Saturday, August 29, 2015

It's Money Back Guarantee for My Sexy Saturday #107

Welcome to my corner of the My Sexy Saturday blog hop! Thanks for stopping by. This morning I'm highlighting seven sexy paragraphs from the new release Money Back Guarantee. Enjoy!

* * *

“Ah. So you were Slade the Slayer and your brother was Keiko?”
“Close. A friend was my sidekick. Beckett never got into graphic novels, but he was the one who started calling me Slade. Soon, even my parents called me Slade. I’ve been Slade ever since.”
Iris batted her eyelashes at him. “Do you have a cape?” She laughed as strong arms lifted her out of the water.
“That does it, wench!” Slade perched on the edge of the tub with Iris sprawled across his lap. She yelped as his hand descended on her wet, bare buttocks, twisting to sink her teeth in his side. He grunted.
“Slade, this is not a good course of action!”
He spanked her again.
“I’m warning you, Martin! You’ve got dangling body parts that are in danger!”

* * *

About Money Back Guarantee:



Slade Martin is under attack. An electronic thief absconded with all his liquid personal wealth and someone on his board of directors is plotting a hostile takeover. The obvious culprit isn’t the guilty party, and Slade gets help to find the real perpetrator from a surprise source – the lovely and capable Iris D’Vance.  

Iris D’Vance is determined to not repeat her mistakes with men – until she meets Slade Martin, and decides all bets are off. Accepting the invitation to sit on the board of Slade’s charitable foundation lands her in the middle corporate intrigue. Slade needs her help and makes her an offer she can’t turn down.

Slade and Iris join forces to unravel the plot to ruin Slade and discover their interest in each other runs deeper than sharing altruistic works. When the person behind Slade’s woes is found, it’s Iris who’s in danger. Slade has to act fast to bring her home safe and make good on his money back guarantee.

* * *


Money Back Guarantee is available now at All Romance eBooks 

www.allromanceebooks.com/product-moneybackguarantee-1874114-148.html

Rayne Forrest

www.rayneforrest.com
www.twitter.com/rayneforrest

Be sure and check out all the My Sexy Saturday blog on the list below.





Sunday, August 23, 2015

New release - Money Back Guarantee by Rayne Forrest

I'm very pleased to have Money Back Guarantee back out in the world. This book has a long history. I always liked the way the story turned out. Obtaining the rights back to it now allows me to make it available as a stand-alone story. I hope you'll enjoy Money Back Guarantee. - Rayne Forrest


Slade Martin is under attack. An electronic thief absconded with all his liquid personal wealth and someone on his board of directors is plotting a hostile takeover. The obvious culprit isn’t the guilty party, and Slade gets help to find the real perpetrator from a surprise source – the lovely and capable Iris D’Vance.  

Iris D’Vance is determined to not repeat her mistakes with men – until she meets Slade Martin, and decides all bets are off. Accepting the invitation to sit on the board of Slade’s charitable foundation lands her in the middle corporate intrigue. Slade needs her help and makes her an offer she can’t turn down.

Slade and Iris join forces to unravel the plot to ruin Slade and discover their interest in each other runs deeper than sharing altruistic works. When the person behind Slade’s woes is found, it’s Iris who’s in danger. Slade has to act fast to bring her home safe and make good on his money back guarantee. 


INTRO:

