire:

LoveLettersCover1

A Is for Assignment by Ginny Glass
Lane Heywood is the last person Cameron Isley wanted as his partner in an undercover investigation at a sex club. But with the sexy psychiatrist masquerading as his Domme, he’ll have to submit to her erotic torment–and try to control his all-too-real lust.

B Is for Bondage by Christina Thacher
When Rachel Cooper begins BDSM lessons, she soon starts fantasizing about her instructor, Marc Thibaud. They’re not supposed to have sex–until one lesson crosses the line…

C Is for Curious by Emily Cale
Mistress Rebecca Greer has had her eye on The Black Rose BDSM club’s shy receptionist, so when Hilary “accidentally” interrupts one of her sessions, Rebecca decides to give her a taste to satisfy her curiosity.

D Is for Detained by Maggie Wells
He was the preacher’s son; her parents owned the local sex shop. Sherry Adams and Tyler Prescott’s attraction was forbidden when they were teenagers, but years later Deputy Tyler takes out his trusty handcuffs to show her just how good they could be together.

Available from Carina Press | Amazon Kindle | B&N | ARe

Emily Cale spent the majority of her childhood as a visitor to the worlds of her favorite authors. With encouragement from her English teachers, she put pen to paper and began imagining her own stories. Preferring the fascinating lives of her characters, she majored in creative writing. When not lost in a manuscript or a good book, she enjoys crocheting, rock climbing, and playing board games. She currently lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with her husband and a very spoiled cat.

She loves to connect with her readers. You can find her on her website, Twitter and Facebook.