No Sprinkles On Mine Please

Recently I compared my contemporary romances to ice cream. I am a die hard fan of vanilla and buy it every time I run out. There's just something very satisfying for me about topping it any way I like, yet underneath I still get guaranteed satisfaction from my favorite vanilla confection. Even writing about it makes me sigh and want to head to the freezer. <Sigh> See?

But now and again I just have to buy something different. I tend to avoid those flavors with too much in them because they often mask the inferior vanilla underneath.  I mean if I want candy bars or cookies, I'll buy just that, not crunch them on less than perfect ice cream. I lived in Texas too long. Blue Bell would raise anyone's standards and life is way too short. I live in Kentucky now and tend to buy Breyer's Natural. And now I'm digressing into a commercial. Sorry.

Really I'm talking about chocolate, or really, really good strawberry. You see that's what my paranormal romances are to me. They are the book flavor I have to write now and again when I just have to write something different.

They are my chocolate, so deep and rich that the bitter sweetness gives me a shiver followed by an endorphin high.

They are my strawberry with chunks of real fruit that  convinces me it's healthy no matter how much salt or sugar is in it.

So when I bring out my first paranormal soon, know beloved readers of my contemporary romances that it is just meant to be the chocolate or strawberry that I crave now and again.

Here's my cover for the first one just so you can see what my chocolate stories are going to look like. (Just wait until you see the strawberry one!)

Release date for The Shaman's Mate is tentatively set for late February 2012. It's in rewrite and I got distracted by a taste for strawberry. But don't worry, I crave chocolate all the time.