Slade stalked off the elevator, his prey dead center in the crosshairs. Primed and loaded, one word from Ms. Iris D’Vance, and he’d let the hammer fall. Damn her. He sucked in a deep breath to replace the air that whooshed out of his lungs as her appearance burned onto his corneas.
Damn her for standing in front of the windows with the sunlight coming in behind her. Every luscious curve was visible through the backlit fabric of her dress. He’d not seen anything that amazing in…well, he’d never seen anything that amazing. His temper bled away, replaced by a surge of lust. Maybe he needed to rethink his approach, and fast, before she got away with old man Farnsmore.
Iris turned slightly and spotted him. Her eyes widened, she stiffened, then her composure slid back into place. It didn’t matter. Slade had seen the sudden interest in her eyes. He held out his hand to her for a friendly handshake.
“Ms. D’Vance, I apologize for getting off on the wrong foot upstairs. I get a little nervous before board meetings.”
Iris accepted his hand. Her lips parted. He closed his fingers around hers, noting how cold hers were as he lifted them to his lips.
“I’m sorry. That was forward of me. I hope you’ll forgive me.”
Her chin lifted, and her lovely hazel eyes took on a new, hard glint.
“I’m sure that well-rehearsed and very tired line still works on some women, but I assure you, I’m not one of them, Mr. Martin.”
Slade very grudgingly gave her high marks for honesty. He’d asked for that, and she’d given it to him.
“No, it doesn’t work, obviously. I’ll have to practice it.”
“Not on me, Mr. Martin. Now if you’ll excuse me, there’s my ride.”
Dismissed, for God’s sake. Torpedoed.
Slade grabbed her wrist. She shot him a cold look that would have sent a weaker man to his knees.
Well, she could glare at him all she wanted to. What he had to say was important.
“Whatever it is you and Farnsmore have schemed up, I warn you now, he’ll turn on you the minute you’ve outlived your usefulness.”
Her look turned wary. “What are you talking about, Mr. Martin?”
“Don’t play stupid. I know old Reggie worked his glib tongue with the other members to get you a seat on my board. Now you’d best remember it is my board. Drop Farnsmore before you get in over your head.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Have it your way, but don’t say I didn’t warn you about Reggie and his cronies.” Slade left her standing there, turning abruptly and calling for his car.
Curse the day Reginald Farnsmore managed to wrangle a seat on the CRM board! The man was nothing but trouble. Slade slid into the driver’s seat of his vintage Cadillac. Crap. He needed to pay the permit for the gasoline engine because in his current financial straits, he couldn’t afford the steep fine for a lapse.
How did Iris fit into Reggie’s grandiose scheme to take over the board? Maybe Farnsmore thought she’d be a proper distraction. If that were the case, Slade had to admit the man had picked a woman who could get his mind on other things. Too bad she didn’t have the balls, well, ovaries, to own up to it.
The look in her eyes swam in his memory, the look of shocked confusion that she’d not been able to hide as he’d delivered his warning.
Fucking hell. His chest tightened, constricting painfully around his heart. She’d not been faking. No one could act that well. Maybe she really didn’t know.
Great, now he’d have to save both D’Vance and CRM from Farnsmore.



Purchase at OmniLit      



Rayne Forrest

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Money Back Guarantee - cover reveal

Busy Saturdays are nothing new. After working a day job all week, it's a necessity to cram a lot of "to dos" into the weekend. Laundry, yard work, family all require our physical presence. 

I don't mind, most weeks, but today my creative side really, really, really wanted to finish the cover for Money Back Guarantee. I did, but it's too late to try to load the book up at All Romance eBooks as planned. I'll have to settle for having completed the cover and leave the uploading for tomorrow.

The cover looks just as I envisioned. I'd do a happy dance but I'm tuckered. That'll have to wait until tomorrow, too.

Rayne
rayneforrest.blogspot.com
twitter.com/rayneforrest

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Forgotten gems

After several lifetimes, I have a new work in progress. And having something new to work on inevitably leads me to the "pause" stage, or the halfway point. This is where I step back and re-read from the beginning before setting the outline for the rest of the story. 

That doesn't mean I'm sitting on my hands doing nothing. A few days ago I opened the folder for Money Back Guarantee. It got some great reviews - 5 Kisses from the old Two Lips Reviews. I gave it a read and was amazed at how clean the old manuscript is, a true forgotten gem. 

It didn't take much to go through it and tighten up a few passages. Then the search for stock for the cover ensued. I've been looking at this for two evenings and I think it's going to be a go as soon as I skip on over to iStock and buy the kissing couple. I like to do a mock-up and look at it a bit before I plunk down my money. I think it makes sense. 

While reading Money Back Guarantee, it struck me what a jewel the story truly is. Our hero is a strong man, but not a chest-thumping Neanderthal. Our heroine is mentally tough and all lady until it's time to not be a lady. They never question that they are equals and they never treat each other as anything else. 

This gem deserves to shine again. I'll be back in a few days with the real cover, an excerpt, and purchase information. Check back!

Rayne
rayneforrest.blogspot.com
twitter.com/rayneforrest


Friday, August 14, 2015

Taking Chances

Life is full of highs and lows. No one can escape them. Both can exhaust us, so with any luck balance will be quickly restored. 

I've been contemplating giving up the paid website for many months now. Yahoo developed a new marketing tool that sends information directly to a paying customer's inbox. That quickly became a low - for Yahoo.

