Kickboxing Smuff Progress, Title Madness & Another Sex and Candy Giveaway!

It's been a while since I've posted, so I thought I'd add a little update about the kickboxing Love's Landscapes story that has been consuming my free time. Consuming it voraciously. Like a puppy with a juicy bone. *ahem* I finished up the draft last night (yay!), and since I do most of my edits as I write (which is just as time-consuming as it sounds, heh), I polished it up this morning and sent it to my awesome beta buddy for thoughts. >__>

A lot of stuff happens, and, at the same time, it's total smuff (smut + fluff), too. I'm a little nervous about how that combo works here, so we'll see what she thinks. I wanted to post a cool kickboxing photo, but there weren't any decent ones in the public domain. Thus, instead of a kickboxing or boxing photo, here's a picture of Nico-kitteh sitting in a box:

I can also tell you that a unicorn costume makes an appearance in this story. Anything else is secret, and you'll just have to see what happens when the (freebie!) story comes out this summer! ^__^ The full prompt and picture can be found at the end of my post here.

I would totally share the title with you, too, except I'm not sure yet what it is. Eeps! Yes, I sent the title Punch-Drunk Love to the event organizers, but now I'm not sure if I like it enough to use it for the story. *shakes fist weakly* Argh, why is the title so hard?

For my latest story Sex and Candy, the title was automatic.

Have you heard the Marcy's Playground song "Sex and Candy?" That's one of my favorites, and I had it on repeat often in college. Of course, when I set the decidedly smuffy short story in a club called Hard Candy (which you can read more about here), the title Sex and Candy immediately popped into my head. At the time, there was only one other story out there with that title, so I thought it was good to go. I wrote the story back in the autumn and didn't give the title a second thought.

It's funny because a few weeks before the March 30th release, another story with the title Sex and Candy came out from MLR Press. That came as a surprise, but then, after reading the description, I realized the stories were completely different. Now I'm just crossing my fingers that people give my Sex and Candy a shot, too. =)

So while I'm waiting for my beta buddy to get back to me (alliteration there, eh?), I thought I'd post a bit about Sex and Candy and give some stuff away. Yay!

There have been some amazing reviews, and I'm so freaking grateful to everyone who has checked it out. Thank you! You can see what the folks at Prism Book Alliance, My Fiction Nook, and 3 Chicks After Dark had to say about the book if you're curious. =)

Another thing to mention is that the publisher, JMS Books, is having a sale this weekend. All ebooks are 40% off, including Sex and Candy. You can enter the giveaway below for an ebook copy or, if you can't wait to read it, you can pick up the discounted story (for $1.79) here at JMS Books through April 20th! :D

Anyway...GIVEAWAY TIME.

Yay!

GIVEAWAY

I'm giving away another prize package to celebrate the Sex and Candy HARD opening (heh heh, hard) now that it's available everywhere. *tosses confetti* The soft opening on March 30th was a publisher-only release date, so here's a quick listing of some of the other ebook retailers where you can now find Sex and Candy:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

All Romance eBooks

Smashwords

To celebrate all the sexy and sweet things, I'm doing a giveaway package with these lovely goodies:

- ebook copy of Sex and Candy

Plus a snail mail package of these items (open to international winners because you guys read books, too!):

- a pair of electric blue undies (unfortunately, hot guy not included)

- a candy-colored gumdrop bead bracelet

- a silver-colored metal "love" ring

HOW TO ENTER

To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment with a means of contacting you (e.g., email, Twitter handle, Goodreads profile link, etc.) and, if you feel like sharing, let me know what your favorite type of candy is! :) 

Hrmmmm...or, since I've asked that before and maybe you'd like to share something else, how about letting us know what song inspires you? "Inspires me to do what?" you ask. Anything! We're equal opportunity inspire-ers here. ;)

Contest closes at 10PM (Pacific time) on Monday, April 28, 2014. The winner will be chosen using a highly scientific internet randomizer (i.e., the 21st century's answer to "names in a hat") and should reply within 48 hours or else another winner will be chosen.

You can also add Sex and Candy to your Goodreads shelf here. Thanks for checking out the post, and happy reading!