Sedonia Guillone

I don’t have much to say today. I’ve had a cold since last week and even though it’s not been one of those horrible nasty colds where I feel like utter crap for weeks, I’m tired enough not to have the energy to work.

I’m so close to finishing Barely Covered but the two scenes I have left to write require a certain kind of energy I just don’t have. I COULD sit and edit if I needed to, something that’s already been written and doesn’t require the same kind of creative force. I’m waiting on edits for Men of Tokyo: Sudden Heat but I haven’t received them yet. The law of averages, or Murphy’s Law (one of those) would dictate that while I’m sitting around with not much to do, the edits won’t come in. As soon as I’m better and have a million things to do, the edits will be in my inbox. I speak from experience.

However, in spite of that, I must admit that things have a way of working out. While waiting for these edits, I’ve hit upon some important character developement that would not have been added had I gone through edits sooner. It’s just that I have too much time to worry about it. Feeling under the weather combined with the horrible drugs that are put in cough syrup are affecting my thinking process and making me feel depressed in a way that I usually don’t. I should probably heed my boyfriend’s advice and just stick to the hot water, lemon and honey. It works almost as well without the disturbing side effects.

Well, I guess I had more to say than I thought I did.

I’ve had a couple of reviews of Danny’s Dragon so far, and am happy that the book is generally being well received. However, today I laughed out loud while reading a review, not because of the review itself but because of the absolutely opposite opinions that each reviewer had. You know that old maxim, “One man’s meat is another man’s poison,” is so true! Which is why I’m learning to feel good about good reviews, take bad ones with a grain of salt and see if there are any criticisms within that might help my writing and then move on.

Here, I’ll show you an example of what I’m talking about:

At the beginning of each chapter, I included a poem by Lao Tzu, the Taoist philosopher from ancient China. One reviewer said this about that inclusion:

“I have to say one of the things I truly enjoyed about this book was the works of Lao-Tzu that preceded each chapter… The author did a wonderful job of choosing the works that best fit each chapter.”

Then, another reviewer said this about the same thing:

“I was a bit put off with some of the philosophizing that happened on a regular basis. Having studied Chinese medicine in school, I was familiar with the concepts and terms used; but I felt that the Lao Tzu quotations to start each chapter were too long and put me off from the plot.”

Then, the reviewer who didn’t like having the poems in the book said this about the character of Dave:

“Dave Pearce, the Irish cop, who is attracted to Danny was a wonderful character. I liked that his difficult background is so relevant to who he is yet doesn’t get solved in such an easy simple way. He was rough, tender, and striving to deal with the bad hand life had dealt him ~ how could you not like a guy like that?”

The reviewer who liked Lao Tzu, said this about Dave:

“I was bit ambivalent towards Dave, he was loving and kind and very protective of Danny, but annoying and whiney, I guess is the word I want or maybe for lack of a accurate one, that is the one I will use.

At first Dave seems to the strong of the two, but the further you get into the book, you realize that Dave really is the more damaged and the more he tries to be strong, the more annoying he became to me and after a while and I felt that overshadowed his better qualities.”

So, even though both reviewers liked the book overall and both wrote inteillgently and gave the book what I consider a fair hearing, it shows me how very subjective reviews are. Unfortunately, the downside is that these subjective reviews can often influence whether people buy a book or not. I’ve had sales of a particular plummet because of one bad review. As a writer, all I can do is keep working on my craft and write the kinds of books I, myself, enjoy reading. That said, I’m off to finish Barely Covered which is almost all written except for filling in those couple of sex scenes…

I discovered and figured out how to use the video maker in my computer. This is my first effort. Please be gentle! lol

I’m really excited about this latest cover by Lyn Taylor! She did an incredible job! The guy in the forefront couldn’t be more how I envisioned Quan Chan. I also love that his skin is wet in this photo. Very hot!! I hope you like it too.

I haven’t been posting much lately only because I’ve been so busy, first, writing Barely Covered. I’m almost to 25k and busy writing. Also I made my first book trailer, having stumbled across the video making software in my computer. The trailer is for the White Tigers series, complete with all book covers, music by Gackt (“Love Song”) and rolling credits at the end. I wanted to share it here on my blog but I haven’t yet figured out how to embed the file into the text. It seems Word Press has updated their format and in my humble opinion, have made it more difficult to add media to the blog. In any case, I have plans to upload the trailer to Youtube and to make another attempt to post it here. I’m excited about it and want to share it even though it’s probably very amateurish-looking. lol

Hard at work on Barely Covered. I’m really enjoying writing a murder mystery and well, I also am in love with my characters, Kaz and Damien. I just hope it all works out. I’m finally feeling inspired again after a difficult period. For a writer, it can be daunting to go through times when you just don’t feel up to the task of doing something that usually comes so naturally.