Tracking website hits compared to blog hits left no doubt in my mind I needed to rethink a few things. Twenty-Six Keys gets five times the hits the paid website gets. It's a no-brainer. If I'm going to pay for a home on the web, I'd do better to pay Blogger. 

Oh wait. It's FREE. At least for now and until I can switch the .com domain over. 

I'm going to bite the bullet, as they say, and give up the paid website. Yes, I've had it for thirteen years, but we need to be frugal even if it makes us a bit sad. 

So rayneforrest.blogspot.com is my new web home. I'll still be blogging right here at Twenty-Six Keys, but I think having a separate site for the books will work out just fine. I might even give Facebook a look now. 

Rayne
http://www.twitter.com/rayneforrest

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

IWSG - The once and future writer

Way back in 2003 I signed my first publishing contract. It was 9:00 PM when the email came in and I screamed loud enough to make my partner jump out of his chair and come back the hall to the computer room (as we called it in those days).

No, I didn't see a mouse, dear. Someone is actually going to publish The Skies of Mahdis. 

And so it began. I had a very successful writing career up until the Triskelion Publishing debacle. Excuse me. They called it bankruptcy. RAYNE calls it a debacle. Same damn difference.

The debacle happened at the end of a very trying personal time. My beloved partner had, we prayed, been successfully treated for cancer. It's an insidious disease. Even after almost nine years we panic if he gets a cold or some weird symptom. Anyway, I was already mentally and emotionally exhausted and the debacle was pretty much the last straw.

I shifted gears and took on a new name and a new genre. Was it a "cut and run?" Yes, it was. I needed to write and I needed the stress free environment of anonymity. It's been a successful cut and run, though. I started over without telling anyone other than author Brenda Williamson what I was doing. I submitted the first story and it was immediately accepted.

Huh. Maybe I really do have some small talent at this writing stuff. But the world has turned.

Publishing isn't what it once was. Going indie is no-longer the kiss of death to the serious writer. Yet even as indie authors bask in the new freedoms, the screw tightens to control them. Amazon, the land of indie opportunity, keeps changing the game. Our, ahem, illustrious, government does nothing to control piracy.

I have a nice collection of completed stories sitting on my hard drive. I've already re-edited a few, learned some basic photoshop techniques, created a few simple covers, and indie published them. I might even indie publish The Skies of Mahdis and come full circle. 

It's daunting to be effectively starting over yet again. I question if, knowing so much more about the publishing industry, I can do it. 

Will I be as successful (or at least my definition of the word) in 2015 and forward as I was a decade ago? I don't know. Do I need it to be to be happy? Probably not. I simply know that as the once and future writer, I'll figure it out as I go. 

That's what all of us do, one step at a time. 

Thanks for stopping in here at Twenty-six Keys as part of the IWSG blog hop. 

Rayne
http://www.rayneforrest.com
www.twitter.com/RayneForrest

Saturday, August 1, 2015

Rayne's Ramblings: What camp will you be in?

Blogs are strange beasts, each as individual as the blogger themselves. You can’t run a Google search without finding a blog on your chosen topic. Blogs are freedom of speech at its best – and sometimes, worst.

With Google alerts set on a variety of topics, I’m treated to a handful of new blogs every day. Some days I simply can’t take the time to read any of them, but I generally look at one or two when I have a quiet moment. Lately I’ve noticed an uncomfortable trend in blogs – bashing.

The Internet is populated by only twelve people and eleven of them have a gzillion screen names each.  I wouldn’t kid you about that. It has to be. I must be the only person who represents myself as only the writer and the “real me.” That’s all the multiple personality disorder I can do. The other eleven people are taking over all the bandwidths.

Okay. I’m being silly. My point is that the Internet provides a never before enjoyed anonymity to everyone. So…does our anonymity give us permission to post truly hurtful things about another person? I think not.

Things blogged about today will live on for no one knows how long. The Internet grows new storage every day. Five years. Fifteen? Fifty? It’s anyone’s guess how big the cloud will grow. The dregs of thought and spirit, and the enlightened and wonderful reside side-by-side. In a hundred years, what will future generations decide most realistically reflects those of us blogging today?  The nasty or the delightful?

I can’t speak for you, but I know which camp I want to be in.

Rayne Forrest