Violette Poole, engaged to a man she hates, flees her father’s home the night of her engagement party. When her father asks family friend Captain Ethan Carrick to look for her, Ethan finds her. However, Violette refuses to go anywhere with him until he makes love to her, ruining her in the eyes of her fiance.

An afternoon of passionate lovemaking leads to a deeper bond between them and Ethan refuses to return Violette to a man she doesn’t love, especially the man he holds responsible for his brother Charles’ ruination. However, Richard Graves, the fiance, is a fiercer opponent than they expected and it will take more than one session of lovemaking for Graves to consider her ruined.

It then falls to both Charlie and Ethan to find new and wicked ways to “ruin” Violette! And when they do, she doesn’t want to live without either of them!

Read an Excerpt | Order eBook at Ellora’s Cave

Okay, I admit, I glommed this picture off a friend’s blog. He’s been showing up here and there and, well, you can form your own opinion, lol. Apparently he’s a model or something named Andrei from Romania. This is good PR for Romania as far as I can see.

Besides that, I’ve been chipping away at Barely Covered. Last night around midnight I worked for almost two hours on a few paragraphs! I wanted to get it just right. Not sure if I’m driving myself crazy or crafting incredible passages that will keep the reader riveted. Of course I hope it’s the latter but I won’t be sure until it’s finished.

My first project for the new year. I’d started it a few months ago but was sidetracked by having to finish a White Tigers book.

This one is a prequel to my Ellora’s Cave release, Barely Undercover. I wanted to explore the beginnings of Kaz and Damien’s relationship. It’s mention in Barely Undercover that they met when Kaz rescued Damien from a guy who was trying to molest him in the alley behind the strip club where Damien worked. So I’m beginning with that night, when Kaz sees Damien on the stage, stripping and is completely, utterly taken with him. However, seeing as Kaz is a cop, this book simply MUST become a suspense of some sort and since I’ve been ready so many wonderful murder mysteries, Barely Covered will be just that. As in, what happens when the guy who’d been attacking Damien turns up dead the next morning not far from the alleyway where Kaz yanked him off Damien and beat the crap out of him?

Sneak peek:

Boston, Massachusetts, thirteen years ago

Where was that jerk? Kaz looked at his watch. Forty minutes was long enough to wait in a smoke-filled, noisy corner of this gay strip club Steve had talked him into as a meeting place. Pretty ballsy, especially knowing Kaz was leery of being here. It wouldn’t look good for one of Boston’s finest to be ogling nearly-naked men writhing their hips and asses on a stage, even on his own time.
The more Kaz thought about it, the more he sensed the message in Steve’s no-show—the casual thing they had wasn’t working and he was trying his fortune with someone new, someone who wanted the real thing. The guy was passive aggressive that way, Kaz had learned in recent months.
Well, maybe he couldn’t completely blame Steve. Steve wanted to be more important to Kaz than his career—at least, as important. But lately, with the bad press the Boston Police Department had been getting lately over its “failure” to bring in murderers, being a detective in the BPD homicide unit took more hours than he had to give.
Kaz looked in the direction of the doorway one more time. No Steve, making his way through the crowd toward their appointed meeting spot. So be it. He was outta here.
Lifting away from the wall he’d been holding up, he took a step. The place was so mobbed, it would take an hour just to get to the damn door.
“And now, gentlemen,” the announcer said over the cheering crowd gathered in front of the dance platform, “Pure hard-on material is coming onto the stage in two seconds. Get ready to drool, guys and give a warm welcome to…Damien!”
The crowd went wild, arms raised, practically rushing the stage. The sinewy, erotically-driven beat of Berlin’s Sex started playing and colored lights blinked rapidly from one side of the platform to the other, making a light show in the center of the stage.
The press of the crowd forced Kaz back toward the wall. Oh well. He decided not to jostle his way out and instead, leaned against the sidewall, avoiding the crush of horny guys waving bills. This Damien guy seemed pretty popular, having roused the biggest cheers of the night so far. With an eye to the stage, Kaz took a sip of his Perrier, his cop instincts having told him to remain sober from the second he’d walked into the place. Club Moritz might be Boston’s premier gay strip club, brawny bouncers and all, but there was a feeling here Kaz didn’t like. Something smarmy that had nothing to do with…
The spotlight panned to the far side of the stage where one arm appeared from the dark shadows. The mere sight roused another round of cheers, whoops and hollers. Kaz sipped his mineral water again. Theatrics had never impressed him.
“Come on! Get the hell out here!” someone nearby shouted.
Kaz’s gaze jerked to the owner of the voice, a big blond steroid monster in jeans and a T-shirt, drunk off his ass. Probably high too. Kaz had seen his type not make it into the police academy. Too much pumping iron mixed with steroid injections had drained all the blood from his brain. Kaz was big too, but be being brawny didn’t mean you had to be a shithead. Had Kaz not been off-duty, he would have gone over there and questioned him in suspicion of being under the influence.
More cheers drew Kaz’s attention back to the stage. This Damien guy was in full view now.
Whoa. Kaz’s heart lurched. He lifted away from the wall and stared at the man, gaze glued to a strip of sinewy chest and abs just visible between the flaps of a billowy white shirt. Sweat gleamed on Damien’s skin and on the soft hairs glinting on his pecs. Kaz swallowed hard and he gaped openly at the treasure trail funneling down the center of Damien’s abs.
Damien moved then, flipping his head back. That drew Kaz’s look back up. Shaggy hair, the color hard to discern under the multi-colored lights, framed Damien’s chiseled face. Damien wore a big sexy smile and his large eyes flashed with promise. Wow, those were some eyes, heavy-lidded yet full of life.
That wasn’t all, Kaz noticed, scanning the guy’s face as Damien drew closer to his side of the stage. Damien’s face was movie-star perfection—softly sculpted lips, straight nose with one small bump, gleaming white teeth, right down to a tantalizing cleft in his perfect chin. As he danced across the stage and turned his back, his body-hugging black pants, shiny and smooth, set off his hard round ass so perfectly, it almost appeared they were painted on. When he slunk back around to face the audience, those shiny pants did the same for that perfectly outlined package in front.
Hot damn. Kaz’s mouth began to water. If Damien was supposed to make a guy drool and want to fit that cock in his mouth, he was succeeding.
The beat of the song thumped through the air, made the ground vibrate, a backdrop to the jeers and catcalls of the nearly all male audience. Damien danced back toward the middle where he halted in center stage, took hold of either side of his shirt and yanked it open.
That tiny move earned another round of testosterone-filled yells. Kaz could only stare, frozen as Damien slipped one arm of the shirt partway down, exposing a muscled shoulder. In time to the music, he wound his hips and then his upper body, making the shirt fall open just enough to reveal a coin-sized nipple.
Hot blood pumped suddenly through Kaz’s chest and gut, right down into his cock. He’d been watching hot guys strip up there for the last half hour or so, but this Damien guy…
“Get those fucking pants off!” ‘Roid monster’s drunken jeer sounded over the rest of the crowd.
What a frigging douche bag. For some strange reason, Kaz found himself hoping Damien hadn’t heard the lewd remark.
If Damien heard the guy, he gave no indication. He was busy teasing the crowd, whipping them into a froth. Slowly, sensuously, he lowered the other arm of his shirt, exposing both shoulders, his chest, and part of his chiseled abs. All the while, those slim hips never stopped winding.
Kaz blinked. When he opened his eyes, Damien’s shirt was off his torso and flying into the crowd, into a sea of reaching hands where it disappeared. Kaz salivated some more, wishing he’d caught the shirt. The urge to press it to his face and breathe in Damien’s scent seized him.
Shit! What the hell was going on with him? Since when did he want to smell a guy he’d never met?
There wasn’t time to wonder about it. Damien’s whole upper body showed now. The spotlight overtook the multi-hued lights, giving Kaz a glimpse of Damien’s real coloring. Hair, a rich chestnut. Skin tanned, nipples the color of warm cinnamon. And eyes…Damien turned and wound his way downstage again, in Kaz’s direction, making Kaz especially grateful then for his hawk-like eyesight…eyes a rich shade of green.
The guy was magnificent.
Kaz’s heartbeat sped up and heat simmered between his t-shirt and skin. Even the blond ‘roid monster’s lewd yelling close by faded into the background as Damien continued to dance.
Hands locked behind his head, Damien ground his hips in sensual circles, turning front and back, driving his audience to a pitch. Dollar bills cascaded through the air at him, showering the stage like paper rain.
Damien’s face broke into a wide, dazzling grin. He halted, hands on the side of his waist.
The crowd roared.
Kaz gulped. Damien was working open his pants from the side. The black material had hidden a zipper that…inch by inch, Kaz could see ran the length of Damien’s leg.
Slowly, torturously, in time to the sinuous beat of the music, Damien lowered the zipper.
Kaz shook himself. When had he started panting? Good thing the guys around him were at least as worked up as he was, caring only about watching the sex god on the stage as he revealed one sloping hard thigh. Bit by bit the material fell away. Damien pivoted quickly, concealing his front from the crowd. They cheered and hooted. Damien rewarded them with a round of his hips and staccato flexing of his perfect, round ass cheeks, separated only by a g-string up the crevice.
Hot damn. No wonder the crowd had gone wild when the announcer had told them who was dancing next. Kaz’s mouth went dry now. Never in his adult life had he wanted to tongue a guy’s ass as badly as he wanted to right this second. And yet, when Damien turned back to the front, Kaz found his gaze roving upward, wanting to look into Damien’s eyes again. There was something to him, a sparkle.
“Fucking hot!”
Kaz turned. The blond asshole again. The guy was practically slobbering all over himself, a glazed look in his eyes while he stared at Damien. So—that was the source of smarminess Kaz had gotten when he walked in. This guy, right here, a few feet away from him. Kaz watched him, sizing him up, the way his police training had taught him. A big part of his instruction had been learning to trust his instincts. This character was trouble.
Then Kaz thought of something else. Had he, himself, been staring at Damien this way? He hoped not. And why did he suddenly feel so protective of Damien? The guy was hot as hell, obviously in control of his body and of the bodies around him. He could take care of himself.
Feeling chastened, Kaz tried to turn and couldn’t. He dared to let himself look up at the stage again. And felt a jolt right through his middle. The heat travelled right to the head of his cock.
Damien was just drawing down the zipper on his other leg to the pant cuff. He glanced up at his audience, his face a mask of teasing mischief.
Cat calls and wolf whistles practically drowned out the music.
Damien ripped the pants away.
The crowd went wild. “Over here! Over here!” various voices called out.
Damien flashed them a grin. He swung the pants in several lasso-like circles over his head and flung them into the audience. The onlookers grabbed wildly as if a million dollars had been tossed at them. Like the shirt, the pants disappeared somewhere and Damien stood, naked, except for a tiny black pouch holding his package.
Kaz swallowed. A lump had formed in his throat. His brain felt mad with a strange fever and his heart pumped as if he’d been running. The now-golden lights travelled over Damien’s sinewy, undulating body, glinting off his tanned skin, sweat beading like dew in his soft chest hairs and on the strip of hair that plunged down his sleek abs. All Kaz could do now was stare at the guy, transfixed on his incredible body, shaggy hair and movie-star face. He’d have paid a thousand dollars right then just to lick the sweat off Damien’s chest.

As I’d hoped, the little vacation from writing I took was effective and I’m refreshed, ready to pen some more naughty tales. lol. I actually have already written one last week for STARBooks Press. The editor wanted those of us who contributed to the Unmasked anthology to write a sequel for the upcoming Unmasked II.

I have to admit, it was a labor of love to continue Kit and Liam’s story and I’ve included a teaser from it below. Actually, I wasn’t expecting the story that unfolded once I let go and gave the characters the space to unfold, but that’s really a wonderful aspect of writing – letting the characters come to life on their own instead of trying to control them, which never works. Anyway, here’s a sneak peek of Hummingbird II: Getting Behind on the Job and I hope you’ll come back soon because I’ll have another teaser from the next work-in-progress, another story with the characters from Barely Undercover, which I’m really excited about!

Hummingbird II: Getting Behind on the Job

Liam and Kit have been together now for years, making passionate love in between saving the world from dastardly villains as the Hummingbird and his martial arts master sidekick, Black Ninja. However, after one particularly harrowing job, Liam goes into existential crisis and Kit fears for his lover’s well-being and for the future of their relationship. When the next crime-fighting job they complete leaves Liam naked and bound in titanium chains by his arch-rival, Kit uses Liam’s bound state to his own delicious, wicked advantage in the hopes that the fun they have can save their relationship and pull Liam out of his crisis. Will it work? Read and find out!

Excerpt:
Liam glared at me from where he stood, balls ass naked, shackled in the center of the room, his wrists and ankles in heavy cuffs, connecting him to a thick chain bolted into the rock ceiling. I followed the line of the chain from his wrists up to the gigantic bolt. Titanium. The one substance that sapped Liam’s strength. Much like Superman’s Kryptonite. Hmm. No ordinary criminal had been behind this job. There was only one who’d go to the trouble to make titanium chains. Had to be—

“What the frig are you waiting for, Kit? Get me the hell down.”

Something held me in place, kept my boots rooted the spot where I stood and stopped me from pointing my wrist lasers at the chain to free him. Maybe it was Liam’s growled demand, an echo of the withdrawn, brooding, belligerent asshole he’d been these past weeks, pulling away from me, keeping me off balance, closing me out every time I tried to get him to open up.

“Kit!”

I looked into his eyes, their blue glaring. Sweat gleamed on his forehead and planed cheeks. I followed the trails of the droplets and found myself perusing his naked body in all its broad, chiseled perfection. More sweat gleamed off his dark chest hairs, which drew my eye to the pattern in which they funneled into a thin trail down the center of his cut abs. “Are you in pain?” I asked.

“Kit, dammit!” He tugged, uselessly against the chains.

No. Apparently not in pain. I resumed my ogling until I reached his eyes again. A knowing look came into them.

“I get it,” he said. “You’re leaving me hanging here like a side of beef to punish me. Well that is just rotten.”

“Come, Liam. You like chains. You know, prisoner ditch digger and warden?” I reminded him. It was a little game we played together sometimes in private.

He glared some more. “You know who did this to me, don’t you?”

Of course I knew. Hummingbird’s nemesis, Kendo Ishihara, a multi-billionaire from Japan. However, Ishihara wasn’t still here. He had his own devious expensive methods of getting around the world, unseen. My scanners did not detect any other human presence. This little chain thing was, I knew, a mere gesture, Ishihara’s way of letting Liam know he was still around and getting ready to do something else dastardly. Which is why I’m extra pissed that the Agency would force Liam to retire. Hummingbird is the only one who can keep Ishihara at all in check.

So now, it was just me and Liam, alone in this cave, Liam naked and chained, and our relationship desperately in need of some drastic measures.

Aware of my sudden power, I folded my arms and leaned against the doorway. In doing so, my eyes shot down, catching sight of his cock. I stared, and watched it twitch to attention under my gaze. My body tightened. No matter how hurt or pissed I felt, I could never be anywhere near Liam and not get hot. Not only was he so close by, but he was naked, sweaty and chained up. I could do whatever I wanted to him and he was helpless to stop me. “Sort of,” I said finally.

“All right already. You want me to apologize for throwing your book into the shithole? All right, I apologize. There. Are you happy? Now get me the hell free.”

Feeling suddenly evil, and a bit more randy now, I grinned and took a few steps toward him. “Or what, Hummingbird? You’ll spank me?” I laughed and closed the distance between us, stopping a mere foot away.

In spite of Liam’s anger, I didn’t miss the change in his blue eyes, the way they darkened slightly under heavy lids. I struck a pose, knowing the effect my Bruce Lee shaggy black hair and sleekly muscled physique under the skintight uniform was having on him. After all, it was my looks that had drawn Liam from the Hong Kong sky to check me out the day before the thugs attacked me.

Liam remained silent but I saw the heavy rise and fall of his broad chest. I glanced down. Liam Junior had also risen to attention and stood hard and full, already leaking a shiny trail of juice over the plump head. “Kit,” Liam said. The anger had drained from his voice and sounded husky now. After all our years together, I knew exactly what it meant.

It finally happened, the moment I’d been hoping for. I was in Barnes and Noble yesterday and went to the romance section to see if it was finally there on the shelves. All I saw was volume 26. I was so disappointed, sure that they’d skipped over vol. 25 completely. It wasn’t fair! I went through the entire romance section searching, but no Secrets, vol. 25.

I went back to the new romance section and stared at the two rows of vol. 26. An impulse seized me and I lifted away some of teh 26s and there they were! Secrets, vol. 25: Wicked Delights! Five copies! Oh my gosh, well you can imagine I was practically happy dancing right there in the store, immediately whipped out my Blackberry and started taking pictures of it on the shelf and calling people to gush with my exciting news.

Then, to make it even better, a woman approached the romance section and was looking at the shelves. When she realized what I was talking about on the phone, she turned to me and asked, “Which one is yours?” I pointed excitedly to said book and answered, “That’s me!” She picked it up, looked through it and said, “I’ll just have to buy it.” I was tickled completely at this point and offered to sign it for her. She accepted. Then I said, “maybe you should buy it first and then I’ll sign it.” What if she changed her mind? I couldn’t just go signing a book right off the shelf. But she said, “No, sign first and then I’ll buy it.” We were both tickled. It was my first book signing in a store and I was the first author she’d ever had sign a book.